Wearing a New Pair of Gloves
Joe Mahoney is the head chef at his family’s restaurant in Collegeville, Pa. His family has owned the restaurant for over ten years and sparked a passion in Mahoney for cooking. He plans to make it his career for life.
However, after working in the restaurant business for six years, he found another passion to add into the mix. Mahoney is one of five boys and being the youngest, he says he always got picked on growing up. Therefore, Mahoney decided to pick up the sport of boxing so he could finally start defending himself against his older brothers. Mahoney started boxing three years ago but it wasn’t until about two years ago that he had his first boxing match. Since then, he has fought in five matches in the light-heavyweight class, where boxers must weigh between 178 pounds and 200 pounds.
In late November, he fought in his sixth fight, which was also his first heavyweight boxing match. Boxing in the heavyweight division means the boxers must be at least 201 pounds.
The boxers fought three two-minute rounds and went the entire fight without a knockout, which is common in this type of amateur boxing. Typically, the fighters are padded up securely and the referees do not allow a knockout to happen. Once Mahoney has his tenth boxing match, the rounds will go up to three minutes and he will slowly work his way up to full length fights.
Mahoney said he was a bit nervous for the fight but once he gets into the ring, he says all the nervous butterflies go away and he’s completely focused on the moment. The fight was initially cancelled but Mahoney got a last minute opponent on the day of the fight. He said that since he did not initially have an opponent, he was not preparing as well as he should have for the fight. He slacked off a bit at the gym a week before the fight and did not get the best sleeping or eating schedule either. Nevertheless, he still managed to pull out a win, making this his fourth victory overall.
Mahoney says he loves everything about boxing. He loves the intensity of the sport and training for it. He finds it stress relieving and a great workout for his body. He says the thing he loves most about the sport is the support he gets from his friends and family.
Mahoney's fight alone sold over 50 tickets the night of the fight. Even Mahoney's mother, who does not agree with the sport of boxing, will come out to support the fight. Mahoney's mother typically runs the snack stand or helps out with set up and tear down. She said she would rather not watch the fight, especially the one with her son behind the gloves. The rest of his family also plays a big hand in helping out and they all come dressed in their ‘Team Mahoney’ shirts.
Now that his first heavyweight fight is over, Mahoney is focusing on spending the holidays with his family and friends. He does not plan on fighting until after the New Year but, will continue to practice in the gym. Mahoney likes to set short-term goals that he can accomplish rather quickly; his next goal is to reach ten fights so that the minutes of the fights start increasing. For now, Mahoney says he does not plan to box professionally but, is not closed-minded to the idea. He hopes to continue boxing for the next couple years, at least. He said that he has had so much fun thus far and that if nothing else comes of it, he would not be upset.
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