Terre Haute Weekend

Here's the rundown from this weekend's fights from Terre Haute as told by Coach Jimmy:

Saturday

Kreed Gentz and Jonah Wilson both dominated in their performances. Both won decisions. Jon Stepp lost a decision to a tough kid. Jon just never really got into the fight. Patrick Garcia was winning his fight when the doctor stopped it in the third round for too much blood from the nose. The ref after the fight told me that the doc shouldn’t have stopped it and that the doc. hasn’t done a boxing match before and didn’t know what he was doing. After the first round, Patrick told me that he felt horrible. After the second round, a round that he spanked the kid in, he said that he felt awesome! The kid is a fighter! At the end of day one, our record for the Jr. Olympic Tourney was 2-2.

Sunday

Doug Stamper left no question as to who won his fight. He landed explosive shots that at one point almost knocked his opponent through the ropes! Decision victory for Doug! Kreed was up next. Kreed came out more hungry than the day before! He was relentless in his attack. When asked if he was ready to fight, his response was a growl!! I knew he was ready to fight! He picked up two wins in two days! Next up was Matt Mezzacapo. Matt lost a tough battle that had everyone in the crowd wondering who the winner would be. It was three non-stop, action packed rounds for our viewing pleasure! This was Matt’s first fight, and after getting settled after the first round, he was nailing the kid with shot after shot! The kid he fought had already had previous fights. Matt lost a close decision. Anthony Perry couldn’t wait to get in there. He seemed to fade fast and was out of gas, down on the score cards, and bleeding heavily from the nose going into the third round. Anthony somewhere pulled in a second win out of nowhere! He won the last round on the scorecards 17-2. He had the crowd on their feet and yelling. Mezzacapo had the fight of the day until Anthony stole it away. The crowd went crazy while Anthony was calling his opponent in, then bouncing off the ropes and hitting him with straight right hands, left hooks, and uppercuts! Anthony Perry was the winner after 3 tough rounds! Final fight of the trip was the Biscuit, Steve Beseke. Biscuit lost the first round and was not responding in the corner, I thought I would give him a little of the second before I stopped it. Some how, Biscuit pulled some energy out. He turned it up and won the second round with his jab. Third round was more of the same. Biscuit the victor in a decision!

Great trip, Great time! Coach Ern and I became officials at a coaching clinic! We can’t wait to travel again! Wished you could have been there Mengel!

Terre Haute on Saturday

Coach Jimmy is taking eight of our younger fighters to Terre Haute for the Junior Olympics this weekend. The guys have been training and are raring to go. Hopefully we'll have a few champions out of this group to go along with our Golden Glove winners. They all had a tune-up session with our fundraiser, so they should be pretty sharp. Unfortunately, I have another commitment so I won't be able to make the show. I'll be reporting in the first part of the week to let you know how everyone did.

Wish them luck!

Ernie and Mike

Mike getting his instructions from the referee





















The two big guys going at it



















"If my boy says he can eat 50 eggs ....."
















How'd you like to fight the big guy in there?










Mike - the big guy on the left

Ernie - the bigger guy on the right







Here's the last fight from this years Golden Gloves featuring our two assistant coaches, Ernie and Mike. Photos by Surly.

Robert

Here are a few photos from Robert's fight: Getting his hands wrapped by Coach Mengel, walking to the neutral corner, checking out Miss Budweiser, and posing with his proud father.
As always, photos by Surly.

Anthony

I'm going to throw up some photos of the Golden Gloves finals the next couple of posts. All of the photos were taken by Surly - a big thanks goes out to him. He also shot our fundraiser last night. I'll post some of those when they become available, as well.

Here are a before, during and after shot of Anthony. As you can tell from the during shot, Hud didn't pitch a shut-out by any means.

Thursday Recap

Anthony fought the first fight of the night last Thursday against Hud Mellencamp. Naturally enough, there was a lot of interest in the outcome of this one. Hud looked like he has grown about six inches taller since last year and Anthony had a lot of trouble with his opponents longer reach. Anthony ducked under a lot of Hud's hooks but never got his offense going like he needed to in order to win. He got thumped with a few good shots (take a look a Surly's blog to see what I mean) but he managed to bloody the taller opponents nose. Anthony needs to sharpen up his offense in the future and work on his conditioning a little more but he never quit on us. That's the sign of a true fighter, right there.

Robert fought a tough fighter who after he got a taste of Robert's power, decided that clinching was the best approach. Robert wanted to fight him inside and developed a game plan from watching tape from his opponents previous fight. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to carry out his game plan when his opponent decided not to play along. Imagine that! As a consequence, Robert was smothering his punches too much instead of working on catching the guy coming in. Robert is just too intense sometimes. He needs to get a few more fights under his belt, facing a variety of fighting styles and he'll be an absolute monster in the ring. He trains almost too hard, listens to his coaches and punches hard with good speed. That's a recipe for success, if ever there was one. He's 5-0 now with two state titles.

The last fight before the intermission was the Battle of the Titans. Coaches Ernie and Mike squared off against each other in the Super-heavyweight division. Ernie took control of the fight right from the start using his jab and size advantage to keep Mike at bay. Mike managed to work inside a few times and scored some nice hooks but was no match for the Tattooed Wonder. Ernie showed a lot of movement and style, fighting out of a crouch to keep Mike on the outside. It wasn't Mike's best work but it's hard for two guys who are good friends to knock each other around. It was an entertaining fight, though.

I'll post some photos when they become available.

All in all, it was another good year for us and Jimmy and I are both extremely proud of all of our fighters. Regardless of their experience level, they all fought to the best of their ability and represented themselves and the club extremely well. All of these young men and their families have to sacrifice a lot to put the time in to train and compete. It's certainly not the easiest thing to do and there are lots of other things they could be doing with their time. For a young club we have a nucleus of talented fighters and it's a pleasure working with all of you.

Have to sign off now, it's fight night once again. Fun for the whole family!

Batting .500

My wish came true, we're still batting .500. Robert and Coach Ernie were both winners earlier tonight. Robert won a 3-2 decision and Ernie pitched a shutout against Coach Mike. Anthony lost by decision in the first bout of the night. Full write up to follow soon. I need to hit the sack.

Fundraiser on Saturday.

Golden Gloves

Getting ready to head to Indy for the last night of the 2010 Golden Gloves tourney. We've got four fighter in three fights. Coaches Ernie and Mike will be fighting each other, plus Anthony and Robert will be in the championship round. They should all be good fights. We need at least one of the two guys besides our coaches to win for the club to be at .500. Last year we entered 12 guys and had six state titles. This year we entered 12 fighters again but had two no shows, leaving us with ten actual fighters. If either Robert or Anthony win, plus we have a sure winner with our coaches, we'll be at .500 again. Not too shabby for a young club.

I'll fill you in tomorrow as soon as I get a chance.

Saturday Night Fights

The fundraiser show to send our fighters to Terre Haute for the Junior Olympics will be this Saturday, April 17th. Doors open at 6:00 - fights start at 7:00. We should have a pretty good fight card. We have seven or eight fighters going to the Junior Olympics, so this will be a tune up for them and we will have a few that only compete during our in-house shows. We have a couple of ladies on the card. It's tough finding fights for them, so they like to show their stuff when they get the chance. Tickets are only $8.00 - cheaper than going to the movies and the action is all real. We also have some great door prizes and raffle prizes. Thursday is also the last night of the Golden Gloves in Indy. Hopefully we'll have a couple more title holders on Saturday's card, as well.

We're easy to find. 1/2 mile west of the John Deere dealer on Route 10, about 3 miles south of DeMotte, Indiana. Or, 3 miles east of I-65. Either way, we're on the north side of the highway. Look for the white posts on each side of the drive and the DeMotte Boxing Club sign.

See you Saturday!

Roberto & Carlos

As promised, here's the recap on our other two fights:







photos provided by Surly Camera

"Carbs" jabbing a much taller opponent


We've been after Carlos to lose a few pounds and when we got the fight program Thursday night they had his name misspelled as Carbs rather than Carlos, so I'm thinking that's going to be a nickname that will stick.

Carlos was without a doubt, the slickest looking fighter of the night. He threw some classic uppercuts, hooks and right hand body shots from all angles. His opponent was a much taller fighter but Carlos worked his way in repeatedly, slowing the other fighter down with body shots. He just missed with a couple of uppercuts that, if they had landed, would have probably ended the fight. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough gas in the tank to keep fighting at his opponent's pace for three rounds. As you can see from the photo, that boy's in shape. Carlos is young and has a lot of potential. He has a natural form and punch delivery that only the best ever have. I'd like to see him fight at 178 rather than 201. With some good cardio work and at the lighter weight, he'd be pretty much unstoppable.















Roberto squaring off against his opponent.


Roberto got off to a slow start and Jimmy and I both had him losing the first round. Roberto settled in and became more aggressive in the second round causing his opponent to start holding on. The referee warned him and finally took a point away from him, in fact. Roberto at one point had his man in trouble so while the ref was giving him the eight count Roberto was in the neutral corner getting his instructions from a couple of fans rather than looking over to his corner - we'll have to work on that. Roberto dominated the third round by keeping the pressure on and throwing lots of nice straight jabs and right hands. He won a 3-2 decision and took the 178 lb Sub -Novice title.

When Jimmy and I started the gym, one of the things we both agreed upon was that when we show up, the fighters from other clubs are going to know they're in for a fight. Both Carlos and Roberto showed that to be true again this past Thursday night. When you compete as an amateur, you're fighting for pride and a trophy. Most important is pride. Both boxers, like the others this year, represented the Club, their families and themselves with pride.

Job well done "Carbs" and Roberto!

"Down Goes Frazier"

"Down goes Frazier!" a couple of the more vocal fans were hollering after Bazooka Joe left the ring Thursday night after his crushing defeat of Donald Harris from the Evansville PAL club. The photo shows what happens when you take a direct hit from a bazooka. Joe caught his opponent flush with a monster left hook and down he went. He was able to get back on his feet and after receiving an eight count, Joe blasted him again and sent his mouthpiece flying. Joe could see he was out on his feet, just tapped him a couple of more and the ref stepped in and called the fight at about the same time the other corner threw the towel in.

Joe has been working real hard to not only get himself in fighting shape but to also improve his boxing skills. He has a couple of flaws we've been working on correcting and while his performance Thursday wasn't perfect from a technical aspect, you certainly can't argue with the results. After a much deserved rest, we'll get him back in the gym and polish up a few things. Joe has what it takes to become the Open Division champ and he's a pleasure to coach. Great job, Joe!

I'll get the rest of Thursday's results posted as the photos become available.

The fundraiser to take our fighters to the Junior Olympics will be April 17th with them traveling to Terre Haute the following weekend. Tickets are on sale now.

Next week is the final night for the 2010 Indiana Golden Gloves and we've got four fighters entered.

Two More

Just a quick update - took three fighters down, two champions! Bazooka Joe & Roberto.

We got some good photos - will post as soon as I can catch up with Surly.

Congratulations to Joe & Roberto!

The New Champ

Here's our latest champion, "The Biscuit", posing with his new windbreaker and trophy. Thursday night we hope to add a few more to the club's list of champions. It looks like we're going to have only three fights instead of the originally scheduled four. Our one fighter has been laid off of work and since they called him back he hasn't been able to make it to the gym. I can certainly respect that. Good jobs are hard to find and you certainly don't want to risk losing one if you're lucky enough to have one in this day and age. It is too bad though. Tough young man who stood a good chance of winning.

Thursday night we should have a real good photographer taking photos for us. I managed to get a press pass for Surly to shoot our fights. It will be nice to have some decent pictures of the fighters, especially since they will be competing in championship matches. Hopefully we will have good results to go along with the pictures. I'll be posting some shots as soon as possible after the fights.

We will be hosting another in-house show April 17th. This will be a fundraiser to help send some fighters to Terre Haute on the 24th. More details to follow.

Congratulations once again to Steve.

Champion

We got our first champion of the year last night at the Indy Golden Gloves. Steve "The Biscuit" won his match to become the heavyweight (189+) champ. It wasn't a pretty fight by any means with both fighters looking very much like the rookies that they are. The Biscuit won a 5-0 decision that was a little unpopular with the crowd and surprised even him a little. He received a really nice trophy and an Indiana Golden Gloves windbreaker and, of course, I forgot to bring my camera along. I'll try to get a photo of the young man with his trophy next week at the gym.

The Biscuit, like most fighters, found out last night that you have to be in more than just good shape. You have to be in fighting shape. Not the same thing at all. This is something we as coaches here are going to have to look into more closely in the future. We need a way to insure that all of our fighters are doing their roadwork and their calisthenics on their off days from the gym. It's hard to monitor the training of those preparing for a fight when the gym is full every night. Before opening up the gym, when I trained fighters I entered them in a 5K run that was held right before Christmas. Their time was a good indicator of their fitness level and I would run with them occasionally as their fight approached to see if they were improving. We need to do something of a similar nature. Perhaps get them into one of the schools and run some laps/sprints with the stopwatch on them. It's just real hard to impress upon these young guys the effort that needs to be going into their training. The minimum needs to be three hard workouts when the gym is open and two other days per week doing roadwork and calisthenics.

We have four fighters scheduled for next week, all of them championship fights. Bazooka Joe will be fighting again, plus a couple of our younger fighters. It should be a good night for us. They all have looked good here in the gym.

Congratulations Steve on your win last night.