Friday, October 29, 1999
Local boxers pushing toward Olympics
BY JOHN ERARDI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dante Craig is ranked No. 2 in the U.S. at 147 pounds.
(Craig Ruttle photos)
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The high-top red shoes with the white shoelaces are what one notices first. As the shoes begin to slip, slide and shuffle across the canvas, the effect is hypnotic.
Slip, slide, shuffle.
Then, the whapwhapwhap of leather-on-leather fills the room, and the reverie ends. Glove on glove, glove on headgear, occasional glove on flesh and bone.
Whapwhapwhap.
Dante Craig is on the receiving end of this first flurry of punches.
Ricardo Williams is No. 1 at 139 pounds.
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They are coming from the hands of his buddy and sparring partner, Ricardo Williams Jr., the nation's top-ranked 139-pounder, one of the favorites to make the U.S. Olympic team.
Mr. Craig is the No. 2-ranked 147-pound amateur boxer in the nation and has an excellent shot at making the U.S. Olympic Boxing team that competes in the Summer Games in Sydney next September.
This back-room gym in the Mount Auburn Community Center is filled with heavy punching bags, speed bags, a smaller ring and — hanging on the concrete walls — photos and the gold-painted gloves of Wallace (Bud) Smith, the third of Cincinnati's world champion professionals, and photos of Aaron Pryor, the fourth.
But it is the dancing feet and the whapwhapwhap of the sparring that dominates the room. High above Cincinnati's skyscrapers, Messrs. Craig and Williams box on a dead-end street that is anything but.
Messrs. Williams and Craig are among the pride of the Cincinnati Golden Gloves program. Both are national Golden Gloves champions. Early next year, they will enter the gantlet from which they hope to exit as members of the 12-man U.S. Boxing Team for the 200O Olympics.
They hope to reprise the one-two punch of Larry Donald and Tim Austin, who in 1992 represented Cincinnati at the Summer Games in Barcelona. There aren't many amateur boxers the likes of Messrs. Williams and Craig.
And what makes them special — what makes Cincinnati special in amateur boxing — is that Messrs. Williams and Craig spar regularly. Because only eight pounds separate them, they are able to bring out the best in each other in a relatively even match. Mr. Williams is quicker and more experienced; Mr. Craig is bigger and stronger. They push each other to the limit.
“I try to give Rick the best workout I can,” Mr. Craig says. “He does the same for me. That way, when we need to dig it out (box out a victory in tough match), we'll have it to give.”
Tonight and Saturday, they'll face different opponents — tough and challenging opponents — in Milwaukee at the American Boxing Classic, one of the top amateur tournaments in the country.
It will be among their final tuneups before the Olympic Trials in February in Venice, Fla.
“We're very fortunate to have each other to work with,” Mr. Williams says. “Sparring with a guy like Dante is like fighting an international bout. It's awkward for me. That's good. Dante keeps his hands up, turns his punches just right. My style's a little more typical.”
That's the American-style, hands-down, dancing, bobbing, weaving, like Muhammad Ali. Messrs. Craig and Williams are finely polished athletes, full of head feints, quick hands and huge hearts, the kind that respond when a tough opponent catches them with a good shot.
The new Fight Club movie — and whatever real-life “fight clubs” there are out there like it — are a joke compared to what is occurring this day in the Mt. Auburn Community Center.
Slip, slide, shuffle.
Mr. Craig, too, is mesmerized by his friend's feet.
But he can't afford to look down, because he has to spend all his time looking Mr. Williams in the eyes and keeping his own hands up. One never knows where Mr. Williams' shots are coming from.
“It's in his legs,” says Mr. Craig, speaking of the thin pegs that flow into Mr. Williams' red high-tops.
“You've got to admire those legs,” Mr. Craig says. “Everybody talks about Rick's hands. Yeah, his hands are quick, but the magic is in his legs. They get him in there and out of there so quick, you don't even know he's been there. Don't know it, that is, except for the punches. You can't really see them coming.”
Early in the third round of their four-round sparring session, Mr. Williams unleashes a flurry of punches into Mr. Craig's mid-section — Mr. Craig later refers to this flurry as “the shoeshine” — and then follows it with an left uppercut to the jaw.
The punch catches Mr. Craig by surprise — literally.
His mouth is wide open when the shot nails him, and it only adds to the jarring effect of the punch.
The combatants are wearing 16-ounce gloves, compared to the 10-ounce gloves they wear in competition. When they turn pro, they will wear 8-ounce gloves in competition.
Amateurs also wear padded headgear that protects the ears and forehead in sparring and competition. The required use of headgear nationally goes back to the late, great Rolly Schwartz, the original franchise holder for Cincinnati Golden Gloves. The position is now held by Cincinnati pizza magnate Buddy LaRosa.
Cincinnati has been a good fight town since the 1930s, when Freddie Miller was the world featherweight champion. Mr. Miller begat Ezzard Charles who begat Wallace (Bud) Smith who begat Aaron Pryor who begat Tony Tubbs who begat Tim Austin. Champions, all.
The youngsters have followed their lead, making Cincinnati a force in amateur boxing. The U.S. team, however, is extremely difficult to make, witness Mr. Pryor, one of the greatest professional boxers ever, who was unable to make the Olympic team.
Whap!
No sooner has the jolt from the uppercut dissipated, than Mr. Craig vows that his buddy will pay. Easy, easy. Don't rush. You don't have to get him right away. Look for an opening. Then let him have it.
Toward the end of the third round, Mr. Craig gets his chance. He works his jab, maneuvers Mr. Williams into the corner, rips some shots into his body, follows up with a left hook and straight right. Whapwhapwhap.
“Those two shots connected pretty good,” Mr. Craig says later, smiling.
Mr. Craig, 21, came to boxing later than Mr. Williams, 18, who began when he was eight. They have known each other since their days growing up in Parktown in the West End. Mr. Craig graduated from Woodward; Mr. Williams from Taft.
This day, in Mount Auburn, a handful of kids watch the two young men spar. Among the kids are twin 8-year-old brothers, Andre and Adrien Broner. One can tell, by the twinkle in their eyes, whom they want to be like when they grow up.
“It's a good age to start,” Mr. Craig says. “I didn't get to it until I was 12. Somebody took my lunch money at school.”
Nobody is taking it now.
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