Top Glove Boxing Academy's pugilists will step into the ring with a group of Boston boxers on June 23 at the Sudbury vs Boston fight night at Top Glove.
A pair of Sudbury's scrappers were in Ireland in March for a St. Patrick's Day fight card when they came across a man wearing a USA vs Ireland sweater and it piqued their interest.
After striking up a conversation with the man, Mark Porter, who it turned out is involved with a trio of boxing clubs in Boston, Mass., information was exchanged and the wheels were put in motion to have 10 Boston-based fighters make their way to Sudbury for an evening of bouts.
Top Glove had just moved into their new digs on Lasalle Boulevard in March and the club's founder Gordon Apolloni jumped at the chance to put the new facility to use.
"Having so much more space than at our last gym really gives us a chance to put on more events like this," said Apolloni. "We can get at least 300 people in here on a fight night."
As far as Northern Ontario goes, Top Glove is now the largest club at 7,000 sq. ft and Apolloni says that this will open the door to hosting more events here in Sudbury. There are already plans in place to host a group of boxers from Italy this September.
"We can do a lot of networking and grow the reputation by having more of these events," said Apolloni. "We can also be a training centre when the new arena opens and we're able to hold professional boxing matches. Pros coming in from out of town can come in and use to the gym to train."
As far as training his own guys, Apolloni explains that there's no big secret to training for an event like Sudbury vs Boston.
"There's not a lot of scouting we can do on the guys that are coming up here so we just want to make sure our guys' technical game is up to par," said Apolloni. "It's all about their own performance, not necessarily the outcome, we just want to make sure our guys are ready when they step in the ring."
Tickets are on sale right now for the June 23 fight card, and are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.
Want to make a full night of it? The Trevi Tavern is offering dinner packages on fight night, and fans can walk to Top Glove straight from the restaurant.
For tickets, phone Top Glove at 705-561-7215.
