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When Tom Yankello was born, the Aliquippa native was destined to pursue a career in the sport of boxing.
Now in the 34th year of training world champions, Yankello will be inducted into the 2025 PA Sports Hall of Fame Western Chapter as the “Inductee of Distinction" Saturday.
“It's a great honor. Some of the individuals that are being inducted are some of the greatest participants in the history of their respective sports," Yankello said. "It is a great honor to be involved with the event. I am very grateful and appreciative for the recognition for contribution to boxing.”
Yankello will also join his former trainer Carmie Price who was inducted into the chapter in 2005.
While Yankello’s hall of fame training career did not begin until 1991, growing up, he was immediately introduced to the sport by his grandfather, Charles Vallecorsa, an amateur boxer and his uncle, Mike Yankello, a Naval boxing champion.
More: Accessing local journalism is even easier with the Beaver County Times app
His uncle also owned a TV and video store that Yankello would frequent. Due to already knowing about the sport, he watched fight videos and the Rocky Movies which fueled his infatuation with the sport.
Once he was a teenager, Yankello was set on working his way up the amateur ranks to become a professional boxer. But after his in-ring career was halted by four shoulder surgeries, he would make one more attempt to fight again before making a decision that would change the course of his career.
“There was a four-year period where I didn't know what I wanted to do," he said. "After boxing in a few amateur fights, my shoulder just was not the same, so I started to attend the gym formerly known as the Beaver County Boxing Club which was owned by Mark Pazzanita and I started working out of there. After that, I worked out of a gym in Aliquippa in 1993-95 until Mark was leaving Beaver County Boxing Club to move onto different things.
"He told me that if I needed a bigger space, it was mine so that was when I opened my current gym where I have been at for the past 30 years.”
Tom Yankello’s World Class Boxing Gym trains some of the best top-ranked fighters the past three decades from boxers right in the backyard of Beaver County like Kiante Irving a Golden Gloves Champion in 2018 to fighters across the globe.
Throughout his career, Yankello has had the opportunity to take on several startup projects with boxers one of them most notably is 2022 Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Verquan Kimbrough.
The trainer started by shaping Kimbrough from an 11-year-old, 59-pound boy from Aliquippa into one of the most dominant amateur boxers in western Pennsylvania.
“It is rewarding to work with a boxer from the beginning. Not everyone can say that they have built a boxer from the ground up, so it was special to see him from the beginning of his career and then to watch him win all those national championships,” Yankello said.
"Verquan was the junior Olympic Champion in 1999, the under 19 featherweight champion in 2000, US Challenge Championship in 2001 and then in 2002, won both the US Championship and challenge championship making him the No.1 ranked amateur boxer in the country in a division for men 18-40 those two years.”
Required Reading: He spent more than 30 years as an official. Now, this Hopewell native has reached the Hall of Fame
Building boxers from the ground up was rewarding, but when it came to working with Paul Spadafora, he had the biggest impact on Yankello’s training career.
Spadafora became the first major world champion from Pittsburgh since Billy Conn in 1941 and held the International Boxing Federation championship from 1999-03. As he ended a drought for Pittsburgh native boxers, he also showed how important technique and fundamentals are in the development of a fighter.
“Paul Spadafora was like the Tom Brady of boxing. Don't get me wrong, he was a great athlete but some guys that had better arms, they were faster and stronger," Yankello said. "However, Paul stands out as one of the most cerebral boxers I ever trained. He was the epitome of technique and showed how that could beat speed. When you get to the elite level, the boxers are so talented and he was too, but he was more dominant skill-wise.
"I believe that I can train any style, but he taught me how important it was to be technically great and how important working on the fundamentals were for development.”
Along with the local area fighters, Yankello also had the opportunity to train Roy Jones Jr. from 2011-12 and then again in 2020 when Jones faced Mike Tyson in an exhibition fight during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As his fighters continued to win titles, Yankello’s notoriety has gotten to a point where he has received more opportunities to train boxers then he ever has before, which gives him the fuel to continue the pursuit of building the next champion fighter.
“Right now, I am training Ivan Dychko (14-0, 13 KO) from Kazakhstan who fought Anthony Joshua in the Olympics,” Yankello said. “I am also going to start training Atif Obterlton who was an Olympic Alternate in 2020 and holds a record of 12-0. I am getting more opportunities now then I have before, and I know that I am far from done developing champions.”
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Boxing trainer Tom Yankello to be inducted into PA Sports Hall of Fame
Continue reading...
Now in the 34th year of training world champions, Yankello will be inducted into the 2025 PA Sports Hall of Fame Western Chapter as the “Inductee of Distinction" Saturday.
“It's a great honor. Some of the individuals that are being inducted are some of the greatest participants in the history of their respective sports," Yankello said. "It is a great honor to be involved with the event. I am very grateful and appreciative for the recognition for contribution to boxing.”
Yankello will also join his former trainer Carmie Price who was inducted into the chapter in 2005.
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While Yankello’s hall of fame training career did not begin until 1991, growing up, he was immediately introduced to the sport by his grandfather, Charles Vallecorsa, an amateur boxer and his uncle, Mike Yankello, a Naval boxing champion.
More: Accessing local journalism is even easier with the Beaver County Times app
His uncle also owned a TV and video store that Yankello would frequent. Due to already knowing about the sport, he watched fight videos and the Rocky Movies which fueled his infatuation with the sport.
Once he was a teenager, Yankello was set on working his way up the amateur ranks to become a professional boxer. But after his in-ring career was halted by four shoulder surgeries, he would make one more attempt to fight again before making a decision that would change the course of his career.
“There was a four-year period where I didn't know what I wanted to do," he said. "After boxing in a few amateur fights, my shoulder just was not the same, so I started to attend the gym formerly known as the Beaver County Boxing Club which was owned by Mark Pazzanita and I started working out of there. After that, I worked out of a gym in Aliquippa in 1993-95 until Mark was leaving Beaver County Boxing Club to move onto different things.
"He told me that if I needed a bigger space, it was mine so that was when I opened my current gym where I have been at for the past 30 years.”
Tom Yankello’s World Class Boxing Gym trains some of the best top-ranked fighters the past three decades from boxers right in the backyard of Beaver County like Kiante Irving a Golden Gloves Champion in 2018 to fighters across the globe.
Throughout his career, Yankello has had the opportunity to take on several startup projects with boxers one of them most notably is 2022 Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Verquan Kimbrough.
You must be registered for see images attach
The trainer started by shaping Kimbrough from an 11-year-old, 59-pound boy from Aliquippa into one of the most dominant amateur boxers in western Pennsylvania.
“It is rewarding to work with a boxer from the beginning. Not everyone can say that they have built a boxer from the ground up, so it was special to see him from the beginning of his career and then to watch him win all those national championships,” Yankello said.
"Verquan was the junior Olympic Champion in 1999, the under 19 featherweight champion in 2000, US Challenge Championship in 2001 and then in 2002, won both the US Championship and challenge championship making him the No.1 ranked amateur boxer in the country in a division for men 18-40 those two years.”
Required Reading: He spent more than 30 years as an official. Now, this Hopewell native has reached the Hall of Fame
Building boxers from the ground up was rewarding, but when it came to working with Paul Spadafora, he had the biggest impact on Yankello’s training career.
Spadafora became the first major world champion from Pittsburgh since Billy Conn in 1941 and held the International Boxing Federation championship from 1999-03. As he ended a drought for Pittsburgh native boxers, he also showed how important technique and fundamentals are in the development of a fighter.
“Paul Spadafora was like the Tom Brady of boxing. Don't get me wrong, he was a great athlete but some guys that had better arms, they were faster and stronger," Yankello said. "However, Paul stands out as one of the most cerebral boxers I ever trained. He was the epitome of technique and showed how that could beat speed. When you get to the elite level, the boxers are so talented and he was too, but he was more dominant skill-wise.
"I believe that I can train any style, but he taught me how important it was to be technically great and how important working on the fundamentals were for development.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Along with the local area fighters, Yankello also had the opportunity to train Roy Jones Jr. from 2011-12 and then again in 2020 when Jones faced Mike Tyson in an exhibition fight during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As his fighters continued to win titles, Yankello’s notoriety has gotten to a point where he has received more opportunities to train boxers then he ever has before, which gives him the fuel to continue the pursuit of building the next champion fighter.
“Right now, I am training Ivan Dychko (14-0, 13 KO) from Kazakhstan who fought Anthony Joshua in the Olympics,” Yankello said. “I am also going to start training Atif Obterlton who was an Olympic Alternate in 2020 and holds a record of 12-0. I am getting more opportunities now then I have before, and I know that I am far from done developing champions.”
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Boxing trainer Tom Yankello to be inducted into PA Sports Hall of Fame
Continue reading...
