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Johnny Determan goes pro, wins first bout |
Lee Warren/HG
OMAHA, Neb. (HG)—“Pacquiao’s here!”
When Johnny Determan, 20, stepped back into the Victory Boxing Club in South Omaha for the first time since winning his first professional fight, he did not slip in unnoticed.
All 40 or so kids training with boxing coaches, working the speed bag or taping up for a sparring session on that day late last month knew Johnny.
They had gathered around a TV at the club earlier to watch a DVD of Determan, fighting as a featherweight, score a third-round knockout over Joey Nguyen in Iowa City, Iowa, on Nov. 13. So when one of them referred to Determan as Manny Pacquiao, who won the World Boxing Council super welterweight title the same night, it was a sign of respect.
Determan, a veteran of more than 100 amateur fights, has been training at the club for several years and his list of accomplishments is long.
He won seven state titles, seven regional titles and a National Junior Olympics title in 2007. USA Boxing, the national governing body of amateur boxing, ranked him the No. 1 flyweight in 2007. In 2008 he won a bronze medal at the National Golden GlovesTournament in Grand Rapids, Mich., and in 2009, he competed in the National Golden Gloves Tournament in Salt Lake City.
With all of that success, Determan knows the kids at Victory are watching him and he wants to push them to work harder.
“There’s a couple in here, if they stick with it, they are going to be in the same shoes I am,” Determan said. “So, I want them to continue to raise their goals as I raise my standards, for them to see that and be just as good as I was.”
The standards at Victory are evident for all to see.
The sign over the main entrance includes the Bible verse Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” A large wooden cross is fastened to the wall next to a framed world’s heavyweight championship bout promotion poster from May 25, 1972, when Joe Frazier took on Ron Stander in Omaha. A Bible lies open on John Determan’s desk. John is Johnny’s father and in addition to helping Johnny train is a coach at the club.
Servando Perales, the owner and a coach at Victory, started the club to help get kids off the street in South Omaha, and ultimately to share the gospel with them.
Perales doesn’t take credit for Determan’s success. He said God has blessed Determan with tools and gifts and, in his dad, with a great trainer. Determan is also trained by former professional boxer Grover Wiley.
“It was just up to us as trainers to pull those tools and gifts out of him,” Perales said. “For the most part, I think he’ll do well. He’s a great kid and he’s a great example to the rest of the kids.”
So, how does a young Christian live out his faith in a sport like boxing?
“That picture probably portrays it best,” John Determan said, pointing to a photo behind his desk that shows Johnny and himself touching foreheads, praying. “That was before a national tournament,” he said.
“We’ve never gone into the ring – and when I say ‘we,’ I really feel like it’s he, I and God going into the ring together – we always go in praying first. And 2 Timothy 4:7 has always been our verse: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’”
Keeping the faith is always difficult and Johnny was put to the test when he knocked out Nguyen. He refrained from celebrating until he knew his opponent was okay.
“You don’t want to celebrate if he’s really hurt,” Determan said. “We didn’t know, so we had to wait and see. It was hard. You wanted to jump up and down, but it was instinct not to because we didn’t know if he was hurt.”
Determan’s second professional fight has not been scheduled, but he and his father are considering either a January or February return to the ring. †