By Greg Chrapek
WKTV Contributor
greer@wktv.org
It may still be basketball season in some corners of Michigan, but it’s always time for boxing and one of the highlights of the local boxing scene, the Golden Gloves state tournament, is set for the opening bell to ring on Friday.
The 94th annual Michigan Golden Gloves Championships runs this Friday, Saturday and Sunday as boxers compete for West Michigan Golden Gloves titles. This year’s tournament will be held for the second consecutive year on the campus of Aquinas College as will the State Championships that will take place at the same location next month. The location on campus, located at 1580 Fulton St. SE, is the Sturrus Sports and Fitness Center located at the front of the campus.
While many boxers wait until fight night to register, pre-registration has been taking place and a large group of boxers are expected to take part.
“We are still getting entries coming in,” said Tournament Director Brian Lentz. “We still get 20 to 30 percent of the boxers waiting to enter on the day boxing begins, but the signups are going all right.”
The West Michigan Golden Gloves draws boxers from a wide swath of West Michigan and that is the case once again this year.
“We have entries coming in from all over West Michigan,” Lentz said. “We will have boxers from Lansing, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Niles, Hastings, Edwardsburg, Bangor, Sturgis, Shelby and from all over the Grand Rapids area.”
A number of familiar faces return to this year’s tournament led by Siderio Mitchell who is a returning state champion.
“Both Guzman brothers, Mike and Michael have registered,” Lentz said. “Zoe Hicks is a past national champion who has entered and will be in the 113-pound female division. Junior Rios has also entered again. These are all past champions who have entered so far.”
Lentz, who runs the PK Boxing gym in Wyoming, has a stable of boxers slated to compete in this year’s tournament.
“I have nine or 10 boxers so far and that’s a pretty good number,” Lentz said. “I think it’s the largest group we’ve had in a single year. We are probably the number two gym in terms of number of boxers at this year’s tournament. MGGA (Michigan Golden Gloves Association) is probably number one as they have a couple more boxers entered than we do. Kalamazoo also has quite a few kids this year so far.”
Lentz and his PK boxers are led by a couple of familiar names and a promising newcomer.
“We have Michael Carbajal and Gohan Estevez-Marte back this year,” Lentz said. “We also have a 110-pounder, Kyrie Westerfield, he’s pretty good. He just turned 18 so this will be his first year.”
The West Michigan Championships draw boxers in from Lansing to the West. The East Michigan Championships will be held at The Real Flint Golf Club in Flint on March 27 and 28 for boxers East of Lansing. The champions and runners-up from the West Michigan and East Michigan Golden Gloves will square for a spot on the Michigan team for the National Golden Gloves tournament. This year’s National Golden Gloves Tournament is scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma from May 11 through May 15.
The Golden Gloves is split into different divisions. There is a novice division, for beginning boxers that have had fewer than 10 fights, and an open division for more experienced boxers. There also is a female division.
Along with the big names, the tournament is the birthplace of boxing dreams for young boxers making their first appearances in the ring as several match bouts will take place with young boxers getting their first taste of the ring.
The opening night of this year’s Golden Gloves takes place Friday, March 13. The doors open at 6 p.m. and boxing begins at 7. Action continues Saturday, March 14 with the finals set for Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m.
The Michigan State Championships are scheduled for Friday and Saturday April 10 and 11 at Aquinas College. Bouts begin at 7 p.m. each day with the doors opening at 6.
