Local Boxing Trainer Goes Round For Round For Youth
The thunderous sound of glove meeting mitt resonates throughout the Chet Cashman Gym. Head trainer Danny Akers is in the ring holding up two mitts in front of his face as a boy throws punch after punch.
Akers is entering his 35th year as a boxing trainer. The sport of boxing has been a part of his life since he was a kid, and is the reason he is where he is today.
From The Slammer To The Ring
Akers said his interest in boxing first peaked when he watch matches on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. As a seven-year-old he recalled watching reruns of fights of Muhammad Ali (then still known as Cassius Clay), which inspired him to take up boxing.
Growing up in Ithaca, New York, Akers attended Markles Flats, which no longer exists today. The school offered a boxing class at the Southside Community Center, and Akers enrolled in it.
There he learned to box under the guide Reverend Lewis Cunningham and Brother James Sander. He eventually moved over to the Chet Cashman Gym and trained under Chet Cashman himself when he was fifteen-years-old. As an amateur, Akers chalked up a record of 45–20.
Akers said he always seemed to be getting into fights at school as a youngster. At one point, her served close to year in prison for getting into fights in public.
He said boxing and Cashman set him on the right path.
“It showed me how to be disciplined and respect people. Stay out of trouble,” Akers said. “Chet Cashman saved my life. He taught me to do right.”
He said he wouldn’t be here today without boxing.
“I’d probably be in prison. Maybe. Or dead like most of my friends,” he said.
Friends With Frazier
Akers developed a friendship with Joe Frazier when he began training professional boxers.
He met Frazier on multiple occasions. His fondest memory of Frazier was the time he was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Blue Horizon where his fighter Willie Monroe, Sr. was scheduled for a bout.
Frazier and his manager Ralph Fratto were also there. Akers said Fratto persuaded Frazier into giving him one of his suits. Fratto enjoyed collecting suits from famous people. Frazier agreed to give Fratto his suit, which was at another gym. He then turned to Akers.
“He said, ‘You ridin’ with me trainer,’” he said. “So I’m riding through Philadelphia with Joe Frazier. It’s surreal, hard to believe. That was the highlight of my life.”
Akers and Frazier kept in touch over the years. Before Frazier passed away in 2011 due to liver cancer, Akers said he offered a piece of his liver to Frazier. But by then it was too late.
“I definitely would’ve done it,” he said. “Just to know that a piece of my liver was running around with Joe Frazier?”
Coaching With A Purpose
Akers has trained some exceptional professional fighters thus far in his career as a boxing trainer. Most recently, he worked as a trainer for Willie Monroe, Jr., a middleweight boxer who fought and lost to undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in 2015. Monroe, Jr. fought to a record of 21–2 as a professional boxer.
In addition, he has coached several amateur fighters throughout his career. Algenis Marte is currently training under Akers. He will be competing at the New York Golden Glove championship on April 8 in the 165-pound class. Marte said Akers’ coaching style is ideal for any boxer.
“You don’t want somebody on top of you, always bugging you,” Marte said. “If you want to do something it has to come from you first. … It’s not like he’s putting the extra pressure on you.”
Because of what the sport did for him as a kid, Akers said one of the main reasons why he is a boxing trainer is working with troubled kids.
“If I can make them right, that’s worth more than anything in my opinion,” he said. “That’s worth more than world titles, Golden Gloves, money. It means a lot because that’s what happened to me. … It’s the least I can do.”
