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Sullivan captures K.O. Drugs boxing title
By Greg gulas
CAMPBELL
A year ago, Mike Sullivan was all set to compete in the annual K.O. Drugs’ High School Boxing Tournament, but suffered a broken hand right before the tourney was to begin and was forced to watch all of the action.
What a difference a year makes.
After scoring a unanimous decision over Josh Mango of Niles McKinley Monday to win the upperclass middleweight title, the Struthers High School junior moved to 3-0 and is now talking about returning next year to defend his title.
By going undefeated in the tournament, he also earned the “Most Promising Boxer” award for his efforts.
“I train with Keith Burnside and he always pushes me to do my very best,” Sullivan said. “It was tough being a spectator last year so to win a title and be named the most promising boxer of the tournament in the process, it makes last year a little easier.
“I worked a lot with my right hand and hook and there’s definitely a mutual respect between Josh and me. I do plan on coming back next year to defend my belt.”
The 25th annual high school boxing tournament came to an end with 18 championship belts awarded at St. Lucy Palermo Center.
There were nine underclass champions. Seven came from the upperclass division while two female division champions were crowned.
Also in upperclass action, Justin Griffin of Marlington moved to 3-0 in the tourney as he captured the featherweight title when he scored a unanimous decision over home school’s Robbie Elmakbah.
“My original intent was to start off slow and be more technical but he came out much different than I expected,” Griffin said. “He was more aggressive and tried to set the pace. At the end of the first round I had him at the ropes, was able to land some punches and for the last two rounds I was able to control the pace.”
In the opening fight of the night, Canfield’s Aaron Jenkins (3-0) earned the underclass welterweight belt by scoring a second-round TKO over home-schooled Austin Gibson.
It took just 99 seconds for him to become champion.
“I hit him with my right and that is all that I really have to offer. This is my first tournament and I love to box so to earn a belt and end the tournament undefeated is quite special,” Jenkins said. “Floyd Mayweather is my idol so I try to copy his style when I am in the ring.”
Also in underclass action, James Bauer (2-0) of New Wilmington won the cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision over Campbell Memorial’s Terrell Neeley (1-2) in a fight he said had plenty of punches thrown.
“He [Neeley] hit me as much as I hit him so I’d say there was plenty of action. He really rocked me a couple of times,” Bauer said. “I noticed that he was out of breath so when he backed up, I was able to recover and land a few punches of my own.”
Also finishing the tournament 3-0, Hubbard’s Tyreck Daniels won the underclass super heavyweight belt when he scored a third-round TKO (:22) over Lakeview’s Tyler Sayers.
“This is my very first ever boxing tournament and while I really didn’t know what to expect in the beginning, it feels great right now to be taking home a championship belt,” Daniels said. My right jab was working for me all three rounds and that was what I hit him with to end the fight.”
In the first of two female pairings, New Castle’s Brindza Davidson scored a third-round TKO over Aubreanna Hayden of Campbell Memorial for the featherweight title while Erika Barone of Struthers earned a split decision over Amy Scarnecchia of Howland for the division’s lightweight crown.
“My brother, Ryan, helped get me started in boxing and I have been working on my game the past year at the New Castle Foundation. I felt that my best chance to win was if I kept pressure on her, so I just went at her the entire fight,” Davidson said.
“We had our most competitive fights to date as every student laid it all on the line when in the ring, all with the hopes of walking off with a championship belt,” tournament founder Chuck Nelson said. “K.O. Drugs is proud tonight to crown almost 20 champions and runners-up, as we have done for the past quarter century. It is imperative that we thank the students, their schools, sponsors and community for all of their continued support.”