Saturday night, July 17, he will.
Billed as “Fight Night” — an off-shoot of the six-week “Celebration of Punchers & Painters” exhibit at the Color of Energy Gallery in the Oregon District — Drake will put on several amateur exhibition bouts that begin at 8:30 p.m. The show is free and includes men from Drake’s gym and girl boxers from the Westwood Recreation Center.
One featured bout pits heavyweights Will Ashcraft, a 28-year-old Northmont grad who works with mentally disabled adults at the Jergens Center, and 22-year-old Hank Orange, a University of Cincinnati grad who works in imaging at the Montgomery County records department.
Cruiserweight Jason Waggoner — a 24-year-old Xenia High grad bound for the University of Dayton and now working as a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base researcher — is also on the card. The featured girls bout matches Pepsi Hunter and Katia Reynolds, both 17-year-old seniors at Dayton Early College Academy (DECA).
There will be a prefight party at the Color of Energy at 16 Brown St. from 6 to 8 p.m. Boxers will be weighed in there and there will be a SMAG Dance Collective performance.
The 8:30 show at Drake’s will include everything from a tuxedo-clad announcer to ringside artists — in the fashion of Leroy Neiman at big-time fights — sketching the action.
A postfight party will follow back in the Oregon District at SideBar and other neighboring night spots. Saturday’s show has emerged as a centerpiece of Punchers & Painters and a reminder of Dayton’s long-past outdoor fight shows.
There were several big-time fights at Lakeside Park, Highland Park and Triangle Park, where, in 1921, lightweight champ Benny Leonard demolished Eddie Moy in three rounds.
The most fabled outdoor venue was Westwood Field, where, in 1918, soon-to-be heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey knocked out Terry Keller. A year before that, welterweight champ Jack Britton lost his title in a 20-round decision to Ted Lewis there.
This is about the same place where the Westwood Center, scheduled to close July 31, now stands. To keep that fight program from completely folding, Drake will pass the hat for donations.
And Ashcraft sees another positive coming Saturday: “I think this will be great for downtown Dayton. People sometimes have a negative concept of downtown — like they’re going to be mugged or something — and that’s just not the case.”
This will show you can come down and experience something unique that you wouldn’t find in the suburbs. It will be fun ... and safe.”
As he reflected on what he just said, he began to chuckle:
“Ironically, I guess, you’ll get to do that by watching somebody punch somebody else.”
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