BENGAL BOUTS: Short road to the ring, long road to the top
By BRIAN BURKE
Sports Writer
Josh Thompson's first experience with Bengal Bouts was not when he laced up the gloves as a first year fighter in 1998. Living just down the road in Granger, Thompson would come to the Bouts with friends as a spectator, but never thought he would step into the ring.
"I was actually forced into doing the Bengal Bouts by my friends," Thompson said. "They said if I ever went to Notre Dame I would have to do the Bouts, and I was like, `No way, I've never gotten in a fight in my life.' So I came here and they actually forced me to do it. Freshman and sophomore year I got beat up pretty bad, I was close to stopping a few times, but I stuck with it, and things started going more smoothly."
It probably is not particularly shocking to anyone that Thompson worked through his early struggles and has since emerged as the favorite to take the 185 pound title this year. What is, however, ironic, is that the 17-year old from Granger who had no intention of even participating in the Bouts, now helps coordinate the whole show as a captain and co-president.
"Our secretary wasn't feeling well this year at all so we didn't have anybody full time doing administrative things, so (co-president) Brian (Hobbins), and I together had to deal with phone calls, raising money, that kind of stuff," Thompson said. "Our regular practice time, that two hour period a lot of the time for us wasn't dedicated to working out like it was for everybody else, we had to come in early at three and leave maybe as late as seven sometimes to get our workout in. Then in practice between four and six we were answering phone calls, answering questions, teaching guys, stuff like that. The working out part of it was one of the lesser aspects of Bengal Bouts that we had to deal with this year."
Tackling the full time job of making one of Notre Dame's greatest annual events possible would have been accomplishment enough, but Thompson has come too far since freshman year to not leave it all in the ring as a senior.
Last year as a junior he battled to a split decision victory in the 175-lb division semifinals over this year's No. 2 seed in the 185-lb division, Steve Pfeiffer, before losing in the finals. As a senior, Thompson now sees the definite advantages of his experience.
"I think I've worked even more so this year at getting in shape, I feel more comfortable in the ring, and I just feel more confident," said Thompson. "There's a lot of guys, when they get in the ring, I call them brawlers, they go after you non-stop the entire three rounds. I seem to be more of a guy who's going to wait and look for opening and be real patient. But if a brawler comes at me, my whole strategy has to change. You sort of need to brawl back with him, there's not much you can do, if you don't brawl back you're just gonna get beat on."
The other side of the coin, of course, is that this is Thompson's last chance to be a champion. While senior captain Pete Ryan is chasing his fourth Bengal Bouts title, the other six captains are in rather unique situations.
"One of the funny things is this year, all three of the junior captains, Matt Fumagalli, Mark Criniti, and Rob Joyce have won a championship before.
"The four senior captains, with the exception of Pete Ryan, the other three of us — myself, Dennis Abdelnour, and Brian Hobbins — have yet to win a championship," he said. "So there's pressure on the junior captains to be second time champions, pressure on Pete Ryan to for his fourth championship, and pressure on the other senior captains because they've never won before."
Perhaps this pressure is no more evident than in Thompson's nickname, "ReDemon" which serves as an extra reminder.
"I think that's a little motivation for myself, just wanting some redemption from the past three years, not being able to make it to the end of the line. It's a little extra kick for myself to get in there and fight as hard a I can," Thompson said.
Certainly a Bengal Bouts title would be the icing on the cake for a fighter who has contributed so much to the boxing tourney in his four years at Notre Dame. Yet, at the same time, Thompson understands the greater cause for which he and his teammates train and fight with such devotion.
"If I don't get through and win the championship this year, that takes nothing away from my experience. It's so fulfilling to know what you are doing, and to help others," Thompson said. "You just get this feeling inside like `Wow, this is amazing' — the sacrifices we're going through in practice aren't that bad, you're with a team, you're enjoying yourself, are saving people's lives and making other people's lives better. If you're able to do school, and you're able to do the Bouts and you're able to pull through on top of everything else, you can do almost anything, and you're on a path to be real successful."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, February 27, 2001
