Louisiana Golden Gloves
Returns to Lafayette Friday-Sunday

Louisiana’s top amateur boxers will be participating in the state’s premier boxing event this Friday-Sunday, March 20-22, when the Louisiana Golden Gloves comes to Lafayette for the third consecutive year.

More than 200 boxers – from eight-year-olds up to age 70 and over – will descend on the Lafayette High School gymnasium for the three-day event that will qualify fighters for the Mid-South Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions later this year.

The event drew an overflow crowd to the Robichaux Center last year, and the move back to the Lafayette High gym – the Golden Gloves’ home in 2007 -- will more than double the seating capacity and provide more local sports fans with the opportunity to watch the non-stop action.

“We had 211 entrants last year,” said Beau Williford, head coach of Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajun Boxing Club and local organizer for the event. “There aren’t regional qualifiers like there used to be, so we’ll get people from all over the state.”

Nearly 50 amateur boxing clubs from around Louisiana will be participating, a record number. Elimination bouts will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday with the finals and other selected matches set to begin at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets for the event, both single-day and tournament passes, are on sale at several outlets around Acadiana including Pete’s Family Sports Grill on Johnston Street, Musso’s Shoe Repair and Southside Bakery in the South College Shopping Center, T’Coon’s on Pinhook Road and at the Ragin’ Cajun Boxing Club gym at 303 Macon Rd.

In addition, 50 VIP ringside tables will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, and information and reservations for tables is available from Williford at 257-3501, Beldon Fox at 288-4052 or Don Breaux at 278-0095.

The Golden Gloves is traditionally thought of as a youth organization, and a large number of the entrants will be taking part in the age 8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16 divisions. But there are also divisions for boxers over age 16 and an open division, and for the first time a Masters division will be offered for amateurs age 35 and over.

That division could be one of the highlights of this year’s event, with former local Golden Gloves champions Ronald Guidry, Carrol Guilbeau, Charlie Richard, Paul Buswell, Sid Turner and others eligible to take part. Guidry, a part of Lafayette’s national Golden Gloves team champion in 1956, recently won the World Ringside Masters championship in the age 70-75 division, and Turner lost in last year’s World Ringside 70-75 championship bout.

“This is the first time that the Masters division has been offered in Golden Gloves in Louisiana,” Williford said, “so we’d like to have a good representation there and we know the bouts will be fun to watch for our fans.”

Fighters in the younger divisions may also take part in novice classifications if they have had less than 10 amateur fights, and there is also a super novice division for boxers over 19 with less than 10 bouts. All boxers in the competition, regardless of age and division, must be registered with USA Boxing, and Williford said that information on registering is available at 303 Macon Street just off Eraste Landry, or by calling 257-3501.

Participants in last year’s Golden Gloves competition spent approximately $200,000 during their trip to Lafayette on hotels, restaurants and entertainment, and tournament officials estimated that the event had an economic impact of nearly a half-million dollars on the Acadiana area. Those numbers should increase this year with the event moving from two to three days.

Winners of state titles advance to the Mid-South Golden Gloves event in Little Rock, Ark., to face fighters from Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. The regional champions advance to the National Golden Gloves finals scheduled for Salt Lake City, Utah. Last year, 11 boxers who won state titles here advanced to the Mid-South, and four qualified for the national tournament.