Only hours before prizefighter Bryant “Pee Wee” Cruz stepped through the ropes at Madison Square Garden on March 18, his stablemates at Champs Boxing Club in New Rochelle had a local showcase of their own as they faced off against a squad of boxers from Ireland at the club’s Division Street gym. And although Cruz was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt to challenge for a lightweight title that evening, Champs’ owner Ryan O’Leary feels that the day was a runaway success—both for his professional pupil and for his newer charges who got the chance to compete in front of a packed house earlier in the day.
Although fighters from Champs often take part in events throughout the tri-state area, Saturday’s seven-fight card gave several pugilists—including many first timers—a chance to compete in the familiar confines of the club’s gym. Opponents on the afternoon included a handful of fighters from Ireland’s Kinsale Boxing Club who often travel to the states to take on international competition.
“This was in the works for about three months, we mostly had some younger boxers and some of the older, senior boxers,” O’Leary said. “We generally fight all over the [New York] boroughs so to have it here, in our small space with a lot of fans, it really was an impressive time.”
“I just think that for those having their first fight, this was the most comfortable place it could have happened,” he added.
The Champs squad earned a clean sweep over Kinsale’s fighters, and a few others, including Heather Flaherty, found success against domestic competition as well. Flaherty, a 47-year-old mother of three from Greenwich, Connecticut, outpointed Rebecca Weiss from Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn in her in-ring debut, much to the delight of a boisterous throng of fans from her hometown who traveled down to New Rochelle to watch the fights.
“[Flaherty] comes in every day and works her head off, and she must talk to everyone, because she had a group of people there who all had shirts with her name on it,” O’Leary said. “And she was in there against a good experienced girl, it was nonstop action and that was a huge victory.”
Elvis Cardenas, a 16-year-old New Rochelle resident who won his first bout as a member of Champs, beating 135-pounder John O’Brien from Ireland, said that getting the chance to show off his skills in front of a rabid home crowd made all of the work that he has put in over the last two years worth it.
“It’s exciting when people come in, it’s exciting for everyone,” Cardenas said. “When the bags are here, you’re working, but getting the chance to spar, it’s just more, more, more.”
After the afternoon bouts concluded, several members of the club headed down to Madison Square Garden where Champs professional Pee Wee Cruz got a chance to battle for the WBC Continental Americas Lightweight Championship against undefeated prospect Ryan Martin. The fight was Cruz’s first since returning to O’Leary’s gym a few months ago, and marked the longest layoff of his professional career as the Port Chester native had not had a bout since last April’s win over Moises Delgadillo.
Though Cruz was game, the undefeated Tennessean stopped him in the eighth round of the first televised undercard of the Gennady Golovkin versus Danny Jacobs pay-per-view.
Despite the loss, O’Leary was happy with the way Cruz shook off some of the ring rust.
“[Martin] was really tough and Pee Wee hadn’t fought in a year, so I thought he did some really good things,” O’Leary said. “The most important thing is that [Cruz] knows that he belongs there now. If we’d had more training, he definitely would have gone the distance, so we’ll just have to tweak some things and hopefully we will be back there, fighting for another title.”
