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Father-son partnerships in boxing should be outlawed, according to Timothy Bradley Jr.
The former two-division titlist and recent inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame recently spoke out against father-son pairings in the sport, calling them “horrible.”
Boxing is full of fathers who act as the head trainer for their sons. That fraternity includes Vasiliy Lomachenko, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Danny Garcia, and Jaron Ennis, just to name a few.
However, boxing has a long history of father-son relationships imploding, as was the case with Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, and Floyd Mayweather.
Bradley took issue with the ways father-son relationships tend to deteriorate in boxing, and how the fathers may not always have their sons’ best interest in mind. For Bradley, a father can be involved in his son’s career—just not as the head trainer.
“It just needs to be banned,” Bradley said on The 3 Knockdown Rule. “I think boxing needs to ban father-son [partnerships]. Ban it. Your father cannot be your trainer. Your father, he can be in your corner, whatever, but he cannot be your trainer. I think it should be banned, honestly, man. You just said it right there, man. The relationship between a father and son is horrible.
“And when they get into these tough matches, you see these fathers not stepping in and stopping fights, letting the fights go on too late, and then you know, financially, I mean. I don’t even want to go down that road. I’ll go down that road another time with you guys as far as fighters being in possession of their fathers and so on and so forth. That sucks, man.”
Bradley cited his own father as a model for other fighters. While his father introduced him to boxing, the key to their relationship, Bradley said, was that his father never acted as his chief trainer during his professional career.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.