Bragging rights at the fights

Police officers and firefighters are not often booed in New York, but on the night of Saturday, November 22, a little friendly competition made temporary enemies of the city's Bravest and Finest. The Aviator Sports & Recreation complex in Brooklyn was host to the 26th annual “Battle of the Badges,” where a raucous crowd saw a score of peace officers and fire rescuers duke it out with a heaping helping of pride at stake.
This was not your average charity event. Yes, it benefited the Police Athletic League's community programs and the Wounded Warrior Project, which provides help to severely injured service members. Yes, the Battle of the Badges and rivalry bouts like it have accumulated over $200,000 in funding for various charities. But to hear Bobby McGuire tell it, a lot more is on the line once the standing-room-only tickets have been paid for.
“It's very big,” said the manager of the FDNY team. “This bout is for bragging rights. This is the one we all lean toward each year. It's the thing that both departments want to win for bragging rights.”
McGuire, a Queens resident, is a retired firefighter from Ladder 143 in Richmond Hill and a former FDNY boxer himself. He was captain of the Bravest Boxing Team when the group started in 1982, headed by Lieutenant Manny Fernandez and organized for the purposes of a five-bout charity event. The Battle of the Badges called Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum home for some of its early bouts, and next year's edition will return to MSG for the first time since 1986. Even in the event's infancy, the Forum was a sellout.
“It's a fun and crazy crowd,” said Susan Merlucci, representing the Fire Department in a much-anticipated female bout on Saturday. “It's definitely something else to be in the ring, and to just hear everybody going bananas. At the nationals, you can hear the crickets - there's nobody there. [But on Saturday] I couldn't even hear my corner.”
McGuire and fellow fireman Eddie Brown were among the men serving as trainers in that corner, and they spent the evening hovering over, not sitting in, their chairs. When the Bravest's John Dadon, in the first of 12 bouts on Saturday, landed a shattering hook against the Finest's Greg Thuesday, McGuire and Brown leaped skyward and jumped a few more times in unison. When the Bravest's Ryan Nordman let loose with the Finest's Greg Waithe on the ropes, Brown shouted, “Stick a jab in his face!” and frantically waved his elastic-gloved hands to egg on the crowd.
When Nordman fell later on, Brown stomped on the ground and glanced with desperation toward the fire-friendly half of the segregated audience.
“Being former fighters, you get very involved,” McGuire said. “It's very intense. Nine out of ten boxing matches are a lot more boring than this one. Guys went all out on both sides, you know?”
It ended up a tough night for the Fire Department, which lost most of its fights and was unpleasantly surprised with a few scoring decisions. (The record for the all-time series, believe it or not, is now 13-13.) But it was a nearly perfect night for Merlucci, billed as “the Manhattan Mauler” in the program. Not only did she win her bout with remarkable upper-body aggression, but her husband - Mike Reno, of Engine Company 33 in Manhattan - gave the FDNY its first win of the evening, knocking out Luis Martinez in the 165-pound class.
Merlucci is not a firefighter, but her connection to Reno was enough of a reason to give the Police Department's Tanika Harbor - who was “tough and swinging like nobody's business,” in Merlucci's words - someone to spar with. Merlucci is actually a trainer at the Wat Muay Thai school in Chinatown, where she teaches boxing and sports conditioning, and in only three years she has made her way from bartender to accomplished, national-level fighter.
“One of my girlfriends said to try kickboxing and boxing,” Merlucci remembered. “I was never particularly an athlete, but I got involved with some really good people and I stuck with it, and I figured out that I was good at punching people!”
Reno, meanwhile, billed as “the Bowery Bum,” has been involved in boxing for about seven years and has traveled cross-country numerous times for the World Police & Fire Games.
“We all have our main jobs, which is working for the city, so we all do this for more of a hobby, but there's a certain amount of pride that we put into our work,” he said. “I definitely take this maybe a step further than other people. I'm usually at the gym getting my training in. Other people have second jobs and maybe children and families and stuff, so they don't [necessarily] have as much free time as I have.”
Reno's 2008 calendar does not end with the Battle of the Badges. Between now and June 2009, he and the Bravest Boxing Team will face off against police and fire brigades from Jersey City, the Dominican Republic, Dublin, and London. According to the group's historical narrative, its motto “is to fight anyoneanywhereanytimeas long as it's for a good cause.”
“We raise a lot of money for charity and it makes it all worthwhile,” McGuire explained. But charitable spirits notwithstanding, he had one message for his blue-clad opponents with respect to Battle of the Badges 2009.
“We'll be waiting for ‘em,” he said.