Lizard tail?
That's what they called me as a child.
Hyperactive child?
And he was feisty: he hit me a lot!
What happened to him?
I was angry at the world.
Because?
My neighborhood was brave: get a life...! And my mother, severe with me.
You wouldn't be easy.
My little brother was born with an illness, and I got into trouble more and more... My mother hit me with the shoe.
They didn't give him his place.
My grandfather Gabriel did: he listened to me. And one day he took me to a boxing match. That changed my life.
In what sense?
Two gladiators! That's what I saw. Boxers became my superheroes.
And what did your father do?
Example of sacrifice: I worked behind the wheel during the week, and on the weekend, at the Palacio de Deportes bar. I accompanied him... and he watched those boxing matches.
¡Predestined!
I was Spanish boxing champion, it's true. And Spanish full contact champion. And kick boxing.
Violent sports.
No, violence is something else.
What is violence?
Violence is the conscious aggressiveness (psychological, verbal or physical) with which one forces the will of another.
And in boxing there are shared wills, I understand.
He saved me. Boxing balanced my emotions and gave me vital goals: it ordered my life and gave me ethical values.
What values?
Discipline, responsibility, loyalty, solidarity, camaraderie, belonging. No more fighting in the street and in football.
On the soccer fields?
At the age of 18 I arrived at Preferente as a Real Madrid footballer. But it was violent on the pitch: the referees sent me off.
Well expelled.
They clapped my hands and I danced flamenco.
And did you end up confining the fights to the ring?
Eternal friendships arise there. A great colleague is one for life!
Colleagues of hosts...
One day a guy came to train at my gym: we didn't talk, just shit. He would be my best friend: David Gistau, the journalist.
He died of a stroke.
Nothing to do with boxing. I still cry for him: he was wonderful. I knew him well because... you box as you are.
Is boxing dangerous or not?
Boxing is dangerous, and you will avoid its risks if you control everything, everything!: train yourself and never lose concentration.
I've seen him in series and movies...
I started choreographing fights with actors and ended up as an actor. I had to change.
In what sense?
I was sullen and elusive, I made grunts. The actor must delve into his emotions... and I had to take off shells and shells: for the first time in my life I was able to say “I love you” to another person.
Have you never said it before?
Do not change! Before I affirmed myself with violence: as a child I was a bully of other children. One, years later, he would confess to me that he almost committed suicide because of my violence.
That's strong.
Yes. Let's stop that! With my Jero García Foundation I help, through sport, the integration of socially excluded children, and I train athletes' coaches to detect violence, to prevent it.
Children excluded?
Bullying kids and bullied kids, and needy kids. Unfortunately, bullying continues to grow and grow...
How can we combat it?
With a school bullying law with sanctions: the bullying child, and even more so if he causes a suicide, must be sentenced to a strong criminal sanction. And her parents, convicted of civil or criminal liability.
It sounds harsh.
It is harder to continue as before.
Is there more violence today or in your neighborhood in the late 1970s?
Today! Child-parent violence (children who attack their parents) was something extraordinary years ago, when I recorded the program Big Brother... and today it is ordinary, daily bread!
What advice do you give to your boxers?
You win the fight by not going to the disco. Don't save efforts. Control the emotions, yours and your rival's. And it is better to stop a minute earlier than a second later. As a coach, I prefer to lose a fight than put a kid at risk.
Why did you leave boxing?
Each boxer is a punching bag that is filling up. One good day you feel that your bag is full... That's when you should retire.
