The Harder They Fall
By Kent Wallace with Cindy “Boom Boom” Podgorski
So I’m seated at the bar at American Legion Post 92, surrounded by a bunch of guys who have seen some serious combat—most are, after-all; veterans.
Artist and sidekick, Cindy “Boom Boom” Podgorski pulls up, orders a Tito, diluting it with ice but nothing more.
We’re here to cover an amateur boxing card presented by The Hurricane Boxing District and sponsored by Guy Pagan (recently elected Commander of American Legion Post 92).
Now Guy has pedigree. He’s Event Coordinator at the local Hard Rock Casino and the GM for the World Series of Boxing (South Florida). Tonight will mark the first boxing event held at the seminal “92” which has been around since 1948…
When you enter a room with “Boom Boom” Podgorski at your side, you get instant attention. And the lads responded with smiles that quickly betrayed the tough-guy persona they’d probably worked on for weeks in their mirrors.
Talk about the Sweet-Science—this was the sweetest of moments…
So “Boom Boom” and I strolled beneath the banner that reads “It’s not the price you pay to be a member, but the price you paid to be eligible.”
They’ll be no Medals of Valor or Purple Hearts being handed out tonight, but for the twenty or so kids all wrapped up and ready to go it’ll be a chance to show their stuff in the ring, with a crowd, and under the lights—how cool is that!
The buzz was further boinged by the presence of boxing greats Shannon Briggs and Glen Johnson—I mean to tell ya, these kids were ready to rumble and they didn’t disappoint.
Hey, the Olympics are past and U.S. boxers did okay (comparatively to recent outings). Claressa Shields took Gold (back-to-back), Shakur Stevenson took Silver and Nico Hernandez took home a Bronze.
The pugs who punched away in the parking lot of Post 92 the other night, may well represent us down the road—one never knows—but “Boom Boom” and I had ring-side seats to what I’m told was just the first in a series of…
