:: DEEP SOUTH BOXING :: - Guidry Wins 70 To 75-Year-Old Division At World Ringside Championship

Guidry Wins 70 To 75-Year-Old Division At World Ringside Championship

Ron Guidry displays hardware after winning Ringside World Championship. (Photo credit: Deirdre Gogarty)

By Winston Mount-Batten

LAFAYETTE, LA - Handsome, articulate, well-built, athletic, a true Southern Gentleman and Lafayette born and bred. Sound familiar? It should, the original is all of the above and the other (former New York Yankees pitcher) Ron Guidry is made from the same mold.

Though not related, these two fine men share world championship hardware; one has two World Series rings in baseball for the New York Yankees, and the other owns the 2009 and 2007 Ringside World Championship belt in boxing.

Ron Guidry, the boxer, is 72 years old and just won the 2009 165-pound, 70 to 75-year-old division on points at Kansas City over the past weekend (Aug. 8). He defeated Detroit's Paul Soucy.

"I won my first LoUiSiAna Golden Gloves championship when I was a junior at Lafayette High in 1955. My opponent in the finals was the acclaimed Pat Pastor, who was considered to be one of the finest pure boxers to ever come out of Louisiana," Guidry said. "Pat had been a champion several times and was favored to beat me. I knew I was in with a very skillful boxer and would have to rely on my power if I wanted to win.

"In the first round, I caught Pat with a tremendous right hand to the chin and was lucky that he was unable to beat the count," Guidry said. "I remember the headline in the newspaper the next day read 'Unheralded Ron Guidry Shells Heavily Favored Pat Pastor To Win State Golden Gloves.' I was the runner-up in 1955 and 1956 and then entered the U.S. Army and won the 7th Corp All-Army championship in 1959 and 1960 while I was stationed in Europe. I also won the All-Army Pistol Shooting championship in 1958 and 1959.

"In 1961, I came home from the Army and entered the State Golden Gloves and won," Guidry added. "I then entered Louisiana Technical College and got a degree in drafting. I decided that now that I was married I needed to make a living for my family and boxing became a thing of the past. I took up golf and became a pretty good golfer (a handicap of seven), and in 1999 and 2000, I qualified for the National Senior Olympic Golf Championship and wound up in second place both years."

In 2002 and 2004, Guidry won the Louisiana State Senior Four-Ball championship in the 65-69 age group. In ,2007 and 2008, he won the Louisiana State Senior 70-and-older championship.

"A friend of mine told me that USA Boxing had come up with a format called Masters Boxers for people over the age of 35," Guidry added. "The weight divisions were the same but the age divisions were in five-year increments, 40-45, 45-50, etc... That was in late April of 2007, and I decided to make a comeback after being out of the ring for 46 years.

"My wife, Jean, and my children (Ron, Jr., Simone, Shannon and Jay) initially thought that I had lost my mind," Guidry said. "They gave me all the negatives about my age and everything else, and nearly talked me out of entering the World Ringside Boxing Championship's in Kansas City, MO. They also reminded me that I might get my pretty face messed up and not be able to appear in any more movies except as maybe Quasimodo. (Ron has appeared in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Brad Pitt, The Dukes of Hazard with Burt Reynolds, Race To Glory with Christopher Lloyd, and All The King's Men with Sean Penn).

"With only three months to prepare myself, I went right to work on my conditioning and got myself ready to spar with real live competition," Guidry said. "I was amazed at how well I did and then I went on to beat Soucy in the finals of the 70-75 year-old age division to win the Ringside World Championship.

Guidry made it to the finals again in 2008, but lost to Soucy in the finals on a split decision.

"The crowd thought I won as they booed the decision, and I felt that I had won, but the judges believed differently," Guidry said.
Guidry has lived in Baton Rouge for 37 years. He travels to Lafayette to train Beau Williford at the Ragin' Cajun Boxing Club. He trains with Joe Almanza, a 17-year-old 2008 National Junior Golden Gloves champion.

"The kids in the gym thought I was nuts when I first came," Guidry said. "They were all in agreement that I would get destroyed the first time I sparred. During that first sparring session they all stopped to watch, and before long they were shouting out instructions to me and cheering me on. After sparring was over the whole gym gave Joe and I a round of applause that was very inspiring and hopefully, they will realize you should never be fooled by the white hair."

It has been said that sometimes it's all in the name. Well, Ron Guidry is a name that will live in boxing and baseball lore for years to come and could not be worn by two finer fellows.

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