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gold medal

Ring 10 raises money to help abandoned fighters, those down on their luck

Ring 10 boxers smile during a fundraiser. Photo from Facebook

By Kevin Redding

It was one of the few times Howard Davis Jr.’s wife saw him cry in public.

The Glen Cove native and Olympic gold medalist who made history in 1976 as the first amateur boxer to win the New York Golden Gloves tournament four years in a row had just about lost hope that he would ever get back his coveted awards, which were stolen from him and sold at a garage sale.

Matt Farrago with the late boxer and Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. Photo from Karla Guadamuz Davis

That all changed Sept. 13, 2015, when he was honored by Matt Farrago and his New York-based nonprofit, Ring 10, during a gala at Marina del Rey Caterers in the Bronx.

Davis, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer earlier that year at 59 and was on a personal mission to retrieve the mementos for his family before it was too late, was presented with four golden pendants.

Each one was a perfect replica of his lost golden gloves pendants, made and paid for by Ring 10. Veteran fighters from the nonprofit took turns placing them around his neck.

All Davis could do was bury his head in his hands.

“It was such an emotional moment and it was all because of Matt Farrago and Ring 10,” his wife Karla Guadamuz-Davis said, adding that the organization regularly helped pay for her now-late husband’s expensive medical treatment. “After Howard passed away on Dec. 30, 2015, I called Matt and said, ‘Thank you for giving Howard some joy during the last months of his life.’”

For Farrago, 56, a former middleweight boxer who lives in Greenlawn, helping retired fighters who have fallen on hard times is what he does every single day as the founder and president of Ring 10.

Formed in 2010 with a board of directors made up of ex-fighters, a cutman and some boxing advocates that meet once a month in the Bronx, the group stands as one of the few in the world that looks out for those who have been beaten in and out of the ring. Veteran boxers who are often discarded by managers and promoters at the top of their careers have been lost ever since, and that’s where Farrago comes in.

Ring 10 founder Matt Farrago with board member Richard Schwartz. Photo from Facebook

A majority of them wind up in physical and financial ruin because, unlike other professional sports like football, baseball or hockey, protected by NFL, MLB and NHL agencies, there’s no retirement or medical plan or structure in boxing for them to rely on.

You’re by yourself in the ring and in life, Farrago said.

“This is the rare sport that doesn’t take care of its own,” said Farrago, who was a top fighter in the 1980s until he was abandoned by his manager after losing a main event at Madison Square Garden. “There’s nothing — no safety net — nothing for these guys to fall back on. In boxing, if you don’t produce, you’re of no use. That’s the manager’s philosophy.”

He explained that while most athletes are drafted into the pros based on scholarships and achievements in college, that’s almost never the case for fighters, many of whom come up from the streets.

“If they make money, they think it’s going to last forever,” Farrago said. “Then they wake up with $150 in the bank. Whatever it takes, we try and get them back on their feet. We are the most effective club like this in the world.”

One of Ring 10’s proudest success stories is that of Iran “The Blade” Barkley, the World Boxing Council middleweight champion of 1988. The only guy to beat boxing legend Tommy Hearns twice, Barkley went from top of the world to homeless in the Bronx.

Matt Farago with elebrated boxing judge and analyst Harold Lederman. Photo from Facebook

“We were literally told there’s a fighter in the subway system living only with a bag of clothes and his championship belt,” Farrago said. “When Iran retired, he had nothing. We took him in, got him settled, got him a place to live, had social services kick in and about a year and a half ago he got married to a nurse.”

Barkley now serves on the group’s board of directors, which also includes top boxers Mark Breland and Richard Burton, and celebrated boxing judge Harold Lederman.

Since its inception, Ring 10 has raised thousands of dollars through events and banquets to help more than 30 top fighters struggling around the world.

They send monthly gift cards to boxers who can’t afford groceries and clothes, and checks to the families of those suffering from illnesses such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy — an extremely common degenerative disease among fighters that’s brought on by repetitive brain trauma, also known as “punch-drunk syndrome.”

For the last six years the group has helped out former two-time middleweight champion Gerald McClellan, who suffered an aneurysm and collapsed in the ring in 1995 and is now blind and 80 percent deaf; it frequently sends care packages to Charlie “White Lightning” Brown, who was once regarded as having the fastest hands in the fight game and now resides in a nursing facility in Illinois with fluid on his brain and difficulty speaking; and even provided a proper headstone for a Floridian fighter who died from injuries in the ring and was buried in a nameless plot in Flushing, Queens.

Matt Farrago. Photo from Facebook

While most of the boxers helped are between 45 and 60 years old, board members said they anticipate some younger guys currently in the ring coming to them for help.

“Boxers are basically pawns to be moved around,” said Richard Schwartz, one of the board of directors. “I also think there’s the feeling that a lot of people just don’t care — they don’t care about the modern-day gladiators who get in the ring to entertain them, who risk their lives. Once they hang up their gloves and a lot of the hits to the head kick in, many of them don’t even have any kind of medical insurance when they need it most. Where is Don King? Where is Oscar De La Hoyas? These people have made hundreds of millions of dollars from the sweat, blood and tears of these fighters, and where are they?”

To Burton, a boxer who has been swindled out of a fair share of money over the years, there’s hope as long as Farrago is around.

“Everything he says he does, he actually does,” Burton said. “He goes beyond what’s expected of him and he’ll help anybody. If you’re down on your luck, Matt will find a way to raise money for you. Ring 10 is helping as many fighters as we can.”

The Ring 10 7th Annual Fundraiser will be held at the Marina del Rey Caterers in the Bronx Sept. 24 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Students high-five Michael Brannigan as he holds his gold medal. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

By Victoria Espinoza

Paralympian and 1500-meter gold medalist Mikey Brannigan was welcomed back from Rio with deafening cheers and “USA” chants this past week.

The 20-year-old Northport resident returned to Northport Middle School Sept. 23, and hundreds of students lined the front entrance with homemade signs, waved American flags, and stretched out their arms for the opportunity to get a high-five from Brannigan.

Some tried to sum up what the perseverant athlete’s story meant to them.

“He can do so much,” one student said of Brannigan. “He won a gold medal in the Paralympics, what else can you say?”

Another student said she was inspired by Brannigan’s journey to victory.

“He’s autistic and was able to do all this stuff,” she said. “He overcame everything and worked so hard.”

Students high-five Michael Brannigan as he holds his gold medal. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
Students high-five Michael Brannigan as he holds his gold medal. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

Brannigan was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and began running as a member of the Rolling Thunder Special Needs Program, a nonprofit organization that trains athletes with developmental disabilities.

Throughout Brannigan’s middle and high school careers, he made a name for himself as a runner. He was named Sports Illustrated’s February High School Athlete of the Month in 2015, and placed first in the T20 1500 meters at the International Paralympic Committee World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar last year. T20 represents the classification level Brannigan was designated as a Paralympic athlete.

In August, Brannigan ran a 3:57 mile at the Sir Walter Miller meet in North Carolina, which solidified his place in Olympic qualifications in the T20 Paralympic classification.

The gold medal winner spoke to Northport Middle School students in the auditorium, and urged them to never give up on their dreams and study hard.

“Find a passion you love and never give up,” Brannigan said. “You always have to be a student-athlete. Always be a student-athlete. Do good in the classroom, find a subject you love.”

While Brannigan was in middle school, he said he kept setting goals to get better and improve.

Some of Brannigan’s former teachers teared up after seeing him and said how proud they were to see all he has accomplished.

Principal Tim Hoss was among those proud fans, and he told Brannigan repeatedly how delighted the school was for him and how happy he was with the environment the students made for Brannigan.

Mike Brannigan smiles and holds his gold medal. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
Mike Brannigan smiles and holds his gold medal. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

“Northport is an epicenter of patriotism, the waving of the flags and the cheering and the way you brought it home for Mikey makes us very proud,” he said.

Hoss led a Q&A segment, and asked Brannigan questions from students, including how he feels when he’s running so fast.

“I have so much energy,” Brannigan said, and the crowd laughed along with him. “It makes me a better runner.”

Hoss also asked how Brannigan felt as he completed his Olympic run.

“When I crossed the finish line in Rio, I went through the line and thought ‘don’t stop,’” he said. “And I didn’t. I did it. I was happy.”

When Brannigan was asked to give advice to the young students, he preached self-love.

“Work hard, and believe in yourself. …you’ll have good days and bad days, but never give up,” he told the students. “You have the talent inside of your heart and you’re strong enough to fight through. And that’s what I did.”

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We have spent the better part of the last two weeks glued to the television watching extraordinary people perform incredible acts under unimaginable pressure. Maybe we should come up with an Olympic Games for the ordinary person. To enter these games, contestants will have to go through a speed round of sports clichés, to see who can come up with the most trite phrases for any circumstance.

“Yes, I just lost, but I learned a great deal and was proud to be here. I’m going to refocus and redouble my efforts, and come back that much stronger.”

“We just take it one game at a time.”

“I know I’m only 8, but this is what I wanted my whole entire life.”

We can add a contest for would-be reporters. Ordinary people can sit down with athletes and see who can ask either the most inane questions or share superlatives.

“You just won your 18th Olympic gold medal. What’s next? Oh, right, your 19th?”

“That was sensational, spectacular and unbelievable. I’m just wondering what it must be like to be you.”

How about a remote-control Olympics? Let’s see who can change from channel to channel — without switching to movie stations — the longest without hitting a commercial. I pride myself on my ability to watch three shows without seeing too many advertisements, but every so often I flip from one station that’s cut to a commercial to another that’s still in commercial. That’s a remote control error.

How about if we put teenagers in a room and push their endurance? We can have their parents talking to them while they are sending texts, updating their Instagram accounts and using Snapchat. In fact, not only will their parents be talking to them, but they also will have to answer questions about their days. The first one-word answer — “good” for example — disqualifies the contestant.

Teenagers might want to turn that contest around, requiring instead that they only answer in one syllable. The problem with that, though, is that the game might not end until they hit their 20s.

We could also bring in couples who have been together for more than 40 years. We can ask a question and see how long it takes before they finish each other’s sentences. Or, perhaps, we can ask them to tell a story about something that happened early in their relationship and see how long it takes before they argue about the details.

“No, I wasn’t wearing the blue dress. I was wearing the green dress and we weren’t in Philadelphia, we were in Boston; and we weren’t at a park, we were at a movie theater.”

We can invite a group of people who have made an art form out of noticing absolutely everything wrong with others around them. A person can stroll by and the contestants can try to one-up each other’s observations.

“Oh, seriously? She didn’t make eye contact with anyone.”

“Did you notice how she breathed with her mouth open?”

“She wore those shoes? What is she trying to sell, know what I’m saying?”

We could also set up a movie competition, where people quote the most lines from sports movies.

Borrowing from one of my favorite films, “Bull Durham”:

“You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!”

“Lollygaggers!”

This 19th-century word has various meanings, including fooling around, wasting time, dawdling or dallying.

Yes, there’s exceptional speed and there are talented people pushing themselves to extreme levels to defy gravity, each other and the clock. And then there are the rest of  us and maybe, just maybe, there’s the

Lollygagger Olympics.