Would you want to step into the ring with him? Hampton’s Jacob Moore moved his junior boxing record to 4-0 with a win at the Moton Community Center’s Boxing in the House event on Saturday. Photos by Jason Norman
9th Dimension coach Marvin McCoy’s instructions worked Saturday; Mikail Richardson (right) won in age 13-14 competition.
It's the epitome of a boxing atmosphere.
In the ring, the fighters toss punches, back each other into the ropes and fight their way out, blast opponents to the head, only to quickly find themselves right back on the defensive.
In the stands, the crowds cheer and shout advice (impromptu choruses of "Hit 'im again!" and "Move out! MOVE OUT!" break out at the most opportune of times).
And in a corner of Newport News' Moton Community Center's Boxing in the House event on Saturday evening, a DJ keeps time with the glove-to-glove action. His music beats go almost in tune with the punches. Songs like "Can't Touch This" and "Thriller" carry on the intensity of the event, and grab the spirit of the sport of boxing; it's as though it's almost been humanized, a spectator that no one can see, sitting nearby in the bleachers.
At nearly six feet and about 200 pounds, Shamadre Chambers probably isn't used to being the "little guy." But that's the case tonight - the Hampton High student's taking on Jacob Moore, who's got him by about six inches and probably about 100 pounds. It's a David vs. Goliath night, and Chambers is the underdog.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," quips Chambers, going for his first win in four fights. "I've watched boxing all my life, and I wanted to do it myself."
On the other side of the gym, Moore swaggers through a few jab drills with his coach and sparring partners, jiving in tune with the tunes nearby. It's obvious that self-confidence isn't a problem here.
"I'm about to be 4-0!" predicts Moore, 16, a Moton "hometown" hero. "I'm looking forward to the fight tonight, so I can work on my strengths. I work my weight to my advantage in my fights; I know how to shift it and work it."
Nearby, his teammate Edward Whitaker (proving that Sweetpea wasn't the only jab-thrower from Hampton Roads with that last name!), does some sparring of his own, and it's something to see - if only that were possible.
He appears to throw a jab. But as his hand moves forward, it seems to disappear. There's the loud noise of it hitting his trainer's gloves, and suddenly his hand's back at his side.
But no one sees it in the process.
"My speed is nasty out there," says the Menchville High graduate. "I've been running around since I was a boy. I skated for about 16 years."
He's going to need a bit more than speed to come out on top tonight; Taloa Meofaauo knows that people get hit and hurt in boxing - and he can't wait for his turn at it.
"I love pain!" vows Meofaauo, who, while 27, has been strapping on the gloves for less than a year. "I can take hits and give hits, and I move around."
The show's about to begin, and just as with the cinema, the first sight is a preview of coming attractions. In this case, it's a preview of potential future heavyweight headliners, as local Tyquan Harris takes on Mikail Richardson of Richmond's 9th Dimension in a 13-14 bout.
It is a war from the start. Back and forth, the two blast combinations into each other like they've been doing this stuff for decades. Harris is swinging at high speed, while Richardson's landing fewer punches that do much more damage.
It's as if no one's feeling anything. Richardson lands a hard looping left to the side of Harris' headgear, and Harris' knees appear to buckle. Nanoseconds later, he's right back in Richardson's face, pounding away at his midsection like a gauntlet on fast forward. At this age, rounds are only 90 seconds each, but it's the longest few minutes of either boy's life.
But all too soon - for the fans, not the fighters - the bell rings, and the two remember something that their older counterparts sometimes don't: the thing called sportsmanship. They high-five (or high-glove), and each goes to meet the opposing coaches. Each one bows to the ringside judges. Back in the center, there's another handshake, and the judges, who have the most unenvious of jobs in bouts like this, turn in their results.
By a definite razor-thin verdict, the decision goes to Richardson. Harris congratulates him again, and the two pose together for pictures.
"If I didn't win, I still would have wished (Harris) the best of luck," says Richardson afterward. "I got tired in the last 30 seconds of every round. I was thinking about trying to be the best and keeping my head up."
As the incredibly appropriate "Mama Said Knock You Out" blares from the music boxes, the bouts continue. Fighters on their way up to the level of Mayweather, de la Hoya, and Pacqiano take some early steps toward the journey, and already find obstacles in their way - all but one fight goes the three-round distance tonight.
Whitaker hits Moefaauo with enough punches to blast a hole through the Great Wall of China, and Moefaauo, true to his earlier word, smiles in Whitaker's face through every punch and even two standing-eight counts. Just as Whitaker's about to pull out the kitchen sink, the bell sounds to end. He's taken a convincing victory, but hardly an easy one.
As the night's heavyweight bout gets ready to rumble, an inadvertent - but hopefully accurate -- preview leaps from the speakers: "The Champ Is Here."
As Moore and Chambers stare each other down (actually, Chambers is staring far upward), it appears to be a mismatch. Moore might feel the same way, as he takes it to Chambers with jabs.
Suddenly, Chambers is backing him into the corner, and Moore wraps him up. The two head across the ring, up and down the ropes. Moore's hitting harder, but Chambers is hitting more, and no one's giving an inch. The ring action's starting to resemble an old Japanese movie, as Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra, and whoever else was mutated into a colossus by a nuclear blast go to war.
Moore opens the second round by knocking Chambers back into the corner, only to have Chambers turn the tables again. Moore fights his way out with jabs, and Chambers dances backward. Both fighters land a few more, and as the round ends, there's a look on Chambers' face that's silently saying, "You are NOT putting me down tonight!"
Early in the third round, Chambers has Moore back in the corner, but Moore lands a hard right. In the center, he sweeps by with another, and Chambers stumbles, landing in a pushup position and getting a standing eight-count.
But it's not over. Seconds later, Chambers chases Moore up the ropes, and knocks out Moore's mouthpiece, forcing a few seconds of timeout. Moore backs him up against the ropes, and Chambers lands a hard right to the head. Moore wraps him up again, and the final bell rings.
In a storybook, Hollywood ending, Chambers would probably win. But Moore's knockdown appears to make the main difference, and the decision goes his way.
Back in the seats, both fighters know they've been through a six-minute war.
"He got me pretty good," Moore admits, celebrating with his teammates. "I'm feeling good, just a little tired."
Chambers knows that his first win will arrive someday.
"It's tough in the ring," he says. "Tonight was just like any other fight. I have to step my game up. I'm going to keep fighting; it's all love, and I love what I do.
John Hunter (left), a former world champ in boxing, gives his grandson, and trainee, Andre Hunter some advice between rounds at the Virginia Challenge event Saturday at Hampton’s Boo Williams Sportsplex. Photos by Jason Norman
Kempsville graduate Rodney Giadalia celebrates his victory in the main event. Giadalia finished second in the state last year.
Many people get into boxing for the fitness aspect. Some are there for the competition, and of course for the fun.
Andre Hunter had all of those reasons in mind when he strapped on his first pair of gloves about a year ago. But for the Indian River High student and his family, boxing's a bit more than that: it's a tradition.
"It's about my family," said Hunter, getting ready for his bout at the Virginia Challenge event Saturday at Hampton's Boo Williams Sportsplex. "My granddad and both of my uncles are professionals, and I always wanted to box. Boxing's good fun; I like to get in there and brawl. I try to take something away from each fight."
Nearby, his newcoming opponent tried to keep his nerves under control.
"Boxing's my life," said Emmanuel Rodriquez, stepping into the ring for the first time. "I'm ready for tonight. Everything's with me, getting ready."
The world of amateur boxing can be a confusing spot for its new participants. Unlike the pros, or even the college boxers that get to scout out and study their opponents, amateurs often don't get to find out who they're fighting until the day of the fight, sometimes even the hour.
"I played football at high school, but I couldn't play in college because I'm too small," said Kempsville High grad Rodney Giadalia, now studying to become a chiropractor at Norfolk State University. "I like that you control yourself; it's not a team sport where you have to worry about other people; you just worry about yourself." For Giadalia, Saturday's event was one of the last steps back toward the upcoming state championships, where he took second last November.
The bell outside the ring made its sound, and then bells started ringing between the ropes. In the ring for the first time, Nic Swartling mixed it up with Mechanicsville's Jesse Riojas.
Or rather, Riojas mixed him up. With a death stare of intensity stoning his face, Riojas barraged his taller opponent with a machine-gun blast of body blows and a knock to the face, sending Swartling to a knee before the clock reached double-digits.
Swartling got up, shaking his hands in frustration. But with blue rays nearly blasting from his eyes, Riojas came right back, pummeling him to the canvas in less than two minutes for a fast afternoon.
"I try to give it all I got," said Riojas, who attends Thomas Dale High. "Whether he was big or not, he can fight, and I can fight. He trained, I trained, so I had to give it my best. He put his hands down, so that made me go after him. For every fight, I like to stay maintained. I train so much to do one job, and I stay maintained because there's a lot of people pulling for me. I can't let them down."
Soon, it was Hunter and Rodriquez's turn to spar for real. Stepping into his corner, Hunter leaned over to adjust his headguard, then stood up. Tapping him on the shoulder, his grandfather and trainer John, himself a former world champ in the realm of military boxing gave him a few words of encouragement.
Using his reach advantage, Rodriquez kept Hunter away for the first moments, but Hunter found a way through and threw a few hard shots to Rodriquez's stomach.
Rodriquez backed away, and Hunter charged. He landed a good tap, but Rodriquez stepped aside and Hunter fell toward the ropes.
Righting himself, he stalked Rodriquez to the center of the ring, but missed a shot and bent over, giving Rodriquez an open shot at a hard uppercut to the head. Rodriquez started to use his reach advantage more, keeping Hunter away with long jabs until the round ended to take the first go-round.
With a few more words from John, Hunter charges in, using his speed to keep Rodriquez off-balance. But Rodriquez suddenly caught him, and Hunter stepped back and went to one knee. The referee ruled that he had slipped - no knockdown or loss of points - but Rodriquez caught him again.
This just ticked Hunter off. Pursuing Rodriquez across the ring and down the ropes, he landed his best knocks of the fight. Rodriquez bent over, and Hunter suddenly catches him with a few to the head. The round was tough to call.
The third round was more of the same. Hunter blasted Rodriquez early on, and Rodriquez came back and gave him a good one. It was the kind of fight that made spectators glad they weren't in the judges' chair.
The last bell rang, and the two high-gloved (not fived!) and hugged. Then they made it to the center of the ring. The official raised both their hands for a congratulatory ovation from the crowd. Then the scores came in, and Rodriquez was declared the winner.
"I'm happy," he said. "I did everything in the ring. I need to be better. I need more training. I don't think I'm the best."
In the main event, Giadalia had perhaps the toughest time of the afternoon, as he and Harrisburg's Vaughn Crawford engaged in a slugfest that never seemed to end. With a reach advantage, Giadalia took the first round, but with an apparent edge in brute strength, Crawford made things interesting in the second, with no winner apparent. He nearly dislodged Giadalia's headguard a few times in the last round, leading to another gambler's nightmare as the winner was announced.
It was Giadalia.
"I'd thought I won, but you never know in amateur boxing," he said, touching on another tentative plight of beginning fighters. "I was trying to pace myself. Normally in the first few rounds, I throw a lot of punches, but tonight I tried to pace myself."
Sitting in the stands as his colleagues tossed their last jabs, Hunter thought about what he'd gotten from the fight - aside from the blows, of course!
"I take away getting out first and pumping my jab, stop putting my head down," he said. "When I threw a job, I put my head down. I'm going to get back in the gym and come back harder."
16 October 09
Kelly Can Box! Norfolk television promo for the Internatiional duel USA vs UK interview with Robert "Machine" Matney, President Virginia Association of USA Boxing and owner of Seven Cities Boxing of Virginia Beach,
Booker T. Washington student Chris Alexander shows the junior boxing division trophy he won at the Ultimate Sports Challenge event Saturday at the Boo Williams Sportsplex. The event combined boxing, wrestling, and karate for athletes from across the state. Photos by Jason Norman
Bethel’s Emily Miller displays the skills that won her the top medal in kumite (fighting) and a second-place finish in forms (kata).
Checking out one side of the Boo Williams Sportsplex gym on Saturday afternoon, martial artists of both genders and all ages showed their stuff in karate. Some whipped bo sticks and other weapons around, while other did a pseudo-aerobic exercise in forms (called "kata" to those in the know), and still more battled it out in hand-to-hand, and occasionally fist-to-stomach and foot-to-back-of-head combat.
Spying the large dark dividers hanging across the middle of the gym, curious onlookers might have wandered over for a peek through. They'd be gifted with another master sight for sports fans; a small tournament of matsters warming up for the beginning of their high school wrestling season in a few months.
But there was still one more undiscovered section of the gym, a corner behind the wrestling mats. Snooping around, eager explorers located a boxing ring. Later in the day, a new "battle" would begin.
It was all part of the Ultimate Combat Sports Challenge, the first, and hopefully annual, event of its kind at the Booplex.
"We've been talking about it for the last year or so," said promoter Claude Burton. "It's something different, with various sports in it. We wanted to take three sporting events and put them all under one roof."
Last year, Christian Olanowski stunned the Hampton Roads wrestling scene by taking home the Eastern Region 112-pound title - as a freshman. This year, the First Colonial sophomore has more than just a school legacy to live up to; two of his brothers brought state titles to Kellam.
On Saturday, Olanowski got off to quite the start, as his Virginia Prestige squad won the Ultimate tournament with victories over Grassfield, Guaston (Hayfield), Matoaca (Richmond), the Mercenaries (Chesapeake), and finishing with a 39-21 defeat of the Virginia Predators, another local squad. Olanowski was one of three members of his team to go undefeated for the day.
"I didn't know what to expect from some (opponents), but some I knew," said Olanowski. "We wanted to get an edge on other people in the state by competing against other top-notch kids from the state."
Karate isn't a high school sport in Hampton Roads, but it certainly doesn't have an off-season, as dozens of competitors battled it out across the mats. After winning titles in all three divisions in the 14-15 female group, Kimberly Delk narrowly lost a kumite battle to a male competitor from the 16-17 section.
"I love to fight, so kumite's my favorite," said the Kecoughtan student. "It's the best part of karate, because you get to take what you've done and put it on someone else, hand to hand. In kata and weapons, it's different, because you're doing a routine for yourself. It's all about what you put out there. But when you're fighting, you're doing it against others."
Several of her colleagues found that out in the hardest way; Charlottesville's Joey Kubistek had to battle three consecutive opponents - two of whom were fellow black belts, including his own instructor - to grab the 18-and-above kumite title.
"We've been battling it out in the dojo, taking punches here and there," the second-degree black belt, his voiced pitched high because of cotton jammed in his injured nose, said of past fights with his teacher. "This is our first fight in a tournament, and it was a good ending. It feels great."
He and fellow student Charity Newman helped the Lake Monticello Karate Academy squad take home the day's highest point total.
"Kata is what I do," said Newman, who gave herself an early 18th birthday present with the highest score in kata for females up to age 17 in the event. "I train and work; the outcome is what I put into it, not what someone else does. I go through it mentally in my head and envision winning, and if I don't, I come out of it thinking about what I should have done better. I go through it slowly, step by step, working on the position, angle, and depth of my stance."
If kata sounds similar to a rhumba routine, the two share many techniques. Perhaps that's way Beth student Emily Miller utilized several of the skills she learned on local ballet stages to snare second in kata for her age group.
"The technique really stands out for me, and the fact is that it's almost like a dance," she said. "It's the mentality; you have to be disciplined to get it down and make it what you need it to be. You have to get into the mentality to where you're the only one in the room. You have to get into that zone."
The blue belt holder, who estimates that she's "a good year and a half from a black belt," also took the top spot in kumite.
"In the kumite, you have to go all out and get the points. You have to ignore the pain when you get it and shake it off. Failure wasn't an option."
Stepping between the ropes for the first match of his boxing career, Devon Thompson felt the same way.
"The only thing that was going through my mind was that I had to win this," said the Chesterfield resident, 14. "I couldn't lose."
He and Giovanni Vargas of Arlington fought through a first round that made it tough to decide who was ahead.
"I was kind of tired," Thompson admitted. "I felt out of shape today."
Summoning up some hand speed, Thompson used his reach advantage to keep his shorter opponent at bay, whacking away at Vargas' headguard and upper body. Vargas continued to advance, but Thompson moved away as the two went along the ropes and in and out of corners. The second and third rounds were close, but Thompson was judged the victor.
"When I first went in, I was thinking, 'pump the jab, pump the jab.'" Thompson said. "My coach was telling me to put the right hand in. I also had to block, because he was hitting me in the head a couple of times In the first round, I was kind of nervous, but by the second and third, I knew I had it."
Channeling the spirit of his idol Roy Jones Jr., Chris Alexander took a decisive junior (below age 18) division win from Damcret Giddins.
"I like his speed, the way he plays around with his opponents," the Booker T. Washington student said of his boxing role model, a multiple titlist. "I just think about going and getting (my opponent), not about him coming to get me. I'd like to go all the way to the Olympics. I have to stay in the gym and keep my mind on boxing."
Sitting outside the ring, boxers and their friends and family got the chance to meet two people who personified the accolades of staying in the gym just a bit longer than most; three-time world champion Paul Williams and up-and-coming Jeremiah Wiggins showed up to sign autographs and snap photos with the fans. On Dec. 5, the two will head to Atlantic City for one of boxing biggest events of 2009; Williams (37-1) will headline the card as he moves up to middleweight for a shot at Kelly Pavlik's WBC and WBO titles, while Wiggins fights on the undercard.
"I feel like all my opponents are really tough, but this is a big opportunity for me," Williams said of the Pavlik fight, which was postponed from early October when Pavlik suffered a hand injury. "I want to be a four-time world champion."
Glancing between the ropes, Williams just might have seen some future colleagues on the pro circuit.
"I came from the same spot that they came from," said the South Carolina native. "I started out when I was eight years old. When they see me, they know it's for real. They know that there's a future in this stuff if they work hard. They should never forget where they came from and give the best at everything they do. Whatever they do, they should go for the best."
In a corner of a ballroom at the Westin Hotel in Virginia Beach on Sunday, Earl Platt and Anthony Aguilar are cracking up.
Aguilar's kicking back against the wall, holding a laptop, and Platt's sitting above him, cracking up and pointing at the screen. Perhaps there's a new political cartoon, or a new addition to the endless YouTube library.
Or maybe the two men are trying to keep their minds off the fact that, in a few short hours, they'll be knocking the hell out of each other. Because when the next step toward national boxing stardom is there for the taking, friendships go out the window for a few minutes.
"It sucks, because I like him," Aguilar says of battling his 757 Boxing Club (Virginia Beach) teammate for the Novice 201-pound title. "But once we get in the ring, we're not going to show any love to each other. We both want that title; it's what we've trained for. But afterwards, we'll probably go get a beer together."
It's the last day of the 2009 Virginia/North Carolina Golden Gloves tournament, and 20 boxers, many of whom will be stepping into the ring for the third time since Friday, have made it to the final round of a tournament for the organization that spawned the careers of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier.
"We're trying to blow this up in the area so we can get more people coming around," says tournament director Robert Matney. "A lot of people see Virginia Beach as a sports town, and we're trying to get more."
The battles are divided into Novice (less than 10 fights) and Open (over 10 fights) divisions. Winners will move up to Waldorf, Md. on April 17 and on to regional competition - and those victors go to Salt Lake City for the nationals.
As some boxers relax with a friendly game of chess or some iPod tunes, Platt tries to prepare for his second ring war in as many days (Aquilar has polished off two opponents in the tourney).
"It's a little bit tough," he says of the constant competition. "You get sore, but then you stretch out and eat right, and you do fine. This is my opportunity to get out here and show everybody else a good time. I've got my mind set on tonight and what I have to do."
He won't fight until the middle of the card. Novice 119'ers Frazier Hunter and Michael Daniels get the (not necessarily coveted) honor of starting things off.
The pair get rolling with a set of speed-blurred jabs, then wrap up. The official pulls them apart, and each lands a hard shot. Hunter whacks Daniels with a left, and Daniels retaliates with a right that nearly dislodges Hunter's headguard.
Hunter's makeshift helmet gets put back in place, but Daniels is on the attack. He gets Hunter back up against the ropes, but can't quite put him away. As the first bell rings, however, he seems to be ahead.
But not for long. As the second round begins, Hunter starts to use his reach advantage to keep the shorter Daniels away. Daniels keeps trying to get in close, and does so a few times, but Hunter's clearly frustrating him with the long shots. The two wrap up again near the end of the round, but it's one each.
Not seeing any reason to fix what isn't broken, Hunter keeps landing quick, light shots to Daniels' face and upper body throughout the third. Daniels keeps coming, but Hunter stays out of the corner and on his feet, long enough to win a decision.
"I knew I could win it, because I worked hard all this week sparring with bigger, better, and faster people," says the Richmond native. "I jammed my thumb in the second round, so that's why I couldn't finish him off. I could have done way better, but I'm stepping up for regionals."
Since falling short in his last tournament, Suffolk's Ricky Blake has dreamed of finally wrapping that championship belt around his waist. Now, only one thing stands between him and the Novice 152 title: Springfield's Jimmy Romano.
Blake scores big with some body blasts early on, but Romano recovers and nearly spins Blake's head off with a series of jabs. In the second round, Blake gets Romano up against the ropes. Romano decks him, but Blake goes up top and starts using Romano's head for a speed guard as everyone in the audience takes a moment to silently thank the inventor of headguards.
In the third, Romano backs Blake up, but Blake fights out. Both fighters are tired, waving and spinwheeling as time runs out.
The two move to the center of the ring for the decision, and the referee, as is the practice for the tournament, raises both their hands in congratulations for going the distance. Then the hands fall, because only one's going up for the title.
On points, it's Blake, who high-steps around the ring in celebration, taking a moment to hug Romano.
"The worst thing was that he had a long jab, and I couldn't get in," Blake says. "But once I caught him, I was going to war for the whole fight. I knew he couldn't knock me out, so I just kept fighting. I knew it was kind of close, but I thought I won for my hard punches."
Staunton's Jennifer Barnes makes the afternoon's only female fight a quick affair, stopping Chesterfield's Melissa Reams in less than a minute for the light middleweight title.
"(Boxing is) different, but I love it," says Barnes, who took time off from studying marketing at Mary Baldwin College to step into the ring. "I just have to stay organized and manage my time well."
After Newport News' Antwan Ward edges their teammate Rodney Giandalia for the Novice 178 title, it's finally time for Platt and Aguilar to hit the ring and each other.
Aguilar takes control early on, chasing Platt around the ring and outpunching him for the first round. But early in the second, he leans in a bit too far - and Platt slams a short right into his nose that puts him on his stomach.
Aguilar staggers back to his feet and stays there for the rest of the round. Fortunately for him, he's a fast healer, and goes right back on the attack for the third period, and the title.
"It just hurt for a second," he says of the knockdown punch. "It's happened before. He rocked me for a good second, but after you've been in that situation, you get an adrenalin rush. I've trained really hard for this."
In the Novice's unofficial heavyweight (i.e., 201) bout, Norfolk's Dennis Benson comes out like a house on fire, blasting 757 rep Terrod Saunders into a standing eight-count in a matter of moments. Saunders comes back, but it's Benson's round.
And it may be his last. By the second, both fighters appear to have emptied their tanks early, as no one's landing much or moving fast.
But perhaps Benson was just saving energy; by the third round, he's back on the attack, and takes a convincing win.
"I came out knowing that I had more experience with him, but he was bearing down on me and wore me down," he says. "My determination and my willpower helped me move on to regionals. It was win or lay down, and I wasn't going to lay down. It'll be a lot harder at regionals; I'll have to train a lot harder."
Five marines bring titles down south home to Camp Lejuene, including Novice 132 champ Elias Sanchez. He and Moshea Aleen, the Open 152 champ, are voted their divisions' top respective boxers.
"I keep my success by going forward and staying forward," says Aleen, who represented Richmond with a Sweetpea Whitaker-esque showboating victory over Staunton's Christian Steele.
"I'm trying to do great things and represent the marine core," says Sanchez, who's spent four years in the core, including a deployment. "I'm going to re-enlist, and then turn pro."
Every day, students get educated through the use of books, quizzes, and the dreaded final exams. But on Saturday afternoon, Reggie Barnett's pupils got a lesson in jabs and right crosses to the temple.
"I decided to have this event because it gives a lot of young men who want to dabble in boxing an opportunity to see what it's really like," said the owner of Virginia Beach's 757 Boxing Club of his Smoker event. "Basically, it's like controlled sparring. Guys get in and go for the gusto. They see what they're made of."
Since May 2007, Barnett's been helping Hampton Roads youngsters take their first plods in the footsteps of Roy Jones Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya.
"A lot of young people want to try boxing, but they're not really sure," he said. "This gives them a chance to see what it's really like. It's a starting point, like a beginner's boxing class. Some guys can train two or three months. Some guys can train one month.. Everything happens in the gym before you go into competition; they learn basics of hand and foot stance. They learn how to deliver punches, how to block punches, defense. They do bag work, speed work, the whole nine yards." In a typical workout, Barnett boxers put themselves through running, round after round of shadowboxing, and several sets of pushups and ab exercises.
While Ricardo Mayorga and Shane Mosley hti the ring and each other in a videotaped brawl, faces from boxing's past from Muhammad Ali to Mike Tyson gazed out from photos on the wall. Over next to the gym's small ring, Jake Klau prepared for his first trip into a new athletic world.
"The discipline that I learned from wrestling, the dedication and hard work, make me confident that I'm going to go out and win," said Klau, who made it to Eastern Region as a Western Branch High matster before taking up boxing at Norfolk's Virginia Institute of Boxing Excellence.
"You have to focus yourself on what you're getting into," said Rodney Hanks, Klau's trainer. "It's a hurting game; you're going to get hurt, and sometimes you need to hurt somebody. It's not a sport where it's easy, easy, easy. It's about mentally focusing yourself. We're going to see if he really likes it."
After recovering from a high-class pounding to somehow score a submission win in a Nov. 1 cage fight in Virginia Beach, everyone would have understood if Jason Rodriguez had taken some healing time off. But only a few weeks later, he was ready to get back in the ring, albeit with a headguard and gloves this time.
"Any experience is good," said Rodriguez, lounging on the floor. "It shouldn't be too bad - I'm pretty good with my fists."
It was the luck of the draw for middle-, welter- and heavyweight boxers for the event; each division had three, so Barnett drew names to decide who'd go at it first and who would take on the winner.
"The difference is, we cut down on the rounds a little bit," he said. "Instead of three three-minute rounds, it's three one-minute rounds."
For the first fight, Randy Heard charged to the ring, sliding under the ring ropes instead of through them. With a deathly stare poking out from under his headguard, he took on Akiemo Rollins in welterweight competition.
Heard started out with a flurry, pushing Rollins into a corner. Rollins fought free, but Heard landed a right and a left to take the round. Rollins did better in the second round, but Heard was still mentally ahead, refusing to even sit down between rounds, his angry eyes widened. It worked in the third, as one more flurry gave Heard the victory.
The middleweight fight got off to a slow start, but Romaine Taylor got the crowd going with a few bombs in the second round. Ryan Price came right back, staggering him with a hard left and nearly sending him sprawling into a corner.
Price kept going in the third round, forcing a standing eight-count and getting the entire audience to give thanks the fighters were protected with headguards.
Price took the win, and now it was time for Klau's debut. He didn't waste time, blitzing Charles Robbins from the start, backing him around the ring and pinning him against the ropes. He trapped Robbins in the corner again in the second round, forcing an eight-count.
Robbins fought even in the last round, but Klau was too far ahead, upping his record to 1-0.
"That was pretty exciting," he said. "I believed in myself and I wanted to win. I'm going to keep training and correct the mistakes I made. I got caught in the jaw, and I need to work on my punches more."
Back for another round, Heard got into the ring a bit slower for his title fight with Rodriguez. The fight began with a machine-gun exchange from both fighters, with Rodriguez's headguard getting knocked off a few times.
Still, Heard's fatigue started to show in the second round, and Rodriguez's speed came through. Another flurry in his favor ended the fight, and the boxers collapsed on each other as the longest three minutes of their lives came to an end.
"I tried to stay away from his fists as much as possible," Rodriguez said, "and when that didn't work, I went ahead and brawled with him. He was quick with his hands. I thought it was pretty close."
Nearby, Heard didn't seem too upset with his loss.
"I'm feeling all right!" he said. "I got beat up pretty bad, but that's what I signed up for. My energy didn't come back fast enough. I need to work on keeping my pace."
Price kept going in his second fight, holding on to defeat Chris Coker. After defeating Toloa Moefaauo in the first heavyweight bout, Anthony Aguilar went for the day's championship with Kenneth Wherry.
Wherry tried to decapitate Aguilar with bombs to each side of his head throughout the first round, but Aguilar came back and punched him against the ropes. He held the advantage throughout the second round, and blasted Wherry in the face with a left jab and hard right to end the fight before the time limit.
"I'm hard-headed, and I have a good chin, so I knew what to expect," Aguilar said. "I had some first fight jitters, but in the second fight, I came out and took care of business. I've sparred with him before here, so I knew what it was all about. I knew he was gassed, and I was going to go after him anyway."
JO08
This is a "J.O." tournament, JO meaning boxers ranging in age from 8-16 years. This is the first leg of the tournament, which means u start on the state level, u move to the regional level, u move to the national level.
AND FOR THE BOXERS, IF THEY WANTED IN, ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS TRAVEL TO NORFOLK....
Robert Matney President of Virginia Local Boxing Committee - all the clubs throughout the state, from Roanoke to Arlington to Richmond to here throughout all of Hampton Roads, they come in from everywhere.
SOME CAME FROM AS FAR AWAY AS ARLINGTON, VA
Liam Thornhill 13 years old Boxing for 2 years -it was a long drive, about 3 hours, yeah
FOR MOST OF THE BOXERS, THIS WAS THEIR FIRST TIME AGAINST AN OPPONENT THAT ACTUALLY FOUGHT BACK.....
NATS--FIGHTING
Robert Matney -These kids can't punch air forever and they need to learn that competitive spirit and good sportsmanship.
Chris Alexander 15 years old/welterweight Norfolk -it feels good to see who's the best out of all
Liam Thornhill 13 years old Boxing for 2 years -I'm a bit nervous, but its ok.
Gloria Peek -for these kids it means everything. Even the ones that its their first bout, ok, they look, I mean some of them train for months and months to get here.
WITH 85% OF BOXING TIME ACTUALLY SPENT TRAINING FOR MATCHES, WHY DO THESE KIDS CHOOSE THIS SPORT OVER MORE POPULAR SPORTS LIKE BASKETBALL, BASEBALL OR FOOTBALL?
Mohsen Mohammed 10 Years Old Arlington Boxing Club 54:04 I really like Muhammed Ali and I thought it would be pretty cool so I started doing boxing.
Chris Alexander 51:57 when I be in school, I'm like, a bully, so my teacher told me I need to start boxing, so I started boxing.
Our numbers are growing and there's been a really big push to get it out there what usa boxing is all about. Its all about sportsmanship, dedication, discipline, the kind of core values we're looking for to bring out kids up into adults.
Pure Athleticism: Up Close, In Your Face By Sherrie Pilkington
What do you get when you mix one part original Olympian sport, consisting of pure, natural hand-to-hand combat, toss in a dose of determined young men and women, and set it on an amazing platform of competition? When the bell sounds you get Virginia's 69th Annual Golden Gloves Championships at the Virginia Beach Convention Center March 28-30. Where sacrifice, commitment, and dedication meet and the brutal assault of leather is a small price to pay on the journey to a Virginia State Championship and a step closer to competing for a National Title.
In its 85-year history, The Golden Gloves has operated with the belief "It's better to build boys, than mend men". Staying true to their motto bears the fruit of past Golden Glove Champions such as Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Leonard. The reputation of offering youth a positive experience by building character, physical stamina and communication skills, has garnered this sporting event the endorsements of Governor Tim Kaine, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf.
One of the local gyms participating in The Golden Gloves is Seven Cities Boxing Club, owned and operated by Robert Matney. Matney's passion for boxing is evident in his level of dedication, the work ethic of his facility, and the connection he has with his students.
Matney, an Irishman from Kansas City, MO, made his way to Virginia Beach via the military, retiring as Navy Chief after 12 years of service. For the last 10 years he has enjoyed boxing and maintains his involvement on many levels. Along with all the responsibilities of running a gym, training elite competitors and mentoring youth, he currently holds the elected position of President of the Virginia Association of U.S.A. Boxing and is a representative for The Golden Gloves. His coaching responsibilities include the East Coast Navy Boxing Squad and the Navy Seals.
Seven Cities charges a monthly gym fee of $60, but requires no membership contracts Competitors must register with USA Boxing, which has an annual renewal fee of $40.
While Matney's gym might not hit you hard in the wallet, you will get hit hard in the ring. As stated on Matney's website, the minimum standard accepted at this training facility is an Olympic-Style method of boxing where "training sessions are brutal and sparring is at the highest level possible without actually being in combat."
One local young man who is not afraid of the challenge is 17-year-old, Bayside High School Senior, Rigo Rivera. Rivera and his two brothers, Noe, 9, and Diego, 7, log three-hour workouts Mondays thru Thursdays. Noe and Diego envision soccer eventually becoming a priority, but Rigo only wants to box. "My father didn't want me boxing at first. But when he saw how much I liked watching it on television, he let me try it and this is all I want to do," Rigo said.
Although Rigo enjoys playing soccer for his school, it's the cardio workout that he appreciates. "The hardest part about boxing is staying in shape," Rigo added. "I can stay away from sodas and junk food but I can't say no to my mom's cooking. It's good."
Classified as a Lightweight, Rigo has been boxing for four years and has 15 fights under his belt. At the gym, Rigo and the other athletes willingly adhere to Matney's strenuous demands, not out of fear, but because they know he cares. "When I'm doing bad, he'll tell me it's bad. He only wants to make me better," Rigo said. "He's like a second father to me." The bond between coach and athlete is further rooted because Matney has an ear for listening and a heart for toting his team up and down the road for weekend competitions
If you have what it takes to "train with a team of warriors, whose never-ending quest for hardcore levels of conditioning, thirst for learning and a desire to be number one, are the essence of greatness" then stop by Seven Cities Boxing Club at the oceanfront. If you're looking to experience the intense atmosphere of victory and defeat, come to the Virginia Beach Convention Center and cheer on the local boy Rigo Rivera as he chases his dream of becoming the Lightweight Virginia Champion, bringing him step closer to a National title.
7 PM FRIDAY/SATURDAY, 28-29 MARCH 08 & 1 PM SUNDAY, 30 MARCH 08
Doors open at 6 PM and 12 PM respectively.
General Admission: Friday/Saturday -$20 (Adult over 12 years) $15 (Child 12 and under)
Sunday- $10 (Adult over 12 years) $5 (Child 12 and under)
All Event Pass $40 Adult $20 Child
Children under 6 Free
VIP Seating: Call Lara Rabi for pricing and seating info (757) 650-6088
PilotMH
Kellam wrestler gets his kicks boxing opponents around The Virginian-Pilot
Video by Chic Riebel 01/17/2008
Mike Holcomb is not only a reigning state wrestling champion, the 125-pound Kellam senior is also ranked No. 1 nationally by three kick-boxing organizations. Down the road, this tough little dude hopes to earn a college scholarship in wrestling and perhaps move on to Ultimate Fighting Championships, the ultra-popular mixed-martial arts pro circuit.
NT
All Navy Boxing Trials Punch Their Way into Hampton Roads Story Number: NNS071120-10 11/20/2007
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (AW/SW) Flor Valerio, Fleet Public Affairs Center, Atlantic
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The All Navy Boxing Team held trials Nov. 17-18 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek for athletes with prior or current boxing experience.
Based in California, the team hopes to train qualified Navy boxers from the East Coast to represent the Navy at the Armed Forces Championship scheduled for February 2008.
"We are at a rebuilding phase for the team and this initiative is to let the fleet know that we are actively looking for Navy boxers," said George Sylva, the All Navy Boxing Team head coach. "The Navy Boxing Team allows Sailors to come and try out for the boxing camp, which starts Dec. 1 in California."
About 15 Sailors came out to test their skills and talent in boxing.
Electrician's Mate 2nd Class (SW) Jessie Owens from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), who has been training for three years, was the only female Sailor who came to try out.
"Navy boxing gives me an opportunity to represent the Navy and my ship in competitions against the other services, as well as represent female boxers," said Owens who sparred with a male counterpart during the try outs.
Throughout Navy history, Navy boxing has produced champions from both officers and enlisted personnel.
"Fleet championships were held aboard battleships and the Navy has had a lot of champions that tried to compete among other Armed Forces," said Robert Matney, East Coast Boxing squad coach. "The rebuilding effort is to bring back a great history of Navy boxing, and it is a great recruiting tool for the Navy."
The athletes chosen for the team will attend the training camp at Port Hueneme, Calif., for eight weeks to prepare for the Armed Forces Championships.
Those who prevail at the championships will represent the United States in the World Armed Forces Championships.
For more news from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, visit navcms.news.navy.mil/local/nablc/.
EGHOF
HRAASHF Inductees
The Hampton Roads African-American Sports Hall of Fame recognizes African American athletes who were born, spent formative years, or participated in athletics in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.
Earnest Green began boxing at the age of 12 years old and won a number of Air Force championships in the middleweight and lightweight classes during the period 1948-1949. After his retirement, he became an official and instructor for the American Boxing Association and USA boxing respectively. He has traveled as a professional judge throughout the United States, as well as, South Africa, Italy, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In 1980 Green was appointed boxing instructor by USA Boxing of Virginia and four years later he became a member of the International Boxing Commission. In 1990, he was appointed president of USA Boxing of Virginia, serving for six and a half years.
From 1996-2000, Green was the Chief Official for USA Boxing, in charge of training new officials, and certification of officials and coaches.
Earnest Green also has been a referee and judge at the Olympic Training Center in Denver, CO. He is the only master boxing official in the state of Virginia and is certified to officiate anywhere in the United States. Green, 80, resides in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Robert Matney pored over a table laden with nearly century-old photographs, his eyes surveying snapshots fro m an era when the words "Navy" and "boxing" were synonymous.
"I don't foresee getting crowds like this again," the retired Navy chief said.
"But this is the importance. In this picture right here, here's the Secretary of the Navy at a boxing event handing out an award. You wouldn't see that right now."
In many of the photos, thousands of sailors looked on as Navy boxers battled in the ring at fleet championships or a camp's weekly bout.
While Matney doesn't expect a total reversal to the interest Navy boxing drew in the early 20th century, the Virginia Beach man is putting the wheels in motion to ensure this rich tradition sees a revival in the near future.
The boxing coach and Virginia Association of U.S.A. Boxing's president-elect is spearheading an effort to establish bi-coastal Navy boxing squads in Hampton Roads and San Diego, the nation's two regions with the highest concentrations of sailors.
With the hopes of cultivating talent in a year-round training program similar to the Army's World Class Athletic Program, Matney envisions the bi-coastal squads bringing the Navy back into armed forces boxing prominence.
Although the boxing program has been in steady decline for decades, since 1994, when the All-Navy Boxing Team left Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, the Navy has regularly placed fourth at the Armed Forces Boxing Championships.
The reason in Matney's eyes: The All-Navy team trains for just two months at Port Hueneme, Calif., prior to the Armed Forces championships. But programs such as the Army's pair their talent with world-class coach Basheer Abdullah for year-round training. In recent years, the Navy has also failed to field a team large enough to fill out all 11 weight classes.
By placing the teams in San Diego and Hampton Roads, however, more sailors will be able to dedicate their free time to year-round training.
"If I'm the captain of a ship, and I've only got 300 sailors, if I lose this guy here to go play some sports all year round, I could be losing a critical sailor," Matney said.
"But (by having the bi-coastal squads), they don't have to leave their command. They can stay at their command, and on their off-time, on their liberty hours, be in this squad. So if they have duty days, if they to leave on deployment, if they got two weeks to go out to sea to do some training, the Navy comes first and off they go," he explained.
Matney also believes it will open up more opportunities for Navy boxers to participate in the maximum amount of bouts in a year - a key to cultivating success.
"To win, you have to be able to train hard and fight often," Matney said. "That's the paramount thing to winning."
Recently, Matney's efforts have turned the corner.
He hosted the East Coast Navy Boxing Trials from Nov. 8 to 10 at Little Creek, which saw four area boxers qualify for the All-Navy team. Three of those boxers were Matney trainees.
"The more we start showing sailors winning, the more attention we'll get from the higher-ups," Matney said.
While Matney said he has the support of Navy Sports director Donald Golden in moving forward with organizing the teams, he's run into some obstacles from Navy officials skeptical of his intentions.
"I've gotten, 'Oh, you're trying to drum up business for your gym,' " said Matney, who runs Seven Cities Boxing Club at the Oceanfront. "And I'm like, 'No, no, no. If you guys give me a place on the base, we'll train these dudes on the base. I'll clean out these ships; I'll get these guys training."
Matney insists that it's his lifelong dedication to the Navy that has sent him on the quest.
"I still feel ownership over these sailors," Matney said. "I'm dedicated to these guys, and I'm dedicated to getting Navy boxing back to where it belongs.
"That's part of being a chief. And when you're a chief; you worry about your troops."
Those in the Navy with boxing interest and/or experience can call Robert Matney at 962-5694 or 439-6357.
John Streit, 639-4805 or
vb.beaconsports@yahoo.com
GE
Gold Eagle" Sailors to Compete on All Navy Boxing Team Story Number: NNS071217-08 Release Date: 12/17/2007 2:52:00 PM
By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Philip Schrickel, USS Carl Vinson Public Affairs
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (NNS) -- Two Sailors from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), the "Gold Eagle," were selected Nov. 10 to compete in the 2008 all-military boxing championship to be held in February 2008 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
Both Gold Eagle Sailors, Damage Controlman Fireman Tom Dooley and Machinery Repairman Fireman Michael Hal, began boxing as teenagers and have worked on honing their fighting skills ever since.
"I want to sharpen my technique in the ring, so I've really intensified my training and conditioning," said Hal. "I plan to push myself physically and mentally, so I'm ready for my competition when I get to Lackland."
Both Sailors credit their experiences in the Navy for their mental toughness in the ring. Additionally, they both say serving in the Navy has enabled them to come closer to their dream of boxing professionally one day.
"I want my performance to reflect positively on the opportunities the Navy has given me to train as a boxer," said Dooley. "More importantly, I want to show the other branches how much talent the Navy has in its corner."
The athletes will attend the Navy's training camp at Port Hueneme, Calif. for eight weeks to prepare for the Armed Forces Championship. While Hal and Dooley agree their training and preparations will be long and arduous, both Sailors are looking forward to the challenge.
"Nothing about our training will be easy," said Hal. "But I'm confident that both of us will do well, because we both have the drive and discipline to succeed."
Carl Vinson is currently undergoing its scheduled refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) at Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard.
Pete Cobraiti watches his compet ition during an exhibition fight in Norfolk in 2003. He still harbors his Olympic dream, despite missing the cut for the 2004 team.
(CHRIS TYREE file photo | THE VIRGINIAN PILOT)
By Tony Germanotta The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH
The Cobra missed his chance to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing team by just 2 pounds.
That's how much Pete Cobraiti had to lose just before a qualifying fight to hit his weight class.
He jumped rope for two hours, sweated off the 32 ounces, then entered the ring. Already a long shot at age 29, he said he just didn't have the endurance in the later rounds.
Now the former Beach resident is training hard and hoping for a spot on the 2008 Olympic team. He's determined to win the New York and Virginia Golden Gloves tournaments and a chance again to compete at the Olympic trials.
The Cobra doesn't give up easily. It's a trait developed the hardest way. When he was 5, Cobraiti's mother was murdered. He was taken in by a foster family, who helped him channel his anger through martial arts training.
Cobraiti would eventually join the Navy in hopes of getting on the Little Creek boxing team. He was stationed on an aircraft carrier. So he entered a tournament against orders and got himself discharged in 2001.
He was living in Virginia Beach, life guarding at a pool, when trainer Ron Hagar rescued his boxing dreams.
Cobraiti won the Virginia Golden Gloves at 132 pounds in 2003 and a chance to fight in a national competition in Ohio that could have earned him a spot on the Olympic Team trials.
But he tried to compete in the 125-pound class, "which I shouldn't have done," he now admits. Cobraiti weighed in that day at 127, and the two extra pounds were too much for him to overcome, he said.
The rope jumping left him drained.
"I was done," he said. "I had the skills, I had the strength, but it just wasn't my day."
Co braiti now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and studies at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan to be a physician assistant. He trains at boxing's legendary Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, and helps his foster brother Paul Mormando at his martial arts school there. Cobraiti also teaches fitness classes for kids.
Every Friday, Co braiti climbs into a car and drives to Virginia Beach to continue training with Roger Belch at the Dog Pound Boxing gym.
Next month, The Cobra will try to win the New York Golden Gloves contest and then the Virginia Golden Gloves, but at 141 pounds.
He's stopped entering martial arts contests in the interim to concentrate on his Olympics dream.
"This is my last shot," he said. The Olympics have a 34-year-old age limit in boxing.
He knows it will be a tough race, but don't look for him to give up now.
"If I play the cards right, I have a shot," he said on the phone before heading off to teach a fitness class, " But it's going to be harder this time."
Tony Germanotta, (757) 222-5113, tony.germanotta@pilotonline.com
Gloria Peek watches as her boxers work on the punching bags at the Barraud Park gym in Norfolk. Peek says she runs the gym like a family; her fighters respect her as a surrogate mother.
(Bill Tiernan photos/TheVirginian-Pilot)
By Ed Miller The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK - Gloria Peek, all of 5-foot-4, steps between a pair of sparring boxers a head taller and young enough to be her grandsons. It's a potentially hazardous move - for the fighters, who have failed to heed her command to stop punching.
"When I say stop, what does that mean?" Peek asks one of them, her voice rising.
"Stop," he mutters.
"What does that mean?" she wheels and asks the other.
"Stop," he says.
Peek wears a T-shirt that reads: "Boxing is life. Roll with the Punches." But she can't abide what she's been watching. The sparring session has been sloppier than a spit bucket in the 12th round. One fighter has been flailing wildly, the other clinging like a marathon dancer at 3 a.m.
"You cannot fight out of anger," she tells the overly aggressive one, her eyes boring in on his, which are framed by leather headgear. "If you do, you'll get hit all the time."
He would, too, if only his opponent were not too winded to hold up his gloves.
"Remember all that running we do?" she says. "That's why we do it. You need to do all that running and then some."
It's a Wednesday night at Norfolk's Barraud Park gym, but this could be any inner-city boxing gym in the country. You know the story: A tough-love coach provides a haven from the streets, drills the risk out of at-risk kids, and replaces it with discipline, purpose, a sense of belonging.
The difference is that this tough-love coach happens to be a 55-year-old woman who started in boxing - training male fighters and running her own gyms - when women just didn't do those things.
She is already a pioneer and may break new ground yet. Peek is on the short list of candidates for two assistant coaching positions on the 2008 men's Olympic team.
"The elite boxers know her," Olympic coach Dan Campbell said. "She doesn't really have to prove herself."
That's a change. Girls didn't box in Rochester, N.Y., or anywhere else, when Peek was growing up there, dying to sink a left hook into somebody. She fell in love with the sport watching "Friday Night Fights" with her dad.
She found other ways to exercise her wild streak. One night, in a boozy haze, she broke into a doctor's office. Not that she remembered the next day, but she was told that when the police came, she invited them to join the party. She was 17.
Seeing few other ways out of her Rochester housing project, she joined the Navy. There, amused sailors would allow the slight hospital corpsman to hit their heavy bag. They stopped chuckling when one of her shots knocked the bag off its chain.
"Leverage," she explains 35 years later, when the accuracy of her story is gently questioned. "I've seen 132-pounders knock out heavyweights."
Born too soon to be a contender, Peek finished her four-year hitch, returned to Rochester and found work in maximum-security juvenile corrections, a good gig for someone with a strong sense of self and a voice that rattles windows..
"You get folks who killed people," she said. "You'd better be able to stand your ground."
After a couple of years locking kids up, Peek reasoned that starting a boxing program might prevent more of them from ending up in the kinds of places she worked.
First, she needed some ring-won credibility. She headed to a local gym and got the kind of reception Hilary Swank did when she walked into Clint Eastwood's gym in "Million Dollar Baby." Only this was 1977, not 2004, and nobody as easily won over as Eastwood worked there.
She kept coming back. Finally, they let her in, figuring the men would run her out.
The plan backfired. Training led to sparring. In her early sessions, her male opponents were told to go easy on her. After a while, that advice would get a guy hurt.
Peek hung fliers in a recreation center announcing the formation of a boxing program. She sat in the bleachers and waited to see who would show. About 20 boys drifted in while she sat silently.
"Hey, lady, when is the boxing coach getting here?" one of them said. "We're not going to wait all day."
Peek stood up, blew her whistle and the seeds of what would become Rochester's Montgomery Boxing Club - named for the Alabama city that was on the front lines of the civil rights movement - were planted.
Peek didn't just have to be as good as male coaches; she had to be better. Before one of her first national bouts, a coach looked over look over in the opposite corner and scoffed.
"He told his fighter, 'Man, we got this,' " Peek recalled. " 'I know doggone well she couldn't teach him anything.' "
The coach, Basheer Abdullah, apologized after Peek's boxer rocked his. Abdullah went on to coach the U.S. Olympic team in 2004.
Peek rose in the amateur coaching ranks, too, and became a go-to person in Rochester on youth issues, a surrogate mom for the kids amateur boxing attracted - "the misfits, the ones nobody wants, the ones out there floundering," she says.
In 2000, she took her New York State pension and escaped the snow belt for Virginia, where a brother lived. Last year, she left Richmond to take over a Norfolk boxing program started by Campbell but on wobbly legs after nearly a year without a director.
Enter Peek, human smelling salts. On most nights, she presides over 15 or 20 boxers - neighborhood kids and sailors, male and female, black and white - her bullhorn voice cutting through the din.
"Get your hands up!"
"If you're tough enough to stay, stay. If your heart pumps strawberry Kool-Aid, leave!"
"Slip and catch those punches; don't run!"
"You call those push-ups?"
Boxer Richard Williams searched for the right way to describe Peek's style.
"What's the word you look for, for somebody staying on top of you?" said Williams, 22. "That's her."
Back at the gym on a Friday morning, Peek brushes past a heavy bag on the way to her office, formerly a storage room with a rubber floor where fighters skipped rope. She pulled up the floor, painted and hung pictures on cinder-block walls, and transformed the space into a model of bright, spare efficiency. Her desk at one end, a small meeting table and chairs at the other. A microwave and mini-fridge. A VCR and monitor on a rolling cart. Not a paper out of place.
Men don't mind stepping over things, she explains. Women are different.
Out in the gym, 18 leather gloves, opened at the mouth to air out, line one edge of the ring. The trash cans are empty, the mirrors smudge-free, the floor mopped of the sweat Peek had extracted from a dozen young men and women the night before.
"People think you can only train boxers in dirty, nasty gyms," she says. "That's bull. I've coached ranked fighters and none of my gyms has ever been dirty."
Peek wears a shirt laced like a boxing glove, with a heavy clump of keys looping out of the hip pocket of her shorts. She pops a videotape in her VCR, one of many TV news features from Rochester. It shows her training boxers in ballet, another of her loves. She made the connection between boxing and dance on a trip to New York City to see "The Nutcracker" nearly 50 years ago.
On her office bulletin board is a photo of Peek with Oscar De La Hoya. The Golden Boy trained in her Rochester gym for a week in 1993. Another photo shows Peek with Chris Byrd, a one-time IBF heavyweight champion.
Yet, Peek is not much interested in pro boxing or the image and credibility issues it faces. She prefers the amateur game - "a good, clean sport that provides a lot for the individual if they partake of it," she says.
Photos of partakers line her office walls. There's Peek with smiling Olympians, Peek with national teams on overseas trips, Peek with her Rochester kids.
The photo that probably provides the best summation of her career - and her sparring hard and soft sides - is a black-and-white shot hanging on the inside of her door. It shows an exhausted and much-younger Peek slumped over her desk at a maximum-security detention center for teenage boys. Her forehead rests on her desk, which has a name plate that misspells her name as "Peeks."
The letters were burned into the wood by kids serving time for murder, rape, armed robbery. She didn't have the heart to tell them they'd gotten it wrong and left it there for years.
Peek mentions often that she runs her gym like a family. It's an important point to her. Unlike most gyms, it's a matriarchy, and several fighters say that exerts a different kind of pull on them.
Who wants to disappoint their mom? Curse in front of her? Disrespect her? Have her tell them they aren't welcome at home anymore because they've broken her rules?
"It makes for more discipline," says Denzel Simmons, 26. "Everyone turns to listen when their mom is talking to them."
Keith Robertson, a 19-year-old heavyweight, agrees. Peek was his commanding officer at Beaumont Juvenile Correction Center near Richmond, where he said he did time for robbery and where she worked for a time. He's been trying to do the right thing since his release, and that means coming to the gym and doing what it takes to stay there.
It's safer than the alternative. A month ago on the streets of South Norfolk, he was shot in the arm.
"She gives us that mother love," Robertson said. "When you come over to the corner and you've won, it's like you've done something for your mother. It's the best feeling in the world."
And when you've let mom down? Even heavyweights can be reduced to groveling.
Peek is sitting in her office when the phone rings. It's clear that one of the family has gone astray.
"You called, and said you were late getting out of bed. I told you to come down anyway. But you didn't show up," she says.
She pauses to listen, with the impatient air of someone who's heard this story before.
"When I tell you I'm going to do something, what do I do?" she asks.
There's a brief response.
"Your word is all you have. It's your word that will carry you in this world."
She listens again, and her tone softens.
"OK. Obviously, I haven't given up on you yet."
She tells him they'll talk next week, when she returns from a trip.
"If you're doing good, I'm the first one there to hug you and congratulate you and support you," she says after hanging up. "If you're doing bad, I'm the first one there to jack you up, but I'm not going to throw you away. "
Peek says that at USA boxing camps, male coaches tell her she can get fighters to do things they can't. There's none of that clash of male egos.
Might the power of motherly persuasion be put to use in pursuit of Olympic gold? Campbell says Peek is as qualified as any man to coach the Olympic team. She has worked punch mitts with the fastest and most powerful amateurs in the country, something not all coaches have the hand speed to do.
Peek has coached in the women's world championships, but a spot on the Olympic coaching staff would be the crowning achievement of her career, as well as a first for women in the sport. She jokingly calls boxing "the last great domain of men" and is eager to kick down one last door.
"I want to coach the men," she said. "Because I started with the men."
She knows the men. She knows the particular pain of getting hollowed out by a body shot from one of USA's finest. Back in Rochester, she was working the mitts with one of her elite prospects, a light heavyweight, when he misfired and caught her with a whistling hook to the body.
It felt like she'd been cut in half. She dropped to a knee. Only pride kept her from going all the way down.
She composed herself, put up her hands and got on with it. She had fought for years for the right to be cut in half by a light heavyweight.
"Oh, yes," Campbell says over the phone, laughing. "Gloria can fight."
 of Jerry Martin Trials.jpg)
