A Cool Night For Boxing

Finally, after two years of being rained out, there was another boxing show at LaFollette Park.  The skies were overcast in the morning, but as the afternoon went on, the sun broke through and the threat of rain went away.  Only five other parks were involved in the show: Franklin Park, Portage Park, Garfield Park, Hamlin Park, and Loyola Park.  Barry, the youth coach at Loyola Park, told me it was his first time at LaFollette.  "This is a nice big gym over here!" he smiled.  "This place is at least twice the size of Loyola's gym," Alan, who runs the adult class at Loyola, said. 

There was no fight available for Jaylen, the only kid from LaFollette who was available to participate in the show.  There were other eleven-year-olds on the premises, but Jaylen was bigger than the other kids. 

Before the show, Sahia was telling the Portage Park coach that she wanted to get back into boxing.  The challenge was going to be finding people her age to have fights with.  I understood that completely as it was always hard for me to get fights while I was competing for the same reason. 

Only eight fights took place.  The first fight was an exhibition match.  I helped judge the fights.  I had a hoodie on, and I shivered a little as the cool breeze was not summer-like at all. 

Gabe and his brother Sebastian, who I hadn't seen in a long time were there.  Gabe did get a fight against a guy from Hamlin.  Gabe lost, unfortunately.  The guy he fought kept jamming Gabe up against the ropes. 

All in all, it was a good day for fighting.  I told Jaylen that the next show we'll go to is the one at Garfield Park.  Hopefully, there will be an even bigger crowd of fighters who will show up there so Jaylen may have a better chance of getting a fight.