Top Gun boxers excel in Alpharetta
By CHRIS GOLTERMANN
cgoltermann@newnan.com
The Top Gun Boxing Club may have been more of an experiment a few months ago for local trainer Greg Elder, with three or four athletes showing a bit of an interest in the sport locally after they were recommended to him.
But after another impressive series of fights on Saturday during the group’s third outing of its short history, a short period of trial and error has overflowed into a potential future brimming with success.
Both Elder and Top Gun assistant coach Xavier Tolliver, a former light middleweight from Atlanta, were impressed with all three outings in the ring last weekend. In addition to another win from delaTrinidad, DiGiulio, a Northgate grad, picked up his first career victory.
The most impressive effort, however, may have come from Bowles, a 13-year-old Coweta middle school student that took on a 15-year-old, 120-pound opponent at his home gym and came up short despite a strong effort that had a large number in attendance baffled.
Earlier in the day, Bowles had the opportunity to fight either the 15-year-old and another 11-year-old at 122 pounds that matched up closer to the eighth-grader’s 116-pound frame. There can be no more than a two-year age difference between opponents.
“There was dead silence [after the decision],” said Elder, who hopes to work up a rematch at a neutral ring in the near future. “Even though he had the option of an eleven year-old, Devin chose to fight tough rather than take an easy win. He boxed with intense passion for the entire three rounds.”
DelaTrinidad faced a rematch of his own from a previous win at the Paul Murphy World Title Belt event with the same amount of ferocity.
“Rematches can be tough, but Ariel stepped up as well and fought a great fight against an opponent that truly gave his all,” Elder said.
The victory for DiGiulio, the first of his career, brought as much praise after being unable to finish his first two bouts in losing efforts.
“I told him, all I want you to do is work on finishing the fight,” said Elder of Digiulio, who has fought through sinus issues including a deviated septum early on. “He’s going to have a procedure to fix that and I think once that happens, it makes us optimistic for future bouts.”
