Dartmouth College prides itself on being an academic institution and strictly prohibits any form of violence. Under Standard I of the Standards of Conduct listed in the Student Handbook states that "Students and student organizations must not engage in behavior which causes or threatens physical harm to another person." However, on Saturday night in Leede Arena the rules did not apply, and members of the Dartmouth Boxing Club squared off in the ring against each other and fighters from local clubs in Dartmouth's second annual Fight Night.
The first of the featured fights pitted Simon Trabelsi '08, the 2006 Vermont Golden Gloves champion in the 132 pound division, against Travis Wilson of the Cornwall Boxing Club. Wilson also fought in the 2006 Golden Gloves, but lost in the championship bout of the 140 pound division.
Trabelsi jumped on Wilson early. Just 30 seconds into the fight he hit Wilson with a stiff left jab followed by an overhand right that sent Wilson flying into the ropes, clearly stunned.
After easily taking round one, Trabelsi caught Wilson leaning in and hit him with a left hook that caused the referee to issue a standing eight count early in the second. Trablesi pinned Wilson against the ropes and hit him with a vicious flurry that earned another standing eight count, but Wilson managed to survive the round.
Inspired by his escape from the previous round, Wilson opened the third by trapping Trabelsi. For a moment it looked as though Trabelsi was in trouble, but he exploded out of the corner, drawing blood from Wilson's nose.
The referee allowed the round to finish, but upon inspecting the nose after the round, he determined that too much blood had been spilt and that the fight could not continue. The win improved Trabelsi's amateur record to 4-0 and earned him a victory in the toughest test of his brief career.
"I was nervous coming out because he was real good," said Trabelsi, who was named the evening's most outstanding fighter. "It was my toughest fight but I just went in there and boxed."
The Trabelsi fight generated plenty of excitement from the crowd, and helped it get involved in the next fight.
Ray Rochester '07, a 2006 Vermont Golden Gloves champion in the super heavyweight division, won that title over Shane Kimber of Precision Boxing. Saturday night was a rematch of that title fight.
Rochester, a former football player at Dartmouth, has a rare combination of strength and speed and he showcased that talent by dropping his opponent to the canvas 20 seconds into the fight with a vicious right hook. Kimber popped up off the mat and did not appear badly hurt, but only nine seconds later Rochester hit him flush in the face with a straight right, drawing a standing eight count from the referee.
The fans in Leede Arena chanting "Ray Rock" at a deafening decibel level only had to yell for 13 more seconds, when the champ dropped Kimber with another crushing blow and the referee stopped the fight.
Rochester, who only picked up boxing last year, has been dominant in all of his fights thus far and predicted another knockout on Saturday. "I have been planning to do that for over two weeks since he wanted to challenge me again," Rochester said. "I'm kinda confused why he wanted to fight me again."
Fight Night also included a trio of matches that pitted a pair of Dartmouth students against each other. The heavyweight division bout between Earl Williams '08 and Miles Yourman '07, both of whom brought along sizable cheering sections, was certainly a high point.
Yourman came out strong in the first round and pressed the action, while Williams was content to bob and weave, avoiding harm.
The tables turned in the second, however, when it was Williams who became the aggressor and caught the taller Yourman with a series of rights to the head, quickly grabbing the attention of the crowd. However, towards the tail end of the round both fighters appeared to be winded and the action slowed down considerably. As the bell sounded to close the round, the fighters stood even.
Yourman rushed in immediately in the third, trying to serve up the knock out blow. But Williams fought him off with a succession of jabs, adding an impressive flurry with about 30 seconds remaining that tipped the scales in his favor. The referee raised Williams hand as the winner of his first amateur fight.
"The crowd can change how you box," admitted Williams after his fight. "I box a lot different than that but the crowd, the screaming and stuff, got me excited and throwing more punches than I should have been."
In other Dartmouth boxing on the night Uriah Ratliff '08 defeated Will Ryan '08, and Kevin Scully '09 defeated Dakota Blackhorse '09.
The head coach for Dartmouth's squad, Elvis Lowe, felt that the night was a huge success despite most of the boxer's lack of experience.
"I had a whole bunch of new guys with only about three or four weeks of training, but instead of trying to throw haymakers or knockout punches they really stuck to their game plan and fought pretty well," said Lowe. "Andrea [Shute] did a great job putting this event together and I was really happy with how it turned out."
Before the boxing got started the Blue Wave Tae Kwon Do Association gave a demonstration to get the crowd fired up. Members of the club sparred through four exhibition matches. The club also performed during the intermission between fights, breaking boards and demonstrating various weapons techniques. The star of the show was Alyssa Vinas '06 who excited the crowd with her bo-staff exhibition, then later showed her combat skills when she took on Marissa Knodel '09.
"I think tonight was a huge success," said Vinas, who is a third degree black belt and has been instructing Tae Kwon Do for the past six years. "Everyone left with smiles on their faces, all of [the participants] tried really hard and I'm really proud of them."
