Parkville Boxing Phenom Wins National Golden Gloves Title
Talk boxing, and you’re likely to talk about where the fighters came from and where they trained. Places that come to mind are the inner-cities, the hard scrabble slums of Louisville, Brooklyn and the Bronx in New York City, East Los Angeles and Detroit. Places that don’t offer a kid much in the way of help, so the only way out is with your fists.
But Parkville?
“Nobody really says anything about it when I fight,” Alexandra Stein, 16, said.
No, Stein, who lives in The Bluffs, wouldn’t be someone you’d want to tease: She won the 125-pound National Golden Gloves boxing championship held last week in Hollywood, Florida.
“Other champions were from major cities, such as Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, New York and New Orleans. It was nice hearing ‘Parkville, Missouri’ when Alex was declared the National champion,” her father, Tony Stein, told The Luminary. “We made sure that they listed her hometown as Parkville. We wanted to fly the local colors.”
Alex used to be a gymnast, even went to the states. She used to workout with her parents Tony and Barbara at the Summit Athletic Club on 45 Highway. There, in the back of the gym is a small section where Brian Spicer offers boxing training. It didn’t take long for Alex to start checking it out. Soon, she wanted to try for herself.
“This was way before Million Dollar Baby,” Alex scoffs when asked the inevitable question. “It was pretty random.”
And how did her father feel about her decision? Gymnasts don’t hit back.
“We told her to go ahead. I was for it from the beginning,” Tony said. “The amateurs are really well protected. They have mouth protectors, head gear, chest protectors. And they’re careful about bringing new boxers along.”
Alex agrees.
“The first time I started sparring, the people went real easy on me,” Alex said. “I’ve been hit pretty hard. You get pretty used to it. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
Tony said he was anxious about the first few punches, too.
“I really wanted to get a sense as to how she reacted to [getting hit]. If she couldn’t handle it, we would have had ‘the conversation.’ But she never acted as if it was a deterrent. In fact, it seemed to make her more determined to work harder, so she could hit back,” Tony said. “She seems to have the personality that lends itself well to being in the gym, and mixing it up.”
For three years, Alex trained with Spicer, and fought a few fights – which are hard to come by for young women.
“Being a girl and boxing…it’s really an unusual sport for girls. It’s hard to get fights,” Alex explains. Still, she had the desire, and it was obvious that she had the talent.
“[Spicer] was very encouraging, said she had the ability and desire, she just needed to develop it,” Tony said. And develop it, she does. Alex works out six days a week – five are spent in the gym, and the sixth day she can be seen running through English Landing Park and through the hilly streets of the Bluffs.
Now, Stein trains with John Brown, best known in boxing circles as Tommy Morrison’s former manager and the president of Lenexa, Kansas based boxing equipment manufacturer, Ringside, Inc. In fact, it’s probably Brown’s reputation in the amateur boxing world that keeps many boxers from poking fun at Stein’s hometown. Stein’s talent provides further incentive.
Amateur boxers are scored for hitting clean shots, not power shots. A knockdown blow is scored the same as a clean jab. A video of Stein’s January fight in the Heartland regional’s posted on YouTube.com shows that Stein understands this. Stein, a right handed fighter, is a classic in-and-out style of boxer: she moves in, hits her opponent with multiple shots, and moves out. She is quick with her hands – she catches her opponent Miranda Oliphant, last year’s regional champ, with several quick counter hooks – and she’s aggressive, always moving forward, pressing the action.
Her style has brought her success. She’s won five of her seven fights (“The losses came early, when she was just starting,” Tony is quick to point out), and now owns a belt.
Alex won a three round decision over Trenton, New Jersey’s Anashia Burgess.
“That was pretty cool,” Alex says when asked what it felt like when her hand was lifted in victory after her fight. “It was a big relief, I trained really hard for that fight, it was like a big weight off my shoulders.”
So where does this go for the Park Hill South Junior? She dreams of fighting in the Olympics – but women’s boxing is not an Olympic sport, though there is a lot of talk about making it one in 2012.
“The Olympics would be great, but I’m just seeing how far I can go…how good I can get. I think about going pro,” Alex said.
Alex’s next bout will be in August when she goes for a world title. Sponsored by Ringside and held in Platte County, the tournament is expected to attract more than 1,000 fighters from around the world. Her trainers will make sure she stays focused, but just in case, her father is there to remind her.
“She can enjoy her [National] win, but on Monday she knows, it’s back to the gym.”