Yoel Judah Interview: A Boxing Gym With Good Intentions, Zab, and More
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Brooklyn, NY (July 21st, 2013)– In two exclusive interviews with Real Combat Media, famed boxing trainer Yoel Judah clarified the current court status of the Judah Brothers and Caseem Jacobs Gymnasium in East New York, which opened in 2011 as a place to train neighborhood youth. Facing eviction from its home on Liberty Avenue in Brooklyn. Real Combat Media had sat down previously with gym co-owners Yoel Judah (father of former world light welterweight and welterweight champion Zab Judah) and his partner Caseem Jacobs, a one-time Iran Barkley sparring partner. Both interviews are now presented in their entirely. The gym is open to financial assistance as the court battle by the landlord to get the neighborhood facility out so he can raise the rent and put in a furniture store intensifies.
Judah Brothers and Caseem Jacobs Gym is a homey place where children and adults, boxers, wrestlers and martial artists all train with coaches on different athletic equipment. The three boxing rings, the floor mats, the heavy bags, speed bags, free weights, car tires, and other makeshift devices are all used by boxers, wrestlers, martial artists, kids and their trainers.
Boxing wives and mothers sat on a couch and chairs watching reruns of Law and Order on a large flat screen television. The gym was hot, but outside the gym, the trees and passing cars offered a nice breeze during training breaks for the fighters. When not inside the gym, boxers of all ages were seen running laps around the block to get into shape. A gym ‘kitchen’ offered bottled water, Gatorade, Red Bull, and chicken sandwiches. The gym, located only a block and a half from the ‘C’ local subway train, has a bodega grocery across the street.
The Story of the Judah Brothers Boxing Gymnasium on Liberty Avenue
Interview with Caseem Jacobs in his gym
Real Combat Media: “How did the Judah Brothers Gym in East New York get started in 2011?”
Caseem Jacobs: “The gym opened in 2009 as a boxing gym with different owners, Kid Kelly Boxing. Regarding the Judah Brothers Boxing Gym, Yoel Judah came in (to the vacant location) in 2011 with a new lease. The previous owner, Kid Kelly Boxing, left the rings, mat and equipment and just disappeared.”
Real Combat Media: “What sort of work did you and Yoel do to make the gym work again?”
Caseem Jacobs: “Yoel and I put up banners, mirrors, punching bags, new canvas on the rings. We painted the place. Yoel brought the boxing gym up to whatever we needed.”
Real Combat Media: “What famous fighters have entered the Judah Brothers boxing Gym?”
Junior Jones: “Hello to everybody. What’s up?” (walking in on the interview)
Caseem Jacobs: “Former world champion Junior Jones, who is with us here today, is a coach here training. Besides Zab Judah and Daniel Judah, famous names have been here. Iran Barkley (coincidentally Barkley called Jacobs and said hello over the cell phone during the interview), Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Marcus Browne (a United States Olympic team boxing member at 178 pounds), and here’s heavyweight Mitchell Rose-who knocked out Butterbean Esch in Madison Square Garden-and once fought Monte Barrett.” (Rose walked in during the interview).
Mitchell Rose: “Nice to meet you. Yes, I knocked out Butterbean in 2005. I lost my next fight to Monte Barrett (at Yonkers Raceway in 2006). That is awhile back.”
Real Combat Media: “How many members does the Judah Boxing Gym have? How many train?”
Caseem Jacobs: “The Judah Brothers Gym has several hundred male and female amateur and professional fighters. Forty a day come in to train. We see kids come in every day off the streets. If they did not have boxing here in East New York, this neighborhood would be really torn up.”
Real Combat Media: “How rough is the East New York neighborhood?”
Caseem Jacobs: “At night, a lot of people get shot up in gang-related shootings, beefs that young kids are having with one another. I have seen them shot.”
Real Combat Media: “Caseem, could you tell fans about your life and boxing background?”
Caseem Jacobs: “Certainly. Like many of this neighborhood, my life was very hard. In 1966 I was sent away to the Wilwick School for Boys, which had a boxing gym. The school was located near Kingston New York (later Yorktown). I was sent away for constantly running away from my home where I was getting beaten. My boxing trainers as a kid were Sid Martin, Randy Sandy, and Connie Bryant. Boxer Randy Sandy was always very good to me. Even after I was locked up he really helped me.” (Although Jacobs seems to refer to Sandy in past tense, middleweight Randy Sandy of Brooklyn, the 1951 New York Golden Gloves welterweight champion, career professional record 24-24-2, is still alive at age 82, according to BoxRec).
Real Combat Media: “What happened to your amateur boxing career?”
Caseem Jacobs: “I did 21 years total in prison for murdering a neighborhood tough guy who assaulted me with a bed stick while having his junkyard dog attack me while I was sitting on a front stoop. I went away in 1974, and got out in 1985. I got sent back to prison later in 1985, for my involvement in a shootout between two crews in which someone got killed (but not by me). My lawyer got me five years on top of the 25 years I owed. I did another ten years in prison and got out in 1995. I’m 57 now. I want what happened to me to be known-so the local kids don’t repeat my mistakes.”
Real Combat Media:” What does boxing do for you now? What does the gym offer local kids?”
Caseem Jacobs: “Boxing has kept me off the streets and in the gym. Boxing has always been in my heart. The children of the neighborhood have always been in my heart. I see them on the streets and I bring them here. The Judah Brothers Gym gives the local kids a place to go and do something with their lives, and avoid the trouble of the streets. Parents come in here on welfare, Social Security disability, and bring their children to us and ask us to train them, so they can keep from getting bullied in school, so the kids can defend themselves. They don’t have much money. So we charge a nominal fee, and we take the children off the streets where they can get hurt or killed and we train them.”
Status of The Judah Brothers Gym
Interview number one with Yoel Judah in his gym
Real Combat Media: “Yoel, can you clarify the situation regarding the gym’s eviction notice?”
Yoel Judah: “Yes. An illegal eviction notice came to us at the gym in mid-June 2012. We went to court and showed our rent receipts. The building has three owners who (it is believed) owe approximately five million dollars to Chase Bank for their mortgage. The whole time the owners were taking rent money from us. The building owners now are lying, saying we weren’t paying rent on the gym so they can get the property back. We always pay our gym rent, and we have always paid on time.”
Real Combat Media: “What is the status of the Judah Brothers Gym in court?”
Yoel Judah: “We’re still in court. We don’t know our status yet. Hopefully the judge will award us our legal fees to be paid by the landlord. The building owners took our money in cash and gave us rent receipts. We paid our rent, but the owners now claim we have no receipts. We have the rent receipts going back to August 2011 when we arrived and took possession of the (vacant) gym. ”
Real Combat Media: “If Judah Brothers Gym is paid the gym rent and has receipts, what gives?”
Yoel Judah:” The owners of the building are lying, saying we were here at an earlier time when in fact the Kid Kelly Boxing Group was here. The owners now claim we owe them about three hundred thousand dollars. That’s not the case. We came into this gym as new tenants in August 2011-after Kid Kelly Boxing Group was gone.”
Real Combat Media: “What is the Judah Boxing Gym’s current overhead?”
Yoel Judah: “We are paying three thousand dollars a month. The landlords suddenly wants six thousand five hundred a month. The landlords just want to get us out of the boxing gym space so they can rent to someone else for more money.”
Real Combat Media: “Have the landlords tried to extort more money from you besides the rent?”
Yoel Judah: “Yes. Whenever we have amateur Golden Gloves fights here, the landlords see the money we earn and demand a cut of the fight income, or fifty percent of everything we’ve got at the gym: memberships, fees, waters, juices, endorsements, amateur fights, everything! It’s like they were trying to extort us.”
Status of Zab Judah and Daniel Judah, Yoel’s Children
Real Combat Media: What’s on the horizon for your boxing kin, Zab Judah and Daniel Judah?”
Yoel Judah: “Zab is currently ranked number one in the world by the International Boxing Federation. Zab will only take a rematch with Amir Khan if I train him. We will fight whoever. As long as the promoters pay the right money, we don’t have a problem. My other son, Daniel Judah, is fighting again soon. I’m training him.” (A former IBF International light heavyweight champion, Daniel last fought in at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Delaware in August 2012, losing a bout to 14-0 light heavyweight prospect Dennis Hasson).
Judah Brothers Gym Hosts Amateur Boxing Shows at the Judah Brothers Gym
Real Combat Media: “When is Judah Brothers Gym hosting its next amateur boxing show?”
Yoel Judah: “We do amateur boxing shows every couple of months to help the Brooklyn community and the Judah Brothers Gym, here at the Judah Brothers Gym in Brooklyn at 400 Liberty Avenue. To find out more information on our upcoming amateur events and to purchase tickets, you can call me at 718-715-6961, or you can call my partner Caseem Jacobs at 718-930-3636. Thank you.”
Yoel Judah July 2013 Follow Up Interview: Gym is Still in Housing Court
Second Yoel Judah interview, updating the court situation and status of his children
Real Combat Media: “Yoel, last night your third son, light middleweight Joseph Judah got stopped in the second round by George Sosa. Were you involved with this bout?”
Yoel Judah: “I don’t know anything about the guy Joseph fought. I just found out about it. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I just got a call in the morning. Joseph fought with a shoulder injury. He could not move one of his arms anymore. I don’t know if it was the left arm or the right arm. That’s why they stopped the bout. I didn’t train him (for this bout). When I train him, all six bouts he won, he won with me. His other fights (his losses), I didn’t have anything to do with (training) him.”
Real Combat Media: “Your Judah Brothers Gym is still in housing court. Please clarify the current situation for Real Combat Media readers and all boxing fans.”
Yoel Judah: “We won the original court battle in early 2013. The landlord, Chester, raised the rent from 2500 dollars to twelve thousand dollars. He wants to rent the space to a furniture store, so he took us to court again. We went back to court three weeks ago in downtown Brooklyn Housing Court, and we are going to court again on August 2. We offered our rent.”
Real Combat Media: Tell about the athletes using your Judah Brothers Gym now.”
Yoel Judah “We offer the only recreation in the Brooklyn East New York community. Kids and adults. We have 40 boxers, 25 UFC Mixed Martial Arts fighters, 20 wrestlers. The main thing is we have 35 little kids, four to five years old and up. We also offer basketball and computer classes.”
Real Combat Media: “At some point, the question of the housing court legal fees which the gym is incurring comes up.”
Yoel Judah: “We need help. We’re a nonprofit.”
Real Combat Media: “If you lose in housing court this time, will you relocate?”
Yoel Judah: “If we lose, we gotta just get out and find another place. The people (of the community) love what we do, everything.”
Real Combat Media: “Are you back training your son Zab Judah now?”
Yoel Judah: “Oh yeah! Zab and I have already talked. If I was in the corner when Zab fought Danny Garcia, we would have knocked Garcia out! With me in the corner, when we’ve got a guy hurt, there’s no way we couldn’t get him out of there.”
Real Combat Media: “Yoel, your thoughts on the upcoming WBA and WBC World Light Welterweight championship unification bout between Danny Garcia and Lucas Martin Matthysse?”
Yoel Judah: “That bout’s a done deal? On the Floyd Mayweather Jr. (versus Saul Alvarez) undercard this fall. Danny’s gonna train hard to be up to the level of the fighter he’s facing. He knows he’s in for a fight. Matthysse has a great shot to win that fight. It’s gonna be a tough fight. Danny won’t have no cake fight.”
Real Combat Media: “Will Danny Garcia versus Lucas Martin Matthysse end in a knockout?”
Yoel Judah: “It could go 12 rounds too. Matthysse can punch. Danny can punch too. A knockout or decision? It can go either way.”
Real Combat Media: “How much more time will you have to stay in your Judah Brothers and Caseem Jacobs Gym if you lose the current housing court case?”
Yoel Judah: “If we do have to leave, it will not be before January 2014, around the first of the (new) year. There might be a chance we could still stay. It’s gonna be up to the judge.”
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