Sun, Nov 08 2009
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Published June 27, 2009 12:19 am - Friend’s backyard gym produces champions EDITOR’S NOTE: Ralph Friend served as chairman of the Heartland Regional Boxing Tournament, which was held in Joplin for several years. Friend became a familiar figure around Memorial Hall during that time.
The Associated Press STILLWATER, Okla. — It was yesterday to Ralph Friend. The pre-fight jitters, the big stage and the Light Heavyweight World Championship fight that was stopped too soon. The date was actually Dec. 16, 1971. Friend walked 34-year-old Brian Kelly to the ring for the championship fight against Bob Foster. Kelly had more than 30 victories in a row, and Foster was one of the best light heavyweight champions in boxing history. The referee stopped the fight after five rounds. Nearly four decades later Friend still argues that Kelly — always a late charger — was about to rally. With every punch Kelly threw and every punishing blow he took, his longtime coach was fighting from a few feet away. “You are fighting harder in the corner than the guy in the ring is,” Friend said. “You see things that maybe they don’t see and you are trying to get them to do it.” It’s been 38 years since Friend guided Kelly to a world championship fight and six decades since Friend started his professional career. Friend, who recently turned 80, has been an amateur boxing coach for almost sixty years and mentored a handful of professionals. He started the Stillwater Boxing Club, which has won four Kansas-Oklahoma Golden Glove Tournaments. In almost 60 years of boxing, Friend has forgotten more about the sport than some will ever know. Now, a heavy bag wrapped in duct tape swings from the middle of the sheet metal building behind Friend’s house. A sticky heat permeates through Friend’s boxing lair during summer days. It’s a heat that sticks in your mouth and feels more like a sun-baked car than a gym. Years have taken color out of pictures posted on the walls and caused the corners to curl. The pictures are of fighters who Friend has ushered through his gym, as well as a few of himself years ago. In a corner, carpet squares line the floor of a makeshift ring and two rubbers cords stretch from turnbuckle to turnbuckle, forming a square. “There are a number of Gold Glove champions that have come out of that gym,” Friend said. 
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