Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Dean Juipe: Grown-ups put youth boxing on the ropes

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.

The general principle butts heads with our sensibilities, as if something about the basic premise just isn't right.

Do kids really need a place to go and learn to fight?

After all, for those who are inclined to trade licks with their peers, won't the playground or the corner suffice? Is style important when it comes to handing out a beating?

Won't learning to fight only lead to increasing instances of street fighting?

These may be esoteric questions, yet they come to mind with the news (in Monday's Sun) that the Golden Gloves gym is apt to be closing at the end of the month. Add in the apparent demise of the Nevada Partners gym -- which is scheduled to close April 1 -- and the loss earlier this year of the Absoloot gym, and the boxing capital of the world is in the process of seeing three of its revered training sites shut their doors within the span of nine months.

Them's fighting words in these parts.

"I've got a solution," offers famed referee Richard Steele, who has been running the gym at Nevada Partners but who reiterated Monday that he has been told he and his program will have to be out at the end of March. "I'll take over the Golden Gloves gym if they can find a way to keep it open. It's a perfect marriage. I've got 200 kids and I've got all the equipment we need, but I need a building."

Let's assume that there's actually some benefit in youngsters learning to fight, even if the only thing I've picked up in years of visiting these gyms is a reduced intolerance to spit and blood and a greater vocabulary of swear words. But those who advocate the sport for kids say it teaches discipline and respect and that it provides a controlled outlet for teenage aggression.

Las Vegas, like most major cities, has always funneled interested kids into boxing programs, and even if Nevada Partners and Golden Gloves become obsolete, would-be sluggers still have Barry's gym available to them.

There are also a few other gyms, smaller in size and reputation, that could help pick up the slack.

Not that Steele and Golden Gloves' David Moody plan to surrender without a fight. Both want to continue their programs but each has a problem with his landlord, making a merger a viable alternative at least on paper.

For those who question the value of youth boxing, the number of participants is a stumbling block. Steele and Moody each claim to have 200 kids on his roster, and to displace 400 teens and preteens from a recreational activity that they enjoy wouldn't seem to be a good idea.

In some areas of the country, the city funds youth boxing. In other spots, it's operated as a charity. In rare instances, it's a business.

In Las Vegas' case it's mostly a combination of the latter two, with tax-exempt entities such as Nevada Partners and the Fraternal Order of Police picking up the tabs at the gyms operated by Steele and Moody.

Youth boxing may not appeal to the majority but the sport has its merits as well as its zealots. If they can't be accommodated, there's always a chance they'll take up arms or just smack you in the face -- whether they get style points from the judges or not.

archive