SCRANTON, Pa. — It's amateur boxing's best. As the Golden Gloves Championships return to Lackawanna County for 3 straight weekends beginning April 9th.
"The Golden Gloves has been a part of me and Long Productions since the early 90's. We had 2 events that we had purchased through the franchise through our sponsors to get the 2 dates, and I was thrilled about that never knowing through the years that I would get the whole tournament through the Central. And that is really unique. It has been something in my heart that I have planned for many years to actually have Lackawanna County and the whole area host Golden Gloves all in our backyard," said Doug.
1 of the 12 fights on the 9th will include 15-year-old Olivia Ford from Western Wayne. She has been training with Shawn McFadden for the last year.
"We work on conditioning and strength training. We do a lot of pad work and just work on being patient in the ring," said Olivia.
We'll some of the boxers will by-pass the first two weekends on the 9th and 16 and head right to the finals on the 23rd with all 3 events at the Genetti Manor in Dickson City.
"It's awesome. It's great because of the area that a lot of us are from. You are already traveling a ways to be able to box, and stuff with such rural areas and what not and having it all right here kind of a fairly central location for everybody is awesome," said Chris.
"I am super excited to be honest to like get over there. It means a lot. It has always been my dream to box you know what I mean. So like I am super excited," said Onix.
"Oh yeah to say the least all the Dunmore guys we always get together. We haven't had the Golden Gloves in like 2 years since now and it's going to be good to get the thing back on the road," said Rocco.
These Central Region champions in the Golden Gloves box the Philly champs on April 30th. Then the state championships follow a week later. You win that and you go to Nationals.