N.Y. Golden Glover Quotes

In Their Words

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"No matter where you would go anywhere in the country, the only thing guys wanted to talk about was the Gloves in New York. They were always asking about finding ways to come to New York and compete." – Mark Breland


Mark Breland

Five-time Daily News Golden Gloves champion, Olympic gold medalist and world welterweight champion.
"To me, it meant a lot just to be in the Gloves. I would always think about Sugar Ray Robinson and all the great fighters who had fought in the Gloves. Everyone knew about the Daily News Golden Gloves, to be in the paper. Even in the Kid Gloves and Junior Olympics, all anyone would talk about was getting to the Gloves. It was the big thing.
"To this day, people come up to me on the street and talk to me about how they remember me from the Golden Gloves. They don’t talk about the Olympics, they want to talk about the Golden Gloves.
"When I was a kid, my uncle took me to see the Ali-Frazier fight at the Garden in 1971. We sat way up in the balcony, looking down, and it was great to be there in the Garden. I thought about that night in 1980, the year I won my championship. I was standing in my corner and, you know, the lights went out as I was introduced and was standing in the spotlight. Right then I said to myself, ‘I made it.’ Just to imagine I did it. To be there, it was my greatest thrill."

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"Those gold gloves mean so much to me I still wear them when I go out."
– Chuck Wepner

Chuck Wepner

1964 Daily News Golden Gloves heavyweight champion
"I consider winning the Golden Gloves as my first real amateur championship. Except for the Olympics, I don’t think there’s anything bigger than winning the Gloves. Those gold gloves mean so much to me I still wear them when I go out. When I fought pro, I was ranked among the top 10 heavyweights in the world for more than 40 months. Even having accomplished that, I will always be most proud to have won the Golden Gloves."

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"I’ve won world championships, and I can honestly say the Gloves are the equivalent to any world title."
– Kevin Kelley

Kevin Kelley

Two-time Daily News Golden Gloves champion, WBC featherweight champion
"Just by being in the Gloves, you know you are following in the steps of all those great champions, true greats like Ray Robinson. It’s a line that continued into my time. Champions like Superman (Aaron) Davis, Breland, Bowe, Junior Jones, and Bentt. All are world champions.
"I always wear my gloves and I’ve always worn them. I’ve worn them into the ring for championship fights. You think about all the champions who’ve worn them and then all the champions who haven’t. They all want to talk about those gloves, there is nothing like them anywhere. Not only are they special, they’re an announcement to everyone that says, 'This guy has made it.'"

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"Joe Louis, Ali, Frazier, everyone left their footprints … to know you’re putting your feet where these great, great fighters once fought..."
–Teddy Atlas

Teddy Atlas

Trainer and ESPN boxing analyst
"It’s a little different now and it’s still a great tournament and still popular. As a fan I always think back to when we’d go to the Garden for the finals, when all the fights took place that one night. To be in the Garden with more than 22,000 people for the finals – not 18,000, not 20,000, but 22,000 people – it would be packed. It was the ticket to have and they were a tougher ticket to get than a Yankees-Red Sox playoff game.
"For a boxer, there was nothing more prestigious and inspiring than to be in the finals, fighting in the Garden. To be in that ring, the same ring where every great fighter, Joe Louis, Ali, Frazier, everyone left their footprints … to know you’re putting your feet where these great, great fighters once fought, it’s like Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. And to have a chance to win a pair of those gold gloves with that diamond, there is nowhere else in the world you can get those. You put all those things together and there is nothing in the country to match it. Not just in boxing, but in all of amateur sports."

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"There was a guy with a pair of golden gloves around his neck. Right then and there I knew that’s what I wanted."
– Michael Bentt

Michael Bentt

Four-time Daily News Golden Gloves champion, five-time U.S. national champion, WBO heavyweight champion
"I was ten years old when I saw my first pair of golden gloves at the 110th precinct PAL. There was a guy with a pair of golden gloves around his neck. Right then and there I knew that’s what I wanted. Well, either that or play first base for the New York Yankees."

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"I was the undisputed world champion; I have two belts. But what I am most proud of are my gold gloves. I wear them all the time. In fact, I never take them off. I wear them when I sleep, that’s how much they mean to me."
– Vito Antuofermo

Vito Antuofermo

1970 Daily News Golden Gloves champion and world middleweight champion
"I had first come from Italy just about a year before I entered the Golden Gloves and I could barely speak English. My older brother took me to PAL, the gym, and I started boxing and I just loved it. After a couple months Johnny DeFoe and the other coaches told me about the Golden Gloves and I was entered. I got in and just started knocking everybody out. Four knockouts and now I’m in the finals. I had never been to Madison Square Garden in my life. When I came out for my fight and they shut off the lights, it was the scariest moment of my life. And when they put on that spotlight, I never felt so alone.
"I had just gotten a job in a butcher shop and my boss gave me the day off for the finals. The day after I won I showed up at work. When I walked in, my boss asked me what I was doing there, he told me to take the day off. Well, I would up standing there all day with people coming in the store talking about the fight. I felt like I was a world champion."





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