Cameron Dunkin, a longtime boxing manager and top talent scout who worked with 35 world champions, died Tuesday.
Family members of Dunkin, 67, confirmed his death on social media. The longtime Las Vegas resident battled cancer in recent years.
Even as his health declined, Dunkin remained active in boxing by promoting the career of IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis, one of the sport’s elite talents.
“Cameron was a great businessman,” Derek “Bozy” Ennis, Jaron’s father and trainer, told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday. “He knew how to move fighters. He had what, 35 world champions? He knew the game. I’ve been with him for a while. I had Anthony Thompson with him, Demetrius Hopkins with him. I knew him real good. … Cameron was a great guy. He took care of his fighters. And he knew which fighters to pick. He was great with that. And he took them right to the top. He knew what he was doing. I had nothing but respect for him. We was real close.”
Dunkin began working with boxers in the late 1980s and represented a long list of current and former world champions, most recently Ennis. Undefeated, unified welterweight champ Terence Crawford, former two-division champ Timothy Bradley, the late Diego Corrales, former four-division champ Mikey Garcia, Mark Johnson, Stevie Johnston, Steven Luevano, Freddie Norwood, Kelly Pavlik, Brandon Rios, Danny Romero and the late Johnny Tapia were among the champions whose careers were once guided by Dunkin.
A shrewd businessman who fought to secure his fighters the top purses possible, Dunkin acknowledged adjusting his business practices later in his career after becoming devoutly religious.
“I did a lot of things wrong, but I did a lot of things right,” Dunkin told The Athletic for a story posted to its website in April 2021. “Every one of those kids I managed made a boatload of money.”
Respected trainer Robert Garcia, the older brother and former trainer of Mikey Garcia, expressed appreciation Tuesday for the impact Dunkin had on his post-fighting career after the former IBF junior lightweight champion retired.
“RIP to my good friend and mentor Cameron Dunkin,” Robert Garcia wrote in a tribute posted on X. “The first person in boxing that believed in me as a trainer. Met Cameron in 2004 at the [Junior] Olympics when I was starting as a trainer. He saw something in me and believed in my work and even as an inexperienced coach he trusted [me].”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.