Weekend Wars

Friday night, Myra Ramirez faced Brittany Brown in an 108 pound female novice bout.  I was surprised at how tiny Ramirez was.  She had to look up to Brown.  However, that little woman threw some hard punches.  Brown kept making the mistake of being pushed against the ropes and in the corners.  Ramirez fired on her with a flurry of hooks to the head that left Brown dizzy.  Brown kept walking into punches, and not using her jab to work her way in.  Ramirez was a burst of energy that Brown couldn't stop.  The crowd gave Ramirez a standing ovation when she won.

As per tradition, the bell was rang ten times in honor of a fallen boxer.  The boxer honored was Francisco Rodriguez, who passed away from injuries sustained in the ring the past fall.  I have seen the bell rang for deceased boxers and others associated with the sport on TV many times.  It is something else to be there in person.  Fundraising efforts continue to go on for Rodriguez's family.

My buddy Paul faced a fellow teammate from Chicago Boxing where he trains.  His opponent was throwing punches all over the place.  Paul got cool on him and picked his spots to punch.  Paul won, and he was also awarded a trophy for being the best boxer at the Golden Gloves. 

Before Paul's fight, professional boxer Carl "Iron Fist" Davis presented a trophy to the winner of the previous bout.  Davis used to work at the agency where I was laid off from.  We didn't know each other well, but I remember having some brief conversations with him about boxing.

Tiffany Perez, the Olympic contender, did not disappoint in her match on Saturday night.  She moves and punches like a guy.  She's also a short, petite woman who packs a lot of power in her punches.  I shook her hand and congratulated her on her win afterwards.

Some guys sitting near me that night had some kind of betting scheme going on.  I overheard one guy explain it to the others, but I couldn't figure it out.  It is not uncommon for gambling to go on at the Gloves.  I was gambling myself, so to speak.  Spent twenty dollars on the 50/50 raffle.  Tina, one of the announcers, saw me with the tickets.  "You ready to win again?" she grinned.  I let my greed get the best of me, and I lost.  Oh well. . .it's back to buying scratch off Illinois Lottery tickets once in awhile.  The correct name of the professional boxer who helped me up to the ring when I won the raffle the other night is Angel "Toro" Rodriguez.  He's scheduled to fight Peter Manfredy Jr., of "Contender" fame.

Antonio, the MMA fighter, presented the trophy to the winner after the 2nd bout.  Johnny Lira, a former professional boxer who was once ranked number one in the world, also presented a trophy.  He happened to hear Jonny B. and I talking about the failed Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.  "Mayweather knows he could lose, that's why the fight didn't take place," Lira commented.  I recently read an article in The Ring magazine that basically said the same thing.

The best fight on Saturday night was a heavyweight match that was the last bout of the evening as well as of the tournament.  The two men were like Godzillas, throwing bombs and bashing each other.  I usually don't go for heavyweight bouts much because I think guys that big move too slow to make things exciting.  But that was an extremely good match.

Lucky Thursday Ticket

I went to the Golden Gloves last night to view the first set of final championship bouts.  Natalie, who has sparred at Loyola along with gym mate with Chloe, sang the National Anthem.  She's a trained opera singer, and she sounded fine. 

After changing my seat to distance myself from an annoying family group, I got down to paying attention to the matches.  Chloe fought, as did Ed Brown of Garfiled Park who beat our Ed Brown of Loyola Park during the preliminary bouts.  I was wondering how Brown pulled off his win.  He spent a whole lot of time waiting on his opponent, a guy named Johnson out of Chicago Boxing Club.  His fan club never stopped believin', however.  They yelled and screamed instructions to Brown the entire time.  Chloe went the distance in her fight, but ultimately lost on points.  She introduced me to her friends as her sparring buddy. 

Earlier in the day, I worked out for an hour and a half in the gym of Rogers Park Baptist Church.  The choir has a good boom box, and I kicked the volume up to ten to play my CDs.  Of course, I would have been scrambling to turn down the sound if Pastor Roger came in.  I'm sure the man would like to have worked upstairs in his office without hearing RUN DMC downstairs bellowing, "I'm the King of Rock/There is none higher/Sucker MCs should call me sire/I won't stop rockin' until I retire!"  It was a good workout.  I went upstairs to take a shower after I was done, and I had a strange thought:  "This is the first time I've been naked in church."  I remember reading the novel Fear of Flying by Erica Jong when I was in junior high or high school. . .I can't remember which.  If you are familiar with that novel, you know it's probably something that people under 18 years of age should not read.  There was a scene between the heroine and one of her boyfriends that had them alone in an empty synagogue. . . .you can probably guess what was up.  I've heard of folks engaging in similar activity in empty churches in real life.  Some people have no shame or fear of God apparently.

Throughout the boxing tournament, a 50/50 raffle has been running.  The objective is to raise money for youth boxing programs.  I played a couple of other times, but I wasn't successful until last night.  It was a little over $100, a nice piece of pocket money.  As I walked up the ring steps to claim my prize, a professional boxer named Angel was coming out from the ring.  He had just presented a trophy to the boxer who won the previous match.  I was a little unsteady, as I always seem to be on those type of steps, and he graciously helped me up.

Diego came over to shake my hand.  That's one kid that has great manners.  I guess he saw me sitting across the way.  He was there with his parents. 

I picked up the finals program, and Paul's fight was listed as a featured fight for tonight.  Tiffany, the 4"11 boxer who is going to try to get into the 2012 Summer Olympics, got a full page highlighting her accomplishments.  There are a couple of photos of Carlos in the program, as well.  One shows him watching as the boxer he fought against in the prelims is announced the winner.  The other shows him and Alan in the corner during one of the rest periods in that same fight.