Long Island teacher Douglas Milano hardly looks like a novice at Golden Gloves

By Matt Gagne / DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER                                                                                        

Douglas Milano drops Junior Vargas to canvas en route to Golden Gloves victory.

 

Douglas Milano won't be able to keep his night gig a secret anymore.
The 25-year-old from Sound Beach, L.I., who teaches seventh and eighth grade in East Hampton, has tried his best to keep his boxing career from his students. He's gone so far as to claim that black eyes came from errant elbows in pick-up basketball games, and bad scratches from wrestling matches gone awry with the neighbor's dog.
But it's impossible to ignore Milano after his performance Friday night at Holy Cross High School in Queens. Competing in the 165-pound novice division of the Daily News Golden Gloves, Milano earned the P.C. Richard & Son Boxer of the Night Award after referee Jose Fernandez stopped the fight 31 seconds into the second round as Junior Vargas (Gleason's) staggered along the ropes.
"I would say anything for my students not to be like, 'Wow, my math teacher is a boxer,'" Milano said. "Sometimes the sport can be perceived as a negative because of how violent it is, but I feel just the opposite. They didn't know about tonight."
Two years ago, Milano (Veterans Memorial) made his Gloves' debut in Freeport, L.I., lasting all of 25 seconds after getting knocked to the canvas with a left hook as family and friends watched his first career fight end in horrifying fashion.
"It was a terrible experience. When I think about that night, it still upsets me that I let them all down," said Milano, who considered quitting the sport. "It took awhile to get over that. I'm an athletic guy, I played a bunch of sports, but I thought maybe this wasn't for me.
"I questioned my chin, I questioned my talent, but I tell my students and anyone that I run into in life that quitting isn't an option. If you don't do this, it's going to bother you for the rest of your life. ... I didn't show what I was made of that night, so I had no other choice but to get back in the ring. I've come a long way."
Edgar Reyes (FDNY Bravest) won the night's first bout when referee Danny Gant stopped the fight with two seconds left in the first round as Michael Omojola (Main Street BC) came out of his second standing-eight count in a daze.
"It was a combination, a flurry of punches," said Reyes, who works on Engine 84 in Washington Heights. "I didn't think it would happen that quickly."
Francisco Suero (Universal BC) bloodied Daniel Marmol (NY MMA) with a big left uppercut. "Once I saw blood, I wanted more to come out," the 16-year-old from Brooklyn said. "He took extreme shots."

Chad Trabuscio and Jose Cales to meet in Golden Gloves final

By Stephen Lorenzo / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS                                                                                    

 It seemed as though Ronniel Vargas (Atlas Cops N Kids) only threw one punch, but one punch was all he needed.

Just 58 seconds into Round 1, Vargas connected with the Empire City Casino unch of the ight — a lefthand haymaker — that dropped David Tirado (Suffolk PAL) and landed Vargas his spot at Madison Square Garden.
“I felt like the first few fights I could take my time to observe the tournament in general,” Vargas said after winning his Golden Gloves 152-pound novice semifinal at Holy Cross High School in Flushing Friday night. “As I got closer to the Garden, there was no more playing around, it was time to get serious.”
Benjamin Baez (White Plains Youth BC) earned the right to face Vargas after a bruising three-round battle with Maxito Sainvil (Extreme Fight Club). The 152-pounder was able to bob and weav his way out of trouble, and was named the P.C. Richard and Son Boxer of the Night.
“I think it will be one hell of a 152-novice final,” Baez said.
Chad Trabuscio (Atlas Cops N Kids) and Daniel Grskovic engaged in a 132-pound semifinal thriller. The two went toe to toe for two rounds, but Trabuscio was magnificent in Round 3, leaving no doubt for a 5-0 decision.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Trabuscio said. “I’m one step closer to what all of the all-time greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and Mark Breland did.”
Trabuscio’s opponent will be Jose Cales (Brotherhood BC), who earned a stoppage over Abdulmageed Yahya (Atlas Cops N Kids).
De’Vaun Lee (New Legend BC) and Leshawn Rodriguez (Veteran’s Memorial) both took 5-0 decisions to set up a strong 178-pound open championship match. Isaiah Gervais (Morris Park BC) and Paul Nevarez (Unattached) will duke it out for the super heavyweight novice crown.
Tickets are on sale for the Golden Gloves finals at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on March 29-30. Log on to thegarden.com for details.

Daniel Grskovic rallies for Golden Gloves win; Heather Hardy takes step toward return trip to Garden

Ken Goldfield for New York Daily News

Heather Hardy (l.) takes home the win over Robin Percyz at Xaverian High School Wednesday night.

By Stephen Lorenzo / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Daniel Grskovic (NY-MMA) and Jonathan Neves (Willis Ave BC) might have arrived in Brooklyn with a full tank, but by the third round of their 132-pound novice bout, they were both running on fumes.

Wednesday night, the Daily News Golden Gloves came to Brooklyn's Xaverian High School, where the 132-pounders and 125-pound ladies went to work.

Neves seemed to control the bout with Grskovic early, keeping the challenger off balance with frequent jabs. Each boxer landed his share of clean shots during the fight, but a holding penalty on Neves and a late rally by Grskovic in the third were pivotal. Grskovic emerged as the winner with a 4-1 decision and took home the P.C. Richard and Son Boxer of the Night award.

"In the first two rounds I felt great," he said. "But my trainer told me there were 45 seconds left (in the third) and that took an eternity. I tried to maintain my breathing and keep my hands up. I was trying to just finish the round strong and I went to the end."

Heather Hardy (Gleason's Gym) entered the ring from the gold corner and exited one step closer to the golden goal that eluded her a year ago. The action from 125-pound women's division was the tournament's first female bouts since opening night at B.B. King's Blues Club on Jan 19. Hardy, a 2011 runner-up, began her fight with Robin Percyz (Hevyhitters BC) with a defensive focus, but came out firing in the third showing the determination she'll need to get back to the Garden.

"It took me a round or two to shake the nerves," Hardy said. "In the third round I came around and I started punching with intent."

Hardy owned the third, pummeling Percyz and dishing out two standing-eight counts. Just 20 seconds into the fourth and final round, another right hand would give Hardy a stoppage and the Empire City Casino Punch of the Night.

"That was not a typical Heather Hardy fight," she said. "I don't get nervous. (But) I don't want to lose anymore, so the pressure to win is very, very high."

Hardy will fly to Colorado next week to defend her 125-pound national title.

The Gloves bounce back Thursday with heavyweight action from the novice and open classes at the New York Athletic Club at Central Park South. Bouts begin at 7:30.

NYMMA'S Asst. Coach

  The ufc is one of my favorite things to watch. MMA is not only violent and exciting but its also very technical and surprising.  MMA has been interesting to me since I first watched it. But at first I really didn’t understand everything that was going on. A lot of the things the announcers would say were things I didn’t understand. I didn’t know what the difference between the guard and a half guard. But when I started learning mma all those things seemed simple.

 I first started to learn mma when my last wrestling season finished. It was febuary in my seinor year of high school. My season ended with a third place medal in divisionals. I could’ve done better, I should’ve done better but that’s the way it ended up. That year they decided that third place didn’t get to go to the city championship. So I was done that Saturday.3 years of wrestling taking over my life months at a time was over. It was a crazy feeling, it was good at first because I had no practice the next Monday and I could finaly eat like a normal human being. But that good feeling ended in a few hours because I wasn’t happy with third place.
 I was pretty good at wrestling and after one day of not being a wrestler me and one of my friends looked up a gym to go to. That Monday we went to ny-mma and signed up. In a few months we knew about all types of submissions and all types of moves. Wrestling made some things easier to learn, like certain takedowns. But other things were harder to get used to, like not going to my stomach when I fall. But it was something I got used to.
After all that watching the ufc was different, better. I understand whats going on all the time. I understand what everyone is doing and why their doing that. It really makes watching it more enjoyable. Not only is learning mma a good workout but it teaches you to enjoy things you already like even more.

UFC Hall Of Famer Matt Hughes

  Matt Hughes is considered to be one of the best fighters in ufc history. He had the welterweight title twice and defended it a record 7 times. He beat ufc legends Bj Penn and George St-Pierre, to this day Matt Hughes is one of the two people to ever beat George St-Pierre. Matt Hughes has the second most fights in the ufc with 25 fights, behind tito Ortiz who has 26 fights.

                Matt Hughes has a sister and a twin brother Mark Hughes. Matt and Mark both played football and wrestled in high school. Matt Hughes also wrestled in college, he made the all-american team every year he was in college. Hughes was a two-time 155 lb IHSA (Illinois High School Association) Class A state wrestling champion. He won in 1991 and 1992 while attending Hillsboro (IL) High School. Furthermore, Hughes is a two-time Division I All-American wrestler, with an 8th and a 5th place finish in the 157 lb division. Hughes has competed in the prestigious ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship, in which he held a record of 2–2. This consists of wins over Ricardo Almeida and Jeremy Horn, and losses to Jeff Monson and Tito Ortiz.

                Like Matt Hughes I wrestled in high school. Matt Hughes said that he was never a very good student, that in college he just tried to stay eligible to wrestle. One day I hope to wrestle in college, and even though I’m in a community college with bad grades I can do good enough to transfer to a four year school and try out for the wrestling team. Matt Hughes wasn’t a good student either and he managed to do it so maybe I can too. 

UFC 142 results

  UFC RIO ended in Brazil with a satisfied crowed as headliners Jose Aldo and Vitor Belfort both claimed victorious in their home crowd. On the main card, Edson Barboza and Terry Etim put on a technical striking clinic until the third round when Barboza landed a spectacular spinning back head kick, knocking Etim out cold. Both fighters earned fight of the night bonuses while Barboza earned knock out of the night award. Carlo Prater earned a controversial disqualification win over Erick Silva. Silva caught Prater early in the round, but landed a few punches to the back of the head as he attempted to finish the fight. Leg lock specialist Rousimar Palhares defeated Mike Massenzio with a heel hook in the first round, earning submission of the night. In the Co-main event, Vitor Belfort took on Anthony Johnson. Johnson did not make weight for his fight against Belfort, giving up 20% of his purse and must weight less than 205 in order to remain in the fight. Belfort defeated Johnson in the first round via rear naked choke, Johnson was released by the UFC after the fight. In the main event, featherweight champion Jose Aldo took on undefeated Chad Mendes, Mendes was unable to takedown Aldo, with only a few seconds remaining in the round, Aldo broke free from the cage and took advantage of a split second and landed a devastating knee on the chin of Mendes, finishing the fight at 4:59 of the first round.

Check out the Gracie's breaking down UFC 142
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAFIAeiGzX0

UFC 142

  UFC 142 will be returning to Rio de Janeiro on January 14, 2012. Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes will be headlining the event, while Vitor Belfort will square off against Anthony Johnson in the co-main event. Jose Aldo, ranked the #1 featherweight in the world, is also considered by many to be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. With a record of 20-1, Aldo was the last WEC featherweight champion and is now the UFC champion of his division. He has defended his UFC belt twice against dangerous fighters such as Kenny Florian and Mark Hominick. On January 14 however, he will be facing Chad “Money” Mendes, a former NCAA division 1 wrestler, is undefeated and has dominated all of his opponents, controlling them with takedowns and top control. Although Mendes has won most of his fights via decisions, he has proven to the fans had he does have knockouts and submissions.
The Co-main event features a middleweight bout between knockout artists Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. Both fighters left with a knockout of the night award in the last fight. Belfort, knocking out Japanese superstar Yoshihiro Akiyama in the first round at UFC 133, is Campaigning for a rematch with the current Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, they both met at UFC 126 when Belfort was knocked out with the first ever front kick to the head, He hopes to be granted that chance when he faces “The Rumble”. Anthony Johnson is currently on a two fight win streak, domination both Dan Hardy and with a TKO finish of Charlie Brenneman, has moved up a weight class to face Vitor Belfort. Johnson has always been a dark force in the welterweight because of his skill set and size. He aims to takeout the former heavyweight champion in Vitor and move up to contender status. Other notable fighters who will fight on the 14th include Rousimar Palhares, Erick Silva, Edson Barboza and Sam Stout.