Amateur Boxer Development...

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Amateur boxing is like professional boxing but its also different. As a pro you want to be (you MUST BE) careful early on with your matchmaking. You want to gain experience but you don't want to lose, either. It's a business and you have to maneuver ur way through the game until its time to really show and prove. The beautiful thing about amateur boxing is that it doesnt matter as much if you lose. Its all just experience for the tournaments that you hope to win down the line. When you are around other amateur boxers they NEVER ask your record, they always ask "How many fights you got?" Because they subconiciously know that wins and losses dont matter as much as the experience. 100 fights is 100 fights. PERIOD.

When I had just 12 amateur fights I was matched up on a show with a guy from Connecticut named Lenny Gargagliano. Lenny was a reigning and defending New England Golden Gloves champion who scored some booming KO's as a 139 pounder with that HUGE right hook of his. We fought in October of 1984 when I had just 12 bouts worth of experience and had only started boxing just over two years earlier. I had just turned 17 years old. Lenny on the other hand had been a frequent sparring partner for Marlon Starling, had beaten Ray Bright in three of four and was just two months away from gaining a national ranking at 147. He was just months away from advancing to the finals of the National Sports Festival in Houston where he would lose a decision to future WBA world 168 pound champ Frankie Liles.

I was literally still competing as novice just a few months before we matched up at the Agora Ballroom in West Hartford. Lenny was literally just my 4th "open class" opponent.

We fought and I handled myself well enough, going the distance and even cutting him under his right eye bad enough that he told me just a few months ago (we are in touch, he lives in Texas now. Stayed in TX. after moving there after the Sports Fest in 1986 to train at Josephine Abercrombie's HBA camp) that he still has a small scar there and that he almost had to miss the nationals because of it. It was a fair decision, though. He was just too energetic and busy for me at that time. I was still very nervous heading into the ring in those days while he apparently was not. He threw tons of fast punches at me from his southpaw stance and forced me to fight back. Lenny Gargagliano helped me become a real fight that night and I appreciated the experience.

For me, it's all part of the process. I'd rather fight and lose to a guy like him at that point in my career and life than not fight him and not experience the loss. Just being in the ring with him put me mentally on a level I couldn't have reached had I not faced someone like him.
More than 30 years later, my own boxers will benefit from that experience when the time comes.

[JMac]

Amateur boxing is like professional boxing but its also different. As a pro you want to be (you MUST BE) careful early on with your matchmaking. You want to gain experience but you don't want to lose, either. It's a business and you have to maneuver ur way through the game until its time to really show and prove. The beautiful thing about amateur boxing is that it doesnt matter as much if you lose. Its all just experience for the tournaments that you hope to win down the line. When you are around other amateur boxers they NEVER ask your record, they always ask "How many fights you got?" Because they subconiciously know that wins and losses dont matter as much as the experience. 100 fights is 100 fights. PERIOD.

When I had just 12 amateur fights I was matched up on a show with a guy from Connecticut named Lenny Gargagliano. Lenny was a reigning and defending New England Golden Gloves champion who scored some booming KO's as a 139 pounder with that HUGE right hook of his. We fought in October of 1984 when I had just 12 bouts worth of experience and had only started boxing just over two years earlier. I had just turned 17 years old. Lenny on the other hand had been a frequent sparring partner for Marlon Starling, had beaten Ray Bright in three of four and was just two months away from gaining a national ranking at 147. He was just months away from advancing to the finals of the National Sports Festival in Houston where he would lose a decision to future WBA world 168 pound champ Frankie Liles.

I was literally still competing as novice just a few months before we matched up at the Agora Ballroom in West Hartford. Lenny was literally just my 4th "open class" opponent.

We fought and I handled myself well enough, going the distance and even cutting him under his right eye bad enough that he told me just a few months ago (we are in touch, he lives in Texas now. Stayed in TX. after moving there after the Sports Fest in 1986 to train at Josephine Abercrombie's HBA camp) that he still has a small scar there and that he almost had to miss the nationals because of it. It was a fair decision, though. He was just too energetic and busy for me at that time. I was still very nervous heading into the ring in those days while he apparently was not. He threw tons of fast punches at me from his southpaw stance and forced me to fight back. Lenny Gargagliano helped me become a real fight that night and I appreciated the experience.

For me, it's all part of the process. I'd rather fight and lose to a guy like him at that point in my career and life than not fight him and not experience the loss. Just being in the ring with him put me mentally on a level I couldn't have reached had I not faced someone like him.
More than 30 years later, my own boxers will benefit from that experience when the time comes.

Good stuff John. Now tell them how you beat Darren Allen, reigning world amateur champ at the eastern olympic trials in '92. It's good to see a guy like you who had a good amateur and pro career and still have all your marbles left.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Actually it was 1988 :) (the Olympic trials i was in)

[JMac]

Actually it was 1988 :) (the Olympic trials i was in)

I was there but I'm the one who is punchy. Thanks for clarifying. You moved quickly to Olympic trial level.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

I was very determined :)

Were u there as a competitor? What weight? Name? (I understand if u dont want to reveal on a forum)

[JMac]

I was very determined :)

Were u there as a competitor? What weight? Name? (I understand if u dont want to reveal on a forum)

I was there as a ref/judge.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Ohhh, OK. Did u see my fight? There were some good guys there! Roy Jones, Vernon Forrest, Mike Bent, Kevin Kelley, Charles Murray, Ray Oliviera, Lamar Parks, etc etc

[JMac]

Ohhh, OK. Did u see my fight? There were some good guys there! Roy Jones, Vernon Forrest, Mike Bent, Kevin Kelley, Charles Murray, Ray Oliviera, Lamar Parks, etc etc

Of course I saw your fight with Allen in the finals. I still have all of the bout sheets from that tournament. Roy Jones won his 1st bout at 147 but either didn't make weight or didn't show up for weigh-ins and lost by walk-over to Dan Connolly of Pittsburgh in the next round. I think Roy had already qualified for the Olympic trials at 156 through the Golden Gloves. There were some great boxers in that tournament just like the '87 Olympic Festival trials at Lake Placid. I was there as a coach with 2 boxers, 147 and 178. Didn't you box there also?

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Roy didnt make weight for the Connolly bout...I was in Lake Placid in 1987 as part of the USA Team training camp for Russia ...we were there WATCHING....Darin Allen won it at 165 that year, beating Al Cole in the finals