Manager Dunkin, who worked with Tapia and Romero, has died

Boxing manager and agent Cameron Dunkin, a former Albuquerque resident who in the 1990s guided the careers of Albuquerqueans Danny Romero and Johnny Tapia during his long and successful career in the sport, died on Tuesday. He was 67.

His passing was reported online by ESPN and a number of boxing websites. Cancer was cited as a cause of death.

Dunkin, Romero said on Thursday in a phone interview, made an incalculable contribution to a ring career that produced world titles in two different weight classes.

“He’s the one that made me a champion and started the whole thing for me,“ Romero said. “Cameron was essential in my life and my career.”

Dunkin came to Albuquerque from Phoenix in 1991 for the singular purpose of signing Romero, whom he correctly believed would become a world champion, to a contract. Successful in that effort, Dunkin moved to Albuquerque the following year and lived here for several years.

But by the time Romero won his first world title in 1995, Dunkin had fallen out with Romero’s father and and trainer, Danny Sr., and had begun working with Tapia, then Romero’s arch rival.

By 1997, when Tapia defeated Romero by unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nevada to unite the WBO and IBF super flyweight titles, Dunkin had no business relationship with either Tapia or Romero.

But he told the Journal at the time that his already highly successful career had its foundation in his 1992 signing of Romero.

“I’ve got to say that, without Danny Romero, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he said in the days leading up to Tapia-Romero.

Romero, without prompting, on Thursday said the same about Dunkin. He won the first of his two titles in 1995 at age 20, less than three years into his pro career — largely, he said, thanks to Dunkin.

Dunkin eventually moved to Las Vegas and worked with many world champions, including Terence Crawford, Timothy Bradley, Kelly Pavlik, Nonito Donaire, Diego Corrales, Mikey Garcia, Jessie Vargas and Boots Ennis.

While Dunkin had mixed feelings about New Mexico — “There must be something in the water,” he once said — the connections he’d made led to his working with more boxers from the state: Albuquerqueans Sean McClain, Ray Sanchez III, Alex Holguin, Fidel Maldonado Jr., Matthew Griego-Ortega, Rio Rancho’s Brian Mendoza and Kirtland’s Elija Martinez.

Dunkin, his differences with the Romeros repaired, began working with them again in the late 1990s. After Romero Jr. retired from the ring, Dunkin helped him secure fights for boxers he and his father were training and/or managing.

Dunkin long held a particular fondness for Tapia, who died in 2012. After learning of Tapia’s death, he said, “I cried. … I was devastated.”