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Manchester's Remillard On The Right Track
Unbeaten Boxer Has Turned His Life Around
TOM PULEO
The Hartford Courant
July 19 2006, 10:29 PM EDT
MANCHESTER -- Matt Remillard likes a good target. He polished his signature left hook on the stomachs of amateur boxers who should have done more sit-ups.
"Sometimes my left hand is stronger than my right," he said. "Kind of just from throwing it so much."
But since Remillard, a rising featherweight, turned pro last year, several of his opponents have backed out.. Canadian fighter Mike Pare cut out less than a week before Friday night's bout at the Mohegan Sun Arena because of appendicitis. Late Tuesday, Remillard's camp lined up Oscar De La Cruz, a Mexican fighter out of Atlanta.
"I looked online and couldn't find much about him," Remillard said Wednesday. "He's supposedly a righthander, two knockouts in six fights. He's probably had a bunch more fights in Mexico, but who knows. It's that kind of fight."
As Remillard (9-0, six knockouts) works his way through the professional ranks, he keeps bumping into his own good name, a welcome change for the once-troubled teenager from Manchester.
Boxing people know Remillard's amateur record: No. 5 in the U.S. at 125 pounds and a 115-25 record, including two under-19 national championships. They know Jackie Kallen, his Beverly Hills-based manager who is dubbed "The First Lady of Boxing" after 26 years in the business (her life inspired a movie, "Against the Ropes," starring Meg Ryan).
His corner is crowded with proven trainers in Paul Cichon and Windsor's John Scully.
But to fight Remillard, 21, you also have to enter his backyard. He's coming off a six-round unanimous decision over Leo Martinez May 10 at Foxwoods Resort Casino, where he has fought three times. Remillard has also fought at Mohegan Sun twice.
"Most young fighters in his weight class don't really want to risk their record -- Matt's got the whole package," Kallen said. "They say, 'Why should I go up against that machine? I'm going to lose.' It's a double-edged sword, like being the cutest girl in school, but you don't have a lot of dates. Why are you home on Saturday night? Some guys are too intimidated to ask you out."
Kallen and crew are moving Remillard along steadily, smartly. He learns something with each fight. With every week that goes by at the Manchester Police Athletic League boxing gym, Cichon sees him getting stronger, sharper, faster.
Remillard remains unranked by the major boxing organizations, but his handlers say he's close. "Matt Remillard is on the cusp here," Kallen said. "He's still pure, unbeaten. He's one of the kids to watch among the new crop of fighters.
"The longer he stays undefeated, the quicker he'll move up the rankings. That's the goal, to stay undefeated. A loss is always a setback in boxing. It's not like football where you come back the next week. Every fight is its own little championship fight."
Remillard is at once a shy kid who still lives with his parents on Preston Street and a tough boxer with a strong chin. His thin beard can't conceal a smooth face, but his back is covered in tattoos, with the family name displayed across his shoulder blades. Underneath is a boxing ring and crown inside to signify life's challenges and a woman in boxing gloves, his guardian angel. Remillard had the body art done in early 2005, just before he turned professional, during two five-hour sessions.
Remillard is not a brawler or a banger, but don't be fooled. He is a smart fighter who will exploit weakness. "I see myself as like a technician," he said. "If I see an opening I'll take it, and if I see a knockout I'll take it. But I'm not going to go in there and waste punches trying to knock him out. You have to set up every punch. It's like a chess game, you know?"
Kallen brought Remillard to Los Angeles last year for some intense sparring with Manny Pacquiao, the world's top-ranked super featherweight. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, told Fightnightnews.com that Remillard held his own, was "never intimidated by Manny, not for a second."
Cichon says Remillard is the hardest worker he has ever trained.
"Like today," Cichonsaid Monday at the PAL gym behind the Manchester Arcade, where he is the boxing director. "He went running today. It's hot as hell out. He's already in shape.
"There's nothing more he can do this week to better prepare for Friday. But he still comes into the gym, still does his thing. He trains for a war. No matter what that other kid brings, he trains for something better. He trains for the baddest guy out there. He trains like he's getting ready for Manny Pacquiao, a world champion."
Can I Please Box?
Remillard first walked into the PAL gym under far different circumstances in 1998 -- sent there for community service after a juvenile break-in charge. A scrawny 13-year-old, Remillard was a neighborhood bully who drank beer, smoked pot and hung around convenience stores trying to get adults to buy him cigarettes.
"He thought he was tough," Cichon said. "He came in and said, 'They sent me here to box, got to do community service.' I already knew they didn't. They sent him here to do his hours. It's up to me how he does the hours. I said, 'Nah, that ain't gonna work.'"
Cichon put Remillard to work scrubbing toilets and washing out spit buckets.
"That went on a couple weeks and finally he came up and said, 'Can I please box?' " Cichon said. "I started to hear the word 'please.' I'm thinking maybe I'm breaking him a little bit. I said, 'Yeah, I'll give you a shot'" Within a year Remillard had become one of the PAL's best fighters. He improved his attitude, his grades and his judgment.
In December 2000, some friends who had stolen a Honda Civic asked him to get in for a joy ride. Remillard hesitated, then said he wanted to stay out of trouble. Around 11 a.m. that day, the 15-year-old driver slammed the car into an apartment building in town, paralyzing a 14-year-old passenger from the waist down. Nine months later, the driver hanged himself at the Manson Youth Institution while awaiting trial on charges related to the car crash. Remillard went on to graduate from Cheney Tech and tries not to look back. He works for his father -- who is also in the corner for all his fights -- at Renaissance Interiors in West Hartford.
"My parents supported me through everything I did," Remillard said. "I was blowing them off, being a rebel. If I didn't have great parents, I would have been even more out of my mind. I wouldn't have had anyone to turn to."
Something Good
Michael Remillard said he and his wife, Candace, couldn't reach Matt in his wilder days, but are grateful that Cichon was able to get through. They also credit Manchester police officer Antony DeJulius, who recommended their son for community service and knew the youths in the stolen car.
"We tried everything," Michael Remillard said. "Until Matt got into serious trouble, it took him a while to turn it around. Now people look up to him."
DeJulius said he saw something good in the young Remillard when he sat down with him and his parents in the police station back in 1998.
"He got in with some kids and was going down the wrong road," DeJulius said. "He seemed like he really understood what had happened and wanted to change. He was a quiet kid with a good heart. His family was very supportive of us and of him, and you don't see that often."
Remillard left DeJulius tickets for his first pro fight in April 2005, a second-round TKO over Arlington Pandy at the New Haven Athletic Center.
On Friday night, Remillard will earn well under $10,000 in his biggest payday yet. He has helped sell more than a hundred tickets.
"Every bit of praise this kid has gotten, he deserves," Kallen said. "He's a sweetheart of a kid. He's polite. He trains hard. You really can't say enough good things about him." |
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