Martin to highlight 74th Golden Gloves

Boxing has taken 17-year-old Ryan Martin a lot of places he had never been before, and next month the Central High School sophomore will be heading to the other side of the world to represent the United States.

But this weekend he'll be doing what he does best in his own school gymnasium.

Martin will be in featured bouts both nights of the 74th annual Chattanooga Golden Gloves tournament. Starting at 8 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday, it is being held at Central High for the first time.

Four Central students and one from neighboring Brown Middle School will be among the West Side Knockouts' 12 entrants. Among several "definite up-and-comers," according to coach Andy Smith, West Side even has two girls taking part. LaShonda Williams is set to fight Friday, and an opponent tentatively is lined up Saturday for Emily Dagnan.

The Red Bank Boxing Club also has a girl entered. Kat Sledge will take on Sarah Abernathy from Gadsden, Ala., as part of Friday's card.

There will be about 20 bouts per night. Tickets cost $8 for adults and $5 for students each night and will be available at the door.

The tournament will include boxers from Knoxville, Atlanta and Birmingham and elsewhere in the region. But Martin is the headliner. The 132-pound open champion at the Under-19 Nationals last month in Cincinnati is lined up against Stephon McIntire of Enterprise, Ala., on Friday and against 24-year-old Mickey Santos of Birmingham -- last year's Southeastern Golden Gloves 141-pound champion -- on Saturday.

After multiple junior national titles, Martin is 8-0 as an open boxer, and his Cincinnati triumph put him on the U.S. team for the Cadet (ages 17-19) World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. He and Smith will leave April 11 for the U.S. national training center at Colorado Springs, and after a week of training at altitude the team will head to the former Soviet republic.

"It hasn't really affected me yet," Martin said, "but I know it will when we get on that plane."

The tournament will include boxers from 87 countries, Smith said, and many use a rougher style than young U.S. boxers are accustomed to.

"We needed to get him these fights as warmups, but the biggest thing we're doing with Ryan right now is conditioning and working on a few technical things," Smith said. "There's a ton of film on YouTube that shows the international style, and I've been studying that to help him get ready for the dirty fighting he'll see."

Each of the American boxers still in school will have a personal tutor provided by the U.S. Olympic Committee, so Martin won't fall behind in his schoolwork. He said his grades are "all right -- B's and C's, no D's and F's" -- and he likes computer studies.

But his first love is boxing. He's been working with Smith since he was 8 years old. He thinks his main assets are his "agility and speed" -- both in his hands and his legs.

"Definitely, his speed and his jab," Smith said. "He has a really good jab. And the thing to remember about Ryan is that he went from 119 (pounds) to 132 in less than six months. He's really just growing into 132."

Martin admitted being nervous for the weigh-ins at Cincinnati, his first open tournament, where everything was a bigger deal than his junior nationals and all the fights were streamed live over the Internet.

"But once that bell rings, I'm not nervous anymore," he said.