By Keith Idec (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)
NEW YORK — Ethnic pride aside, the loudest applause during the annual pre-Puerto Rican Day Parade boxing card tonight at Madison Square Garden probably should be reserved for a white guy from Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Unlike the bravest boxers we metaphorically immortalize for waging the most brutal battles in the ring, Steven Badgley has literally been through a war. Twice. The 30-year-old Badgley, a chief warrant officer for the U.S. Army, has served two tours in Iraq over the past seven years.
He is scheduled to be deployed again in October for a third tour in the Middle East, but before he begins pre-deployment training this summer he’ll make his pro debut tonight against Angel Gonzalez (0-2), of Yonkers, N.Y. Their four-round light heavyweight fight is part of a six-bout card that’ll pit Puerto Rico’s Ivan Calderon (33-0-1, 6 KOs) against Mexico’s Jesus Iribe (17-6-4, 10 KOs) in the 12-round main event for Calderon’s WBO light flyweight title (10 p.m. EDT; FOX Sports En Espanol).
Badgley’s wife, Amanda, is also six months pregnant with their second son, but he felt as though he had to try to squeeze in his pro debut between tours two and three or it might never happen.
“I always wanted to go pro and I always kept pushing it off, whether it was due to the family, the military or being in and out of the gym,” said Badgley, who has been a helicopter pilot his last five years in the Army. “If I didn’t do it, I think it’d be something I’d regret. I’d kick myself when I’m 50. … I am busy with work and the family and all that, but it’s The Garden. I’m a fighter, so it’s an amazing opportunity and I wanted to take advantage of it.”
This time last year Badgley was boxing in a makeshift ring he constructed in the sand, halfway around the world.
Badgley had 20 sanctioned amateur matches on his record and always loved boxing, so he brought boxing equipment with him to keep occupied during his second tour in Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northeast Iraq with a population of about 850,000. With the U.S. Army’s support, he built a “ghetto” ring and started training mostly by himself in some oppressive heat between reconnaissance missions.
It took about five months, but eventually about a dozen fellow Army men began training regularly alongside Badgley. They staged weekly “Wednesday Night Fights” and ultimately drew a crowd of approximately 600 for a 12-bout card on a USO stage.
Badgley believes the experience enhanced morale and strengthened camaraderie among men in his unit. A boxing historian Badgley befriended spread the word about Badgley’s boxing experience in Iraq after he returned in October following a one-year tour, and executives at Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. inquired about Badgley making his pro debut on one of their cards.
Scheduling him to fight tonight at the 5,100-seat Theater at Madison Square Garden made perfect sense.
It gave Badgley enough time to train properly at the Watertown Area Boxing Club, near where he is stationed at Camp Drum, N.Y. Badgley also helped sell more than 100 tickets to a card lacking a huge draw because popular Puerto Rican icon Miguel Cotto fought Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, a week before the three-division champion usually competes each June in New York.
Badgley plans to make it worth the trip for everyone who comes from upstate New York to watch him fight for the first time as a pro. Micky Ward and the late Arturo Gatti are Badgley’s favorite fighters, and he plans on paying tribute to them by showcasing an all-action style against Gonzalez.
“I like being a pressure fighter,” Badgley said. “I like controlling the pace. The more you control the pace, the less opportunities the other guy has. I like to stay inside and push it. You take a shot, you give a couple back. Stuff like that. I think [my style] would reflect [the styles of Ward and Gatti], but not to a tee. I remember watching those [Gatti-Ward] fights. If you’re going to lose a fight, lose a fight like that. Very rarely if you fight like that are you going to lose a fight, so it’s inspirational.”
Badgley was inspired to serve his country by 9/11.
He had considered a military career prior to those terrorist attacks on American soil because he felt it would give him the discipline and direction he had lacked. Badgley got into some trouble with the law as an adolescent and admits he had “a bad reputation” around Poughkeepsie.
His life began changing once he visited an Army recruitment center on Sept. 12, 2001. His minor criminal history caused about a one-year delay to the start of his military career, but he participated in the United States’ initial invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Badgley returned home in April 2004, but his military career and the birth of his 4-year-old son, Mason, prohibited him from focusing on trying to continue his boxing career. He fought for an Army-sanctioned amateur team at Fort Carson, Colo., though, and never gave up hope of boxing as a professional one day.
Now that the day has arrived, he intends to focus solely on defeating Gonzalez, so that this emotional moment doesn’t overwhelm him.
It’ll be hard, however, not to think of his older brother, Scott, who died of natural causes on his 38th birthday last year. Scott Badgley was a master sergeant in the Marines and his success as a military man also encouraged Steven Badgley to consider that career path 10 years ago.
“I’m going to ignore the fact that I’m in the Garden until the final bell,” Badgley said. “Then I’m going to soak it all in.”
Badgley would prefer fighting at super middleweight or middleweight if he continues his pro boxing career after tonight, but other than that he is confident that he is prepared for whatever happens between when the first bell and the final bell sound.
“I think probably the most nerve-racking part about Saturday night is going to be the walk from the locker room to the ring,” Badgley said. “Everything else, it’ll come down to instinct once the bell rings. Just like in the military, as soon as something happens your training takes over and you do what you have to do.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.
