Trainers

Driving north on Vine Street in Hollywood, just above Santa Monica Boulevard, it'd be easy to miss the home gym of the world's best boxer, Manny Pacquiao, and his equally respected trainer, Freddie Roach. It's across from a Taco Bell and just south of a Vagabond Inn and an Armenian Church, tucked in a nondescript strip mall with Nat's Thai Food, Nirvana Massage, Susie's Designs, a laundromat, a beer/wine market and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting room.

A karate instructor at a Costa Mesa self-defense studio was arrested this week on suspicion of molesting a 4-year-old girl whom he was giving a private lesson, authorities said Thursday. Jon Patrick Harrison, 61, of Anaheim is charged with one felony count of lewd acts on a child. Harrison has been a martial arts instructor at United Studios of Self Defense for 10 years, and authorities worry there could be other victims, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

The rivalry between boxing and mixed martial arts may appear to be peaking tonight when world welterweight boxing champion Antonio Margarito of Tijuana defends his belt against Pomona's Shane Mosley at Staples Center, and world-renowned mixed martial arts heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko takes on Andrei Arlovski down the freeway at Anaheim's Honda Center. Yet, the reality of the combat sports landscape is anything but a blood feud.

It was just hours after his boxer's toughest fight, Cris Arreola's winning brawl over Travis Walker last Thanksgiving weekend, when Henry Ramirez stopped being Just Plain Henry. Boxing loves nicknames. So do trainers. Example: Ignacio Beristain is "Nacho." So, in the wee hours of that Nov. 29 night, there was Just Plain Henry, about to acquire a new label. Ramirez is Arreola's longtime trainer. His strategy and decision-making in the corner Saturday night at Staples Center will have a big bearing on whether Arreola can pull off a huge upset against World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.

The Afghan soldiers on the training ground quickly took up the proper defensive positions when the fake roadside bomb blew up -- but then, despite the insistent cajoling of a group of British and U.S. trainers, they just lay there in the dirt peering over their guns. "These guys won't listen," said British army Capt. Clive Magill, an instructor at the Consolidated Fielding Center here. It was a poor showing, but the Afghan soldiers weren't the only ones to blame. Because of U.S. troop rotations and shortages of instructors, their training team had been changed three times, forcing the entire battalion to be held back for an extra six weeks of work.

It was just your normal Monday luncheon at The Times. Lots of coats and ties. People who make the news, invited to break bread with people who report the news. Then Floyd Mayweather Sr. said something about being the smartest boxing trainer and Freddie Roach reminded him that he was in the Hall of Fame, not Floyd Sr. From calm came chaos. Ah, boxing. The sweet science of the unrehearsed, the lovely art of the antisocial.