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Discussing Boxing Culture With, For, and About Recreational Boxers Who Practice the Sport in Adulthood Purely for the Fun and Love of it
To arrange for personal training, private group or corporate events, or to spread the love of boxing for physical fitness and self defense, contact Mark Connor at:
2011 Ringside Tournament brings impressive wins, tough fights for “Big Jump” and “Deadline”
by
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2011
Among boxers representing the Uppercut Gym in the Ringside Products World Championship tournament August 15-20 in Kansas City, KS were John “The Big Jump” Keck and Rick “The Deadline” Lundstrum, each of whom competed for the first time ever in the Master’s Division novice class. The 38-year-old Keck, a former collegiate ski jumper who now works in the HR department of a Heating and Air Conditioning service company, entered the heavyweight division and plowed through opponents on his way to the championship match. Lundstrum, a 53-year-old editor of an online travel industry trade magazine, delivered a determined performance, dominating and knocking down his preliminary opponent only to be inexplicably robbed of victory by the judges. The two represented Uppercut Gym of Minneapolis, MN very well, demonstrating the degree to which so-called White Collar Boxers can develop in the pugilistic art while evincing great potential to win the Ringside Championships in the future.
Keck, who weighed 195 pounds the first day of the tournament and 197 for both the semi-finals and finals, was forced to fight boxers weighing well over the 201 pound heavyweight limit because Masters Division rules allow for more leeway in order to seat a full tournament in each weight division and experience level. Against his first opponent he scored a knockdown in both the first and third rounds, the latter coming from a solid left jab, causing the referee to stop the contest. In the second match Keck faced a boxer from Georgia who was competing out of Tennessee. This opponent was tall, heavy and strong. In the corner before the third and final round we were concerned that Keck was behind on points. He was instructed to land combinations and punch with determination as the bell rang and his Uppercut Gym teammates cheered him on. In the latter part of the round Keck landed a solid right hand that caused the referee to stop the fight and call the ringside doctor to examine the man. It turned out that Keck had broken his opponent’s nose and the fight was stopped, advancing “The Big Jump” into the finals to fight for the Ringside Championship belt. Keck fought hard in the last match against a man weighing 207 pounds. Although it was close, John “The Big Jump” Keck lost a decision, earning the 2nd place medal at his first ever Ringside International Championships boxing tournament.
Sheahan Wins First Ringside Title
During the first week of August Ringside Products held its 10th Anniversary amateur boxing tournament. Competing as a Heavyweight in the Masters Division for the second year in a row was Ryan Sheahan of Minneapolis. A computer consultant orginally from Chicago, IL, Ryan has trained under me since June, 2009 and is featured in the above video advertising my personal training business. He asserts in the end of his testimony that, after having finished in second place last year, he was going to work hard with me and win it this year. He did. He defeated last year's champion with a 3rd round stoppage in the semi-finals and won a decision in the finals, bringing home his first Ringside belt. Congratulations to Ryan Sheahan! Video coverage of his victories should be posted soon.
----Mark Connor
White Collar Boxing is a term coined decades ago at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, New York. It refers to men who work white collar jobs but learn to box recreationally and work out regularly at the gym. It now also refers to women who do the same thing. In April 2006 I published an article in Upsize
Minnesota about Lisa Bauch and her Uppercut Boxing Gym . I also personally train white collar boxers there. Look to this page for regular features of some of the enthusiasts who train at Uppercut Gym, including Steve McComas, four time Light Heavyweight Masters (over 35) Division International Ringside Champion and environmental scientist, and many others.
Interestingly enough, McComas is also an author, having written Lake and Pond Management, a work that is used as a text book and by professionals.
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Mark Breland Trains FX Channel Star, Appears in "Lights Out" Episode
by
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2010
On Friday, July 23, Mark Breland spoke with Boxers and Writers Magazine via telephone from his home in Brooklyn, New York. While answering questions about his celebrated professional and amateur boxing careers, as well as his experience training fighters in recent years, he spoke of his upcoming appearance in Lights Out, a new TV series on the FX channel. Breland trained the show’s lead man, Holt McCallany.
Breland, who co-starred with David Keith in the movie The Lords of Discipline before his Gold Medal performance in the 1984 Olympics, plans to return to more frequent acting in the future. Having trained McCallany for Lights Out, he was able to land a small part as the trainer of a fighter squaring off against McCallany’s character, Patrick “Lights Out” Leary. That episode and the series, which deals with the effects experienced by a boxer pushing his career beyond its normal life span, should be an interesting and entertaining journey into the pugilistic world.
Accoding to FX Newtorks' web site, McCallany's character Patrick "Lights Out" Leary, is "an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after retiring from the ring." The character vacilates between the desire to box again and accepting a job as a debt collector for a loan shark. Some added twists to the plot are that Leary apparently suffers from a degree of dementia caused by years of head blows, and while the family has financial problems his wife, Theresa Leary, played by Catherine McCormack (Braveheart) is a doctor finishing her medical residency. The details of the series promise an interesting dramatic exploration.
Breland’s overwhelming amateur success and exceptional championship professional career—he ended with a record of 35-3-1, 25 KOs—positioned him well to train professional fighters and also share his skills outside the profession, as he’s done with McCallany. He currently trains 6’-7” Heavyweight Deontay Wilder, who won a Bronze Medal at the 2008 Olympics in China. Also, Breland previously trained Lightweight Jorge Teron, and successfully trained the late World Champion Vernon Forrest for his victory over former Welterweight Champion Ike Quartey.
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In 2005 I attended Gleason’s Fantasy Boxing Camp as an observing journalist. Taking place at Kuscher's Country Club in the Catskills of New York, the weekend clinic included five former world champions as guest trainers. They were former Welterweight and Middleweight champion Emile Griffith, former Middleweight Champion Vito Antuofermo, former Light Heavyweight Champion Mathew Saad Muhammad, 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist and former Welterweight Champion Mark Breland, former Featherweight and Superfeatherweight Champion Juan LaPorte, and former Lightweight Champion Carlos Ortiz. It was a fun experience, and many of the White Collar boxing enthusiasts I met gave interesting interviews. Seek more about this subject here in the near future, and expect some word on Gleason's next camp in 2009.
McComas, Sheahan Challenge Selves at Gleason's Masters Clinic
by
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2010
Three-time Ringside Boxing Masters Division International Light Heavyweight Champion, Steve McComas of St. Paul, Minnesota is joined this week by fellow Twin Citian and 2009 Heavyweight Masters Division Runner-up, Ryan Sheahan of Minneapolis for the third annual Gleason's Gym Masters Clinic in Brooklyn, New York. Both have trained hard over the last month in order to maximize the benefit they'll receive from workouts Thursday and Friday with world class trainers and former and present world champion profressionals, and they've been matched against quality opponents for the amateur boxing card scheduled at the gym on Saturday night.
McComas' Experience pulls him through, Sheahan misses with valiant effort
by
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2010
On Saturday night, February 20, St. Paul's Steve McComas proved why he has won three Master's Division Ringside International Light Heavyweight Championships when he pulled out a close victory over Bill Ruscher from New Jersey. Ruscher was tough and obviosly won the first round, but McComas reversed the momentum in the second, kept the pressure up in the third, and pulled it out with a relentless attack in the last 30 seconds of the fight.
McComas' teammate from Uppercut Gym in Minneapolis, Ryan Sheahan, was unable to squeak by a tough and skilled Paul Corbett of New Jersey. Corbett was able to counter the taller Sheahan's jab with an overhand right and in the third round utilized an extra reserve of energy that pulled him through.
It was an honor and a pleasure to have been at the competition and to work the corners of both these men with the excellent assistance of Brooklyn native and Gleason's alumni Manny Fernandez, who recently opened his own gym in North Hollywood, California. Pictures of the event will be posted shortly.
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