(FEB 26) LOWELL, Mass.
(February 26, 2016) - Western New England dominated the open
class finals of the New England Tournament of Champions, part of
the 70th annual Lowell Sun Charities Golden Gloves Championship,
winning seven of 10 matches last night at historic Lowell
Memorial Auditorium.
Members of the open class winning-N.E. team from
Western NE celebrate
The eight men's individual open
class winners earned spots on Team New England for the 2016
National Golden Gloves Championships, May 16-21, in Salt Lake
City, Utah. Team New England includes two of the top ranked
boxers in the country, light heavyweight Elvis Figueroa and
light welterweight Jaime Ortiz Rodriguez (repeat NE champion),
both members of N.E. open class team champion from Western NE.
Burlington, MA featherweight Amanda Pavone captured her sixth
NE. title.
"In the last 10 years," explained
New England Golden Gloves Executive Director Bobby Russo, "we
hadn't been on a good run. Attendance dropped off a little each
year. Last year's horrible weather killed us. This year, though,
the excitement was back and attendance was up 30-percent. There
was a younger crowd and many novice boxers had good fan bases,
which we need to build up every year. We had a lot of good
fights and good boxers this year. Boxing is back in Lowell! We
had a great season.
"Team New England will be very strong. We have a young team but
many of these boxers have a lot of invaluable experience from
Junior Olympics competition, from heavyweight on down. I think
we have an impressive team that will do very well at The
Nationals this year."
Team champions were Western N.E. in the open class, Central N.E.
in the novice class.
Three New England novice champions were also crowned last night.
See complete results below as well as more pictures.
Proceeds from the Lowell Sun Charities Golden Gloves
Championship go towards sending the New England Golden Gloves
champions to the National Golden Gloves Championship, in
addition to supporting local athletes and area gyms, the Boys &
Girls Club, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, cancer funds,
scholarships and many other great charitable causes.
Press Release: Bob Trieger/2-26-2016
All photos courtesy of Jeffrey Freeman / KO Digest)
According to press release
