Larry Fullmer on Legacy Center Grand Opening, Fullmer boxing history + more

I have a feeling either Larry Foehmer is excited about the song or judging us entirely that were playing music from Rocky Because we're at a boxing facility. We're live today, super exciting day. We would love to meet you guys, come on down and say lo. Legacy Fulfilled forty years in the making at the former Legacy Center at one oh nine six zero South Park Road and friend of the show Larry Folmer is our guest on.

A Friday, the Happiest of Fridays to you, sir.

How you doing and into the Happy Friday? Sure is thank you. I'm doing well well.

Thanks so much for having us. I don't even know where to start. I mean, I was walking around the facility. This looks top notch. I just want to know how you're doing today, Like, what are the emotions that are going through you today?

You know, I did my crying last night when I was kind of preparing for this, and then this morning at the ribbon cutting, I got pretty emotional.

It's a This is a legacy.

For Jean Jay and Don Foemer, my dad and uncles, and it's been something that we've been working on for a long time. We've always wanted to have our own facility. And I don't know if I've ever shared the history with you, but you know, when dad and my uncle's retired from boxing, they always wanted to work with the kids, just like Marv Jensen did with them, and was always free for the kids in the whole in the Whole

And it's nice to have politicians.

As friends, for sure, for sure, and he contacted Randy Horiucci and the mayor of Salt Lake County and we got a place on the west side of the Equestrian Park, a little building, and so we've used that for the last fourteen years, and then to move to this this is just unbelievable. We've been raising money for the last

No, all good.

You don't have to be nervous with me. It's just me and you talking. You know this, Larry, We've been doing this long enough and we should shout out Mountain America Credit Union. As we were starting the show, you were in this boxing ring rink ahead of us, boxing ring ahead of us. Excepting a check for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

That's amazing. We were able to raise.

Just over five million dollars for the seven million dollars at the building cost. And then we've had kind of a dry spell and then we've got these steek credit unions that have come come through to help us a little bit, and you know, quite a bit actually, and Celtic Bank has helped give us a loan so that we could get finish the construction and then we'll just keep working on raising money to pay that off. So that's that's where we're at now. But it will always

And we can fit almost five hundred people in here.

I was I was gonna ask, do you anticipate having events fights where people can come, you know, check out some of your rising stars.

Yes.

So the bleachers each pull out there. We can fit one hundred people in each section. We have a hundred chairs that fit here, and we have another one hundred people up at the top and VIP.

Seating nice, and so it's a really a neat place. We were able. Things happened so quickly.

We were supposed to be finished with construction in December, and so we scheduled our Golden Gloves tournaments in March April, and all of a sudden, March is here and it's not done.

Sure, well, I said, we got to have it done.

And we worked with the South organ City and they brought then temporary occupancy permit.

While people were coming in for our state tournament. So it was just so it was.

And we had the place packed with people, and so it was really an exciting because look where the ring is, everybody's right on top of that, and we turn out the house lights, and those lights are over the ring and it's a very professional.

It's a neat thing for the kids.

I've got to say, I love the old school posters that you have surrounding the boxing ring.

Yeah.

So are these posters that your family has just kind of kept in storage waiting for the right moment or throughout the course of your nomadic existence?

Have they followed you around a bit?

Let me tell you the story of those.

So my dad he saved most of his a lot of his posters when he could, and Uncle Jean had a few, and my uncle Jay had a few. Well, they in the gym that they had, they were stapling them and taping them to the walls. And I went to the Canastota, the International Boxing Hall of Fame a few times, and I was in a trade show there going looking at some of the memorabilia that they had

To the gym for sure.

So I walked up and I said how much is that poster? And the guy says, well, you're too late. The person in front of you just paid four thousand dollars for and I'm going they're worth.

That much money.

And so I came home and took all of the posters down in the gym. I went and had them digitally re enhanced and then then framed and so that we could hang them up here so they wouldn't get ruined.

It's awesome, no, I mean truly, they're like old school boxing posters that you see in old movies, and they're surrounding this ring.

Tell me about the ring.

I mean again, I'm kind of a boxing neo fight I love watching fights, and I've watched fights my entire life.

But tell us about this beautiful ring that you guys have built.

So the ring is a twenty four twenty four foot well this one is twenty two feet excuse me, and it's a I mean, they rings range from eighteen to twenty four feet. That's kind of the normal range for amateur and professional boxing rings. And so to give us a little more room on the sides, we went we traded our twenty four foot ring for twenty two foot ring.

Larry, It's top shelf, it's first class. I mean, everything is great, everything feels really new. I want to read this quote from your uncle Jay on the wall because I want to get into kind of what you hope this thing turns into for the children in our community.

And your uncle Jay said quote.

We're not saying everybody's getting up to be a champion, but I guarantee you if they keep coming down, they'll be better kids and they'll be better citizens.

And that's all we can ask.

So when it comes to the effect you guys hope to have on the children that come here again for free to train and learn the lessons that boxing teaches them.

What is kind of the hope that this thing manifests into.

That quote says it all because I don't know how Uncle Jay come up with that, actually, but he said that, And it's just been kind of our our theme here. You know, most of these kids aren't going to be make it big. You don't want to ever take their dream away, but that's the reality. It's like football or basketball or anything else. But it gives them something to do to come off the off the off the streets sometimes. And the majority of the kids in our club are

That's awesome.

The help of the kids homework and stuff, and uh, we just want to make him better, better kids and if we can make a difference in their life, that's what you want.

You know, I can I can recall the first time you came in a studio a couple of years ago. You brought a young man who was preparing for a fight, and we were able to sit down and interview him, and he referenced, you know, the fact that away from the ring, because of the lessons he had learned here, he was leaning into starting his very own business. And it's sorry, go ahead.

Yeah no, And that there was one of them that were you just just walked by.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

He's a he's a barber and has his own business.

That's great.

He still comes a gym and still and still boxes. We had another young man, uh uh that you that you've interviewed also, Milo.

Milo, That's what I was thinking.

Yeah, yeah, he boxed for us.

We took him to the state and regional and national tournament and now he has his own boxing gym and is doing very well with it. And it's just that's what we want to see happen. Sure, it's just so so neat to see happen.

Sure.

Sure, So where can people go get more information? Because as you said, and I just want to reiterate to the community, we need to do our part to keep this thing ticking. Because it's one thing to build it, it's another thing to open it. Now we just have to sustain it. So Larry, where can people go get more information?

So if you go to the former Legacy dot org website, that will give you a little history and we'll give you some information on where the address and so forth of our gym. Our gym is open for the kids. It's open at six o'clock in the evening till eight thirty or nine at night Monday through Thursday. And also there's a place on the website that'll give you information on donations because we certainly will be able to need them for our programs and and we'll be doing other programs here too.

Uh.

You know, neurological diseases respond well to the training of boxing. Interesting not getting hit in the heads, but the but the actual the footwork, the coordination, uh, the the appropriate reception.

We are live here at the former Legacy Center one O nine six zero South Park Road. Look, I know you've got a ton of people they want to talk to you and a lot to do.

So let's take a couple of minutes to talk.

About maybe some upcoming events and now people maybe can come out and take tours and you know some things that we have coming up out.

Here at the former Legacy Center.

So we have.

Come out here today any anytime here for the next few hours, we'll be here uh and we'll give you a tour of the building. It's also open uh six to nine a night from Monday through Thursday, and you can get get a night of the facility and talk to Ted.

Ted Rule will always be here. He's our head coach and he'll be.

He'll be happy to help you get the signed up or at least give you give you a look at things. Things. So we have a lot of things. We even have virtual reality boxing. That's what's happening over here for for some of the people that it's just it's just coming up that'll actually be able to have tournaments all over the world with virtual reality. The gentleman here Aaron Sloan from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I flew in and and to demonstrate

Very nice from that, can you give us some names and maybe some of your top contenders that we can watch out for.

Is that kind of to be determined?

That's that's kind of to be determined. Okay, Okay, got some good kids. In fact, some of them are some of them are here. I can't point them out. You know, they look different without their head gear in boxing.

That's why I did. This is one of your fighters over here.

Though, right?

Oh yeah, okay, that's he's the dailest okay.

And he was there last year with us, that's right, and uh and he did. He did pretty well for the experience that he's had. And he's he didn't participate in the in the regional tournament this year because he was busy with work and didn't have enough time to train. And now sure, sure he'll be back. He'll be back at and he promised me for next year.

There you go.

Let me ask you this question because I was genuinely curious.

I'm not a great sleeper, and so last night I'm flipping through channels and I settled on this dope movie Born on the fourth of July. I think it is where Tom Cruise is a race car drive and this old crusty coach comes up to him and says, I know a.

Race car driver. Want to see one? Do you know a boxer?

When you see one?

Oh?

Yes, you can tell who he's got. Who's got some juice right away?

Yeah? Yeah, pretty well.

You look at their talent, I mean as far as their balance and their footwork, and their and their speed, and then their heart. So boxer has to have a lot, a lot of heart. It's we were talking about this with Deontay Wilder last night at dinner. It's uh, it takes a lot of heart and a lot of stamina. And he was talking about how, you know, in coming in the tenth round of a twelve round championship fight, how you want to just sometimes just quit, but you

And that's what makes a champion.

Sure sure is. Now there's a rumor that Deontay Wilder may make an appearance.

He better make an appearance.

Okay, there, let's go. What's the nature of that relationship?

He'll be here. So his manager and I are good friends. We were on the boxing He is manager and trainer in Alabama. I was on the boxing commission in Utah and he was in Alabama and we'd have meetings and so we've known each other for twenty five or thirty

Be our only medal winner in the Olympics that the.

Year that he fought the Olympics, he was a bronze medal winner, and then they become a world champion. And he's had those three fights with the Tyson Fury. He's going to have one more fight coming up in June in Wichitan. If he does well there, which you're expecting, then maybe I'd like to see him fight Joshua.

Okay, Okay.

It would be a good fight because I think he would he would do well against the Joshua. Anyway, It's fun to talk to those kind of guys and get their perspective of it. But I know that. I'll just give you an example. My dad fought for the world title in San Remo, Italy against Nino ben Venuti fifty that one championships for fifteen rounds and my dad got

In fact, when you see the reruns, you see.

Them on the TV explaining, now this fight is in San Remo, Italy and it's going to go up here. This signal is going to go up here to the satellite. It's going to bounce back down to New York. They had to explain him that new Well, he didn't want to cancel the fight because he knew that he might not get another chance, and he fought. He knocked Benvenudi down in the seventh round, but my dad said, I don't even remember most of the fight because he was

Time he went fifteen rounds with flu Oh good gracious.

But that's what you do with with heart.

Uncle Jean of Florentino Fernandez the last three rounds of the world title fight with a broken arm. He broke, he broke, he broke his arm in the fight, and so all of a sudden, you notice, if you watched the reruns the last few rounds, he was one handed.

Wow, and you didn't stop.

That's just that's and like I said, I don't know whether that's smart, but it's the heart of a champion.

I love that we have NBA players that won't play one day because they're tired.

Out of curiosity? Did your dad and uncles did ever fight each other?

And they sparred all the time, but like no, it was always in the newspaper that that might happen because Uncle Jean won the championship when my dad was and then my dad turned pro and so by the time Uncle Jean was in the end going towards the end of his career, my dad.

Was a top ranked middleweight as well.

I see, and my grandma was always worried that they were going to that they were going to fight each other, and she was she was feared that that would happen.

Yeah, but I don't think they would.

I don't think they ever would have fought like the Clinchical brothers, you know they were. They could have, but you're not going to fight your brother.

No, it's the brother relationship is.

You might want to strangle them at times, but you don't want to fight them for you, all right, you want to.

Might want to kick them about once in a while, we're not in the ring.

No, not at all.

Were they all the same size? Were they all weight similar weight class.

Same size?

Uncle Jay was a lighter weight.

Yeah, yeah, Jeane and Jay, Jeane and Don were middleweights. Then my dad, after his world title fight, was getting harder to stay down to one hundred and sixty pounds, and so he went up to light heavyweighting.

But he was uh.

He was ranked in the top top two or three in the light heavyweight for quite a while. Two.

Very nice.

Well, look, I know you've got a lot to do.

I hope I impressed you with my ambidextrous ability to jump off the stage because.

I want to get in here.

I want to actually, I'd like to learn how to throw throw it through, you know, throw some punches, and work on a bag.

So I'd like to get in here, bring my son in here.

Before I set you loose, Larry one more time, tell our listeners where they can get all all the information.

Okay, So go to the former Legacy dot org website and that will give you all the information and give you the address of the gym one oh nine six zero South Park Road in South Jordan, Utah. And Ted Grula is the head coach here and uh yeah, please come and and if you don't want to learn the box but you want to support the kids, uh we we could use the donations.

Love it well, thank you, my friend. Great to see you.

You know, we'll be here for a while. And uh yeah, let us know if you anything else. Okay, you've bet all right, the great Larry Felmer out here at the Former Legacy Center.

This place is really cool.

So it's it's a little south if you guys are in the south end of the valley, very easy to find. If you're up north, it'll take you a little bit, but it is worth your time.

It is the Former Legacy Center.

It is located at one oh nine six zero South Park Road in South Jordan. As Larry just outlined this has been forty years in the making. They've had eight different places where they've essentially exercised their training program to carry on the former legacy and they've been waiting for a permanent location for forty years. And we've got a lot of people here, a lot of young prospects, a

It's free for the kids.

And certainly this is a community treasure that we want to make sure that we can support the best we can. So it is the former Legacy Center at one O nine six zero South Park Road in South Jordan.