DRD Puts on Lively Show at "New" Venue
Posted: March 18, 2008

By Lindy Lindell
Photos by Bob Ryder

Louis Mitchell of the Detroit Recreation Department put on a lively, 11-bout amateur card at the newly-refurbished Northwest Activities Center Saturday night as a standing-room crowd watched. The near-westside venue (also known as the old Jewish Center) has undergone considerable improvements throughout its complex and this reporter was more than a little bedazzled in checking out these improvements in touring the the building at "halftime" during the amateur show.

This reporter remembers a decade teaching College of Lifelong Learning English classes under the auspices of Wayne State University on the second floor of Northwest, occasionally spotting Willie Horton, who worked for the Police Athletic League in the building, and attending plays in the 1st level Paul Robeson Theatre. The producing of plays ultimately failed because of a controversy precipitated by a complaint of a patron who objected that the sound of a bounding basketball could be heard emanating from the men's room during productions. Sometimes the roof leaked onto the second floor hallways. The place was a dump.

No longer. In the basement gym, a crowd of about 300, the largest this reporter has seen in nearly three decades of amateur and pro shows, rooted on their favorites. Former World Junior-Featherweight Champion Bones Adams fought here and sustained a shoulder injury that incapacitated him for over a year; Bernard "Superbad" Mays made his pro debut here, a fight attended by Tommy Hearns, who fought at NWAC as an amateur. The fights were generally mismatches as Northwest was used as a cheap venue to build fighters' records before they went downtown to Cobo Hall or the Joe. Jeff Whaley scored a notable, one-punch kayo in one of the more notable fights. Heavyweight Dion Simpson once knocked an adversary down and turned to go to a neutral corner, then changed his mind and stepped back to the fallen foe and spat on him. The date of a judge was splattered with vomit spewed by a boxer, her glasses speckled with the unpleasant mess in a very unpolite introduction to boxing.

No more. The gym room itself no longer has those orange bleachers that dominated the west wall; they've been replaced with petite bleachers that don't hold near as many, but the people who did the standing didn't seem to mind at all. The locker room, which once had the dreaded odor of a filthy sock has been revamped with sleek, new lockers, and the interior of the gym room has the bright sparkle of something new.

In putting on this Detroit Recreation Department Amateur Boxing Showcase with the help of former Kronk boxer Ali Haakim, Louis Mitchell has put on a show that one cannot help but to encourage him to do it again.

The results:

1. Suona Fowler, Butzel, RSC2 over Kelevin Boyd, Downtown, junior-welterweights.
2. Cortez Chamblis, Butzel, W3 Vitaly Shul, Hamtramck, 75-pound pipsqueaks.
3. Brandon MacNear, Coleman Young, W3 Fernando Gaddy, Jr., Rosario's (Battle Creek), middleweights.
4. Kevin Moore, Detroit Boxing Jungle, W3 Trevor Rutland, Motown, featherweights.
5. Marcus Warren, Lasky, RSC1 over Carl Hall, Infinity, lightheavyweights.
6. Michael Houston, Butzel, RSC1 over Laron West, Motown, junior-welterweights.
7. Byron Gaskin, Motown, RSC2 over Xavier Parker, Coleman Young, middleweights.
8. Stacy Bruner, Detroit Boxing Jungle, W3 Cameron McKennon, Hamtramck, super- middleweights.
9. Jeff Jagroup, Motown, W3 Jeff Rayner, Hamtramck, middleweights.
10. Brian Townsel, Butzel, RSC2 over Chase Waterstrandt, Downtown, heavyweights.
11. Brandon Colston, Infinity, RSC3 Gerald Mills, Rosario's (Battle Creek), middleweights.

Lindell's pick for Fight of the Night: Brandon Colston RSC3 Gerald Mills.

Lindell's pick for Fighter of the Night: Michael Houston, Butzel.

Photos by Bob Ryder