Program Miscalculation

The Golden Gloves finals program had Zugic winning over JJ. JJ was on Zugic from the first bell. He hurt him badly a few times, knocking him into the ropes at one point. From the middle of the second round on, Zugic looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else but in that ring.

I heard Jerome's (JJ's conditioning coach) nephew yelling out instructions from the top balcony at St. Andrew's Gym last night. "Don't wait on him! Get his ass! He's hurt!" I could hear him yelling over everyone else in the place. Alan, Matthew, a friend of Matthew's, Jeannette, a friend of Alan's, and myself were sitting on the lower bleachers. JJ kept pressuring Zugic until there was no choice but to award JJ his third championship belt. JJ later told me that he is going to the National Golden Gloves to be held later this year in Utah.

George wasn't looking very pleased that Zugic lost. I didn't realize that Zugic was one of George's boys until I saw him in Zugic's corner last night. George left the apron before the decision was announced. JJ's belt was given to him by professional boxer Andrew Golota, one of many VIPs who were in the building yesterday.

A sales manager for the Chicago Cubs gave out another of the belts. The audience booed the guy at first. Then the announcer said, "Wait a minute, folks! We're on the north side! This guy works for the Cubs!" Then the cheers came. But I could still hear some boos. We were on the north side, but everybody in the building does not live on the north side.

Tiffany, the little boxer who made such a good showing the other week, easily picked up a championship belt.

There was another female bout, between two heavyweights. It was the last bout of the evening. The bigger of the two women kept holding the head of the smaller woman. It looked like one of those old playground fights where the bully is holding off the smaller kid. The bigger female boxer was booed at the end, but she won the championship.

International Fighting

Yesterday, G hooked us up with some tickets to see the fights at the World Boxing Championships. JJ invited along two friend of his, and Steve brought Eli. Several countries were represented including the USA, a guy named Demetrius who won over a guy from Latavia.

Two rings were set up in the UIC Pavillion, and the judges watched the action on laptop computers set up in front of them. Counters showing the points each boxer scored were in front of each ring. The fights were also broadcast on a huge screen, along with trivia about the World Boxing Championships. I found out that this is only the third time the event has taken place in this country.

I heard that professional boxer Andrew Golota was somewhere in the building. I saw referee/official Shifty running gloves back and forth, as well as Rita, another professional boxer, doing the same thing.

The fights themselves were a little slow. Olympic-style boxing is a bit different from regular amateur boxing and professional bouts. There are many rules, and I noticed the referees giving hand signals to the boxers to indicate which ones they had broken.

There was a fighter from Mongolia competing, and when he was in the ring, it seemed that the entire Chicago Mongolian community was there cheering him on. The Irish boxer who fought and won had a good sized cheering section, as well.