Welterweight Undaunted, Buoyed by Recent ‘W’
Richie Daunt’s boxing record, thanks to a “Golden Gloves” win in Yonkers on March 1, is all even at 4-4. He hopes to make it 5-4 tomorrow night, in another 152-pound novice bout in Flushing.
“It’s no longer called the Golden Gloves,” Daunt explained during a conversation at The Star on Monday. “The Daily News, which ran it for 100 or so years, is out of it. U.S.A. Boxing runs it now. The tournament’s now called ‘The Road to the Garden.’ ”
It’s the third year that Daunt, a Montauk resident, has dreamt of “bringing the gloves home and a nice little necklace.” Luis Mancilla of Springs, a sometime sparring partner of Daunt’s, made it to the finals in 2011.
“The first year I was overweight and was dq’d,” the Montauk welterweight said when asked how many times he’s competed in the tourney. “The next year I hurt my hand in a tournament leading up to it, and last year I wasn’t in the best shape and hadn’t fought in a while. I was nervous and lost. I’m not nervous anymore.”
Asked to describe his recent first-ever Road to the Garden tournament win, Daunt said, “The other guy [Salvatore Pallima] came out crazy, throwing a lot of punches, trying to knock me out in the first round, but by the end of it I could see he was gassed.”
“My trainer” — Mike Vargas of Finest Fitness in Patchogue — “told me during the break that that was the way I’d lost last year — I wasn’t moving, I was just standing there. He told me to move my feet and box the way he knew I could. Get in and get out. Don’t just stand there. It’ll be a lot easier if you do. . . . It was!”
Daunt was undaunted after that, throwing purposeful punches, to the midsection, to the head, taking control of the three-round fight, after which his hand was raised by the ref.
In the final two rounds, then, “I worked him up and down,” Daunt said. “I could tell he was tired after the second round. He just put his head down. But I knew I had to win the third round too.”
“Being in shape is really the key. I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for a while. I’m on a good path now. . . . I sparred 14 rounds — two-minute rounds, but even so — the other night at Finest Fitness.”
Daunt, 27, who recently earned a personal trainer’s certificate, teaches boxing at Gordon Trotter’s MuvStrong fitness studio in the One-Stop complex in East Hampton on Saturdays at 11 a.m., and at the Montauk Playhouse’s gym on Sundays at 9 a.m.
For sparring partners he travels far afield, to Freeport and Westbury, as well as to Heavy Hitters in Ronkonkoma and to his home gym in Patchogue.
He used to work 80-plus hours a week in the summers in Montauk restaurant kitchens, but that kind of life, he said, was not conducive to staying in shape. “Maybe in later years I’ll own a restaurant. . . .”
“Meanwhile, I’m going to stay fighting. I plan to fight at least 10 times this year. Two more fights and I’ll be in the open division, up against guys with a lot of experience, some with 150 fights maybe. As it is, I’m happy being where I am among the more experienced fighters in the novice division.”
Diego Iglesias is to be his opponent tomorrow. Fans of Daunt’s can live-stream it, he said, on Pug Life Chronicles’ Facebook page. The bouts are to begin at 7:45 p.m., “though I don’t know when I’ll be on . . . I could be first or 10th.”
Should he win tomorrow and in the quarterfinals, he’ll be closer to home, at Finest Fitness in Patchogue, for the semifinals on April 7.
“Boxing is it for now,” Daunt said in taking his leave. “Boxing and personal training.”