Her eyes are narrow, flinty. She’s slipping her trainer’s slow swings as he feigns throwing combinations at her and she’s countering with hooks, the punches caught by the pads on his hands. A good trainer will subtly move his hands into your punch resulting in vastly satisfying smacks as the jolts travel up your arms and through your shoulders settling in your base, from where the power has come. Jab, right cross, hook. Oh, yes. Bring ’em on …
There’s a little blond streak at the front of her red hair, which is tied back in a ponytail. Redheaded Molly … if she tattooed a little shamrock on her bicep, she could be marketed that way. But she prefers the image of the Brooklyn Bomber, a wild, excitable thrill-seeker; you can see the chip on her shoulder at a moment’s notice when she recalls a slight, an alleged abuse, a snub …
“Anybody in the area who has known me for the last six years would know I live in extremes,” says Molly Eagan, our Brooklyn Bomber. “I have to have a life as exciting as possible. I grew up in Brooklyn, and it was too exciting. I definitely need to release a lot of energy and emotion. As I’ve gotten older, I tried to find healthier ways to do it … keep the excitement and keep my job.”
This is the “before” portion of the portrait. It is a Sunday morning in Demorest’s Boxing Gym in Kingston, less than a week before the 34-year-old sometime journalist, who is currently a member of Congressman Maurice Hinchey’s local staff, has scheduled her first amateur boxing match, which, if all breaks right, will happen Friday night, Jan. 11, at the fifth show of sanctioned amateur boxing promoted by Brian Demorest at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. It will be the first time someone will be swinging back at her in earnest, looking to cause harm, to knock that chip off, see what it’s made of.
“Boxing was the most extreme thing I could think of. I knew about Demorest’s really from just driving past. But the first session I had with Asa (her trainer, Asa Coddington), I just knew it was something I wanted to do. I’ve always been small and picked on. I’ve been the target of violence by both men and women. There are times when I walk down the street now and just wish someone would start something …”
Asa laughs. “I just have to make her mad,” he says. “If I let her go, she gets lazy. But get her mad …”
“He’s probably the only cockier person than me,” says Molly.
We’ll see how brash she really is when it’s time to climb through the ropes.
Come one, come all
The Bearsville Theater keeps selling out on fight night. The ring takes up almost the entire floor area directly in front of the stage and is about the same height. The choice seats are on the stage, but plenty are stuffed in stage-right and some around the ring. The balcony practically hangs over the ring, and behind the glass wall patrons at the bar have a great view. Everybody talks about the closeness of the action being similar to the legendary Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, only ritzier. Altogether it holds between 250 and 300 or so and shows a robust local interest, seemingly antithetical to the town’s public posture.
“I’ve been hounded like crazy about getting a female fighter,” says Demorest, the laconic trainer whose establishment on Broadway in Kingston has become a focal point for boxing interests. “There are a lot of people down here who know the other girl (Adrienne Licari, of Albany). It’s the Female Showdown at the Bearsville Theater.”
Demorest laments that in the world of amateur boxing, nothing about a show is certain until the night of the bouts. Clubs and boxers are invited … who shows up, and who is ready to fight, and who is in their weight class with the same modicum of experience, are all left to chance until the card is actually formed on fight night.
Demorest promises a full night, that he would like to see filled with boxers from his own gym, who have begun to gather a following in the area from earlier matches – guys like Keith Holloway, a stylish 150-pounder from Kingston who has scored two victories in Demorest’s previous Bearsville shows (he’s promoted four already). The subtle artistry of Derek Ohlhoff, of Marlboro, at 178 pounds; Kingston’s Alex Mainetti at 165; Patrick Stracuzzi and Fassel Hamed at 141 pounds. He’s also hoping for a senior bout for Tod Weidenkeller of New Paltz. Seniors are over 35 and have to be within 10 years of one another.
“There’ll be clubs from Albany, Middletown, Newburgh, Hudson … ,” says Demorest. “But until that night and they all get there and weigh in, I don’t know who’s fighting … (Billy) Costello (of the Kingston Police Athletic League) is bringing in a fighter. But the shows get better and better every time. I try to put it on like a pro show, add new things to it. The Bearsville Theater is great place to put on a boxing show. I sit up at night and think of how my shows can get better … maybe we’ll even have the first male round card girl …”
Need to be prepared
Demorest says Molly will be fighting a “girl” who’s been training for four or five months, but will outweigh Molly. “She’s 128 and Molly is 118.”
Has Molly formed an image in her mind of her first live opponent?
“I have a lot of pictures in my mind of this woman,” she says. “There were a lot of women in my past I’d like her to be … but I’ll keep those emotions in control.”
Molly has been training for a year, and recently has been yearning for a fight. Did she believe, at first, that such a desire would come about?
“I didn’t think it would but I fantasized about it,” she said.
She’s had to pack a few pounds on her five-foot-one-inch-tall frame.
“Five months ago I was 100 pounds. Now I’m about 120. I’m eating stuff I would never eat. I haven’t had a steak in 15 years. I had two last week. A lot of it is muscle and I think I’ve gained it proportionately … it’s not like I have one body part hanging out …”
She looks solid, well-proportioned, and compact, not like the mere slip of a woman she was a few months back.
Ah, now there’s a word that has a strange sound at Demorest’s …
“I’ve never heard the term ‘woman’ in a boxing gym,” said Molly. “It’s a large part of why I’m fighting. I came in here to prove something. I came in here and I felt like such a ‘girl.’ It made me want to prove I could do what they’re doing … to prove some things for them about women. So it probably helped me.
“The first few times I sparred were like a blur. I remember getting hit and it didn’t hurt, and then it really hurt. It’s hard to remember to keep my hands up,” and she looks at Asa, “which do you want: hands up or elbows down …?”
And family reaction?
“My father was really excited for me and wanted to buy me headgear, equipment, but when it really looked like it was going to happen, he got scared,” she says. “Everybody is scared for me. They’re coming to support me, not to see me get hit.”
She’s sitting on the gym floor, slowly winding her hand wraps to put them away. She knows she must be ready for anything – the possibility that her opponent’s inexperience has been exaggerated, that she’s better, taller, heavier; even the potential that her opponent might not show up. This is boxing, remember, where the rules about almost anything are subject to instant whimsical suspension; where the only thing certain is that it takes a lot of courage to climb between the ropes and fight.
“There are days when I wonder whether I’m out of my mind … but life is not just sitting around … that’s what’s going to get me in the ring. Plus I love to be on stage … and to blow people’s minds. It’s really for everybody here who’s watching. I’m giving a piece of myself for you all … I hope you all appreciate it …”
Next week, Part II, the reaction.
Tickets for Round 5, an evening of amateur boxing, on Friday, January 11 at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock are $15 and can be obtained by calling 389-6106 or calling the theater at 679-4406; or online at bearsvilletheater.com
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The first bout is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.