DREXEL HILL — Lancaster’s Manny Pentz is headed to Detroit.
The boxer, all of 18 years old, will journey there for the Golden Gloves National Championships on May 13-18, a date he made after capturing the Gloves’ Pennsylvania title late Saturday night in a fight stopped in the first round due to injury.
In truth, the setting for the 2024 Pennsylvania Golden Gloves State Championships was a bit surreal. Held at Drexelbrook Hotel and Event Center, the finale of the months-long state tournament brought fighters and spectators to a ballroom adorned with fancy crown molding and ornate chandeliers.
It was the type of room where one might expect to attend a wedding reception, but, on this Saturday night, the dance floor in the middle of the room had been replaced by a 25-foot-by-20-foot ring. Instead of a bride and groom sharing their first dance, on this night it was young men fighting their hearts out, nine minutes at a time, chasing a dream.
Boxing, perhaps more than any other sport, forces its participants to lay it all on the line with no one to rely on but themselves.
It is indeed sport in its rawest form, and on Saturday night, the 16 bouts featured all the emotions that sport brings.
Each of Saturday’s first 15 bouts went the full three-round distance of nine minutes, featuring young boxers dancing nimbly around the ring, sometimes patiently awaiting their opportunity to pounce and other times aggressively throwing one haymaker after another with little regard for the punishment they might endure as their trainers shouted instructions from the corner.
The contests featured tears of joy, evidenced by one young fighter from Pittsburgh calling his family, shouting into his cell phone that he had done it, that he was going to nationals. The contests featured the best of sportsmanship with each match ending with an embrace between the pair of combatants who had just battered each other, and the winner putting a second-place medal upon the neck of his opponent.
The night even featured a bit of controversial drama as the aftermath of one match resulted in the announcement of the wrong winner, a pronouncement that was corrected after about 20 seconds of confusion, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
The emcee for the evening, Glen Turner, added a great deal of personality, enthusiastically announcing each fighter while also engaging in friendly banter with the fans along ringside. But Turner’s story added to everything right about the evening. A former pro boxer from Upper Darby, Turner received a kidney transplant a few years ago, granting him the opportunity to continue using boxing to shape the lives of young people.
The final bout of the night, starting just before midnight, saw Pentz, 6-foot-4 and fighting at 176 pounds, come out aggressive, pressuring his opponent, Khayan Flemmings, with aggressive quick footwork along with a strong left hook and multiple body shots.
At the midpoint of the first round, however, the worst part of sports was realized as Flemmings suddenly screamed out in pain.
The panicked look on Pentz’s face made it clear something was not right.
Immediately, the official motioned for the fight doctor at ringside to examine Flemmings’ arm, and it was clear the boxer had suffered a torn bicep. Flemmings attempted to continue, but after another attempted punch, it became clear that the injury was too severe for the fight to proceed.
Pentz immediately embraced Flemmings and brought him over to his own corner, where the trainers applied ice to his arm.
“I respect all my opponents,” Pentz said after the victory.
This was very clear in the compassion he showed his opponent, but Pentz, a 2023 McCaskey graduate, now heads to the next level with a chance to become the second national champion from Stumpf and Finefrock’s gym on Liberty Street in Lancaster.
Pentz’s father, Ryan, has created a GoFundMe, “Manny’s 2024 Golden Gloves Championship Drive,” to help raise money for the upcoming trip to the national tournament in Detroit.
• Mike Pollis is a sports correspondent for LNP | LancasterOnline. Email him via sports@lnpnews.com.
