The 78th Annual Iowa Golden Gloves Tournament took place this past weekend in West Des Moines, IA and Peñas Davenport Boxing Club (DBC) had a great showing and came home with 6 championships.
Cederick Thomas and Jaylin Buckley won the open division and Mireya Mendoza, Pachino Hill, Deena Gibbs, and Natasha Louis won the novice division.
Coaches Patrick Peña and Fred Thomas are doing a great job at keeping the legacy alive of late founder and local boxing coaching legend Alvino Peña.
Monday afternoon Hola Iowa visited the Peñas Boxing Club for a photo shoot with the Iowa Golden Gloves champions. The gym was filled with young boxers working hard energized from their success at the Iowa Golden Gloves tournament.
Cederick Thomas the Open Division Champion at 108 pounds will now represent Iowa at the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions May 16-21 at Salt Lake City, Utah. Thomas is a 3 time Iowa Silver Gloves Champion and last year’s Regional champ. He turned 17 this past February which puts him in the adult division. This is the first time he will have to fight adults.
But all this success doesn’t come without its challenges. DBC though that they had found the perfect location for their gym at the Old Lincoln School basement late last year but just last month they found out they might have to move yet again.
The Davenport school board voted 6-1 to invite bidders to purchase the building and property at 318 E. 7th St.
DBC is figuratively against the ropes but with the help of the community they will overcome once again. This Saturday April 9 Peñas Boxing Club will hold a charity boxing show at the LULAC Center located at 4224 Ricker Hill Rd in Davenport, IA. The doors open at 5 pm and the fights start at 6 pm. Cost is only $10 for adults, $5 for ages 6-12 and free for 5 and under.
Come out and show your support so that Peñas Boxing Club can keep empowering our youth.
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