Louisiana Governor’s Games Boxing to Be Held in Lafayette

Some of the nation’s top amateur boxers will be headed to Lafayette June 19-21 when the city hosts the revived Louisiana Governor’s Games Boxing Championships.

The three-day event is scheduled for the Lafayette High School gymnasium and is part of the state’s signature sporting event for amateur sports enthusiasts.

The Governor’s Games features 52 sporting events held between March and the end of June and are in their 18^th year of existence with more than 20,000 competitors expected to take part this year. The Games opened in late March with Tae Kwan Do competition in Baton Rouge, and a complete list of Governor’s Games events is available online at www.LaGovernorsGames.org.

Beau Williford, commissioner of boxing for the Governor’s Games, said that the local event will likely have as many as 300 amateur competitors in age-group classifications from age eight to 34. Male and female divisions are included as well as open, novice and super novice categories.

“Originally the entries were limited to the Southern Association,” Williford said, referring to this area’s USA Boxing region that includes Louisiana, Mississippi, southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle. “Now that we’ve opened it up for competitors from everywhere in the U.S., our numbers may go even higher.”

Williford said that entries have already been received from as far away as New York, and that he expects many other states to be represented.

“It’s been our experience in doing the Governor’s Games since 2005 that participants come from a wide area, even from neighboring states,” said Durand “Rudy” Macklin, commissioner of the Games and executive director of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. “These events can provide an influx of thousands of people and can be a significant boost to the local economy.”

Boxing has not been contested in the Governor’s Games for more than a decade, but Macklin wanted boxing back on the schedule and recruited Williford to head up that effort. This year’s Governor’s Games features nearly 30 new or revived events.

“Rudy has been wonderful for us to work with,” said Williford, whose local Ragin’ Cajun Amateur Boxing Club has hosted the Louisiana Golden Gloves competition in Lafayette for the past two years. “It’s not that the Games didn’t want boxing in the past, but until Rudy got heavily involved it wasn’t a priority.”

Competitors in the Games’ boxing competition must be registered with USA Boxing, the sanctioning body for all amateur boxing in the U.S. Participants are divided into weight classes and age divisions including age 8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16 and open (age 17-34) for male and females. Novice categories for beginning fighters over age 17 and super novice categories for fighters over age 19 with fewer than 10 career bouts will also be contested.

Elimination bouts will be held on Friday-Saturday, June 19-20 beginning at 6 p.m. both nights, and finals are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 21. Weigh-ins are 7 a.m.-noon on Friday, June 19, at the MicroTel Inn and Suites on Ambassador Caffery. Winners will receive championship belts courtesy of the sponsoring Glenn Armentor law offices, while runners-up and unopposed champions will receive traditional gold, silver and bronze medals.

Tickets are $10 general admission and $3 for youths 12 and under each day with three-day passes available for $20 and $5, and will go on sale in the near future. VIP tables are $300 for the entire event and are now available from Beldon Fox at (337) 288-4052.