LOVERRO: Michael Trainer, Sugar Ray Leonard’s agent, was always in the shadows

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

It was just a death notice in the local paper — a few lines with a photo.

“Michael Gene Trainer (Age 74)

“On Wednesday, December 2, 2015 of Bethesda, Maryland at his home. He is survived by Jill Trainer his loving and devoted wife of 50 Years. Father of Teri (Joe) Poux and Tammy Trainer. Grandfather to Clara and Mickey. Best friend to his loyal dog Lucy. Services will be private.”

That’s the way Mike Trainer preferred it — private, out of the spotlight.

Yet this Silver Spring attorney was one of the driving forces behind one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport, Sugar Ray Leonard, and despite his reluctance for attention, got his share of it as the lawyer who shook up the business of boxing.

“Here comes this guy with different ideas and directions, not the same old stuff in boxing,” said Charlie Brotman, a senior advisor at Reingold LINK and formerly Leonard’s long-time publicist. “He turned the game around. He was a very difficult for them to deal with. He was the new kid on the block and he was telling the big boys what to do. I admired him greatly.”

Trainer was a tough guy who wasn’t intimidated by the likes of those promoters who ruled the business — Don King and Bob Arum — and served as Leonard’s attorney and advisor for much of his career.

“Don King and Bob Arum saw this star on the boxing horizon and all tried to get their fingers on Ray,” Brotman said. “Mike was very forceful and told them, ’We don’t want any part of you guys. We’re going to handle it ourselves.’ They thought he was crazy. ’You don’t know anything about the business of boxing,’ but Mike was a quick learner.”

Fighters have been sold a bill of goods throughout the history of the sport as they have to align themselves with a promoter, pledging a cut of their earnings to that person if they want the big fights. And, unfortunately, that is often the case, because boxing is an insular business that isn’t kind to outsiders. Others have tried to be independent, buck the system, and most have failed.

Trainer, though, was tough enough to do battle and decent enough to protect his client. He worked for Leonard, not the other way around. Most fighters found out it worked the opposite way.

When Leonard, who grew up in Palmer Park in Prince George’s County, first turned professional, he and his trainer and friend, Janks Morton, turned to Trainer — Morton’s softball teammate — for advice. The attorney showed Leonard how he could be his own boss, how he didn’t need to marry a promoter, to make and keep his money.

In the 1981 book, “A Fistful of Sugar,” by The Baltimore Sun sportswriter Alan Goldstein, Trainer talked about his first dealing with Leonard.

“We didn’t want Ray to go to the promoters with his hat in his hand like an orphan and we didn’t want him winding up on his heels as some greeter at a gambling casino,” Trainer said. “Frankly, I thought Ray deserve a chance to do it on his own and I try to explain all his options.

“First, I had to convince him that he was a valuable piece of property and that he could go in a number of ways,” Trainer said. “He could take a big bonus from established promoter or go it alone. But I told him I had a lot of personal friends who are willing to help them get started and it would be a community oriented investment organization that would lend him the money but he would own himself. I felt very strongly about it because I had stood on my own two feet getting through law school and getting a practice started. I wanted to do the same for Ray. Nobody would on him now or ever.”

They formed a group of 24 sponsors, but Leonard would own 100 percent of Sugar Ray Leonard Inc. and pay the sponsors back for the loan. Trainer would negotiate Leonard’s first professional fight in Baltimore on Feb. 5, 1977, against Luis Vega. Most fighters made a few hundred dollars in their pro debut. Leonard — the gold medal-winning darling of the 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing team — made $40,000, and the fight was televised nationally on ABC.

He would go on to become one of the most successful fighters of his time, winning titles in five different weight classes, and never wound up on his heels financially.

“Ray could not have done what he did without Mike,” Brotman said.

⦁ Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.