RIVERTON — Arturo Robles walked into the Fullmer Brothers Boxing Club a few years ago weighing almost 200 pounds. Now he's a super welterweight — a trim 157.
Yet Robles' reshaping goes beyond his waistline. He's one of many young men and women learning the discipline, focus and dedication that boxing demands.
A good chunk of the club's boxers were born years after the last of the "Fighting Fullmers" retired from the ring — yet the fight card posters pasted on the walls of the two-room gym teach a local history lesson. The young face of world middleweight champ Gene Fullmer enjoys top billing on many of the posters. His boxing brothers, Don and Jay, are featured on many of the others.
Now the Fullmers are trainers — mentors teaching the finer points of the jab, left cross and clean living.
Most of the would-be pugs skipping rope or finding the rat-a-tat-tat of the club's speed bag will never find their names headlining a fight poster. No matter.
"We're not here to make champions," said Jay Fullmer. "We're here to make quality young men and quality young women."
The Fullmers have long been among Utah's most prominent boxing ambassadors. When long-time boxing clubs began closing in the late 1970s and '80s, people began asking the brothers where their kids could learn the sport, maybe even fight in a bout or two.
"There were no clubs at the time in (the south) part of Salt Lake County," Gene Fullmer said.
That had to have stung the Fullmer brothers. There was a time when the old West Jordan Boxing Club was a stable for some of the nation's top boxers — including the Fullmers, Rex Layne, Lamar Clark and Olympian Jay Lambert.
So in 1998, the Fullmers entered into an agreement with Salt Lake County to open a two-room boxing club in a wing of the old Riverton Junior High School at 12865 W. Redwood Road.
It's a sweet deal for students of the "sweet science." In the spirit of the West Jordan Boxing Club, members are not required to pay dues outside of a $40 annual fee to offset insurance fees set by the American Boxing Federation. The benefits go beyond costs. Young fighters learn to stick-and-move, roll punches and spar from a trio of former world-class fighters. The club opens nightly, five days a week, and is almost always staffed by one or all of the Fullmers, along with local boxing trainers, such as Nick Butterfield.
Turnout at the club is as unpredictable as a Mike Tyson fight.
"We might get 10 out to the gym one night, 20 the next night and three the night after that," Gene Fullmer said.
The Fullmers hope to develop competitive boxers. The brothers are helping Arturo Robles and his older brother, Armando, break into the pro ranks. Jay and Don Fullmer were in Armando's corner when he won his pro debut recently in Wendover.
Still, most Fullmer Boxing Club members will never make a dime inside the ring. Boxing is not for everyone. It has a gritty side. Still, the Fullmers say boxing can teach principles that can serve a young man or woman long after the gloves are off.
"We get a wide variety of kids," Don said, adding his young pupils come in all shapes, sizes and ethnic groups. Many come from tough, impoverished backgrounds.
Willie Price, 72, a Utah boxer-turned-civic leader, is grateful to have come up in a time when youth boxing clubs dotted the Wasatch Front and shaped many lives.
"I really think boxing saved my life," Price said. "Boxing placed me on a path that taught me I could accomplish anything I want in my life."
Somewhere in Don Fullmer's West Jordan home is a tiny sweater with the letters WJBC stitched across the front. Marv Jenson, the renowned pro boxing manager and operator of the now defunct West Jordan Boxing Club, would present a club sweater to his young fighters with certain conditions.
"Marv told me I could have the sweater if I promised I would not drink, not smoke, take the Lord's name in vain . . . Marv said he was putting me on my honor," Don said. "I must have been 6 or 7 when I got that sweater, but I still have it."
The spirit of the WJBC can be felt in the Fullmer club. There are few specific club rules, but Gene said it's understood that members do the right thing. Boxing continues to reach some who might not be reached any other way.
"Some kids that come down to the club have not improved one bit," says the honest former champ. "But they keep coming."
E-MAIL: jswensen@desnews.com