Mahone Keeping His Corner Quiet

ANAHEIM — A baseball game isn’t complete without a smattering of banter from the dugout, whether it’s directed at the opposing team or the umpires. And a boxing match is not much of a fight unless a gruff trainer is screaming at his guy to “get inside,” “hook off the jab” or “stay off the ropes.”

So it will be a strange, almost eerie scene Monday night at the Pond when there are no sounds coming out of heavyweight Ed Mahone’s corner in his semi-main event bout against Val Smith. Mahone will have have three people in his corner, chief cornerman James Shoemaker, cutman Chuck Bodak and assistant Johnny Smoot, but he won’t have the person he leaned on the most--his trainer, Alex Sherer.

Sherer, 42, died Friday in Tarzana from an undetermined illness. Out of tribute to his trainer, advisor and friend, Mahone has asked that no one tries to take Sherer’s place until Mahone, 24, finds a new trainer.

“I’ll expect complete silence,” Mahone said. “If we go 10 rounds and I get beat to death, that’s the price I’ll have to pay.”

Shoemaker said it won’t be easy following Mahone’s wishes.

“It’s hard,” he said. “I’m not as knowledgeable as Alex was, but I know when somebody’s doing something wrong and somebody’s doing something right. I can’t just sit there and watch somebody get beat.”

So far, Shoemaker hasn’t had to endure watching anyone beat Mahone, who is 11-0-1 with 11 knockouts.

Mahone won a bronze medal at the 1994 Goodwill Games, but he never rose above Lance Whitaker or Lawrence Clay-Bey in the minds of the U.S. Olympic boxing organization. So after losing a close decision to Clay-Bey in 1995, Mahone decided to skip the U.S. Olympic tryouts and turn pro in April 1996. He moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles so he could train with Sherer and sign a promotional contract with Forum Boxing, which also employed Sherer.

“I felt I had reached a point where I couldn’t get over the hump, so I turned professional,” Mahone said. “I’d had enough of the politics that are everywhere in amateur boxing.”

Mahone, who is 6 feet 3 with a 74-inch reach, said Sherer wanted him to turn pro ever since Sherer spotted him at an amateur tournament in 1993.

“He always told me he liked the way I threw my punches in combinations,” Mahone said. “He said I was a good body puncher and he liked that I could hook off the jab.

“He told me, ‘I can’t try and change your style, I’ll only add to it.’ He always said, ‘We’ll just put some apple butter on you.’ If he were here, he’d say, ‘You’re not a finished product yet.’ ”

But Shoemaker said he’s a pretty good one.

“Ed hasn’t disappointed Alex at all,” Shoemaker said. “He’s lived up to everything Alex thought he would be.”

Mahone still is not ranked by any of the three major boxing organizations, probably because he hasn’t beaten any prominent names yet, but he’s beginning to knock on the door. A victory over Scott (7-4, seven knockouts) would give Mahone 12 victories in less than 18 months.

“Our timetable was 36 months to a heavyweight title fight,” Mahone said. “Before Alex passed away, we cut that in half because of how the heavyweight division is now.”

The details of Sherer’s death have not been made public, but Mahone said he was not shocked when he heard that his trainer had died.

“A lot of times when we were training, he’d say, ‘My time is short,’ ” Mahone said. “He’d say, ‘Don’t waste my time.’ I know he was kind of sickly, but you don’t think of somebody dying.”

Mahone said he is trying to reach another trainer, one of Sherer’s close friends, so that he can carry on what Sherer started--grooming the next heavyweight champion.

“It’s hard putting my trust in anyone else, but my focus toward the title is as great as it’s ever been,” Mahone said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Fight Night at the Pond

* When: 7:15 Monday

* Main event: Jesse Magana, Hanford, 19-5-2, eight knockouts, vs. Marius Frias, El Centro, 9-5-3, two knockouts, 12 rounds for Magana’s World Boxing Organization Intercontinental junior featherweight title.

* Semi-main event: Ed Mahone, Los Angeles, 11-0-1, 11 knockouts, vs. Val Smith, Charleroi, Pa., 7-4, seven knockouts, heavyweights, 10 rounds.

* Undercard: Dwain Williams, Los Angeles, 6-1, four knockouts, vs. Damon Franklin, Palmdale, 4-13, three knockouts, six rounds, junior middleweights; Fausto Carrera, Los Angeles, 0-1-3, vs. Jose Arias, Los Angeles, 0-1, four rounds, welterweights.

* Tickets: $15, $30, $45, $65, $75 and $100.