On Saturday, April 2, 2016, many community members and fans came out to support two FCP tribal members in their boxing careers at the Northwoods Recreation Center in Crandon, Wis. The two tribal members who were taking part in this boxing match were Ira Frank and Mark Daniels Jr.
Opening up for the fights was the drum group Medicine River from Bad River, Wis. They participated in singing the opening song before the fights began and then sang a song for the main event fight for Mark Daniels Jr.
The first fight of the night was Zsolt Daranyi Jr. against Norman McGinn in the 154-pound weight class. This fight lasted all of about two minutes with Daranyi knocking out McGinn in the rst round. As was said by the ring announcer, “You will want to keep a close eye on Daranyi’s boxing career. He is going to go far in this sport.”
The second fight of the night was one that many people in attendance were looking forward to watching:
the bout between middleweights Ira Frank, the hometown fighter, and Chris Taylor from Milwaukee. Both men weighed in at 170 but there was a significant difference in age, which resulted in it being very entertaining to say the least. Frank came into the fight very con dent and hoping for the win. Some skeptics may have guessed that because Taylor was half the age of Frank, the odds would have been different and favored the younger man. So it was with great surprise to many that Frank went in hard during the two rounds and even came close to knocking Taylor out in one round. Once Taylor regained his footing and was cleared by the doctor on hand, the fight continued. Frank ended up beating Taylor with a TKO in the second round. The crowd went wild with Frank’s win! Frank then gave a quick speech in his native language, Potawatomi, which translated into, “My name is Nan Gi Gwas. I am a boxer and thank you for coming here to watch me. It makes me happy to see all of you and I hope you enjoyed yourself. Thank you again. I love you!” It was apparent that Frank was extremely happy to see his family and friends there to support him in this match. He was understandably very proud to bring home a win for his people.
The main event of the night was also highly anticipated by the crowd: the fight that matched super welterweight Mark Daniels Jr., fighting in his hometown of Crandon, Wis., against Gustavo Rodriguez, from Rockford, Ill. With a crowd-pleasing entrance, Daniels and his crew came into this fight well prepared and ready to win the fight for his people and his community. Each round showed Daniels and Rodriguez both landing some good punches. But the support for Daniels was beyond that of Rodriguez, and the fight ended up with Daniels winning by majority decision! Daniels put on a great show for the community. The intensity of the fight was re-elected by the fact that Daniels ended up with a broken hand at the end of the night. That did not stop him from making a very heartfelt speech after his win. He said, “I want to thank all my family and friends for coming out to support me in this fight. It feels great to win at home! I want everyone to know that whatever you do in life, keep pushing for it. Don’t let the bad stuff that happens overtake that dream you have and always keep true to yourself!”
The night was entertaining and brought out many community members to socialize and to watch a sport that many do not always get to see live.
PTT congratulates Frank and Daniels on a job well done and wishes them the best of luck in their future matches.