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Top amateur boxers to clash
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
A return to the ring by one the area’s top-ranked females and a local fighter who will take on the 2009 National Golden Gloves champion in the main event highlight the third annual Bob Roth amateur boxing show Friday at the Saxon Club.
Nineteen bouts are on tap with 13 of those contests pitting fighters from New York against fighters from the Valley or elsewhere in Ohio.
“Bob [Roth] was like as second dad to me,” said tournament director Jack Loew. “My father passed away on Valentine’s Day in 2000, the day when Kelly [Pavlik] and I returned from the Olympic Trials in Colorado Springs.
“It was Bob who I turned to, called every day and over the years was the one who took it upon himself to help bring interest in amateur boxing back to the Mahoning Valley.”
The event is the main fundraiser for Loew’s Southside Boxing Club. He uses the proceeds to pay utilities, buy equipment and pay travel costs for out-of-town boxing events. Loew is also hoping to pave the gym’s parking lot.
Youngstown’s Stephanie “The Billion Dollar Baby” Sahli, a former K.O. Drugs champion who was 10-1 overall in the event, will return to the ring after a year and a half layoff. She will fight Christy Luck of Columbus in the co-feature.
“The urge to fight never really left me and with a little more free time now on my hands, I returned to training,” said Sahli, who graduated from YSU with an early childhood education degree and now teaches full-time. “I really missed the competition and will be in shape.
“I expect to have a good showing despite the time away.”
The main feature, a 132-pound clash, will pit Youngstown’s Marco Hall against New York’s Brandon Williams, the 2009 National Golden Gloves champion.
“I have trained really hard and I expect to win in front of my fans,” Hall said. “I know absolutely nothing about my opponent [Williams], but expect the fight to be hard-fought from the opening bell.”
For more details, call 330-501-5713 or 330-501-0882.