There is no doubting Amanda Pavone’s utter dedication and drive in qualifying for the US 2016 Olympics women’s boxing team; her training regime for competition – a two hour mixture of jump rope, shadow boxing, mitts and sparring followed by 45 minutes of running – is merciless. Even more impressive is that Amanda’s daily routine around which she fits her training involves, on average, 10-hour shifts as chef/manager at Boston’s seafood restaurant chain, The Daily Catch.

Boxing Olympic Hopeful Amanda Pavone

Just as remarkable is the fact that Amanda, 28, put on her first pair of boxing gloves in only 2009, and yet her total commitment to the sport has already led to her being ranked second in the USA Boxing Elite Women’s ranking, and winning second place in the 2013 Women’s National Golden Gloves competition.

The expense of boxing classes and gym memberships prevented Amanda from taking up the sport from an earlier age. Rather unconventionally, she was in fact drinking in a bar in Boston one night after work when the idea of trying out boxing first came to her. She explains:

“My friend had told me the owner of the bar (Danny Kelly) works with people boxing and his son is a boxer. He doesn’t ‘train’ anyone but he knew all the people on the boxing scene and would work with people. The first night I met him I begged him to let me hit the mitts and of course he said absolutely not… Being the way that I am I just wouldn’t let it go the whole night and didn’t stop asking until he finally gave in and let me hit the mitts a couple times.”

Kelly was immediately aware of Amanda’s incredible strength and spotted her overwhelming potential. The very next day, he introduced Amanda to her first trainer, Jimmy Farrell and she “hasn’t stopped fighting or training since that day.”

Amanda is utterly passionate about boxing: “It keeps me disciplined,” she explains. “When I discovered boxing, I wasn’t in a very good place in my life and I can honestly say that boxing saved my life. Boxing keeps me in line every day. Without it, I’d be miserable.”

Her trainer, Marc Gargaro, 35, of Nontantum Boxing Club, Newton, says of Amanda’s drive: “She works harder than anyone in the gym; it usually takes boxers many years to work their way from novice to Open class then to boxing at a high level, especially National Championship tournament level. Amanda has progressed amazingly fast in a short time.”

Her Daily Catch: Working as Chef vs. Training as Boxer

However, training to an Olympic standard takes both time and money, and Amanda’s grueling work schedule doesn’t allow her the freedom she needs to train as much as she needs. Her Daily Catch manager, Basil Freddura, although sympathetic to the time she requires to train for competitions, is often left short staffed as a result. He says:

“Having to manage a restaurant schedule and balance it with a boxing schedule can be very challenging.  Most of the tournaments are more than a week long, which can sometimes complicate the restaurants staffing needs,” adding, “but I have always supported Amanda’s boxing because I know how much it means to her.”

The situation is equally as arduous from Amanda’s perspective, and the pressures of juggling long hours as a chef and training every day physically takes its toll on her:

“I train every morning and by the time I get into work I am already exhausted going into anywhere from an eight or sometimes a 14 hour shift. It’s not like I’m sitting at a desk, I’m literally hunched over a hot stove all day sweating, hot, and completely exhausted. I have burns on every part of my arms, my legs ache from standing on them all day, everyday, and from the running and training.”

She goes on to explain: “I try and take one day a week off the gym and it should be a day that I’m not working but it usually isn’t because on my days off I can fit in a double work out which is much more productive, but in turn, leaves me with not enough rest. That just rolls into the next week and continues and continues.”

This grueling agenda goes a long way to explaining Amanda’s desperate need for financial support in order to reach her Olympic dream. Not only do boxing injuries last far longer as a result of her job and her inability to get enough rest, she desperately needs more time to train.

The Path to Olympic Gold

Marc strongly believes that there are three keys to Amanda reaching the Olympics, clarifying:

“She really needs to be able to invest more time in training, financial support for time missed from her job while travelling, and a nutritionist.

Training as a boxer at Amanda’s level requires total dedication and that’s incredibly tough while balancing a full time job.

I’d love for her to get some financial support so she can dedicate more time to training.”

The need for a nutritionist is linked to Amanda’s other passion – food; working long hours in a restaurant is not conducive to good eating habits, and she often struggles to maintain her fighting weight, explaining:

“The Olympic weight classes for women are 112, 132 and 165. 132 is too big for me to fight at and 112 seems physically impossible for me to make, unless I start changing my eating habits and doing things the right way. This would take a while but it’s the only way. I think, however, that it would be impossible for me to make 112 without a nutritionist.”

As Amanda trains for next month’s 2014 Women’s Golden Gloves Championships in Florida, these issues are all too pertinent as once again Amanda squeezes in crucial training sessions around her punishing work schedule. There is little doubt that she has the talent and the spirit to make her Olympic dreams a reality, but it is financial funding that holds the key to Amanda’s hopes. She concludes: “I have financial responsibilities and only working part time is not ever an option for me. I can only dream of the day when I can just worry about training and nothing else.”

How to Help Amanda Reach the Olympics

Please help Amanda reach the Olympics by:

• Spread the word about her GoFundMe Campaign
• Suggest potential corporate sponsors (please leave a comment or email pragmaticmomblog@gmail.com)
• Donate! Any donation, small or large, will help her reach her dreams

Thank you so much!!! If you wish to donate, please go here.

Amanda is in blue.

Article by Lydia Davis.

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