Prenice Brewer had a successful boxing career, and he’s using his knowledge to train other fighters like Terrell Gausha and Tiger Johnson.
Some say that those who can’t do, teach, but boxer turned trainer Prenice Brewer proves that saying untrue.
Brewer (21-4-1, 8 KOs) enjoyed success in the ring, but his boxing journey almost ended before it began.
Brewer started boxing at the age of 11. According to Brewer, his mother’s boyfriend was a journeyman boxer who took him to the gym one day while on babysitting duties.
Brewer got hooked on boxing after that day.
“I actually went to the gym and end up sparring and did real good, and I was addicted after that,” Brewer told FanSided.
Brewer had his first amateur bout in only a month, which he lost. Luckily, he had a legendary trainer in his corner who acted as the voice of reason.
“I was gonna quit,” Brewer said. “But my trainer, Renard Safo, my childhood trainer, he taught me, and then he was like, just give it one more try. And I ended up going on a long run. So then I just stuck to it.”
Safo preserved Brewer’s dream. He saw the talent was there and didn’t allow Brewer to quit.
Brewer staged a successful amateur career, including a 2005 National Golden Gloves Championship. He was a blue-chip talent on the rise.
Brewer turned professional in 2006 and went undefeated in his first 16 bouts but lost via TKO to Patrick Lopez in 2010. He posted a 6-3 record over the next nine years.
Prenice Brewer helps train Terrell Gausha for his March 26 bout against undefeated Tim Tszyu on Showtime
During that time, while training in California towards the tail end of his career, cut man and trainer Mike Bazzell made a comment to Brewer, which later proved prophetic.
Bazzell told Brewer in the gym that he would make a great trainer one day. He saw Brewer’s ability to work with his peers in the gym and noticed a talent that Brewer didn’t yet see himself.
“I guess when he first said it, I wasn’t even thinking,” Brewer said. “I was still boxing. I was still in the midst of my career. When he told me, I’m like, ‘maybe,’ you know what I’m saying. But like, I just really like, whatever.”
Sensing his time as a boxer was coming to an end, Brewer received a call from longtime friend and stablemate Terrell Gausha. Gausha was coming off a loss against Erickson Lubin and was prepping for the rangy southpaw Jamontay Clark.
Gausha is trained by Brewer’s former trainer, Renard Safo, and Gausha wanted to pick Brewer’s brain about how to approach Clark.
“He was having trouble fighting left-handers, Brewer said. “So I used to call him and tell him like, this is what you got to do. But telling somebody and actually being with them, helping them you know what I’m saying, incorporate it into they game is two different things.”
Gausha invited Brewer to come help him and Coach Safo in camp. Brewer made his knowledge useful.
He went back and watched film on Gausha against left-handers and realized he was only averaging one jab a round against southpaws. Brewer made being active with the jab an emphasis with Gausha.
On the night of the fight with Clark, Gausha implemented the game plan Brewer helped form.
“He was already about four jabs in in the first round, you know what I’m saying,” Brewer said. “So just went out there, taught him a little thing that really improved his game against left-handers, and he stopped him in the second round.”
The addition of Brewer to Gausha’s team proved fruitful. It turns out Gausha wasn’t the only talented fighter that admired Brewer’s boxing I.Q.
As a boxer in Safo’s Cleveland gym, Brewer befriended a young up-and-comer named Delante Johnson. Most know him better today as Tiger Johnson.
Johnson crushed it as an amateur like Brewer, winning multiple national amateur titles. Johnson went on to compete at the 2020 Olympic games, where he showed promise.
Johnson won his professional debut in November 2021, but Johnson and Safo thought adding Brewer to the team would be beneficial.
“Ever since Tiger Johnson was like 16, he told me he wanted me to help train him with Safo, my childhood coach,” Brewer said.
At 23 years old, in his second professional fight, Johnson had Brewer and Safo working together on his side. While at Johnson’s fight, Bazzell reminded Johnson of his prophecy years before.
“He [Bazzell] just reminded me at Tiger last fight because he was doing cuts out at Oklahoma,” Brewer said. “I seen him. We was talking for a minute, and then he just told me he was like, ‘Hey, I told you you was always gonna be here.’”
Bazzell was right.
At 34 years old, Brewer is a young trainer with as much potential as a teacher of the sweet science as he had as a combatant. Maybe more.
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