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11/03/2008 Archived Entry: "Former World Title Challenger And Current Trainer "Iceman" John Scully to Run Fund raising Amateur Spectacular"
Former World Title Challenger And Current Trainer "Iceman" John Scully to Run Fund raising Amateur Spectacular
Press Release
Former IBF Light heavyweight world title challenger John "Iceman" Scully is busy planning a twelve bout amateur boxing show for Friday, December 5, 2008 at the brand new Lion's Den Gym in Middletown, Connecticut. The card will raise funds to purchase a Memorial Plaque for longtime Hartford trainer, and National Golden Gloves Hall of Fame member, Johnny Duke who passed at age 83 away in 2006. The plaque will be permanently placed on a brick wall the currently borders the site of Duke's former gym at the Bellevue Square Housing Project in Hartford's north end.
Scully often trained at Duke's Bellevue Square Boys Club in the 80's and 90's and also had Duke in his corner for many of his amateur and professional fights. After Duke's passing in 2006 Scully set off on an eighteen month long quest that ended with the Hartford Housing Authority granting him permission to raise funds for the plaque honoring Duke and a more than forty year old gym that produced the likes of 1958 and 1959 AAU National Champion Jimmy Blythe, 1970's era New England Lightweight Champion Donny Nelson, 1996 U.S. Olympian Lawrence Clay-Bey, IBO 122 pound champion Mike "Machine Gun" Oliver and two-time welterweight champion Marlon Starling.
Scully is now the head boxing trainer at the Lion's Den in Middletown and will use the facility to run a series of amateur boxing shows on what he hopes to be a monthly basis. The first show on December 5th will feature the likes of Scully-trained five-time Western New England Golden Gloves lightweight champion Joey Perez and two-time Golden Gloves champion Christian Lau of Meriden's Silver City Gym.
Boxers from several area gyms, including those coached by former Johnny Duke boxer Hector Rosario of Hartford, will be featured on the card. Rosario won several championship titles as an amateur boxer under Duke in the 1980's including the New England Golden Gloves Bantamweight title back in 1987 that he captured in Lowell, Massachusetts by scoring a final round decision over future world title challenger "Sucra" Ray Oliveira.
http://www.lionsdenct.com << Lion's Den Connecticut Official Website
