First pro loss a learning experience for Napolitano
Antonio Napolitano first loss as a professional boxer will not go for nought.
Fighting Ryan Young for the National Championships of Canada middleweight title last Saturday night at the Hamilton Convention Centre, the 30-year-old St. Catharines native lost a majority decision to see his record fall to 8-1-1. One judge scored the fight a draw and the other two awarded the fight to Young.
“When I watched the video, I made a ton of obvious mistakes. If I were to have won that fight then I would have thought that I had got a win making those mistakes. A loss makes me look back and say, ‘No. You lost the fight because you made those mistakes and therefore those mistakes cannot be made again.”
The fight was a lot different than what Napolitano thought it would be in terms of style.
“It was quirky and he was very patient. I expected it to be a little more tactical and he was also a lot taller than I thought and had a longer reach,” he said. “There was a lot about the fight that threw me off and it was a good learning experience.”
Napolitano felt that he did a lot of things wrong and a lot of things right.
“It was one of those fights where as soon as I watched the replay I knew exactly what it was that I did wrong. Boxing teaches you 100 per cent self accountability and I never make excuses. Over the past couple of days I realized that you sometimes need a loss to keep you honest.”
He is honest in his assessment of what went wrong.
“My game plan going into the fight was to box and not brawl and he really tied me up and wrapped me up and was hockey fighting me while we were tied up,” he said.
“Sometimes when I spar, I spar with my cousins and guys who have been sparring quite awhile and when we tie up, we let each other go right away.”
That is something Napolitano feels must change.
“I believe a lot of times I am too buddy-buddy with my sparring partners and I truly believe if I want to progress as a professional I have to fight to get out of the clinch and we have to put friendship aside and everything aside and make it more of a dogfight in sparring, especially in the clinch.”
It was a mistake he won’t make again.
“Going into the fight, everyone was telling me to box and pick him apart but I waited for the ref to break us too many times and that is how I got my nose burst by letting him work too much in the clinch. I try to be a pure boxer the whole fight and it just didn’t work for me.”
He was having some success fighting left-handed but went away from it because it was taking a lot of focus and concentration.
“I wish I would have stuck with it to see where it got me.”
He also made some errors when his cut man was working on his nose in the corner between rounds.
“He was sticking a Q-tip right up my nose and I couldn’t breath. I pushed him away but I should have let him do his thing and figure something out in the corner. I don’t know how I am going to fix that problem but the Q tip up my nose in the corner was definitely something I wasn’t prepared for.”
Napolitano is now planning to take a break from competing for the summer and fall and spend some time with his children.
“I am involved in their extracurricular activities and sports teams but I am going to stay working out and training.”
