Flyin’ Under the Radar Irish Cruiserweight Wilson Ready
to Make His Mark Next Week in New England Debut!
(May 15th) – Mike Wilson has spanned the globe from Texas all the way to Australia searching for his golden opportunity.
The 6-foot-3 Irish cruiserweight from Medford, Oreg., whose grandparents were born and raised in County Cork, Ireland, may have finally found it 3,000 miles east in the heart of New England’s booming boxing community.
Wilson (5-0, 3 KOs) has joined forces with Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports in Providence, R.I., and will make his New England debut Thursday, May 24th, 2012 when he faces veteran Joseph Rabotte (11-20-1) in a four-round bout on the undercard of Burchfield’s “Up For Grabs” show at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln.
“I’m the best-kept secret on this show. You’ll be wondering, ‘Damn, where did he come from?’” Wilson said. “I’ve flown under the radar for years coming from Oregon. I just needed an opportunity, and it looks like it’s finally coming my way.”
“The Irish have a tradition of being warriors, especially when they’re ancestors come from Ireland,” Burchfield added. “That’s how you know they’re really Irish! We’re honored to have Mike on this card, and we’re excited to watch him develop into a championship-caliber fighter while proudly representing boxing’s storied history within the Irish-American community.”
Wilson linked up with Burchfield through his manager, Bob Spagnola, whom Burchfield describes as a “dear friend.”
“Knowing Mike was represented by Bob was enough for me,” Burchfield said.
A Texas native, Spagnola first met Wilson at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Houston. At the time, Wilson was a 24-year-old super heavyweight with three United States National Amateur titles under his belt looking for one last shot at Olympic glory (he came within one fight of qualifying for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece).
“He had great amateur credentials,” Spagnola said. “A lot of people were after him.”
Unfortunately for Wilson, he and Spagnola could not strike a deal, so after Wilson lost to Kimdo Bethel in the loser’s bracket finals, he signed with Tennessee-based manager Chris Rowland, who guided him to four wins – three by knockout – within the first three months of his professional career.
“All of a sudden, I couldn’t get in touch with [Rowland] for a few months,” Wilson said. “Then the stipends stopped coming. I’m thinking to myself, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
Turns out Rowland had problems of his own; he was indicted in November of 2009 on federal money-laundering charges, just one month after Wilson’s fourth bout, leaving the promising, young heavyweight without a manager (Rowland was later sentenced to 28 months in federal prison in 2011).
He and Spagnola reconnected shortly after Wilson’s fifth bout – a unanimous-decision win over Jae Bryce in Australia – and Spagnola worked quickly to pitch Wilson to a promoter who could bring his career to new heights.
“I told Jimmy, ‘Listen, this kid is worth working on,’” Spagnola said. “All he needed was an opportunity, and with the way this business has changed in this economy, everyone knows those opportunities are few and far in between.
“A guy like Jimmy, with the way he works, will get this kid the opportunity he deserves.”
Wilson’s long-term goal is to drop from heavyweight, where he fought his first five fights, to cruiserweight, where he’ll fight on the 24th, and eventually win a world title in that weight class before bulking back up to heavyweight. The decision to shed the weight stemmed from an inadvertent lifestyle change two years ago.
“When I first turned pro, I worked my ass off in the gym, but I liked to play hard, too,” Wilson said. “I liked to hang out with friends and drink a few beers. One night, I got arrested for [driving under the influence] and had to spend two weeks in jail.
“I’m sitting there with these people thinking, ‘This is where drinking got me. I’m done with it!’”
Once he stopped drinking, Wilson trimmed down to 200 pounds and soon realized he was a more natural fit at cruiserweight despite more than 15 years of experience in the heavyweight division.
“This is where I should’ve been all that time,” he said. “I was always a small heavyweight fighting bigger guys. Now I’m a big cruiserweight fighting smaller guys.”
Wilson hopes to draw from the experiences of Tomasz Adamek, Evander Holyfield and Marco Huck, who each won world titles as cruiserweights before making the leap to heavyweight – the most successful being Holyfield, who went on to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion just two years after winning his last cruiserweight title.
“That’s logistically the easiest way to do it,” Wilson said. “The money’s not great at cruiserweight, but you can get a title shot, and then you’re already in the Top 10 when you move up to heavyweight.
“I followed Adamek and Huck when they went up, but their styles didn’t fit at heavyweight. Huck is more of a brawler – too small. Me, I’m more of a boxer. I like to box. I like to use my length and reach. Adamek, he has that fighter’s heart and mentality, but sometimes those heavyweights are too damn big to bang with.
“That won’t be a problem for me as long as I bring the weight with me. I plan on doing it the right way.”
Wilson has flown under the radar fighting out of Oregon – “There’s really no boxing in the northwest,” Spagnola said – but his amateur background is unrivaled by that of most fighters his age. A self-described “fat kid” growing up, he began boxing at 13 when he joined a newly-opened gym in Medford.
“Boxing had always interested me, and when this gym opened I tried getting a few of my friends to join with me, but none of them had the balls to do it,” Wilson said. “My mom got tired of me talking about it, so she brought me there one day without me knowing and told me, ‘Go inside and sign up.’
“She tricked me, but it worked.”
Boxing soon became an outlet for Wilson to travel the country, a luxury he couldn’t afford growing up since his family had little money. He soared to the top of the super heavyweight division within seven years, capturing the first of three consecutive U.S. National Amateur championships in 2004 (he was later stripped of his 2006 title after testing positive for marijuana, an incident Wilson said is, “in my rearview mirror now”). Later in ‘04, he narrowly missed qualifying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team when he lost to Providence’s Jason Estrada in the finals.
“At first, I took a lot of things for granted and didn’t always want to train because I’d rather be hanging with my friends,” Wilson said, “but I eventually kind of just woke up and thought, ‘If I’m going to do something with this, I better start now.’”
Following a one-point loss to Michael Hunter, this year’s Olympic qualifier in the heavyweight division, in the 2007 National finals and his subsequent loss to Bethel in the ’08 Olympic trials, Wilson finally made his professional debut in August of 2009.
Through trials and tribulations – stemming from both bad luck and poor decision-making – Wilson has finally landed with the right manager and promoter. Coming soon to an arena near you, “Irish” Mike is ready to state his case as boxing’s best-kept secret.
“I firmly believe everything happens for a reason,” Wilson said. “Sometimes when you starve for so long, it makes you hungry. You’ve got to go through struggles to appreciate things. All I want is one opportunity, and it seems like it’s finally falling into my lap now. I’m going to make the most of it.”
The eight-round main event of “Up For Grabs” features Vladine Biosse (12-1-1, 6 KOs), dubbed “Mr. Providence” due to his strong following in Rhode Island’s capital city, defending his New England Super Middleweight Title against Providence’s Joey “K.O. Kid” Spina (26-2-2, 18 KOs). Unbeaten Burlington, Vt., super middleweight Kevin Cobbs (3-0, 1 KO) will face veteran Borngod Washington (3-10, 1 KO) of Queens, N.Y., in a four-round bout while unbeaten middleweight Thomas Falowo (6-0, 4 KOs) faces La Vista, Neb., native Sean Rawley Wilson (5-10, 1 KO) in a six-round bout.
Super lightweight Zack Ramsey, a former national amateur champion from Springfield, Mass., will make his long-awaited debut against Providence’s Alan Beeman (0-1), while fan-favorite Richard “Bobo The Bull” Starnino (9-7-2, 2 KOs) of Providence will now face Harwich, Mass., native Paul Gonsalves (3-2, 3 KOs) in a six-round light heavyweight bout.
“Up For Grabs” also features the return of former reality television star Richard Gingras (11-2, 7 KOs) of “The Contender,” who, after signing a promotional agreement with Classic Entertainment & Sports, will battle Terrance Smith Jr. (7-13-2, 4 KOs) of Oklahoma City in the six-round cruiserweight special attraction. Female bantamweight Shelito Vincent (2-0) of Providence will battle newcomer Carmen Cruz of Fort Myers, Fla., in a four-round bout.
Tickets for “Up For Grabs” are $35.00, $50.00, $75.00 and $125.00 (VIP) and can be purchased by calling CES at 401.724.2253/2254, online at www.cesboxing.com or www.twinriver.com, at the Players Club booth at Twin River, or through any TicketMaster location. Doors open 6 p.m. with the first bout scheduled for 7.
(Twin River has waived its 18+ rule for “Up For Grabs.” Anybody under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult and must enter through the West entrance.)
Contacts:
Michael Parente, CES, (401) 263-4990 or michael@cesboxing.com
Kim Ward, Twin River Casino, (401) 475-8352 or kward@twinriver.com
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From the Ground Up Vincent Shares Troubled Past With Youth
in Hopes of Steering Others in Right Direction
“That was supposed to be my school,” Vincent said. “Better late than never, right?”
Vincent (2-0) returned to what would’ve been her alma mater Monday morning to speak to a group of eighth-grade students as part of the school’s Leadership Conference, sharing the graphic, emotional stories of her troubled past in hopes that they don’t travel the same path she did as a youth.
The undefeated female bantamweight from New London, Conn., will return to the ring Thursday, May 24th, 2012 on the undercard of Jimmy Burchfield’s “Up For Grabs” professional boxing event at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, R.I., against newcomer Carmen Cruz of Fort Myers, Fla. Whatever free time Vincent has these days is spent training and giving back to the community, the latter of which has become a major priority in her personal life in conjunction with her growing popularity in New London.
“I feel like I owe it to some kid to see to it that the same things that happened to me don’t happen to them,” Vincent said. “I wish someone had done that for me. ”
A “great kid” and “great student” her whole life, Vincent began spiraling out of control at the age of 13 when she was raped by one of her mother’s male co-workers, a family friend and correctional officer who lived next door.
“I began drinking and fighting – any time I felt threatened by someone, I would just start beating on them,” she said. “There were times I wanted to die.”
Vincent’s depression and alcohol abuse worsened six years later when her mother, Tania, died from leukemia at 37, just seven months following the initial diagnosis.
“I rebelled against everyone,” Vincent said.
The constant fighting eventually led to Vincent’s expulsion from the Groton school system, though she later earned her General Education Degree (GED) in New London. Amidst all her troubles, she found an outlet in boxing, training with Kent Ward at Strike Zone. Two days after her mother died – and after only one month of training – she fought her first amateur bout at 19.
“I didn’t want to fight,” she said, “but, before she died, my mom made me promise I wouldn’t stop boxing.”
Vincent showed early promise, but multiple run-ins with the law – along with the death of her grandmother and the inability to find quality opponents – derailed her progress on and off for more than a decade. She served her first jail sentence at 18, followed by two more stints over the next 15 years, all for assault.
“Every time I had something good going for me,” she said, “I ended up back in jail for fighting.”
Her third and final arrest occurred in 2008, which she credits as the turning point in her life.
“Talking with some of the inmates, I started wondering what could happen if I started taking my life seriously,” she said. “After I got out for the third time, I told myself, ‘This time, I’m not going back. I’m just going to come out and box.’”
Vincent soon linked up with New England-based trainer Kurt Reader and quickly got her life back on track. Last year, she won a national Golden Gloves title, capping her amateur career with an 11-4 record before finally making her professional debut at 32 with a win over Karen Dulin in October. Vincent beat Dulin again in March for her second consecutive win, both under the promotional guidance of Burchfield, who signed her shortly before her debut.
Boxing has not only kept her off the streets, but it’s also kept her from reliving her past. No longer stuck in neutral, Vincent is moving forward in hopes of one day capturing a world title while inspiring other troubled youth to change their course in life.
“I’m not depressed anymore,” said Vincent, who is also volunteering for the Haymakers For Hope program in Boston to help raise money for cancer research.
“Right now, the only people I talk to are boxing people, because boxing was the only thing that kept me from being depressed. I’m not around negative people anymore. I’m happy now. I think I have the talent to win some titles; I just need to stay focused. You just know when you get to a certain point that things are going to be different, and I’m at that point now.”
Contacts:
Michael Parente, CES, (401) 263-4990 or michael@cesboxing.com
Kim Ward, Twin River Casino, (401) 475-8352 or kward@twinriver.com
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All in a Day’s Work Unbeaten Falowo Embraces Challenges
as He Continues Climb in Middleweight Division
“I got my first black eye as a pro,” Falowo said of his hard-earned, unanimous-decision win over Troy Artis on March 22nd. “It’s good to get that experience out of the way. If all of your fights are one-sided, you get a false sense of security.”
The road to the top has grown increasingly more difficult for Falowo (6-0, 4 KOs) in his last two fights. The undefeated Pawtucket, R.I., middleweight began his career with four consecutive knockouts – three within the first four rounds – but has now gone the distance in each of his last two wins.
Falowo is expecting yet another challenge Thursday, May 24th, 2012 when he faces 29-year-old La Vista, Neb., native Sean Rawley Wilson (5-10, 1 KO) in a six-round bout on the undercard of “Up For Grabs,” presented by Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, R.I.
Though the record doesn’t show it, Wilson is a worthy adversary; the combined record of his last five opponents is 53-1, and he went the distance in each of those fights, with the lone exception being a fifth-round knockout loss to unbeaten Jermall Charlo in March. Falowo will be Wilson’s fourth consecutive undefeated opponent, capping a stretch of four bouts in just three months.
Wilson is also an accomplished professional in mixed martial arts, where he’s fought a staggering 47 bouts in just over a decade, totaling 30 wins with nine knockouts.
“I’m not really sure what to expect,” Falowo said, “but I know he’ll come forward and fight me. He’s tough – anybody who steps inside that ring or cage has to be tough.”
These are the challenges Falowo wants, and needs. His hectic work schedule – he’s a pharmacy technician for CVS – leaves him with little spare time outside of the gym, but his hours have changed in recent months, giving him even more time to focus on his boxing career, which is quickly soaring to new heights.
Under the direction of head trainer Peter Manfredo Sr., Falowo fought his first six-round bout at Twin River in March, beating Artis unanimously, 59-55, 59-55, 58-56. His previous win was a four-round unanimous decision against underrated veteran Borngod Washington, which, at the time, was the toughest fight of Falowo’s career. Each victory has doubled as a learned experience.
“You discover something new each time,” Falowo said. “It’s a little different when you’re actually mixing it up with your opponent. You learn a lot about yourself endurance-wise.
“The experience was definitely a positive. [Artis] was strong, and it felt good to get hit with a couple of shots. I felt like it bettered me. I actually felt better in the six-rounder than I did in some of my earlier fights. I broke through my initial tiredness and got my second wind.”
After this next fight, which will be Falowo’s second six-rounder, he and Burchfield will contemplate Falowo’s next step. Having begun his amateur career around the same time fellow Rhode Islanders Jason Estrada and Matt Godfrey turned pro, Falowo has learned a lot about the maturation procession both in and outside the ring, so he’s plotting each move carefully.
“I’m still feeling things out as far as rounds go,” Falowo said. “We’ll see what happens. Maybe we’ll take it up to eight soon. I’m kind of mapping everything out and just going by how I feel.
“My endurance has gotten a lot better through training,” he continued. “I added an extra couple of rounds on the heavy bag, and instead of doing my normal four or five rounds sparring, I’m making sure I get six in a row no matter what. Before, I might do four straight, and then get two here or one there. Now I get six, and then maybe come back for two more. It helps mentally. It makes a big difference.”
Contacts:
Michael Parente, CES, (401) 263-4990 or michael@cesboxing.com
Kim Ward, Twin River Casino, (401) 475-8352 or kward@twinriver.com
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Long Odds on Unexpected Path to Stardom
Long odds, no doubt, but nothing too strenuous for Gingras, who’s overcome far more difficult obstacles on his unconventional path to stardom, a tumultuous past he’s learned to embrace rather than try to run from.
“Everything I’ve been through,” he says, “has made me into who I am today.”
A former contestant on “The Contender” reality television series, Gingras (11-2, 7 KOs) will face Terrance Smith (7-13-2, 4 KOs) in the six-round special attraction of Jimmy Burchfield’s “Up For Grabs” professional boxing event Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, R.I.
He’s engaged now, with the wedding scheduled for November, and he has more than 230 clients as the owner of Fight 2 Fitness, a world-class group fitness and boxing studio in downtown Pawtucket. He’s also under the promotional guidance of Burchfield, who is working to bring his career to new heights, and his third child, Wesley, will celebrate his first birthday in June.
Life is good, but there are still harsh realities Gingras can’t shake, the realities of growing up in a lower-class family with no positive role models to teach him the difference between right and wrong – a lesson Gingras often learned the hard way, either unintentionally or through his own wrongdoing.
Born in Concord, Mass., Gingras had few friends growing up while his family moved from city to city in New England, including stops in Newton, Waltham and Billerica before leaving Massachusetts and settling in New Hampshire prior to Gingras’ teenage years.
“I just didn’t really care about investing time in anyone because I knew I wouldn’t be around long enough,” Gingras said.
At the age of 9, shortly after his parents divorced, Gingras learned his father, Wilford, had contracted HIV through a heroine needle. The reality didn’t set in until Gingras began reading about the severity of the disease in school.
“He disappeared for a year and a half,” Gingras recalled. “He got real depressed and tried to kill himself.”
Around the same time, Gingras also became the victim of sexual abuse by a male employee at the Boys & Girls Club in Watertown, which remained a secret for nearly three years until one his teachers discovered it while thumbing through Gingras’ journal.
“He told me if anyone found out, something bad would happen to my family,” Gingras said. “I was scared.”
The abuse, both physically and mentally, took its toll on Gingras. Within four years of contracting HIV, his father passed away, and Gingras began drifting further off course in school and at home. He frequently got into fights – “I never started them, but I won them all,” he boasts – and his grades slipped. When his eighth-grade teacher told him he couldn’t play football if his grades didn’t improve, Gingras decided he was done with school.
“That’s the only reason I was going to school to begin with,” he said. “I’d rather go out and smoke some weed, mess around a little, and act like an adult.”
Shortly thereafter, Gingras came face-to-face with real, adult responsibilities when he conceived his first child at the age of 16. Richard Gingras Jr. was born with Arthrogryposis, a rare congenital disorder characterized by multiple joint contractures. “He had club feet, and he couldn’t bend his elbows,” Gingras said. “His toes touched the bottom of his feet. That’s how badly his feet were curled up.
“The funny thing is when my girlfriend was pregnant, I kept telling my friends, ‘This kid is going to be a bad-ass!’ so it’s ironic that when he came out he wasn’t able to bend his elbows.”
By then, Gingras’ mother had remarried, and Gingras had moved out on his own, staying at random friends’ houses – “couch-hopping,” as he called it.
“My parents had rules, and I didn’t want to follow them,” he said. “I was 16 going on 30. I wanted to have fun. I didn’t want to come home at nine o’clock. I was into making babies and getting high.”
The youngest of four children – three boys, and one girl – Gingras didn’t receive much guidance from his siblings. His oldest brother, Christopher, now 40, served as a father figure, but often encouraged Gingras to solve problems with his fists.
“One day at the park, some kid took my swing set and he said, ‘Rich, don’t take that [stuff]. Kick his ass!’” Gingras said. “I didn’t want to. I started crying and he made me go over there and beat the kid up. I was always gentle, but I could fight.”
The pressure of fatherhood at a young age ultimately got the best of Gingras, who left the mother of his child shortly after the pregnancy and began hitting the streets while his son spent the better part of his infancy in therapy.
Trouble soon followed – more drinking, more fights, and, shortly thereafter, a 30-day jail sentence at the age of 17 for possession of a narcotic (marijuana).
Would that be the turning point in Gingras’ life?
“Hell no,” he said. “I got into fights in jail, too. They were feeding me constantly. I fattened right up. It was like a vacation. I wasn’t too worried about it.
“Nothing really scared me at that moment.”
Shorty after his release, Gingras met another girl, conceived another child at the age of 19, and then fled to Albany, N.Y., for a year to dodge the police – they had a warrant out for his arrest on a separate assault charge – while the soon-to-be mother attended school.
The law eventually caught up with Gingras again during a brief visit back home in New Hampshire. One night, Gingras got so high he started a fistfight and then broke into the victim’s home, inadvertently cutting his arm and leaving a blood stain on the wall. A year later, the police matched the DNA and nabbed Gingras for burglary, resulting in a one-year sentence.
The second stint behind bars helped Gingras reunite with his son, who visited frequently, but Gingras continued to move in the wrong direction even while on parole.
“I was starting to play a role in his life, but I was still living a crappy lifestyle,” he said. “I was on parole for five years, yet I’d serve a month here, two months there – all in all, I spent two and a half years of my life in jail.
“One day I’m in there and I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing? I’ve got to cut this out.’”
At the age of 21, Gingras finally began turning his life around. He gained full custody of his son while his daughter, Jada, continued to live with her mother in Albany. Struggling with what he referred to as the “transition from being a bad-ass to a good person,” Gingras found new ways to pass the time; one night, he attended a local amateur boxing show in New Hampshire.
“I thought to myself, ‘I could do this! I could beat the crap out of every one of these guys,’” he said.
He decided to start training at a gym in Claremont, a community center where boxing was so foreign they hung heavy bags on a set of chains from the basketball rims.
“They didn’t even have a ring,” Gingras said.
That following day, he smoked his last cigarette, flicked it on the ground and stepped foot inside the gym, where he met his first boxing coach, Ed Farris, now the manager of undefeated middleweight prospect Demetrius Andrade.
Farris guided Gingras through an improbable, yet wildly successful, amateur career in which Gingras won the Vermont Golden Gloves Tournament as a heavyweight, captured two Rocky Marciano Tournament titles and advanced to the Ringside World National Championships in Kansas City.
“Boxing is such a small community, but no one knew who the hell I was at the time,” Gingras said. “Everyone was overlooking me. I didn’t even have a uniform. I walked in there with Nike shorts and a white tank top, but I blasted everyone out.
“No one could get past the second round with me.”
Once the word got out, Gingras had a hard time finding opponents willing to face him in the amateurs, so he made his professional debut in 2006 at the age of 25. Having outgrown the outdated facilities in New Hampshire, he began working with trainer Peter Manfredo Sr. in Pawtucket, driving six hours each day, five days per week, sometimes even sleeping in the parking lot between trips.
At 9-0 with five knockouts, Gingras embarked on the opportunity of a lifetime when “The Contender” recruited him to compete in its cruiserweight tournament in Singapore in 2008. Though he lost his first and only fight on the show to then-unbeaten prospect Deon Elam, a fight in which Gingras knocked his opponent to the canvas, Gingras won the fan vote based on his popularity and was invited to the series’ finale the following year at Foxwoods Resort Casino. He lost that fight, too, a unanimous decision against undefeated Ryan Coyne.
“It gave me a lot of experience,” Gingras said. “It put me in an uncomfortable situation being the smallest guy with the least amount of experience. It was like [reality television series] ‘The Real World,’ except we were fighting. No cameras, no TVs – it was a surreal, stressful situation.”
With two losses under his belt, Gingras’ career plateaued.
“The money sucked, and people wanted me to fight out of town,” he said. “I needed to take a step back. I was 28 now. I asked myself, ‘What’s my backup plan?’
He found the answer working at LA Boxing in North Attleboro, Mass., where he became the head trainer within two years and met his current fiancé, Alyssa.
“The wheels in my head began spinning,” he said. “I thought, ‘I should make a living out of this!’”
By the time LA Boxing closed its doors for good in 2011, Gingras celebrated the grand opening of Fight 2 Fitness. Several days later, his fiancé gave birth to their first child – Gingras’ third. The gym broke even within three months and began turning a profit shortly thereafter, an “unbelievable” turn of events, according to Gingras, given the current state of the economy.
“Most people think I have this college education because I own my own business,” he said, “but the last grade I completed was eighth grade. I was in special education classes my whole life. I’m pretty much self-made.”
Through it all, he never lost his desire to fight.
“I told Alyssa as soon as the gym can sustain itself I’m getting back in the ring,” he said. “She supported me all the way. I didn’t stop fighting because I wanted to; I felt I needed something to fall back on. Boxing is a difficult sport to raise a family in. Someday, you won’t be able to do it. Then what? You can’t retire at 35. I needed something to keep me moving.”
As promised, Gingras returned to the ring in March, knocking out Adam Harris in the second round of a scheduled six-round fight. He’ll make his CES debut on the 24th at 180 pounds and eventually drop to light heavyweight (175 pounds).
“That’s where I belong,” he said. “I’m 5-foot-10. The guys I’m fighting at 180 are at least six-feet tall. I’m strong at cruiserweight, but why not have a level playing field?”
At 31, the odds may be stacked against Gingras, but it’s hard to doubt anyone who’s already been through so much and overcome so many obstacles. Gingras’ journey is the ultimate rags-to-riches story, the epitome of what we embrace as the American Dream. Given his recent success, it’s quite possible the most compelling chapter of his life has yet to be written.
“Things are going well,” he said. “I work about 70 hours a week, so it’s crazy getting back into the fight game. All my free time is going into training.
“They say you hit your prime around 30. Some days I wake up and say to myself, ‘How the hell am I going to do this today?’ I drive to New Hampshire every weekend to pick up my daughter – 12 hours a week just driving – but I told my fiancé I need to do this before I get old, or else I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.
“Now I’m back in my game. I’m excited about working with Jimmy. He treats his fighters well and has the tools to push my career forward. I’m super happy right now.”
Contacts:
Michael Parente, CES, (401) 263-4990 or michael@cesboxing.com
Kim Ward, Twin River Casino, (401) 475-8352 or kward@twinriver.com
