It’s been four years since Richie Daunt has been in the ring, though, with his 35th birthday on the horizon, and with his 3-year-old daughter, Aria, cheering him on, the wiry, hard-hitting welterweight from Montauk is giving it one more go.
Though not in shape, he began his comeback this past June in a Strong Island Series 160-pound bout at the Stereo Garden in Patchogue, a fight that he lost, though on Jan. 18, also at Stereo Garden, and with about 30 of his fans who had chartered a bus looking on — and weighing in 14 pounds lighter than he had in June — Daunt won a split decision at 154 over Sam Iadicicco, who trains at Vamos Mixed Martial Arts in Holbrook. That recent win, by a split decision, has him looking forward to the Ring Masters Golden Glove-qualifying championships in February whose finals are to be contested at Madison Square Garden.
“I honestly don’t remember what the June decision was,” the personable Montauker said Friday morning after giving a boxing lesson at the Montauk Playhouse. “Though I do know that even though I was overweight, and not there mentally, not throwing enough punches, I should have beat that kid. I was supposed to get a rematch with him this past Saturday. At first, he said yes, and then he said he couldn’t, and then he shows up at ringside.”
“I was 10 times better for this fight than I was in June — I had a lot more stamina. The first round could have gone either way — I was giving him too much space, but then I cut the ring off and put pressure on him, which he couldn’t handle. I definitely thought I won rounds two and three.”
Since June, Daunt, who has for the past several years overseen a successful nutritious meal prep business, Montauk Fresh Eats, has been training seriously, aware that the clock is ticking, and that this may be his last chance at the Golden Gloves.
“It used to be I’d train two days and go out the next. No more. I’m definitely a lot more focused. In that June fight I failed to prepare, which was preparing myself to fail. I’m no longer nervous because I’m training the right way. Aria is why I’m doing it. I gotta give her 100 percent, so she will try her best too. She’s watching, she loves it that I’m boxing. When she’s with me, she eats broccoli, chicken, and rice, and asks, ‘Daddy, do you have any asparagus?’ She didn’t come to the fight — she’s too young, maybe when she’s 5. But she drew up a ‘Go Dad!’ poster.”
“If I don’t have a goal that I can focus on I tend to get off the track a little bit,” said Daunt, who, besides running his meal prep business, is a personal trainer and gives boxing lessons. “Now I feel much better. I get up at 4, I’m in the gym training some students at 5 — I train them once or twice a week — then I work out, high-intensity cardiovascular workouts. Six days a week. No boxing, no life for me . . . when I’m not having fun with it, I’ll be done with it.”
Another nice thing, he said, was that he no longer has to travel up the Island to spar now that Hill Street Boxing, managed by his trainer, Alan Quinonez, is in Southampton. “That cuts the travel time at least in half, especially in the summer.”
When mention was made of the clock ticking, the interviewee said, with a smile, “I’m not getting any younger, but today I’m the youngest I’ll ever be.”
