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PROMO

Brewer fighter headed from MMA cage to boxing ring — temporarily
By Ernie Clark, BDN Staff Posted Oct. 06, 2014, at 8:16 a.m.[1]

REPORT

Gamache triumphant in return to Lewiston[2]
KALLE OAKES, Sun Journal Staff Writer Saturday, October 11, 2014 at 11:00 pm
LEWISTON — After two years away from professional boxing, Steven Gamache didn’t need much 
of a scouting report on his junior middleweight opponent, Damon Antoine of Akron, Ohio.
Gamache gained all the knowledge he required from two numbers – Antoine’s age (41) and 
number of previous professional fights (68).
“It felt good to get in there with a guy who actually can fight,” Gamache said. “He’s had 
more fights than my father had as a pro.”
Fighting for the fifth time as a professional and first in his hometown, Gamache (5-0) 
slugged out a four-round unanimous decision at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
The win was his fourth consecutive by virtue of the cards after a knockout in his pro 
debut just over the state line in Somersworth, N.H. All three judges scored the bout 40-36.
“I knew he had a lot of experience and that he had been in there with world champions. I 
just tried to set him up with the body,” Gamache said. “He was a wild guy. I had to keep my 
hands above my chin.” Gamache, 31, son of two-time world champion Joey Gamache, last fought 
in October 2012 under his father’s watchful eye in Brooklyn. N.Y.
The elder Gamache now lives in Denmark, where he continues to train fighters. He wasn’t able 
to attend Saturday’s comeback bout.
Without his father in the picture, Stevie stepped away from the sport. New England Fights’ 
first foray into boxing after nearly three years of successful mixed martial arts promotion 
prompted the revival.
“It’s awesome. I told my coach, to come here and fight and be in the same locker room where 
I hung out with my father,” Gamache said. “Plus just the history with Muhammad Ali (fighting 
Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship). Now that boxing is back in Maine, I’d like 
to stay active.” Activity might as well be Antoine’s middle name. He has been in the fight 
game so long that if you do an internet search, you are more likely to discover the exploits 
of his adult son, Damon Jr., a Golden Gloves fighter who plans to turn pro in January.
Antoine dropped to 11-56-2 with the loss.
“I have a lot of losses because they bring me in expecting me to lose,” said Antoine, who 
has fought in at least 20 different states. “He was a lot harder fight than I thought he 
would be. I took the fight on two weeks’ notice. My legs weren’t quite ready. They felt heavy. 
I need six, eight rounds to get into it.” Gamache did most of his damage with uppercuts and 
combinations to the body. It was by design. Based on Antoine’s experience, that was where he 
expected the veteran to be weakest. “He had so much experience that I knew he wouldn’t be 
bothered by the head, so I worked to the body,” Gamache said. Antoine was never in real danger 
of going down. He took Gamache’s best punch to the midsection late in round two, but the bell
 prevented the local from inflicting any additional damage.
“I wanted to get the work in. I don’t want to go in there with a guy that I can knock out quick. 
I never look for the knockout. If it’s there, I’ll take it,” Gamache said. “Those older guys, 
they know how to survive. They know how to hold on.”

Carville's in charge as sweet science returns to Lewiston[3]
KALLE OAKES, Staff Writer Saturday, October 11, 2014 at 10:45 pm
LEWISTON — James “Boxcar Willie” Carville held up the check just below the inch-long abrasion 
under his left eye. Two hundred forty-four dollars. Eighty-five cents.
“This is the difference, right here,” Carville, a 30-year-old, former New England Golden Gloves 
champion from Lisbon, said Saturday night after his professional boxing debut at Androscoggin 
Bank Colisee before more than 1,000 fans. “It isn’t much, but it’s the contract I signed.”
And it’s the life he chose. Sort of.
Carville, who jabbed his way to a unanimous decision over Paulo Souza of Sao Paolo, Brazil, in 
a welterweight bout, is a veteran of 65 amateur fights. "41 wins, 24 losses," Carville rattled 
off, proudly. He once trained under two of the state’s best trainers, Joe Gamache Sr. of 
Litchfield and Bobby Russo of Portland. But in 2010, with the prize fighting game forbidden in 
Maine for a brief period, Carville hung up the gloves and tossed the mouthpiece in the bucket. 
He settled into life as a husband, father, and a pipe fitter at Bath Iron Works.
New England Fights’ summer announcement that it was adding boxing to its successful mixed 
martial arts promotional program changed everything.
“I was 12 years old the first time I walked down into the basement of the Lewiston Armory into
the Gamache gym. I’ve fought everywhere and everyone,” Carville said. “Twenty years I’ve been 
waiting for this moment. It’s a silly dream, but it’s one that I had, and I made it come true.”
Carville had his hand raised in the center of the same arena where Muhammad Ali stood 
triumphantly and mockingly over Sonny Liston in 1965, and where his local idol, Joey Gamache, 
defeated the world-class likes of Floyd Mayweather's uncle, Jeff, among others.
He gave up almost 15 pounds to Souza, a late replacement for Johnny Frazier, and didn’t know 
the opponent’s identity until Thursday night. As was the case with several personalities on 
the six-fight card, Souza was making the transition from MMA, and specifically Muay Thai.
“That much weight is a big difference,” Carville said. “You think of physics.”
Souza’s free-swinging style had Carville doing that math at the end of the opening round, 
backing the local favorite into a corner with a four-punch combination to the head.
“The first round I got too much adrenaline going and got a little too excited and got out of 
my game plan. But once I settled down, I found my jab,” Carville said. “The end of the first 
round he caught me with a big punch, and I felt that. I said, ‘This is isn’t going to happen.’ 
I gutted it out, tough. The guys in the corner, they know me well, they said settle down with 
that jab and don’t get too excited. That made the difference.”
Carville began to stick that left-hand lead with authority in the second round, using it to 
blaze the trail for at least one effective looping right. That form prevailed for the balance, 
with Carville successfully averting Souza’s haymakers and hammering out a 40-36 on one judge’s 
card and 39-37 on the other two.
“He was a game fighter. He surprised me, and again, having that extra bit of weight,” Carville 
said. “I found my jab, but I was disappointed because I thought I was going to be able to 
connect with different punches. He stayed far enough away that I was constantly lurching in 
and lurching in. He was just far enough outside that I didn’t want to lurch in with my right 
and get tagged.”
Debut or not, Carville wasted no time issuing a challenge to NEF boxing’s first main-event 
poster man. Given a few seconds to discuss his win over the public address system, Carville 
called out Brandon “The Cannon” Berry of West Forks.
“I’ve known Brandon since he was a young, young man. I’ve been in the gym with him. I’ve 
sparred with him,” Carville explained. “By calling him out, I’m not saying that I don’t 
respect him. But if he wants to step up to that next level, he needs to fight legitimate 
fighters. The audience needs to call that out, because that’s what we want to see, right? He’s 
a big Arturo Gatti-Mickey Ward fan. Outside the ring those two were the best of friends. In the 
ring, they made wars.”
Berry stayed undefeated as a pro with a six-round unanimous decision over Eric Palmer of 
Pittsburgh, Pa. Palmer, past winner of a Toughman competition, lived up to that reputation by 
taking everything the 140-pound Mainer could dish out. "My hat is off to him. I never imagined 
anyone could take the kind of shots I was giving and just smile," Berry said. "We were talking 
during the fight. We were literally having a conversation."
Hundreds of Berry's fans made the two-hour, one-way trek from Central and Eastern Maine and 
roared their approval throughout. They watched him walk off with NEF's first-ever title in the 
weight class. "He deserves it," Palmer said. "He's a tough son-of-a-gun."
In the co-main event, Stevie Gamache of Lewiston (see related story) pounded away at the body 
and outpointed Ohio's Damon Antoine in a four-round junior middleweight skirmish. Gamache is 
the son of Joey Gamache, who is training fighters in Europe and was not in attendance.
Three other undercard bouts went the distance, highlighted by 46-year-old John Webster’s 
game performance in a four-round light heavyweight loss to Tollison Lewis.
Webster, of Portland, fought the last time Lewiston hosted a pro card in 2004, and he 
slugged it out on multiple Gamache bills in the 1990s.
Windham's Lewis knocked down Webster twice, the second time out of the ring and onto a 
ringside table. Webster soldiered on. Two judges credited him with winning an early round. 
The final scorecards read 39-36, 39-35 and 40-35.
Bruce Boyington decisioned Nate Charles with ease. 
The crowd lustily booed the other decision, a majority draw between Joel Bishop and Jarod Lawton.
All four were making their pro debut. Some simply were staying sharp for their next cage fight. 
Boxing remains Carville’s true love in combat sports. It’s well down the list in the real world, however.
“I’m only going to do this for a while. I’ve got a family. I’ve got a full-time job. I’ve got two 
or three years and then I’m going to get out of it,” Carville said. “I’ve got three little boys, 
and I don’t want them in this ring. I want them to be farmers and dentists.”