Pictured above: Thomas “Candyman” Blair (left) and Carlos “El Giles” Nava (right). Photos by Lori Sparkman.
Heading into the first big event for his company, Pinnacle Promotions, Victor Werley already sounds the part of boxing manager and fight promoter, hyping the Feb. 3 bouts he is bringing to the Maumelle Event Center in North Little Rock.
Mainly he sounds like a native son of Arkansas, who firmly believes he is not alone in his fandom of the sweet science and who is committed to leveraging that into something big in his home state.
“I have a vision to make Arkansas a boxing destination,” he said. “I don’t expect Arkansas to become Las Vegas, but I do expect to reach a point a few years down the road where we are hosting top-level championship fights at Simmons Arena in [North] Little Rock, Ark. I think that is absolutely doable. There is an immense amount of boxing talent in Arkansas, and I really do think that boxing has potential to be Arkansas’ professional sport.”
The company’s inaugural event, Pinnacle Fight Night, will be headlined by Carlos “El Giles” Nava (10-0-1), a Texas-based super lightweight who puts an undefeated professional record on the line against Little Rock native Thomas “Candyman” Blair (7-0).
Smith, training with his boxer, said Nava has a knack for the sport.
Nava, who has fought professionally since 2021, has won six of his bouts by knockout. He last fought in September, when he battled Armando Ramirez Almanza to a draw after scoring a unanimous decision against Kenneth Sene in August. The fighter also holds the distinction of being the first and thus far only boxer managed by Werley in Pinnacle Promotions’ fledgling stable.
“He’s very fast-handed,” said Nava’s trainer, Danny Smith. “He’s very quick. He’s tough, he’s intelligent, he listens very well, and he just has a knack for this.”
Trainer Danny Smith, left, and promoter Victor Werley.
Smith, a Little Rock native who now lives in Conway, is also a part of Pinnacle Promotions company and, with 11 world champions under his belt, brings immediate credibility to the venture.
“I happened to meet Danny through a mutual friend, and he and I hit it off and began to discuss our mutual love for the sport and the potential that Arkansas has,” Werley said. “We just said there’s no reason that Arkansas can’t be a destination when it comes to boxing, so let’s make it happen. Danny knows boxing and I’m pretty familiar with the economic climate, the business climate in Arkansas, and I just felt like it was there, waiting for someone to put some energy into it to make it happen.
“Danny is an absolute legend in the boxing world. Basically, he’s a household name. Nobody knows me. I’m just a business guy, and I keep a pretty low profile.”
Boxing has always been the sport of the common man. Some of the sport’s greatest champions have risen from modest circumstances, to put it mildly, with many literally trying to fight their way out of desperation and poverty.
Arkansas’ pugilistic lineage includes multiple world champions, though most of them are known only to hardcore historical students of the sport. Ainsworthsports.com lists 19 past notables, more than half of whom competed between 1905 and 1947. It should be noted that Tommy Morrison, arguably the most successful and well-recognized modern name on the list, was born in Gravette but spent most of his formative years in Oklahoma, where he launched his boxing career. In the modern consciousness, Arkansas’ roster is limited to only three native notables identified by the Encyclopedia of Arkansas that would register name recognition with casual boxing fans. The most obscure of the trio, John “Big John” Tate, was born in West Memphis and won the WBA world heavyweight championship in 1979.
The other two fighters, however, are household names for those even tangentially familiar with combat sports. The first, Sonny Liston, was born to poverty and abuse in St. Francis County and was the ultimate wrecking ball, winning the world heavyweight title from Floyd Patterson in 1962 and again in 1963 before falling the next year to an upstart Cassius Clay, later known to the world as Muhammad Ali. The rematch between those two, forever shrouded in suspicion over Liston throwing the bout due to mob ties, resulted in one of the 20th century’s most iconic photographs of Ali standing over Liston, roaring at him to get up and fight.
Without question, the name most familiar to Arkansans today and one of the state’s most successful fighters to boot, is Little Rock’s Jermain Taylor, who captured the undisputed world middleweight title over Bernard Hopkins in July 2005 and successfully defended it four times over the next two years. He also won the World Boxing Council Continental Americas middleweight title in 2003, defending it three times, and the International Boxing Federation middleweight title in 2014.
More importantly, Taylor’s success sparked the imagination of young fighters and fight fans alike from the Natural State. One of those seeds fell on the fertile business mind of Werley, founder of Pinnacle Advisors, and ultimately culminated with his starting Pinnacle Productions.
“Sports has been a part of my background and my childhood and my life for a long time,” he said. “I am an avid sports fan. I’m a native of Arkansas, and I’ve been a fan of boxing and combat sports for as long as I can remember. I have been aware for a long time that Arkansas is blessed with a large amount of boxing talent. Jermain Taylor, obviously, is a great example of that.”
Both Smith and Werley insist Arkansas is still fertile ground for young talent, but a general lack of elite training, fighter management and promotion of high-level events leads many athletes out of state.
“We do have a lot of talent here, but what’s lacking is experienced teachers in the sport,” Smith said. “The talent teachers leave to go to California, New York, the bigger states to work with the bigger amateur programs that will produce better pros. The youngsters here in Arkansas are suffering because they don’t have the teachers here to guide them in the proper way.
“I hope that [Pinnacle Promotions] leads to getting the young people here to understand that people do care about this state when it comes to amateur boxing and helping these amateur boxers become really good pros and being able to get the people in this state involved and behind the guys and support them so we can continue to do multiple shows per year. I would love to do a series every other month. That would be great.”
Werley is even more to the point, saying the presence of Smith himself is a major stake in the ground both as a key pin in the business model and toward realizing the goal of building a boxing community in Arkansas.
“You have fighters that are leaving for larger markets and greener pastures, but you also have trainers that are being brought into those larger markets, as well,” he said. “The demand for Danny as a world-renowned trainer, I mean, pick your celebrity boxer, pick your world champion, they all want Danny. If Danny goes somewhere, the fighters are going to go there. If Danny is willing to stay [in Arkansas], and it appears he is, then the fighters will stay and it starts to grow from there.
“Danny is the secret sauce. I will be the first to admit that there is a list of people in the state of Arkansas that have the skills that I’m bringing to the table. There’s only one Danny Smith. That guy is absolutely the secret sauce.”
Smith was born in Little Rock and moved to Tennessee when he was 13. An outstanding athlete, he participated in amateur boxing and football growing up and began training professional boxers in 1996. Known for his intense conditioning programs and developing slick, fundamentally sound boxers with particularly refined defensive skills, Smith’s resume includes the likes of Fernando Vargas, Ishe Smith and Victor Ortiz.
The Paul brothers
Recently, he stepped outside of his traditional client model — but not his approach — to take on a radically different challenge by training social media celebrity-turned boxer Jake Paul, who he described as an underappreciated athlete and boxing student.
“My initial impression was I really don’t do the Hollywood boxing events. I really love the hardcore conventional style of boxing and the tradition,” Smith said, “but when I went to training camp and I actually saw him work out, I realized how serious he was. We had a discussion, and he was telling me how he was drinking heavily, using substances, and boxing had brought about a purity of himself where he was detoxing, and this kept his mind in a great place and his body in a tremendous place of being in great condition.
“He had a lot of natural athleticism, being a former football player and wrestler. He had a competitive background. He runs a 4.5 40. He’s a big guy — he’s like 6’ 1”, 215. He’s a big, big heavy puncher, has a great chin. He has desire, and he’s very consistent. He listens very well. When I took him on, it was wonderful. He did a great job.”
Despite Smith’s training pedigree and Werley’s business savvy, there remains a question of boxing being on the wane, supplanted by the flashier and much more high profile mixed martial arts brand of combat sports. Although boxing enjoys a substantially longer history than MMA, the sport has also endured a laundry list of problems, including multiple sanctioning bodies watering down the product and splitting titles to high-profile negative headlines to not delivering the more aggressive action of MMA competition.
Werley said while the sport is not perfect, boxing is in a far better place than most people realize, even compared to the competition, dominated by the juggernaut Ultimate Fighting Championship league.
“From the outside looking in, boxing looks like a very crowded space, but I actually see that as a bit of an advantage,” he said. “When you compare boxing to MMA, what you’ll see is a major contrast in the amount of freedom and the amount of power that the fighters themselves have. Unfortunately, we all know of cases of boxers being taken advantage of by promoters that have their own agendas, but ultimately, there’s a large amount of freedom that boxers have to negotiate their own deals, to get their own television contracts and promotion contracts because they have multiple options.
“If you are a talented MMA fighter, you have one option: You either get on [UFC president and CEO] Dana White’s bus, or you don’t have anybody to fight. That is very limiting, it is very challenging, and it creates a silo that can make it impossible for certain talented fighters to be able to go up because there’s just not as many options. It’s not as capitalistic as boxing is.”
Werley went a step further, saying he believes the sport of boxing is poised for another golden age in its long history, using some of the same eyeball-attracting tactics that have transformed amateur sports down to the high school level, thanks to name, image and likeness.
“I do think that boxing is about to experience a resurgence as fighters are harnessing the power of social media and as boxers are becoming more educated about the options that they have,” he said. “I actually think that you’re going to see a bit of a renaissance to the days of people getting behind a Muhammad Ali, a Rocky Marciano, a George Foreman because they can identify with their stories. They know where they’re from. The kid from Brooklyn that trains in the local gym and gets a title shot, they’re going to start seeing that again because these fighters are building their brands through social media, and they have the platform to be able to do it. You look at what’s happening with celebrities that are moving into the boxing space, that is further increasing the visibility of the sport.
“Plus, I think boxing, more so than MMA, is a sport that is palatable to a broad audience. MMA has an edge to it; I am a fan of MMA, but my wife does not want to watch an MMA fight. My wife will watch a boxing match though. There’s something about it that’s more palatable to a broader audience, and I think there’s value in that.”
As for Pinnacle Fight Night itself, Smith said fans will be treated to a night of skill and athleticism with numerous perfect records on the line.
“This actual bout will be so exciting because we will have seven undefeated guys putting their records on the line against very, very hungry up-and-coming opponents,” he said. “This is going to be very entertaining. It’s just like back in high school, where you knew that fight was going to happen at 3 o’clock and it’s b een talked about since 8 o’clock in the morning, and everybody can’t wait for the bell to ring to go out there and see it. It’s the exact same thing, and you’re going to see it across tough professional fights.”
Werley agreed, adding the additional payoff, if all goes to plan, is to lay the foundation for something even greater down the line.
“It is a slow process. It is an organic process, and you can’t manufacture it. You’ve got to support it and nurture it and let it build,” he said. “I think in a few short years, we’ll be at a place where you have a stable of current and potential world champions that are existing, living and training in Arkansas. I really think that is possible.”
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Pinnacle Fight Night
Feb. 3 – 6 p.m.
Maumelle Event Center
10910 Maumelle Blvd., North Little Rock
For ticket information, visit eventbrite.com.
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