In the rear of a Dover industrial complex, a single back door opens up to a set of carpeted stairs that lead from the litter-filled parking lot down a long hallway to the building’s basement, where the telltale sounds of young men learning a violent trade – pumping rap music, the hiss of tights breaths shooting from between pursed lips, a constant “thump, thump, thump” of a leather-wrapped fist hitting a bag – can be heard.
It’s here, in this Spartan environment filled with swaying heavy bags, jump ropes, speed bags, and a single boxing ring, that 23-year-old Jefferson native Steve Wachtel has begun to ply his craft, and started a journey that he hopes, one day, will place him under the brightest of boxing’s lights.
For now though, he’s got a lot to learn, and during a sparring match with the Dover Boxing Club’s (DBC) resident pugilistic prodigy, Golden Gloves champ and future professional Anthony Gangemi, Wachtel is quickly finding out that in boxing, there are no easy lessons.
Their coach, the 59-year-old Ed Leahy, stands outside the ring watching the action with a careful eye, offering a non-stop stream of advice.
“Don’t be a headhunter! Take the body once in a while! Body, head, body, head!” he yells. “Now, Steve, you fight back!”
But that might be the one phrase that he doesn’t need to tell the 5 foot 10 inch, 152 lb. Wachtel – as Leahy later put it, his charge doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase “back up.”
When the session ends, the dark-haired Wachtel takes off his headgear and steps out of the ring with a smile on his face and a smear of blood on the chest of his sweat-soaked white t-shirt.
The sport, which he came to just a year ago, has enveloped him, and he’s found the competition addicting.
The new boxer is sporting a 6 – 3 record in the amateurs, and just recently fought in the state’s Golden Gloves tournament, where he tore off two solid wins before losing in two brawls that led to his elimination – losses that Leahy attributes more to questionable judging and the ugly nature of the fights, which he said made his fighter look like he was struggling more than he was.
“You have to endure those along with the wins too,” says Leahy as he sits behind the front desk of the club after closing. “Otherwise, you don’t get better.”
Thankfully, Wachtel’s puncher’s style doesn’t often leave room for slim decisions, and he’s developed enough power in his right hand that the judges often have light work when he fights.
That right hand led him to victory during the NJ State LBC Championship Boxing Tournament in February, where, at the Newark Airport Marriott, he won three fights in a row, including a third-round TKO victory in the finals that gave him a first-place finish in his weight class.
And that style fits Wachtel just fine; as affable as he is outside the ring, his eyes burn when he speaks on the thrill of going toe-to-toe with another fighter.
“I like to get in there and slug it out…I’m not really a runner. I just like to bang,” he says with a smile.
