I braved a blanket of horizontal rain last Tuesday on my way to the Gamble Recreation Center hoping to catch up with Joshua Temple, St. Louis’ lone National Silver Gloves Champion.
With a remodeling project under way at Wohl Center, Temple’s home gym, he and Coaches Willie Temple and Ben Stewart were transplanted for the week and were not resting with the hardware they had captured over the weekend in Independence, MO.
Class was already in session in the basement, as Gamble trainer Winston Shaw worked with a young hopeful on pivoting on his back foot while firing a right cross.
Joshua Temple made his entrance and was greeted warmly by a group of amateurs who were stretching on a row of thin exercise mats. In addition to boxing, the fifteen-year-old Cardinal Ritter student/athlete is a defensive end on the varsity team and just resumed pitching and catching for his high school baseball club.
He took his latest boxing title in the 178-pound division by out-pointing a fighter from Montana and then stopping an opponent from Florida in the third round. The winning weekend also secured him a spot on the U.S. team at the Junior World Cup in Russia at the end of May.
I asked him what led to his recent success. He replied, “Hard training, dedication and listening to great coaching.”
He told me he gets great sparring in with his older brother Jabril, a heavyweight who “Hits hard but is fast.” Joshua’s father Willie added, “Joshua won’t face anyone at his weight that hits harder than Jabril.”
For now, Joshua’s goals are to “go to Russia and win, and then to the Junior Olympics and win.”
It’s a busy schedule for a three-sport stand-out who continues to excel inside and outside the ring.
Army vs. St. Louis
On February 22, the Army will once again send in a team to face St. Louis opponents in the second annual “G.I.’s vs. Joe’s” event at the Family Arena. But this time around, the combat sport switches from boxing to mixed martial arts as interest in entertainment such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship continues to surge.
Master Sergeant John Long and First Lieutenant Carpaccio Owens are a pair of African-American fighters on the Army squad, and I reached them by phone to ask them what fans should expect as the date draws near.
MSG. Long recently transferred to Fort Campbell and is the 2007 All-Army heavyweight champion. He got his start in the Golden Gloves and holds a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
He said, “Basically, the fans should expect a great show. My strength is stand up striking, but my teammates and I are proficient in every aspect, from long range kicks and punches to Muay Thai knee and elbow strikes at close range.”
He added, “And then you have the jiu-jitsu experience on the ground.”
From his post at Fort Bragg, 1LT. Owens agreed, noting that he also started as a boxer when his dad, a retired member of the Air Force, took an old duffel bag and filled it with sand to use as a heavy bag.
Owens said, “It was real old-school training, like Mr. T’s set up in Rocky 3.”
He described himself as “short and stocky,” with his specialty being “ground and pound.” He said the team’s goal is “to make a good showing and demonstrate how hard we work on a daily basis, so that those interested in the military can see what we do.”
Tickets for the “G.I.’s vs. Joe’s II” are priced between $10 and $50 and are available by calling MetroTix at (314) 534-1111 or at www.metrotix.com and www.kickinternational.com.
Cory Spinks on Friday Night Fights
Junior middleweight champion Cory Spinks will be the in-studio guest tomorrow on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights broadcast from Uncasville, CT. The appearance will be a great opportunity for fans to get up to speed with what “The Next Generation” has lined up in the near future.
Regional USA Champions Crowned
Congratulations to the local winners of the regional USA Championships this past weekend in Joplin. The list of names that will move on to the “Future Stars” Nationals in Colorado Springs the second week of March includes: Stephon Young (106 lbs.), Terail Singleton (112 lbs.), Derrick Murray (125 lbs.), Jevon Singleton (132 lbs.) and Jabril Temple (200+ lbs.).
