Golden Gloves Update: And Then There Were Two...
By Kate Gardiner in News on May 8, 2009 7:40PM
Every 24 hours for the past few days, Tracy Rollins and Lamar Fenner have been beating the crap out of "the other guy" at the National Golden Gloves finals in Salt Lake City. And they're apparently doing it quite well. The two are the remainder of Chicago's Golden Gloves champions, and they'll be in the ring again tonight, fighting in the semifinal bout of the tournament. Rollins says he's taking on Wisconsiner Luis Arias tonight.
Arias is well-known in the boxing world - the 2008 National champion says he's hanging around as an amateur, hoping, like Rollins to be on the roster of the 2012 Olympic team. But temptation to go pro is there, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Gary D'Amato.
"“I want the (Olympic) gold medal just as bad as [my coach] does,” Arias said. “But 2012 is a long way away.”...“I’ve had a couple offers, some big money behind it, but I’m just trying to play it smart,” he said. “When I was 17, I was getting offers thrown at me. As of now, for sure, I want to go to the 2009 world championships.""
Rollins and Arias have fought before - the two went head to head at the Waukesha Boxing show as juniors in the 152-pound division. Arias won then. We're impatient to see if he'll do it again tonight. Rollins' record, through last night, was 76-5.
Super-heavyweight Fenner, lest we forget Chicago's other rising star, comes out of the Leo High School boxing program, which was nascent in 2002 when he graduated. Details online are pretty sketchy, but he'll be fighting Alexis Guerrero, out of Washington, DC.
Guerrero was heralded on the DC scene by Boxing on the Beltway, and the Salisbury News, local blogs. He's apparently the third of three brothers from Delmar, Md., to make it to the Golden Gloves national tournament, weighing in at 6'3" and 192 pounds. He's also the eldest of the brothers - at 27, he's making his national debut. Fenner, 26, is undefeated at 23-0 and is making his debut as nationals as well - we REALLY wish we were there to watch what sounds like an amazing fight tonight.