Posts tagged Amateur
The most impressive male prospect of the night was probably Marcus Browne, 20, who has already qualified for the 2012 Olympic trials. He won the 178-lb. open division by out-boxing the courageous DeVaun Lee, 23, of Queens.
DMV Amateurs Roll At National Golden Gloves
by Gautham Nagesh
Washington-area prospects swept through the first two rounds of the National Golden Gloves tournament this week in Mesquite, Nevada. Local stars David Grayton (above, center), D’Mitrius Ballard, Jerry Odom, and Danny Kelly all scored stoppages in the second round on Wednesday to roll into the quarterfinals.
According to the official results, all the local fighters advanced through the opening round except Albi Sadikas of LA Boxing in the 201-lb division, who lost to Jonathan Thrasher of Knoxville by decision. The big surprise of round two came at 132 lbs, where Kendo Castaneda of Texas upset Gary Antonio Russell on points. Russell is the younger brother of featherweight contender Gary Russell Jr. and considered one of the area’s top prospects.
Last week I was invited by José Reyna of the MLK Boxing Program in Grand Rapids to create a special portrait of three Michigan State Champion boxers from the gym.
This is Kingdamon Antoine…he’s leaving soon for Las Vegas to fight in the national championships. No doubt Kingdamon will do Grand Rapids and MLK proud.
A portrait of Michigan State Champion boxer Vincent Jennings from the MLK Boxing Gym in Grand Rapids. Vincent is headed to Las Vegas soon to compete in the National Championships.
I shot this last week after I was invited by José Reyna of the MLK Boxing Program to create a special portrait of each of their three State Champion boxers from the gym. I have so much respect for these fighters and the MLK program.
2010 National Golden Gloves champ David “Day Day” Grayton of Headbangers Gym sports a Stiff Jab T-shirt while warming up before the 2012 Washington Regional Golden Gloves Finals on Friday night. Grayton won the 152-lb championship for the third straight year; full report coming soon.
Big Weekend For DMV Amateur Boxers
by Gautham Nagesh
The Sweet Science has experienced a resurgence in the DMV region recently, starting with Lamont Peterson’s huge upset of Amir Khan in December and continuing with standing-room crowds at the Washington Golden Gloves and Dusty Harrison’s recent outing at the Convention Center. This weekend is shaping up to be another big one for local fight fans, with two amateur cards showcasing some of the area’s brightest prospects.
Quanitta Underwood and her sister suffered years of sexual abuse from their father. She’s now an Olympic contender in boxing, and a public voice for other survivors:
Underwood, of course, covets a gold medal and the fame that would come with it. “I want to take that ride,” she says. “I want to be a household name.”
But beyond that, she wants to be a symbol of hope to anyone who has ever been sexually abused, though to do so requires something harder for her than a thousand hours of hitting the heavy bag. She has to talk about what happened.
“Quanitta Underwood: A Contender for Olympic Gold and a Survivor.” — Barry Bearak, New York Times
wnyc:
Sixteen-year-old boxer Claressa Shields before winning her first fight at the U.S. Women’s Olympic Team Trials outside Spokane on Monday. She fought Franchon Crews the #1 ranked middleweight female boxer in the country. Listen to her story.
Four Indian Boxers Make 2012 Olympics
The world’s largest democracy will be well-represented in the pugilistic arts at the 2012 London Olympics. Four Indian boxers reached the quarterfinals of the AIBA World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, assuring them of places in next year’s games: junior welterweight Manoj Kumar (right), lightweight Jai Bhagwan, welterweight Vikas Krishnan and light flyweight Devendro Singh.
Attention NYC-area fight fans: if you’re interested in seeing some of New York’s finest take on the best Brooklyn has to offer make your way to St. Ann’s Warehouse on Thursday night October 15 (show has been postponed due to 9/11 remembrance) for an amateur fight card featuring an NYPD boxing team against the finest fighters from Gleason’s Gym.
Show is sanctioned by USABoxing Metro and tickets are $25 per person. Venue is at 38 Water St. near the Brooklyn Bridge. If you make it send us a pic and we’ll post it on the site.
Liveblog: Olympic Boxing Trials
Trials for the 2012 U.S. Olympic boxing team got underway on Sunday in Mobile, Ala. and fortunately the useful DC Amateur Boxing blog is down there providing live coverage of all the action.
Opening bouts were released earlier today and feature several East Coast prospects who should be familiar to Stiff Jab readers that followed our coverage of this year’s New York and Washington-area regional Golden Gloves championships.
Our first impression is that Gary Allan Russell III, Michael Reed, Erick DeLeon and Marcus Browne are the names to watch but there are plenty of familiar fighters capable of making noise. We’ll update this post as the results come in:
Portraits of young Danish boxers before and after the fight.
These are great, we highly encourage you to check out the whole gallery.
Local amateur Lawrence Singh is the youngest member of Trinidad & Tobago’s Olympic boxing team and a standout student set to graduate from high school one year early so he can focus on his training. Definitely a prospect worth following.
American University J-School student Dan Merica brings us this look at Singh, his dad Loknauth and the great work they’re doing at Headbanger’s Gym in Southwest D.C. We’re hoping to be at the Golden Gloves in Waldorf, Md. next weekend to see Singh in action for ourselves.
