Justin Gamber is a Las Vegas-based boxing coach who has worked with fighters such as Andy Ruiz Jr., Caleb Plant, and most recently led Blair “The Flair” Cobbs to a victory over Adrien Broner. The highly respected coach rarely gives interviews, but here, in the first of a two-part Q&A, he reflected on the upset win and shared why Broner will always be revered.
BS: You talked about your own in-ring rust leading into the Blair Cobbs vs. Adrien Broner bout. Can you talk about that?
Gunbar: The last time I was involved in boxing until January of this year was when my friend Frank Steer from Top Rank invited me to lunch and said he wanted me to come back to the gym and start coaching again, so I was there during the Caleb Plant vs Canelo Alvarez fight. [in November 2021] Then this January, I took a break.
I wasn't planning on not going back to boxing, but I wasn't really thinking about boxing. So I didn't feel too rusty when I came back. I have a lot of experience. I started coaching in 2006, and I never took a break from 2006 to 2021. I didn't feel too rusty. I felt fresh. [even though] I hadn't hit the mats with anyone for over two years. I hadn't sparred or coached a match for over two years. It had been a long time since I'd done anything like that, and I wasn't nervous. It wasn't that I lost confidence or anything like that. It just felt fresh, like it had been a long time, but at the same time, [I thought] 'I got this'.
BS: Did you have any doubts or concerns about the change in the game?
Gunbar: I wouldn't say I had any doubts. Like when you're in the gym every day, not every day is a great day. Sometimes a guy's sparring isn't the best, and there were probably days where I asked myself, “Am I the same person I was before? Am I the same coach I was before?” But you think about it, just like you should when a guy has a bad day. You process it to some extent. You think about what went wrong, what you can do right, and tomorrow is a new day. I took that approach as a coach. When Blair didn't spar the best, or when he didn't have the best day of training, I licked my wounds a little bit and thought about how I could do it better. And the next day was a new day, so I tried to improve on that and try to fix the mistakes that I felt he made.
BS: When did you know that Blair Cobbs was a fighter you were going to give your all to?
Gunbar: I want to say I felt good throughout the whole training, but really, for me, I didn't know until he played, until we finished the first match, and until I finished the match with Adrian, and I was like, 'Okay, now I know what I'm dealing with, now I know what I'm dealing with.'
I worked with Blair a few years ago when I was coaching some guys. I coached Caleb Plant, Shane Mosley Jr., Jeremiah Milton, a bunch of guys. For me as a coach, I don't want to have too many guys because I want to have the time, one-on-one, with each guy. With five or six guys, it's almost impossible with the way I coach. Me and Blair one-on-one, no one else, that's the way I do it.
I started coaching him a few years ago, but only for a few months. I think it was because I had a lot of players and he felt like he didn't have time. I was out of town a lot, and he went back to his coach at the time. But a few years ago when I started coaching him, a lot of people were complaining about his attitude, or [how] He's difficult to deal with. But to be honest, I've never had a problem with him. I've never had a problem. I started from day one. I said, “Listen to me,” and I think I interrupted him a little bit. The first time I met him, he was talking. He interrupted me, he interrupted me. I think I yelled at him a little bit, but I wanted his attention, and I got his attention. I've never had a problem with him. He's always shown me a lot of respect, and really, you have to build trust between a fighter and a coach, and that doesn't happen overnight.
I feel like we definitely earned his trust in this training camp, because at the beginning of this training camp, I wouldn't say he listened perfectly, but as the camp went on, he listened better and better, and then on fight day, when I fought Adrian, he was in my corner and he listened to everything I said. It was perfect. I feel like that was the culmination of me earning his trust.
BS: What did you think when he said he was going to fight Broner?
Gunbar: When I first heard Broner was a possible opponent, I was excited, but for me, I was like, wait and see if Adrian shows up. You hear a lot of fighters talking about doing this fight, that fight. Blair came back and said it, so I believed him, but I didn't really believe it was going to happen. But I loved this fight from day one. Not only for Blair, but for myself too. I took two years off and got the opportunity to coach a kid going against a four-time world champion like Adrian Broner in his first fight. It's a dream come true for me. But I knew what was coming.
BS: What observations did you make about Broner beforehand?
Gunbar: I always knew he was a tough guy. I always knew he was a gritty guy. But he took one punch that knocked out his teeth, broke his arm, and then he went on for eight more rounds. He wasn't in survival mode. And maybe in some ways he was, but he was putting pressure on Blair. He was moving forward.
So I have a lot of respect for him, his guts, his heart. I didn't expect Adrian to throw a lot of punches because he didn't really show that in some of his fights. But in this fight, I don't really know if he was throwing punches. If he didn't hurt his arm, if he had a broken tooth… I can't imagine a guy going full out after a broken tooth, because if you go full out, you have a lot of holes in your defense and you get a lot of opportunities to get hit. So I think the broken tooth, the broken arm, etc. were big factors in him not throwing punches. But as a fighter, I respect him.
BS: Where does Blair stand at welterweight?
Gunbar: A little below the top. Boots Ennis would be up there. He's not at that level yet, but I think he's just below that. I think the possibilities are endless. I don't know what his next fight will be. I've heard a few names. I've heard Ryan Garcia. He's not a welterweight, but Ryan has Errol Spence in mind. Errol is a welterweight and is on the verge of moving up to junior middleweight. So that fight is definitely a possibility for us.
Maybe Adrien Broner wants a rematch. He gave us this opportunity, so we should give him another chance to repay him. But maybe that's not what he wants, and I can understand why he wouldn't. Blair is a threat to anyone in this division.
