On Saturday evening April 7 th , the best up and coming fighters from Maryland, Delaware and Washington D.C. converged on the Rosecroft Raceway for the finals of the 2018 Washington DC Golden Gloves Championships. After five weeks of preliminary bouts, only the best of were left to face off for the title of Golden Gloves Champion. Although a large number of the boxing gyms
entered are from Baltimore and D.C. , Salisbury was very well represented. Of the ten novice weight classes, one of the spots was filled by, 152 lb Main St. boxer Markeese Hines. Of the ten open class weight divisions, Thomas Mottinger at 200lbs and James McMurdo representing 200 plus were out of Main St. Gym.
Hines fought a very strategic bout utilizing a lot of the defensive movement he had been working on for the weeks leading up to the finals. “His movement was really slick and he looked in complete control, as he moved right or left at will. When he chose to close in for exchanges he did it clean and got out unscathed. We were pushing Markeese to increase the nuber of punches he was throwing, but it wasn’t enough to get the nod form the judges.” Said Coach Hal Chernoff. Hines was pleased with his silver medal performance against Quinton Stephen out of Headbanger’s Gym in D.C. Upon finishing his first Golden Glove Tournament, Hines will go right back to work in the gym and prepare to move up into the open class division, now that he has exceeded the novice class limit of ten sanctioned bouts.
Thomas Mottinger, Main Street’s heavyweight entered the ring with a bit of a mental edge. He had faced his opponent Shaka Williams two times previously and won both times, one being in Salisbury. Mottinger has been on a mission since the 2017 Golden Gloves where he dropped a very close decision in the Regional Golden Gloves. For him to avenge that loss he knew he had to win big in the D.C. finals. Mottinger’s punching powers had Williams moving around the ring for most of the three-three minute rounds, but Mottinger was able to cut him off at will and land solid punches, giving him the unanimous win. Mottinger will now move on to the Regional Golden Gloves where he will meet the best heavyweight from the North Carolina/Virginia Championships.
In the last bout of the evening, Prince St Elementary school teacher, James, “Matt” McMurdo or Mr. McMurdo as his students know him. Battled in a crowd-pleasing display of power and determination, but was unable to outpoint 6’6” Malik Titus fighting out of “Time To Grind Boxing” in Baltimore. The six time Golden Glove Champion drew on his experience to deal with the fierce punching power and unrelenting pressure McMurdo kept on Titus through the entire fight. “Matt worked very hard for this fight and this was his first open class appearance in a tournament. He fought one of the best in his class and we knew Malik’s experience was going to be a factor, so we just tried to stick to our game plan and
take him out of his rhythm as much as possible. Matt was successful at times but Malik’s experience let him make the right adjustments to get the win. Malik has a solid shot at winning it all at the national level.” Said Chernoff. “ We entered five fighters this year, and came away with two gold medals and three silver medals, that is something we are all very proud of. They represented Main St, and more importantly Salisbury in a big way.
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