A matter of trust

Friday, May 13, 2005 | 9:52 a.m.

Dan Birmingham was named boxing's trainer of the year for 2004 after guiding Winky Wright to a pair of victories in world title fights at 154 pounds.

Wright, who clashes with Felix "Tito" Trinidad on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, is emerging as a big-money fighter in the sport.

Yet Birmingham and Wright, partners for the past 17 years, have never had a written contract, never had to negotiate their terms, never even discussed money.

"We don't have a contract, we have something more binding -- a handshake," Birmingham said.

It's an unusual arrangement within the shark-infested waters of professional boxing, but both men say they wouldn't have it any other way.

"That's the way it should be," Wright said. "If you can't deal with somebody, if you're just in it for the money, then you're in the wrong place anyway."

Asked how he knows what kind of money he'll earn from one of Wright's fights -- such as Saturday's, when Wright stands to make about $5 million -- Birmingham said it's simply not a consideration.

"Winky and I are friends, brothers and business partners," Birmingham said. "We have been together for 17 years and not once have we ever discussed money. ...

"He treats me like a king."

In Saturday's middleweight bout, which will be available on HBO Pay-Per-View, Wright and Birmingham will meet another tandem with a long-standing partnership. Trinidad, 32, has been trained since he was 8 years old by his father, Tito "Papa" Trinidad Sr.

Both relationships stand out as anomalies in a sport in which some top-level fighters change trainers as often as they change their hand wraps.

Like Birmingham, Trinidad Sr. said the arrangement would not survive without a high degree of trust.

"Even though I'm his father, his trainer and his manager, each one of those roles has its proper place," Trinidad Sr. said. "I am 100 percent sure that if I didn't have the technical knowledge it takes to be his trainer, if I saw that I had any limitations in that area, then I would step aside and let somebody else take over.

"But I think I know what I'm doing, and Tito sees the results we're getting."

The handshake agreement between Birmingham and Wright has lasted for nearly two decades, since Wright walked into Birmingham's St. Pete Boxing Club in St. Petersburg, Fla., as a raw but athletic 16-year-old.

"He's always been like family," Birmingham said of Wright. "I'm not ashamed to say I've loved the kid since I first knew him. He's like a son to me."

Birmingham, 54, has operated a painting and construction business in St. Petersburg for the past 26 years, which originally helped finance his boxing gym.

Since their relationship blossomed, Wright has become a partner in the gym, Birmingham said.

Birmingham has grown close to Wright's extended family as well, spending time camping and dirt biking with them.

"Wink comes from a real loving and caring family," Birmingham said.

That aspect of Wright's life carried a special appeal for Birmingham, who spent several years in an Ohio orphanage after his parents separated when he was 9.

Birmingham said the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who ran the orphanage, did show love, but only the tough kind. He recalls attending Mass seven days a week, and having to pour leftover coffee -- rather than milk -- on his cereal.

"If you (messed) up, look out," he said. "You wouldn't do it again. ... I tell ya, I learned a lot of life lessons."

Although the discipline Birmingham learned in his youth is reflected in his training camps -- Wright's regimen included three workouts a day for the past two and a half months -- he's not a yeller or a screamer in the gym.

"For the most part it's pretty calm," he said. "With these fighters nowadays, you can't be a tyrant. You have to be the type of trainer who listens to (the fighter's) input."

Likewise, Trinidad Sr. said his relationship with Tito has always been marked by a mutual respect.

"We're like friends," said Trinidad Sr., 52. "We're both always available to give, to share with each other. We're a good team."

Papa Trinidad said even as a youngster, Tito decided on his own to enter the fight game.

"I would always take this little group of kids into the gym (in Puerto Rico)," Trinidad Sr., a former featherweight pro, said. "I would teach them about boxing, and Tito would always come along.

"But Tito made the decision to become a boxer by himself. I never pressured him. Once he made that decision, ever since he came into the gym, we have always been together."

Like Trinidad, Wright has fought his way to the top of his profession. But Birmingham remembers when he just an unknown southpaw with a lot of promise and a goofy first name.

"They actually made fun of him when he first turned pro," Birmingham said. "A fighter named Winky? How can that be good for boxing?"

Yet even the first time they met, when Wright introduced himself as Winky, Birmingham didn't do a double-take.

"I thought it was pretty cool," he said.