Columbus Police Athletic League (PAL) coach Seth Caffee describes the boxing in Columbus as having smalltown quantity with the big-town quality.
That saying is true this year for Caffee since the Columbus PAL will be sending three boxers to compete in the Indiana Golden Gloves tournament that starts Thursday and runs every Thursday through June 10 at the Tyndall Armory in Indianapolis.
“We’ve got something a little special this year that we normally don’t get. I love that because we don’t push out a lot of fighters, but our fighters are pretty decent,” Caffee said. “This year, we have three fighters competing in three different divisions which show all different experience levels.”
The boxers that will competing in the Indiana Golden Gloves this year are Chauntavious Davis, Tristen Grant Jr. and Juan “Johnny” Martinez.
Davis will be fighting in the 152-pound sub-novice division, which basically is competing in five fights or less. Martinez will be fighting in the 165 novice division, which is a step up from the sub-novice division. Grant will be fighting at 125 in his very first open tournament, which is the highest division level at the Indiana Golden Gloves.
The Indiana Golden Gloves is one of the most highly decorated tournaments in the state. It’s been around for close to 100 years. Caffee’s best analogy he used to describe how importance the tournament is to the boxers is like how basketball is to Indiana.
The Indiana Golden Gloves is a single-elimination tournament.
“The Golden Gloves in general is the most prestigious tournament. It’s the most nostalgic tournament,” Caffee said. “If you won the Golden Gloves, you were a big deal. You still want that Golden Glove. You hear its name, and it has weight to it. It’s been around for a long time.”
Davis will be the first boxer of the three to fight at the Indiana Golden Gloves, with his opening match scheduled for Thursday. He started learning about boxing about two years ago after graduating from Columbus North High School and started intense training for competition last fall.
Davis said when he’s not at Columbus PAL training, he bought heavy bags and will ask the coaches for homework to train and work on.
“I’ve got to make sure I stay active and run and do stuff,” Davis said. “You’ve got to think of it this way — if you’re training, your opponent can’t be training. If you’re doing hard work, there’s a chance he’s not doing anything, so you’ll be a step higher regardless.”
Being a boxer in training comes with certain requirements to try and maintain weight. Davis said he typically doesn’t eat past 8 p.m. and eats food like crackers, salmon, tuna and chicken. Martinez said he makes sure he doesn’t eat too heavy so he doesn’t get sick. He eats lots of carbs and also drinks water most of the time and Gatorade on the occasion.
Davis is anxious to get in the ring on Thursday.
“I’m a competitor, period. I’ve always competed in everything I do,” Davis said. “Once you get in the ring, you do everything that you’ve trained for. You’ve just got to go in there and compete and have fun at the end of the day. You’ll learn stuff win or lose. You take what you get and keep moving forward.”
Martinez, a senior at North, said he first got into boxing six years ago and wanted to learn how to defend himself. He said he was excited to have Caffee take him under his wing and help him learn the ropes of boxing.
Outside from normal hours at Columbus PAL, Martinez says he goes to the gym, runs and works out usually on the weekend. He added that he runs at Donner Park.
Martinez’s first fight at the Indiana Golden Gloves is around mid-May. He’s excited for the opportunity after missing out last year due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It does mean a lot to me competing at these events. I’ve always wanted to go pro, and so these events really mean a lot on the way to pro status,” Martinez said. “It would mean a lot, but hopefully I’ll win and then win the next match after that.”
In Grant’s open division, he only has to fight one boxer in his weight division. Caffee said if he wins that match, which is on June 10, he will make the Golden Gloves team and will compete in the nationals in Oklahoma in August against other Golden Gloves champions from across the country.
Grant, a 2020 North grad and a gym captain at Columbus PAL, said this has been one of his goals in his boxing career — to make the Golden Gloves national tournament.
“It’s one that I haven’t been able to do yet,” Grant said. “With the group that we have and how I’ve been here long enough that I’m slowly starting to develop into more of a coach, it’s becoming a bigger blessing for me to be able to share the things that I’ve learned and project it onto these guys.”
Caffee said one of the biggest aspects of boxing is not only the physical side, but it also requires a lot of mental toughness.
“I told my guys all the time that if you have talent, I can teach you skills. I can’t teach you work ethic, I can’t teach you heart and you’ve got to figure if you want to be in there or not,” Caffee said. “It’s more of a mental preparation. That mental preparation is just as hard as getting out there and getting in the ring sparring or getting out here and running three miles. I can make them run, I can teach them how to punch, spar and do mitt work with them, but it’s the mental prep that’s the hard part.”
