February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The light heavyweight hopes his commitment will pay off this Thursday night at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Police Athletic League, where he attempts to end his quarterfinal jinx in the New York Daily News Golden Gloves tournament.
His opponent in the last eight of a competitive open class division will be known after the draw is made before the start of the 8 p.m. show.
“I’ve been going to different gyms where [trainer] Edwin Martinez has put me in with a lot of good quality fighters, including Lonnie Bradley,” the 29-year-old Yonkers carpenter said, referring to the former WBO middleweight champion. “I’ve really learned a lot.”
This emphasis on sparring four nights a week showed in O’Regan’s first match in the tournament two weeks ago, a split points decision over the Bronx’s Joseph Anderson that was not as close as the scoring suggested.
The Limerick native came out strong against Anderson and forced the action from the first bell, landing the better shots in the first three rounds despite a lot of grappling in the second and third stanzas.
It’s part of O’Regan’s new boxing approach mooted by the Puerto Rican-born Martinez, who fought professionally as a light welterweight.
“Edwin doesn’t want me backing up,” O’Regan said. “Since strength is my forte, he says I should be using my strength to attack and not back up.”
Martinez’s plan is to mold the durable O’Regan, a 5-foot-11 former soccer player, into a Rocky Marciano-type pressure fighter with a potent left hook.
“He uses Rocky as an example and says the difference between a good boxer and a brilliant boxer is the left hook,” O’Regan said.
The fighter rates Martinez as the best trainer he’s worked with, a fact he could validate by reaching the Golden Gloves semifinals for the first time in three attempts.
Sizing up the quarterfinal field, O’Regan said: “There’re some good boxers there including [William] Rosinsky, who I beat last year and is now nationally ranked. But I’m feeling good and looking forward to it.”
O’Regan outpointed Rosinsky, a semifinalist in 2003 when the Irishman sat out the Gloves, in the first round of the 165-pound novice competition last year.
Win or lose this could be O’Regan’s swan song in the world’s oldest and most prestigious amateur boxing tournament outside the Olympic Games.
The 2002 and ’04 quarterfinalist suggested that his wife, Sharon, could have the final say on if he’ll compete again next year.
“The time and effort needed to prepare for the tournament is tremendous, especially if you’re working,” he said.
The Red Hook PAL is at 110 West 9th St. in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
COLLINS COMEBACK
Pascal Collins, the young brother of ex-world middleweight champion Steve Collins, is back in Boston to resume his professional career after a six-year layoff.
The 33-year-old Dubliner, whose last bout was a points loss to Richard Grant in Rhode Island in May 1999, is scheduled to appear in super middleweight contest at the Dorchester Armory on March 11.
Also on the card that night will be Galway middleweight Martin Thornton (9-1-1, 4 KOs) in a rematch of his fifth round TKO victory over Khalif Shabazz last October.
DUDDY CHALLENGE
Eddie McLoughlin is predicting a stunning upset by his fighter John Duddy when he meets undefeated middleweight Leonard Pierre in a nationally televised bout from the Foxwoods Casino on March 18.
“I’ll be very surprised if [Pierre] gets out of the first half of the fight,” the Irish Ropes Promotions proprietor said. “Obviously, there’s an element of risk because this guy is heavy handed with both hands. But I’ve seen him fight and broken him down. I think he’s tailor made for John.”
Pierre, a prot