Queens fighters fall hard in Golden Gloves Quarters

In his first fight, Kareem Gittens was knocked down twice in the opening round. Those falls only narrowed his focus, and motivated him over the next few rounds to victory.
However, there was no coming back from the straight right Gittens of Gleason’s Gym took 35 seconds into his 178-pound novice division Golden Gloves quarterfinal bout with Joseph Smith at the Boys & Girls Variety Club in Long Island City last Friday in the Daily News Golden Gloves.
Smith (Veterans Memorial) followed up two body shots with a wicked straight right that floored Gittens. When he rose, the Jamaica native wobbled enough so that referee Jose Fernandez stopped the fight.
“I would’ve rather the fight go longer so I could get more work,” said Smith, who also registered a 25-second knockout in one of his earlier victories.
The Long Island product started boxing five years ago, and has remained attached to the sweet science ever since. He came up short last year, losing to the eventual 165-pound novice champion, but seems destined for a different result.
“I feel good,” he said. “I think I’m going to come home with Gold.”
Kevin Kirrane, an Astoria native, had the home ring advantage in an all-FDNY quarterfinal bout in the 201-pound novice division. Members of his firehouse, Ladder 51 in the Bronx, packed the house. He did not have much luck in the ring. Daniel Torres of Black Hand Combat was the busier fighter and thus earned the decision.
“I could’ve done a lot different, but he’s a good fighter and he fought a good fight,” Kirrane said.
Although happy to reach the final eight, Kirrane was disappointed with his performance. In his fifth year of boxing, this was the first time work did not get in the way of his training to take part in the amateur tournament. He wanted the title, not just place well.
“You enter the Gloves, you want to win,” he said. “If you don’t, you’re just another loser.”
“I could’ve fought better,” he later added. “Now I get to drink a beer at least.”
Andrew Musumeci works with pro heavyweights Derric Rossy and Taurus Sykes, so experience is not a problem. He used that to earn a decision over Matthew Burke in his super heavyweight novice quarterfinal bout.
“That definitely helps,” he said. “Just doing the mitts, you see the punches coming.”
When he was 13, Musumeci won the Jr. Olympics in Lake Placid. In the semis of his first Golden Gloves, he is only two wins away from another amateur crown.
“It’s awesome, I can’t really describe it,” the Bronx native said.
Calvin Chen was not so happy after dropping a decision to Ramadan Abdul-Mateen in the 201-pound division. A sprained left knee in his previous bout limited the Jamaica native from doing much training. In his first Gloves last year, he fractured his hand after winning his first fight, forcing Chen, a 30-year-old mechanical contractor, to withdraw.
“I’m just disappointed,” he said. “I trained hard and then I had a little setback. But it’s boxing, that’s what happens.”