Prep pugilists...

By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com

Anyone who knows me knows my favorite sport is boxing. So it pleases me to say that in the near future, there will be a nice boxing feature on some of the prep pugilists out there in The Oklahoman.

And one stands out more than the others: LaTyshia Green. A student at Emerson, Green is in a unique position for two reasons: 1) She’s involved in boxing, a very tough sport for kids to latch onto at an early age. 2) She’s the only female at the Badd Lands Boxing Gym in OKC and finding sparring partners is almost tougher than finding her fights.

But after talking with LaTyshia, it’s clear that boxing is not just a part-time thing. She had her first amateur fight Saturday night (lost) and is hoping to bank bout No. 2 next Saturday in Tulsa. I could talk boxing all day with people and it was refreshing to see names besides Muhammad Ali pop up as some of the favorites.

Boxing can’t rely on its past, so seeing names like Floyd Mayweather, Kelly Pavlik, Jermain Taylor and Roy Jones Jr. is nice to see as some of these high schoolers favorites.

I love Ali and Smokin’ Joe Frazier as much as the next guy, but people like Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley, Paul Williams, etc. are the boys who are going to light up HBO and Showtime.

Other prep studs include Dejan Rutesic from Putnam City and Joe Strong from Midwest City.