| Issue #31, October 27, 2006 |
Boxing
Go Get Your Block Knocked Off in the Ring in Southampton, he Said
By David Lion Rattiner
Last Saturday at Southampton High School, an amateur boxing match took place, complete with trainers and skilled fighters inside a ring set up in the school’s gymnasium. The event was organized by Tom Sconzo, Team TNT Martial Arts and Mike Murphy of the Atlantic Veterans Boxing Club located in Shirley. The boxing match would raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, an organization that donates money to help study cures and treatments for the disease.
When we heard about the boxing match last week, many of the reporters here at Dan’s Papers asked if they could cover the story. After all, boxing matches are always great to go to. But almost all of the reporters clammed up rather quickly when it was clear that we didn’t want to cover the event, but to compete in it.
“Just do one round. It could be like an exhibition round. They’d let you do it,” Dan said to the table of reporters.
“Why don’t you do it, Dave?” Christian McLean, a fellow writer and friend said from across the table.
“That’s a great idea, go ahead and call them up. Do it as a daredevil.”
I felt a weird emotion. A combination of fear and curiosity. I decided to do it. And so, I found myself talking with Tom Sconzo on the telephone and driving the forty-minutes to Shirley, and the Atlantic Veterans Boxing Club, to see if I could possibly get in the ring and then get punched in the face.
I walked into the Atlantic Veterans Boxing Club not knowing what to expect and I found myself in a totally different world then what I am used to. This place is a real deal boxing club, it’s not a fitness studio. There are very serious boxers who are all business, jumping rope, shadowboxing, hitting the heavy bag, dancing in the ring, sparring with a trainer, or doing what looked like an endless amount of pushups. The walls were covered with photos of boxers who had trained there and then gone on to compete in major competitions. Everyone’s eyes looked intense.
I filled out a waiver that basically said if I was killed from the boxing workout, it wasn’t anyone’s fault except mine. Tom sized me up pretty quickly. “What are you about 6’3” and 190?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly right.”
“Well, you can work out with some of the boxers today, but don’t think that they are going to let up on you. We’re here for boxing, not for fun.”
Within minutes of entering the club, I was greeted by Coach “K” a hard-looking Irish guy wearing a backwards baseball cap and sporting a mustache. We began exercising at 5 p.m. and I didn’t leave the gym until 9 p.m. We ran sprints outside in the parking lot for thirty minutes, we smashed a tire with a sledgehammer for another thirty minutes, we shadowboxed, we did endless pushups and abdominal exercises, we slammed medicine balls into each other’s chests, we got yelled at, we practiced our punching form and our footwork and when it was all over, I think I was high on the endorphins. Serious boxing training is a rush and I was already feeling more confident in my boxing abilities than I ever did before. At nine, Tom asked me if I wanted to hit the bag. “You did a serious workout, I’m surprised that you made it through. Do you feel like hitting the bag?”
“Only if you let me do a round at the match in Southampton over the weekend.”
“I can’t let you do that for insurance reasons.”
It suddenly hit me what this guy was saying. As far as I could tell, he was telling me that I was able to box, but his hands were tied because of a little paperwork. I felt like a bad ass.
But then it occurred to me that this was probably not such a bad thing . In fact, this was the PERFECT outcome of this assignment. I got to train, I got to feel tough, but I didn’t have to go face to face with some dude that most likely could wipe the floor with me.
Tom told me that he wanted me to come back to the gym and I told him that I would. It is a perfect boxing place. The gym could be used as a scene for a boxing movie.
On Saturday the boxing match was a huge success with a lot of people attending. Luckily, I didn’t have to go a round, even though I could have. It was all paperwork and politics, I tell ya, just a bunch of red tape.
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