Yamil Chade - Biography

Biography

Yamil Chade was born in Lebanon. He spent his teenage years in Cuba, but by his 20s he had moved to Puerto Rico, where some of his ancestors came from. By the late 1940s, Chade became interested in boxing; although he himself had no interest in getting into boxing as a participator, he gained a license to manage boxers while still a relatively young man.

One of the first boxers that Chade managed was Kid Gavilán. On May 17, 1951, Gavilán became Chade's first world boxing champion when he defeated Johnny Saxton by a decision in fifteen rounds to win the world Welterweight title. By then, Chade had become a fixture around boxing circles in the Eastern coast of the United States.

Two decades later, Chade met a young Puerto Rican prospect, Wilfredo Gómez. Chade signed Gómez when Gómez was still an amateur fighter. After Gómez won the professional, WBC world Jr. featherweight title in 1977, both him and Chade gained celebrity status in Puerto Rico and abroad. Chade attempted to make Gómez famous around the world, going with Gómez to Central America before Gómez won his first world title, and taking him to Japan and Thailand to defend it. But Gómez became an iconic figure in Puerto Rico and among Hispanics in the United States, so most of his fights were confined to those two countries.

Many people in Puerto Rico actually believed that Chade was Gómez's trainer as well, but Gómez was trained by Félix Pagan Pintor.

Chade's relationship with Gómez became sour after Gómez's fight with Lupe Pintor in 1982; Gómez went through a transitional period during 1983, becoming a Featherweight, and he only had two, non title bouts that year. This was due in fact that one of Gómez's lifelong dreams was to win the world Featherweight title (which he did in 1984 by beating Juan Laporte). Chade, meanwhile, signed a contract to try to revive Wilfred Benítez's career during that same year.

After Benitez lost to Davey Moore in Monaco, a retirement seemed imminent for the former three division world champion. After Chade and Benitez became contractually involved, however, Benitez returned with three wins, including two over world ranked boxers: Benitez knocked out former Donald Curry world title challenger Elio Diaz in two rounds at Venezuela, and he outpointed Kevin Moley, who was ranked among the top ten Jr. Middleweights at the time, in ten rounds at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Benitez lost his next two fights and was left stranded in Argentina after his passport was stolen, however, and Chade then concentrated on the career of Carlos De León, four times world Cruiserweight champion. During his tenure with DeLeon, there were talks about a "super-fight" involving DeLeon and the then undisputed world Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson (the term "super-fight" is used in boxing when two well known boxers are to fight each other; for example, Tyson's fight with Michael Spinks in 1988 was named the "super-fight 1988" by most United States boxing magazines).

During 1991, Chade and Félix Trinidad Sr. began a partnership in order to take Félix Trinidad Jr. to professional world championships. Once again, Chade employed the same tactics that he tried to use with Gómez on Trinidad Jr., by taking him to different countries to box so he could become well known around the world. Trinidad Jr. fought in France and Italy early in his career. Before Trinidad knocked out Pedro Torres in Mexico as part of the Julio César Chávez - Greg Haugen undercard, Chade suffered a heart attack, requiring hospitalization. Chade recuperated and was soon again one of the two men leading Trinidad Jr.'s career.

After Félix Trinidad Jr. became the IBF's world Welterweight champion in 1993, Chade continued on trying to make him well known across the world; Trinidad defended his title once in Monterrey, Mexico, in 1994. The relationship between Chade and the Trinidads became so bad that, in 1995, a court dissolved the contract tying Chade and the Trinidads.

Perhaps fed up with boxing, Chade turned to basketball, buying the BSN's Arecibo Captains in 2003. The Captains had not won a Puerto Rican national championship tournament since 1959, and when Chade and other team personnel promised the city of Arecibo, Puerto Rico that they would become champions again soon, they were met with many skeptics, both among Puerto Rican basketball fans and sports writers. But, after signing Larry Ayuso, Edgar Padilla, Mario Butler, Keenon Jourdan, former Chicago Bulls player Dickey Simpkins, and Sharif Fajardo, among others, the Captains became champions for the second time in their team's history, when they defeated the Bayamón Cowboys in four games at the 2005 BSN finals.

During march of that year, rumors surfaced that Chade, alongside Captains' vice-president Regilio Babilonia, was planning to buy a Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League team as well, but Chade and Babilonia soon after dropped their offer, with Chade saying that "With the Captains' win, we have enough".