Burnside Boxing Club may out-grow facility

Jake Giuriceo, one of its first members, will fight on the Kelly Pavlik undercard Feb. 21.

Staff report

STRUTHERS — All local eyes will be on Kelly Pavlik on February 21.

Well, almost all of them.

Jake Giuriceo of Struthers will make his professional boxing debut in a super lightweight (142 pounds) fight on the undercard of Pavlik’s middleweight title bout against Marco Antonio Rubio at the Chevrolet Centre.

Some local boxing fans — particularly those from the fledgling Burnside Boxing Club — will be watching Giuriceo’s progress with keen interest.

Giuriceo trains at the Burnside Club, 4010 Simon Road, a facility that does not charge a membership fee.

“Training there is a lot of hard work; we put in a lot of long days,” Giuriceo said.

As an amateur, Giuriceo, 23, registered a 28-4 record and was 17-0 in the local KO Drugs Tournaments.

During those tournaments he initially met Keith Burnside, a local trainer.

“I stuck with Keith,” Giuriceo said. “He’s been a father figure to me. We work really well together.”

Giuriceo is impressed by the professional atmosphere he’s found at the Burnside gym.

“There’s no standing around or slacking here,” Giuriceo said.

“A trainer will get on you. It’s all hands on here.”

But the gym is still in its infancy.

About two years ago Ron Anzevino and Burnside talked about opening a boxing gym. That dream came into fruition the past summer.

Now 30 to 35 kids are using the Burnside Boxing Club daily.

“We never charge them to come,” Anzevino said. “They bring their homework to the club and do it there. They feel safe.”

However, Anzevino has refused to assume a Pied Piper role: Young adults follow him, looking for direction, security and tough love.

But now they threaten to out-grow the facility — a place where Anzevino pays the bills out of his pocket.

“It’s scary how many kids are coming there,” Anzevino said.

“They know it’s a place where there’s no trouble, no drugs of any kind, and they know they will be safe, with discipline — they’re going to blow the walls out of the building.”

Anzevino continued: “Discipline is a positive thing. We show them that discipline can be fun.”

There are even girls coming to the gym now and as many as eight trainers to work with the athletes.

Anzevino has managed to get the ring donated and he and Burnside have the trainers volunteering their time.

While Keith Burnside is the head trainer of the club, he deflects all the credit for the facility to his mentor, Ron Anzevino.

Anzevino first rented the building to have a place to work on hot rod cars but then ran into Burnside who was training amateur boxers in his garage of his home.

Their relationship goes back many decades to when Anzevino, 63, coached Burnside, 46, in a youth football league.

Giuriceo hasn’t heard yet who he will fight on Feb. 21 but has heard he’s likely the first bout of the night.

One thing he’s sure of, however, is that he’ll have family and friends in the crowd who were lucky enough to get some of the elusive tickets for the night.

And he’s sure he’s in good hands.

“We got a great gym, guaranteed,” Giuriceo said. “Everybody helps. We got a great work ethic.”