Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.
His pockets aren't as deep as some others in his profession, yet Cameron Dunkin attracts his share of quality fighters.
Using a hands-on, almost fatherly approach, Dunkin has built a roster of professional boxers who rely on him for guidance as well as financial and moral support. He's a new-wave manager with old-school values.
"I don't sign guys I can't move," he said this week, discussing the 17 men whose careers are, to some extent at least, under his control. "You're dealing with people's lives, so I'm careful not to stick someone in a bad situation."
Dunkin, 45, has been associated with 14 past or current world champions, but it's developing a fighter and watching him catch the public's attention that are his greatest stimuli.
"I still get excited," he said. "I love building fighters. My job, basically, is to move the fighter along.
"I can't train a fighter and I can't work his corner. But I can get him with good people who can do those things, and when it all starts to come together it's really something to see."
Dunkin has no fewer than 10 undefeated fighters -- plus two who have yet to debut -- who can be labeled as first-rate prospects. Included in that group are Jose Aguiniga (15-0), Kelly Pavlik (14-0), Steve Luevano (12-0), Jesse Reid, Jr. (11-0) Anthony Mora (10-0), Arturo Morales (9-0), Adrian Mora (7-0), Marshall Martinez (6-0), Ray Sanchez (5-0), Anthony Thompson (4-0) and newcomers Isidro Granadas and Jason Litzau.
Reid and Luevano have spots on Friday's Top Rank card at the Orleans.
Dunkin also handles Julio Diaz, Antonio Diaz, Stevie Johnston, Danny Perez and Rodney Jones. Among his former clients are past or present champions Steve Forbes, Johnny Tapia, Freddie Norwood, Bones Adams, Danny Romero and Diego Corrales.
"You reach a point where you want to stop (adding to your roster), but I still get calls almost every day," he said, when asked if he could ever have too many fighters. "But I'm just looking for a certain type of guy, and I'm honest with anyone who approaches me about managing them. If I don't think it'll work out, I tell them I'm not the right guy for them."
The Las Vegan admits he can't keep pace with well-financed managers (and promoters) with lengthy histories and national profiles, such as Shelly Finkel, Gary Shaw, Lou DiBella and Dino Duva.
"I see the same players wherever I go," Dunkin said of bumping into the aforementioned men at amateur events, such as one in Reno next week that will feature fighters 19-under. "We all look at each other, but I'm pretty much after a different kind of guy. Finkel, he's got the money to go after top-of-the-line kids who already have a big reputation.
"I'm not a threat to a guy like that. I respect Finkel and those guys, but they're after Olympic gold medalists and I'm not in competition with them for fighters like that."
Dunkin has "three or four" steady investors who trust in his scouting abilities. They put together a serious bid by their standards -- $650,000 -- to sign U.S. Olympian Jermain Taylor, but lost out to DiBella when the latter offered the fighter almost twice that much for his signature on a promotional contract last year.
"We scraped together the money, which was a lot for us, and Jermain told me he wanted to sign with me," Dunkin said. "But later he told me, 'You just don't have the money' when DiBella offered him $1.3 million or something."
Dunkin shrugs at the experience, feeling none the worse for it.
"I go to a ton of (amateur) tournaments and I talk to the kids and I know a lot of amateur coaches," he said. "They all know I've done well by them and that I'll take good care of a fighter if I sign him.
"Sometimes I have to sell myself to them, and convince them that I'm the one who can move them at the proper pace. Of course it also helps to have had a guy like Corrales, who came out of nowhere to make millions of dollars."
He said his fellow investors -- "attorneys and boxing guys" -- do expect to make money, and they can usually count on having a good time in the process.
"When I'm spending somebody else's money, I'm really careful," Dunkin said. "This is a business and these people are relying on me, from my track record, to make them some money."
Face-to-face conversations with the fighters are integral, too.
"These guys are smart, they're not stupid," Dunkin said. "We sit and talk about how they're coming along.
"I don't baby my guys. They're handpicked and special and they know how to fight, but I also match them properly and let them know I'm not in any rush."
A former car finance manager in Phoenix who made his first serious foray into boxing when he signed Romero in 1991, Dunkin is a native of Southern California who unexpectedly became captivated with the sport.
"I was making $100,000 a year financing cars, so when I quit that job it was a real sacrifice," he said. "Things were pretty lean for a while, but I was willing to do it.
"I never imagined I'd be doing it here, under these circumstances. But I have a real love for it."
He also has an answer for skeptics who might look at his current roster's collective win-loss record and feel those fighters are being protected, or matched too soft.
"The bottom line is, when my guys get to the 'show,' they win," Dunkin said. "They've always stepped up and produced when they had to.
"I'd like to think I have a knack for spotting guys who will be able to do that. I don't want it to come off as bragging, it's just something I've always been able to do."
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