Ringside’s renaissance

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, May 2, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.

Year after year would go by and Johnny Tocco would sit in his office and repeat a familiar refrain.

If he could only afford to fix up the old gymnasium on Charleston near Main Street that bore his name and housed so many great fighters. If only he had the extra cash it would take to modernize the decrepit facility.

It was a dream he frequently entertained, yet one that was beyond his humble means. He had the desire but lacked the wherewithal to give his beloved building the facelift it so badly needed.

Tocco died in 1997 at the age of 87 and while his fabled Ringside Gym didn't die with him, it lost its spirit. Purchased by Rick Burton, the gym stayed on a steady course yet led a muddled existence.

Enter James Pollins and Luis Tapia.

"I knew Johnny Tocco and I knew the history of the gym," Tapia said Monday. "I knew the best thing we could do was fix it up yet sort of keep it the way it was, too."

Pollins purchased the gym from Burton last month for $165,000 and hired Tapia as its manager. They have since put an additional $100,000 into a number of eye-catching improvements that have breathed new life into the tradition-rich facility.

"It tickled the hell out of me when I first saw what they'd done," said Wes Wolfe, a local resident and a longtime manager of fighters. "When I heard they were going to redo the joint, I figured they'd give it a paint job and maybe replace the carpet.

"But look what they've done. The place looks great and it still has its old character."

Wolfe then said what everyone who walks in the door at least thinks: "Johnny would have liked to have seen this."

At face value, the gym has all the modern amenities it takes to appease its clientele. There are multiple heavy bags, speed bags, exercise machines, mirrors, rings and bathrooms (including showers) for both sexes. But what puts the gym over the top from a sentimental viewpoint is its acknowledgement of its heritage and its reverence for the past.

"If I'd have changed the name to James Pollins' Ringside Gym, how many people out there would have known who James Pollins is?" Pollins said. "But Johnny Tocco is a name everyone knows and remembers. Keeping his name on the sign out front was part of keeping the history of the building alive."

Tocco -- who will be posthumously inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame during a June 2 ceremony at the Las Vegas Hilton -- would appreciate the fact his successors have remodeled the old gym with him in mind. Of the hundreds of posters that once ordained the wood-paneled walls, many are being professionally framed and remounted.

(When the wood paneling was removed, those doing the work were stunned to find a second, concrete, wall that was also covered with posters and boxing momentos. Among the discoveries was a bout agreement for a heavyweight title fight involving Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston that probably is worth a few dollars in today's market.)

"I've seen this gym when it was dilapidated, when it was flooded and when it was a real mess," said Richard Westcott, who has been hired as a security and maintenance man, and who lives at the gym. "It took three weeks and we filled four huge Dumpsters, but we got it cleaned up. It's come a long ways."

Tapia, a native of Chile and a former professional fighter, shares the sense of nostalgia that the new caretakers have insisted be a part of the building.

"I met Johnny Tocco in 1980 and I trained here for two years," he said. "I always liked this gym; it reminded me of my old gym in Chile. There's a history here that's very interesting."

Included in the renovations are an enclosed, paved parking lot and a mural along an outside wall that portrays the images of Muhammad Ali, Salvador Sanchez and Rocky Marciano.

Inside, "it's not a regular gym" Tapia says, and the No Profanity sign on a wall underscores that attitude. "We're going to have a place where fighters can work out and feel good about themselves and respect others," he added. "If they don't, they're out. There won't be any second chances."

Since re-opening its doors less than a month ago, the gym has enticed some 130 fighters who use it on a regular basis. That's the maximum number Pollins and Tapia can squeeze into the building that was a bar when it originally opened, allegedly in the 1930s.

Pollins has already made an offer to buy an adjoining building and expand the gym, but he says that may not come to pass for some time.

A grand opening will be scheduled for the near future and former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield has indicated he will use the gym for the latter part of his training camp in preparation for a June 10 fight at Caesars Palace with John Ruiz.