By David Weinberg
Pleasantville boxing trainer Julio Sanchez has been fighting a cold for a few weeks.
He found the perfect remedy at Tropicana Atlantic City last Saturday.
Sanchez was in great spirits great after guiding his son, Julio Sanchez III, and heavyweight prospect Bruce Seldon, Jr. to victories on the Boxing Insiders Promotion card at the Trop.
“I’ve felt horrible for a while,” Sanchez said in the locker room after Seldon’s first-round knockout win. “But I’m feeling much better now.”
Sanchez III, a 23-year-old former high school basketball standout, delivered a slam dunk in his professional boxing debut.
He looked poised and confident despite his inexperience, dominating most of the four-round, junior-welterweight bout en route to a unanimous decision over Washington, D.C.’s Douglas Diggs (0-4).
After the decision was announced, Sanchez picked up his son and carried him around the ring while a raucous, screaming crowd that filled the bleachers behind the ring applauded and cheered.
“To be honest, I didn’t think the crowd was going to be as big as it was,” Sanchez III said. “As soon as I saw all the people, I was like, ‘Wow.’ But I wasn’t nervous at all. I was excited.”
Julio Sanchez hoists his son.
Those same fans produced an even louder and more raucous reaction during Seldon’s fight.
Seldon (5-0, 4 KOs), the 30-year-old son of former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Bruce Seldon, needed just 53 seconds to gain a knockout over Brazilian heavyweight Gabriel Costas (4-8-1, 2 KOs).
Seldon, an Absegami High School grad who lives in Smithville, dropped Costas, who was riding a two-fight winning streak, about 30 seconds in to the scheduled four-round fight with a left hook, then retreated to a neutral corner.
When the action resumed, Seldon immediately pinned him against the ropes and unleashed a powerful right cross to Costas’ midsection that caused him to wince and sag to the canvas, prompting referee Ricky Gonzalez to stop the fight without a count.
“I saw video of him and saw he was in pretty good shape,” Seldon said. “But when he showed up for this one, I saw he had a little belly on him and I knew I wanted to touch that and see what happens.”
Both Sanchez III and Seldon prepared for their bouts by training at the Pleasantville Rec Center with the elder Sanchez.
Once regarded as a popular spot for fighters such as former light-heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Virgil Hill and late trainer Mike Hall, it had gone through some lean times before Sanchez rejuvenated it.
“Both of them (Sanchez III and Seldon) are inexperienced, so we focus on conditioning while boxing,” Sanchez said. “Neither of them had much of an amateur career, so they are learning on the job. We do two sessions and day, so it’s like they’re squeezing 12 weeks of training into six weeks.”
The same can be said for the Atlantic City PAL, where Atlantic City junior-middleweight Justin Figueroa prepares for fights with co-trainers Arnold Robbins and John Gibbons.
Figueroa (12-0, 10 KOs) also gave the home crowd plenty of thrills with an impressive outing.
Figueroa, a 25-year-old Holy Spirit High grad and former member of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol, continued his outstanding start to his boxing career with a second-round TKO over Argentina’s Mario Gaston Rios (10-4-1, 7 KOs).
Figueroa spent the first round sizing up his opponent, then pounced when he saw an opening in the second round. He caught Rios with an overhand right-left hook combination that saw him slump to the floor against the ropes.
Rios beat referee Ricardo Vera’s 10-count, but was still discombobulated. Vera wisely stopped the fight at 2 minutes, 34 seconds of the round.
Figueroa celebrated by doing his trademark “Worm” across the ring while fans cheered.
He unofficially became just the fifth local fighter in the last 30 years to win his first 12 professional fights, joining former Galloway Township welterweight Shamone Alvarez (19-0 start), former Somers Point middleweight Patrick Majewski (17-0), Millville middleweight Thomas LaManna (16-0) and former Atlantic City heavyweight Bruce Seldon (18-0).
Alvarez, Majewski and Seldon are all members of the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame. LaManna is currently 39-5-1 with 18 KOs.
“Y’all keep coming out and I’ll keep showing out,” Figueroa told the crowd. “I’m really putting on for Atlantic City.”
PUNCHLINES: Alvarez was in attendance Saturday and was introduced to the crowd with his new bride, Nakeema. The couple had gotten married earlier in the day.
In keeping with boxing tradition, the timekeeper at the Tropicana tolled a 10-count during a moment of silence in memory of former heavyweight champion George Foreman, who passed away last Friday at age 76.
Foreman’s 76-5 career record included a 3-2 mark in Atlantic City. His fight against Evander Holyfield on April 19, 2001 at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall drew an estimated crowd of 20,000, making it the second-largest crowd to see a fight in Atlantic City history behind the 21,785 that watched Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks at Boardwalk Hall on June 27, 1988.
Foreman’s final fight was also in Atlantic City. He retired after losing a disputed, 12-round, majority decision to Shannon Briggs at Trump Taj Mahal (now Hard Rock Atlantic City) on November 22, 1997.
Local wins conference gymnastics title
Mays Landing resident Hannah Appleget ended her collegiate gymnastics career with a championship.
Appleget, a Central Michigan University senior and an Atlantic County Institute of Technology grad, scored a 39.250 – tying her career-best – to win the all-round at the Mid-American Conference Women’s Gymnastics Championships.
“Honestly, I never really considered the possibility of being the All-Around champion,” Appleget said via video. “This has been the biggest dream come true. This has been the best way that I could have gone out with my career.”
Appleget, daughter of local PGA golf teacher John Appleget, spent her first three years of college at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.
She transferred to Central Michigan after Lindenwood dropped its women’s gymnastics program last year.
“I wanted this to be my happiest year of college and I can honestly say it was,” Appleget said. “I wanted to cherish all the moments and all the memories and I was able to do that.”
David is a nationally recognized sports columnist who has covered Philadelphia and local sports for over 40 years. After 35 years with The Press, he has served as a columnist for 973ESPN.com and created his own Facebook page, Dave Weinberg Extra Points.
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