By Danny Serratelli (December 2, 2004)

I first met brothers Joe and Arturo Gatti back in 1992, while training at Lou Costello’s gym in Patterson New Jersey. It was a small gym, pretty old and dirty looking, but not the worst place I’ve seen, plus the price was right. What I know now that I didn’t really know then was that the small gym was packed with championship caliber talent. By late 1993 I would be involved in a car accident that would almost cost me my left eye, and by the time I was healed, the gym was no longer in the same location (I think the roof caved in). However, I have a lot of memories from my time in that gym that I will never forget.

The head trainer at Costello’s at that time was Diego Rosario. He trained a lot of the guys in the gym and later trained former heavyweight titleholder Bruce Seldon. Oscar Suarez was a young trainer at the time helping out as well. We all know he went on to train former champ Prince Naseem Hamed, and currently trains former world champion Acelino Freitas. There were several others who helped out in the small gym including Frankie Toledo Sr. His boys were already good fighters when I joined Costello