February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
These are some of the elements in Friday night’s light heavyweight open-class final between Don O’Regan and United States champion William Rosinsky at MSG’s Theatre. The evening card begins at 7:30.
Both fighters were primed and ready to rumble last weekend.
“My training has been good and I’m in great shape,” said O’Regan, the first Irish-born Gloves finalist since Westmeath native Alo Kelly’s losing effort against Troy Sampson in the same 178-pound division seven years ago.
O’Regan received words of encouragement from pro middleweight sensation John Duddy, who told him: “It doesn’t matter who you’re fighting. The guy has two arms and two legs, so give it your best.”
Rosinsky, trained by local amateur legend Jimmy O’Pharrow, whose relationship with Jewish junior welterweight prospect Dmitry Salita at Brooklyn’s Starrett City B.C. is headed for the silver screen, says he’s ready, too. Very ready.
“I’ve been doing what’s been helping me win,” he replied when asked how’s he’s been preparing.
Although Rosinsky will enter the ring a huge favorite to add the Gloves title to his collection of honors before flying out to Colorado on Sunday to join a U.S. national team camp ahead of tournaments against Hungary and China, he’s not underrating O’Regan.
“Not at all,” the classy 20-year-old said. “I’m going in knowing what a fighter he is. I’ll stay focused and do what I have to do.”
How good is Rosinsky? He reeled off five straight wins at the U.S. Nationals in Colorado last month en route to the 178-pound crown.
O’Regan is unfazed.
The 29-year-old Yonkers carpenter, who started boxing four years ago after a knee injury ended his soccer career, relishes the underdog status.
“He’s the number one ranked fighter in America,” O’Regan said. “It’s good I know him, else I’d be intimidated.”
They know each other very well from their three previous meetings the last 14 months — starting with O’Regan’s points win in the opening round of the 2004 Gloves’ 165-pound novice competition. However, the Limerick transplant is 0-2 since, having lost via decision and disqualification to Rosinsky in subsequent bouts last fall.
Webster PAL trainer Edwin Martinez has come up with a fight plan that he hopes will halt the skid.
“He wants me to throw lots of right hands and move to the right to avoid [Rosinsky’s] left hook,” O’Regan said. “If I stand off, he’ll pick me off.”
The key to this strategy may be taking the fight to Rosinsky early.
“I’ll have to jump on him from the start and let him know that he’s in a fight,” O’Regan said. “I’ll be the stronger of the two, but he’s got better movement and boxing skills.”
In his third Gloves tournament and with no professional ambitions whatsoever, Friday’s Garden appearance represents the pinnacle of O’Regan’s unlikely ring career.
“When I started boxing four years ago, it was [my] dream to get to Madison Square Garden, so I’m actually fulfilling a life’s dream,” he said. “I definitely want to win, but I’ve already fulfilled half my dream [by] getting to the Garden.”
O’Regan had boxed in Ireland as a 10-year-old but made his athletic mark as a left fullback for the Limerick amateur club Shelbourne. His budding football career ended at age 23 when he tore ligaments in his left knee. A year later, after surgery on his knee, O’Regan moved to New York, where he felt the lure of boxing again.
He spent more than a year in the gym preparing for his competitive debut in 2002, winning the 165-pound novice title in the Latin Gloves that summer.
In his first Golden Gloves appearance in 2002, O’Regan reached the quarterfinals of the 178-pound novice class. He missed the 2003 tournament because of injury but returned as a 165-pounder last year, bowing out in the quarters.
To reach the final, O’Regan outpointed Joseph Anderson in the first round, got a bye in the quarterfinals and beat Abdellah Smith in the semifinals.
Rosinsky, a Queens College junior majoring in physical education, also had two wins and a bye on his way to the final. He decisioned Ronald Newbold in the semis.
Now in its 78th year, the New York Daily News Golden Gloves tournament 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.