NIAGARA FALLS — Cassius Clay, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roy Jones Jr., Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya. Those are just a few past champions of the National Golden Gloves Tournament.

Next week, Niagara Falls’ Josh Perez hopes he can add his name to the list when he travels to Grand Rapids, Mich., for this year’s event. He advanced to the tournament via a walkover at the state tournament in Syracuse last month.

“This is my first time at nationals, but I’m very confident in myself — you have to be,” he said recently after a workout at Casal’s Boxing Club on Hyde Park Boulevard. “I want to do more than just place, I want to go and win the whole thing.”

That’s a lofty goal for the 119-pound, 17-year old, especially since it’s his first time fighting in the open men’s division. But it’s a goal that’s certainly not out of the question, according to his trainer Ray Casal.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with Josh the last four years and I believe he’s ready for this,” Casal said. “I really think he’s going to medal.”

Nick Casal, Ray’s son and a top light welterweight, concurred after spending extensive time with Perez this past summer.

“I think he’s one of better 119-pound prospects out there,” Nick said recently from his training camp in Las Vegas. “For being such a little guy, he’s got a lot of power.”

Nick added that he considers Perez almost like a younger brother out of the ring and his “protégé” in the ring. For Ray, who added that he plans to take Perez to see and hopefully work with Nick in Las Vegas this summer, the biggest similarity between the two is work ethic.

“There’s not a lot of kids out there that are willing to put in the work that this takes, so the few that I have, including Josh, I’m really grooming,” Ray said. “Josh is in here almost every day. He’s a really dedicated young man, which is the key to success in this sport.”

Inside the ropes, Perez has a good combination of speed and power. For this tournament, though, the deciding factor is often endurance as every bout of the six-day bracket is scheduled for four rounds. Perez hasn’t had much experience fighting under those circumstances, but that’s why he’s stepped up his training regimen in the past couple months.

“I’ve been doing a lot of jogging, bag work, mitt work and sparring,” Perez said.

Ray added that he’s incorporated a lot of core training recently as well because often times at nationals, the body is the main point of attack at the lower weight classes.

“The conditioning of the body is big because a lot of the older guys are going to go right at his body and try to wear him down,” Ray said.

Nick agreed, while adding that the biggest advice he could give Perez was to remain upbeat and keep punching.

“I think he can really do some things in the tourney,” Nick said. “It’s hard to get knockouts at that level, so he’s got to throw a lot of punches to wear his guy down and pick up points.”

Contact reporter Nate Beutel at 282-2311, Ext. 2262.



JOSH PEREZ

• AGE: 17

• WEIGHT: 119 pounds

• HEIGHT: 5-foot-5

• RECORD: 10-4

• BOXING EXP.: 4 years

• UP NEXT: National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, Monday