The future
Photos by Max Ortiz/The Detroit News
Boxer Greg Wright of Taylor, trains at the Kronk gym where he started 10 years ago. Wright competes in the light heavy weight division where he is ranked in the top 10.photo 2
|
Kronk’s legacy pushes worldwide
Next generation set to continue success
Seventeen-year-old Octavio Lara of Detroit’s Western High will turn professional in May. Lara is 25 and 9 as an amateur, but Steward says he has matured into a dogged and dangerous fighter who will be a success in the pros.
|
By Fred Girard / The Detroit News
Detroit’s Kronk Gym opened a branch in London last week, where Emanuel Steward hopes to train boxers to win gold medals for Britain in the 2004 Olympics.
In Cleveland, fighters wearing Kronk’s distinctive red and gold won the recent Silver Gloves team title, even as Steward was searching for a suitable building to house a gym for them.
And in Detroit, Steward plans to open a downtown branch of Kronk to train a new generation of fighters. The future looks busy and bright for the boxing club with the most glorious past in the history of the sport.
Steward says his current crop of amateurs is one of the strongest he has seen at Kronk. “We’ve gone back to basics - bring them in as children, send them out as champions,” he said. “We’ve got a nucleus of a dozen or so good amateurs. We’re preparing most of them to turn pro.”
The current club includes 17-year-old Octavio Lara, a Junior Honor Society student at Detroit’s Western High who will turn professional May 12 at Joe Louis Arena, and Kara Ro a 25-year-old Windsor resident and one of four women who have begun training and fighting for Kronk.
Lara is 25 and 9 as an amateur, but Steward says he has matured into a dogged and dangerous fighter who will be a success in the pros.
“Boxing has changed my life,” Lara said. “I’m not like other kids, out on the streets, in gangs and everything. Boxing is a hard sport. There’s a lot of sacrifice, you’ve got to be really dedicated to it. “I’ve seen a different side of life, being with all the champions I’ve been around, and with Emanuel. He’s helped me out a lot since I was 10.”
For passersby, there is nothing that hints at the glorious history that has sprung from the Kronk gym.
Located on McGraw Street, just west of Detroit’s hugely busy junction of Interstate 94 and Interstate 96, the Kronk recreation center is a decrepit two-story, red-brick building, rust stains weeping from metal grills covering the windows.
Walk through the lobby, turn right before the basketball gym, and pass the men’s room to an unmarked set of stairs to the basement. At the bottom, open the red-lacquered door bearing the legend “This door has led many to PAIN and FAME” — and walk smack into a funk of sweat, liniment and suffocating heat as solid as a left jab.
The internationally known Kronk Boxing Gym is a single room, 60 feet wide and 34 feet deep, with barely enough room for the single ring, a couple heavy bags, and a thin wooden platform on the linoleum floor for rope-skipping.
The chief trainer, Logan — that’s the only name he uses, he says — presides, ably assisted by Walter Smith, 86 years old, a boxing teammate of the immortal Joe Louis, and still training kids.
“This is a whole new world,” Smith says, gesturing at the controlled mayhem around him.
In one corner tiny Todd Douglas shadowboxes to begin his daily workout — only 10 years old, 4-foot-3 and 61 pounds, but he makes the air whistle with his one-twos. A fourth-grader who gets all A’s and B’s at Detroit’s McColl Elementary, Todd took up boxing seven months ago and works out every school day.
“I never miss a day,” he said. “I’ll be sick and come up here. I want to get something out of my life.”
Todd has fought twice and lost once — “but (his opponent) was way taller,” he explained.
Kronk boxer Kara Ro throws punches as she dances around trainer James Lester Sr. during her daily workout at the Kronk gym.
|
In the ring, trainer/promoter James Lester Sr. is stepping through slow-motion combinations with Kara Ro. She tries the moves at full speed and her gloves slam into Lester’s practice mitts with explosive pops.
“I had a boyfriend who was a hockey player, and he was supposed to be the team’s enforcer,” she said. “So I went with him to boxing lessons. He hated it, but I absolutely loved it. Boxing is more of a mental, strategic thing, and that’s what intrigued me. I’m a big thinker, I love to become involved in the complexities of things.”
Winner of six of her first seven fights, Ro will box one more time as an amateur, along with Todd Douglas and other Kronk fighters, in a show at Detroit’s Pershing High School on Feb. 24.
After that she will turn pro. “But only for about a year,“ she said. “I have my degree in psychology from the University of Windsor, but I’ll be returning for my doctorate. I’ll be doing a lot with motivational and inspirational speaking, and my experiences with boxing, the dedication and discipline it demands, will be valuable to me.”
Lara, in one of his last appearances as an amateur, will also be on the Pershing card along with promising Kronk fighters Fletcher Boyd, and Johnathon Banks.
Boxing is undergoing a renaissance in Detroit. There were 25 shows last year, compared to 10 in 1998. MotorCity Casino has had two shows and is planning a third. Hotels and restaurants with entertainment facilities have begun staging bouts for crowds ranging from 100 to 500.
To prepare fighters for these new opportunities, Kronk must expand, Steward says. He is negotiating for space in the entertainment district around the Fox Theatre area downtown to open a gym, but the old Kronk will remain open.
“We’re going to develop our own champions,” he said.
The Kronk Gym
Where: Basement of Kronk Recreation Center, 5555 McGraw corner of Junction, a block off Warren, Detroit.
When: Training begins 2 p.m. daily, public welcome.
How much: Admission is free; boxing training available for anyone over age 8; registration fee is $26 up to age 16 and $34 for 17 and older.
Contact: Call the gym at (313) 894-9727 or visit its Web site at www.kronkgym.com
