Senior captain Mellin completes stellar career
By TIM CASEY
Sports Writer
He's sitting in Section 107, row five of a nearly empty Joyce Center on Wednesday afternoon, talking about his upcoming Bengal Bouts fight, the last of senior captain J.R. Mellin's career.
Down below on the court several members of the women's basketball team are running windsprints, preparing for this weekend's Big East tournament.
The conversation shifts to his freshman year, when he fought then-senior captain Doug Polina in Mellin's first Bengal Bouts final.
When asked about that fight, Mellin's eyes briefly look away and stare down at the court, the same place where he fought Polina three years ago. Seemingly ignoring the women's practice, an image suddenly appears in his mind.
"I remember sitting in the ring in between the second and third round [of that fight]," Mellin said about his loss to Polina. "I think my nose was broke at that point — it was bleeding but wasn't too bad. I remember looking up at those lights above the ring. I was having the time of my life."
"I was watching the tape of the fight afterwards and it's hilarious," Mellin added. "You see me swinging around in the third round and you can see I have this huge grin on my face. I have my mouthpiece in but there's this big grin. I think I took a shot right after that. I was a freshman and didn't know what was going on. But just to be a part of that with all those guys that I really looked up to was pretty neat."
One thing in the past three years that hasn't changed with Mellin is that grin. Mention anything to do with boxing and you're sure to see the whites of his teeth.
Whether it be reflecting on a previous fight, on the charitable aspect of the boxing program, on his growth as a person in his four years here or talking about the friendships he's made through the sport, Mellin is a total advocate for the program.
"In my four years here, it [boxing] has been my defining experience," Mellin said.
The experience began at the beginning of his second semester freshman year. His assistant rector at Keenan Hall, Jeevan Subbiah, a law student involved with the boxing program, suggested that Mellin try it out. Before leaving for winter break, Subbiah gave Mellin a few training tips.
"He said to do a lot of pushups and sit-ups," Mellin said. "I went home and was doing sets of 100. I didn't know what we did. Thank God we didn't do sets of 100, though it's not too far off."
The naive freshman quickly learned about boxing when he came back to school in January, 1997. Growing up in San Francisco, Mellin ran track and cross-country in high school, but boxing never played a role in his life prior to enrolling at Notre Dame.
"I hadn't even see `Rocky' when I was a freshman," Mellin said. "I didn't know what to expect. Coming in I didn't know anything about boxing."
Now, Mellin was thrust into two- to three-hour workouts, six days a week, consisting of 500 sit-ups, 250 pushups, 300 jumping jacks — not to mention sparring and hitting the heavy bag.
And arm circles.
"They just grind you because they want to reduce the numbers," Mellin recalled of his first practice. "They had us doing arm circles with our arms out to the side until I couldn't lift my arms anymore."
Fortunately for Mellin the pain only lasted a few days. He quickly made a name for himself in the ring, impressing the upperclassmen. One person Mellin met his freshman year was senior captain John Christoforetti.
Christoforetti, a three-time champion and holder of four black belts in karate, was an idol for the young Mellin and remains a close friend.
As is the tradition at the Bengal Bouts, Mellin needed to come up with a catchy nickname, or moniker, to use while competing.
He got input from Christoforetti and other boxers and thought of names himself. But it was ja woman who helped out with the administrative side of the Bengal Bouts that encouraged Mellin to pick a particular name.
Her choice was "Maddog", her father's flight name in the Air Force. The woman's father happened to be an ex-Bengal Bouts champion as well as an aviator.
Thus began the career of the "Maddog."
"I'm not the big Maddog," Mellin said. "I'm more of a quieter guy most of the time. But I've got to give them [the opponents] that whole psychological thing, where they're thinking I'm the Maddog. That's the thought, at least."
As a freshman, the "Maddog" advanced all the way to the finals of the 150-pound division before facing Polina.
"He was a machine. He could throw and he was in great condition," Mellin recalled about Polina. "He had broken my nose three weeks earlier. When we met in the finals, he did me the pleasure of re-breaking it for me."
Mellin came back his sophomore year a few pounds lighter, competing in the 145-pound division. This time, he advanced to the finals again, where he beat Dave Murphy, capturing his first Bengal Bouts title.
Last year, Mellin moved back up to the 150-pound division. As the top seed, Mellin rolled through to the finals, defeating Babu Kazu and Matt Lynn before facing his toughest challenge to date. In the championship round, Mellin squared off against freshman Edward Hernandez, the most experienced boxer he'd ever faced.
The anticipation of Mellin-Hernandez began several months before the actual fight.
"Everyone was whispering about him [Hernandez] early in the season," Mellin said. "By the time our match came around I had sparred him twice so I knew how good he was."
The bout lived up to its hype, as Mellin and Hernandez traded blows for three rounds before Hernandez won by decision.
Mellin started aggressively, almost knocking Hernandez down in the first round.
Come the second round, though, Hernandez had a surprise for his opponent.
"He came out in the second round left-handed," Mellin said. "Midway through the round I was thinking, `what the hell is going on here'. He sparred me both times as a right-hander and he fought the first round as a right-hander. But he's ambidextrous. Finally, I'm like, `he's left-handed. He wasn't left-handed before.'"
"The thing about Edward is that he makes you fight that much better of a fight because he's so well protected," Mellin said. "Where other fights would get sloppy, we threw, threw and threw but none of it was sloppy. It was probably the best fight I've had."
The two fighters were looking forward to a rematch tonight. But the plans were scratched before the bouts even began when Hernandez was declared ineligible to fight because of his experience. The powers-to-be likened him to a professional fighting, against novices, so they decided to prevent him from competing.
The decision was not met with approval by the majority of the boxing program. Two separate letters by fellow boxers published in the Feb. 24 edition of The Observer challenged the removal of Hernandez.
Though he said he would have liked to get a second chance at Hernandez, Mellin would not elaborate on his views of the decision.
Nevertheless, Mellin has lived up to his top ranking this year, recording consecutive unanimous decision victories over Brock Heckmann and Tom Owens en route to tonight's title bout. He'll be facing junior Dennis "The Natural Disaster" Abdelnour, who's already knocked out his two opponents.
"He was training in London [where he went to school] all last semester," Mellin said of Abdelnour. "He's so vastly improved and he's another left-hander. Left-handers should be banned from boxing. You can tell the effort he's put in has paid off. He's going to give me a run for it."
Win or lose, Mellin has cherished this year the most, mainly because as a captain he's able to give back to the program and try to instill in the underclassmen the same pride he feels for the Bengal Bouts.
"It's a blast coming in and helping those guys [the underclassmen] out," Mellin said. "For me, I always like to say put your pride in the process and not in the product. That's what I tell a lot of the freshman. If you do that, 130 guys walk away with a great experience, win or lose. Even if you're the worst boxer in the world, you know you're part of something bigger. I think a lot of guys really feel like they left with something special."
From a naive freshman to a senior captain, Mellin has experienced it all here at Notre Dame. He's a four-time finalist. He's been an integral part of a program that raised over $51,000 last year for the Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh.
He's been a champion and been on the losing side.
And he's even changed his name. Sort of.
All throughout his childhood and continuing through high school, Mellin was referred to as Jeff, his real first name. But on his first weekend here at Notre Dame, during Freshman Orientation, Mellin reinvented himself.
In one of the dorm activities that weekend, all the freshman in Keenan were asked to tell their names. As a joke, Mellin said his name was J.R., his initials. Little did he know at the time, but four years later that name has stuck.
"I thought it would be funny because those were my initials," Mellin said. "About a day later I realized that I wasn't going back from this. Forty people thought I was J.R. now."
Tonight, Mellin will head to the ring for the last time. His parents [who still refer to him as Jeff] will be in town from California, his sister is flying in from Philadelphia. Even Subbiah, his mentor, and still one of his best friends will be coming back to see Mellin's final fight.
In Mellin's corner will be his old friend Christoforetti and Mike Maguire, his roommate and fellow boxing captain, known to Mellin as "the team motivator."
Immediately prior to his bout with Abdelnour, Mellin plans on following the same routine he's been using for the past three years. He'll put on his blue trunks, listen to Pearl Jam's "Alive", then walk down the aisle, his final march into the ring.
There will be mixed chants of "Maddog!", "Go Jeff" and "Go J.R." echoing through the Joyce Center.
The final chapter of a storied champion.
His career may be over tonight. But his memories will linger on forever.
"I'm going to miss this a lot, I really will, more than probably anything else here," Mellin said of his final fight. "I'm going to try to suck it all in.
"Notre Dame has been awesome and we'll move on to other things and it'll be great," Mellin said. "But this'll be one thing that'll be hard to replace. You'll always have friends wherever you go and there'll be a lot of neat things going on but this is sort of irreplaceable. I'm going to miss it a lot."
All Sports Stories for Friday, March 3, 2000
