February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
O’Regan was scheduled to fight at the Manhattan PAL in Harlem last Friday night but now faces a long period out of the ring.
The 26 year-old Limerick native, who lives in Yonkers, was gutted by the news but kept his chin up.
“I have torn tendons in my left elbow,” he said after meeting with a physiotherapist at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital last Thursday. “It may require 6-7 weeks rest. I’m very disappointed because I trained hard for six months for this. But I’ll keep on training, get the elbow right and get back in it.”
O’Regan first hurt his elbow in his last fight, an exhibition that he won via a second-round KO in New Jersey last November. He aggravated the injury in the gym last Wednesday night.
“I knew that I was injured all along but kept training, using my right arm only for four weeks,” he said. “I rested the left arm and iced it, hoping that it would get better. I’ll definitely be back next year.”
O’Regan was the most successful of the three Irish entrants in last year’s Gloves. He pushed eventual light heavyweight novice class winner Adam Willet to the limit before losing a points decision in the quarterfinals last March.
A member of the Morris Park Amateur Boxing Club who is trained by Wendell Williams, O’Regan was hoping to improve on that performance this time around.
“I was feeling very good this year,” he said. “Last year I was 171 pounds. This year I’m down to 165 pounds. I would have been a very strong 165 pounds.”
Nevertheless, he now joins his Morris Park Irish compatriot Stuart Kelso at ringside for the ’03 Gloves.
Kelso, a County Tyrone transplant, has only resumed training after two months out with a twisted ankle. He reached the second round of the ’02 tournament before a KO loss to Westbury’s Patrick Louis in the 165-pound novice category.
The New York Daily News Golden Gloves tournament, now in its 76th year, is the oldest and largest amateur boxing competition in the United States.
Since its inception in 1927, the tournament has served as a launching pad for many successful ring careers, including those of Sugar Ray Robinson, Floyd Patterson, Gerry Cooney and Riddick Bowe.