Tucson boxer seizes moment

Tucson's Norberto "Nito" Bravo, 35, hung his gloves up on last week's episode of the ESPN reality show.

He cannot wait to put on another pair.

Thanks to a nine-year, frustration-driven layoff from the sport he loves, the welterweight views his experience on "The Contender" as a launching point more than an ending.

Bravo, who resumed fighting five years ago and has become a regular at the Desert Diamond Casino, will first fight Cornelius "K-9" Bundrage in a third-place fight on ESPN's live television finale Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Then, Bravo hopes, he will join a handful of other popular Contender fighters to be showcased in foreign countries.

Bravo turned pro in the early 1990s seeking a title, glory and riches. But, with his first son arriving 15 years ago, he couldn't find a way to earn a comfortable living in the ring. At one point in 1992, he was 8-1-1 with six knockouts and still earning a $100 per round.

"The money just wasn't there," Bravo said. "Making, like, $400 a fight was nothing I could live off of."

So Bravo worked as a roofer and plasterer, often putting in seven days a week once his boxing career ended. He moved to Las Vegas for a few years, and things didn't get any better.

Joe Agredano, Bravo's longtime manager and director of South Tucson's Aztlan Gym, could only cringe as the talented young fighter ran into trouble outside of work and became divorced.

"He was crazy in his feet," Agredano said. "Nothing was working out for him."

What finally pulled Bravo out of his stupor was not just his love of the ring, but the finely tuned sense of competitiveness, the same drive that has allowed him to be knocked out only once in 11 losses.

Another young fighter that Bravo knocked out in 1991, a Ugandan named Justin Juuko, briefly held the WBA super featherweight title in 1999 before Floyd Mayweather beat him a few months later.

Bravo couldn't stand to hear about it. He could be fighting Mayweather, not Juuko.

"Looking at that I said, 'what am I doing?' " Bravo said. "I'm a great fighter. I know I can be a great champion. I'm sitting around working 9 to 5, trying to make ends meet. So I got back in the gym."

Once there, in 2001, Bravo rediscovered how much he loved the place. He also rediscovered how hard it was.

Not only did Bravo have to build his boxing skills up again, but he also still had to make money. He had two sons from his first marriage, Norberto and Jose, while his fiancée of seven years, Priscilla Rios, had a 5-year old daughter, Maya, from a previous relationship.

Three years ago, Bravo and Rios had a son together, Roman, and the financial burden again stared Bravo in the face. He fought at the New West nightclub off Ina Road, became a popular club fighter in Las Vegas at the off-strip casinos and found a home at Desert Diamond while securing a maintenance day job at Honeywell.

But every time Bravo approached the title shot level, where he could earn five figures for every bout, Bravo lost. He lost three straight fights in 2001, the last to first-season Contender fighter Ishe Smith, then three more in a 10-month span between 2002 and 2003.

"He's had so many bad decisions," Joe Agredano said. "He'd get a good fight then get a bad decision so he didn't move him up."

It was not until Bravo decided to apply for the second season of "The Contender" that he finally hit another level. Not only did his weight, background and record fit into exactly what the show was seeking but Bravo had also had a relationship with show mentor Sugar Ray Leonard, who promoted Desert Diamond cards Bravo fought on.

Since the show began airing in mid-July, Bravo has repeatedly remarked how appreciative he is of the reception he's received. All over town, people who didn't know him after years of Desert Diamond fights are asking for his autograph. They're buying his T-shirts, with half of the proceeds benefiting the Aztlan youth program.

Along the way, Bravo's once-stoic, hard-edged outer shell began softening. He cries regularly on the show and friends notice a difference at home, too.

Aztlan fighter J.C. Villastrigo returned from a sabbatical in Utah to spar with Bravo this summer, stunned at what he saw not just inside but outside the ring.

"He's a lot more vocal," Villastrigo said. "I talk a lot but he didn't. It's awesome to see."

The money part still isn't all there, but Bravo believes it is coming. He's comfortable enough that he quit his Honeywell job, bought a house, and spends much of his day after training taking care of Roman. "He keeps me on my toes," Bravo said.

Bravo has already received undisclosed payments for each episode he appeared in, was awarded a Toyota Tundra truck when peers voted him the show's fighter with the most heart, and is expected to receive at least a five-figure purse if he can win Tuesday's fight. The exact amount has not been disclosed.

There could be more, much more, in the future. Producers have been officially noncommittal but Mike Agredano, Joe's son and Bravo's trainer, hinted they could take the most popular Contender fighters on lucrative foreign tours.

"The show itself has kind of opened a lot of doors," Mike Agredano said. "There's a lot of potential."

If and when he goes, Bravo will probably be the oldest fighter on the tours, his prime having been spent on the top of so many hot Las Vegas roofs. Bravo frets that he wasted away those years, that he could have had a belt or two by now, but Joe Agredano looks at something else.

"He's fresh," Agredano said. "He ain't beat up. He ain't got the crooked nose. He like a 19-year-old kid starting again."

A 19-year-old kid with a 35-year-old fighter's sense of urgency.

"I'm hoping (the show) will keep me real active," Bravo said. "I want to make sure I keep fighting. I'm not going to say my time is running out but I'm not getting any younger."

Up next

● What: "The Contender"

● Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles

● When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

● TV: ESPN