“Yeah, I played at UD Arena with a professional band a couple of months back,” Bryan Brown said before his training session at the gym. “It was a union job and I got paid $400. It was really something. It was an Easter Sunday service and the place was quite packed.”
Brown, a 16-year-old junior at Stivers School for the Arts, is a budding middleweight boxer and a talented French horn player. The UD Arena gathering he was talking about was Ginghamsburg Church’s big Easter service.
“It was called Crazy Hope and there were over 7,500 people there,” said Brenda Hauser, a communications and marketing specialist for the Tipp City church. “We had a light show, big overhead screens and music. It was like a rock concert. There was lots of energy.”
When it comes to the energy — as well as some boxers banking on crazy hope — the same could be said about tonight’s 8 o’clock show.
This will be the third annual Punchers & Painters Fight Night put on by Drake’s owner John Drake. A collaboration in the past between the boxing community and local artists (some of whom paint or sketch at ringside), the free-to-the-public show strives to bring together a diverse crowd that has fun and gets to see some of the area’s promising boxing talent.
Brown began playing the French horn and boxing about the same time.
“My music teacher wants me to be careful so I can keep playing,” he said with a grin. “I’ve gotten a fat lip before in the ring and I had to stop playing my horn for a week or two.”
It seems the teacher didn’t mind the black eye or bloody noses he’s gotten.
Interestingly enough, some of his more bruising sessions in the ring have come during sparring sessions with his nephew, light heavyweight Cory Lehmkuhle, who’s also 16 and a sophomore at Ponitz Tech.
“They are two great kids,” Drake said. “They’re almost like two little puppies. They always stick together, they mess with each other. It’s kind of cute really.
“But when our guys are sparring, I’ll say, ‘OK, it’s time for a little Family Love,’ and then Cory and Bryan will get in there together and will go at one other until they are absolutely knocking the snot out of each other. Sometimes we have to get them to back off. I tell them, ‘Look, you guys gotta remember you’re on the same team ... You’re the same family for God’s sake!’ ”
While Bryan’s never fought on the Punchers & Painters show before, Cory did last year, and though a bit overmatched, he fought gallantly and won much of the crowd over in his defeat.
“I was pretty nervous at first, but as the rounds went on, the crowd started screaming and encouraging me and that got me hyped up,” he said. “It was a pretty exciting scene for all of us that night.”
Although tonight’s card — which will have at least eight bouts — is populated by amateurs from a few local gyms, there are also boxers coming in from Columbus, Cincinnati and a superheavyweight from Iowa City, Iowa — Tony Batie — who will meet Drake’s 255-pound Austin Wing in the main event.
The 26-year-old Wing is 5-4 and won the Ohio State Fair title last summer.
The 27-year-old Batie said by phone Friday that he has a 20-10 record and should weigh in at about 230 pounds. He made it to the quarterfinals of the National Golden Gloves tournament in 2006 and 2008 before losing decisions.
“I can tell you this, he’s no chump,” said his trainer, Mike Beyah of Waterloo, Iowa.
The same could be said of junior welterweight DaQuan Mays, who will be co-featured on the card. The Trotwood-Madison High School grad has been part of the United States Olympic Education Center program at Northern Michigan University. He’s trained by Ron Daniels.
Pepsi Hunter, a Miami University student and DECA grad, is scheduled to fight, as well. She and Anna Zamora stole the show when they went toe-to-toe in their bout at last summer’s Puncher’s & Painters Fight Night.
Another Drake boxer — 13-year-old Sam Wildenhaus of Yellow Springs — will be fighting tonight as well.
As for Bryan Brown, this will be his first Punchers & Painters appearance in what has been a six-bout career.
“I’m excited to fight in front of the hometown crowd for the first time and show what I can do,” he said. “Right now, though, I’m probably better with the French horn. I can hit the high notes and the octaves.”
As he was saying that, Cory just looked over at him, kind of shook his head and smiled.
Thanks to those Family Love sessions, he knows he can hit some notes in the ring, too.
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