A battle between two rookies was the main event at World Wide Boxing Gym in the Bronx on Aug. 6. Two fighters entered their champion-size ring as (0-0) but one left as (1-0).
Jose Lopez faced off with Anthony Drayton. Jose, 17, has an in-boxing style and a specialty for using a one-two combo, which is a straight and a jab combined.
Anthony, 17, who started boxing about four months ago is a brawler-style boxer and is known for his signature haymaker, a powerful straight that he carries in his toolbox.
Jose had somewhat of an advantage since he is an in-boxer. In-boxers usually try to close the gap between themselves and their opponents, so Jose might not let Anthony get a chance to counter. On the other hand Anthony is a brawler, which is a boxer who just throws a barrage of punches at his opponent.
The rules of the game are very simple. There are about five ten-minute rounds. The first person to get knocked down three times or KO’d (knocked out) loses. Both boxers have the same Ever Last gear on with the red shorts so no one could cheat.
Right off the bat, Anthony threw jabs as if he was trying to drown Jose in a sea of punches. Jose tried to back up in the turtle, which is a blocking move, but AnthonyâÂÂs onslaught of jabs was putting him off balance. Jose could not counter and took a jab to the face. And with that he went down. It only took the referee to count to five before Jose popped up just like a daisy in the desert.
Anthony continued to throw quick jabs to get Jose in a barrage of fists. But this time Jose bobbed all of AnthonyâÂÂs jabs so that he could get into his zone of range. Once Jose was in his zone, he quickly capitalized on Anthony with a fury of jabs to the ribs. After getting a couple of hits on Anthony, the bell rang and round 1 was over.
The damage had already been done to both boxers. Jose had taken quite a lot of damage to his head while Anthony had taken just as much pain to his ribs.
The second round did not last as long as the first round. Jose surprised everyone by getting a one-two combo on AnthonyâÂÂs face. The crowd was shocked when Anthony was still standing after the blow he took. He surprised everyone more when he KO Jose by hitting him with a haymaker to the face.
Now Jose did his best and got a lot of good hits in, but Anthony just ate them all like candy. Both boxers put up a good first fight. One thing that was very memorable about this match was that even though Jose lost, when he woke up from the KO he spit the blood out of his mouth and went over to shake AnthonyâÂÂs hand. It was great sportsmanship, the type that you only see in a book.