February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jay Mwamba
Stuart Kelso and Noel Kennedy both lost in the New York Daily News Golden Gloves Tournament last week, leaving Limerick’s Don O’Regan as the only Irish pug in America’s oldest amateur boxing competition.
A pulverizing right to the chin by Westbury pug Patrick Louis in the second round of their 165-pound novice contest shattered Kelso’s Golden Gloves dreams at the Freeport Recreation Center in Long Island last Wednesday.
At the Yonkers PAL the following night, Kennedy went the three-round distance with Adam Morales but lost a split points decision in his second match in the 156-pound novice class.
O’Regan’s stablemate at the Yonkers-based Boxing Connection Gym, Kelso, seemed to be taking control of a bout that had started as a jabbing contest when he got caught with his gloves low and his back to the ropes.
Both knees buckled and he sagged back into the ropes as the referee quickly intervened to administer the mandatory eight-count. But the damage had been done.
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Louis jumped on his opponent immediately on the restart and got the better of the still groggy Kelso in the exchange that followed.
A succession of overhand rights had Kelso in trouble again when the ref jumped in to stop the contest at one minute and 57 seconds of the round.
Impressed by Louis’s stunning stoppage in the fight, Golden Gloves organizers named the 23-year-old from Westbury PAL the P.C. Richard Boxer of the Night.
In the locker room, the 22-year-old crestfallen County Tyrone native held back tears as his Boxing Connection trainers, Isr’l Rodriguez and Nick Delury, admonished him to forget about the loss and move on.
“You’ll write this off and go back to work. The Spanish Gloves are coming [in June],” Rodriguez implored Kelso, the defending Spanish Gloves champion at 165-pounds.
“You may meet the same guy,” he added. “You’ll learn from this and move on. It’s over tonight.”
“Everybody loses,” chipped in Delury. “You were doing well [but] just got caught by a big right. Next year, you go open class.”
O’Regan, who won his first two fights to reach the quarterfinals of the 178-pound novice class, offered additional encouragement.
“It’s happened to world champions. Lennox Lewis lost,” O’Regan reminded his buddy.
A split points winner over Colin O’Rourke in his first bout last month, Kelso admitted that Louis had surprised him with the paralyzing punch and that he was still dazed when the fight resumed.
“He caught me with a good right hand, I give it to him. I’m sorry,” he
apologized to the trainers.
In Yonkers, the Cork-born Kennedy failed to get into his usual rhythm and ended up dropping a 3-2 decision to Morales of the New York City PAL. There were no knockdowns or standing eight counts in the bout.
“I was disappointed with myself, I should have done better,” he said later. “But not taking anything from him, he was the better man on the night.”
Morales set the tempo for most of the time, while Kennedy attempted to counterpunch.
“He was a good puncher. I was just standing there blocking punches and counterpunching,” said the 24-year-old, who was representing Gleason’s Gym.
Kennedy plans to make another run in the Gloves next year.
O’Regan, meanwhile, makes his quarterfinal appearance in the 178-pound novice division, at Cipriani Restaurant in Manhattan (110 East 42nd St., across from Grand Central) on Monday night, March 4, at 8 p.m.