Rainey Rogers (left) and Barney Flores pose in the ring.

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Amateur Boxer Rainey Rogers Still Winning Titles

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Posted by Rick Atkinson at 4:53 PM in Sports

Mr. Balboa can’t walk away. Rocky VI opens in three weeks.

McKinney’s Rainey Rogers knows the feeling. And why quit? At 43, Rogers is still winning titles, most recently the super heavyweight Ringside World Championship last August in Kansas City. It’s the second time in three years he’s come away from the event with a belt.

“It’s something he really loves to do,” said Rogers’ wife, Tammy. “At first, I kind of thought he was crazy.”

Rogers, a two-time Golden Gloves champion as a teenager, gave up boxing 20 years ago, but at 40, something called him back.

“I was just feeling fat and out of shape,” he said. “I started jogging and I started lifting weights and I just thought, ‘I can’t do this for the rest of my life. I get no joy, no motivation.’”

Silver Gloves State Tournament

When: Dec. 7-10
Where: Old Settler’s Recreation Center, 1201 E. Louisiana
Ticket prices: $7.00 per session or $35.00 for all six sessions.
Silver Gloves state director: Barney Flores
Approximately 180 boxers, ages 8-15, from 59 clubs across Texas participate. Winners advance to Regionals in Little Rock, Ark.
Schedule of events: Thursday, Dec. 7 – Weigh-in 7-10 a.m. Boxing 7. p.m.
Friday, Dec. 8 – Boxing 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 9 – Boxing 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 10 – Boxing 1 p.m.
Minimum 20 bouts per session.
Notes: There are no McKinney participants according to Flores.

Rogers said he realized, “I need to go talk to Barney.”

That’s Barney Flores, operator of Barney and Me Gym and Rogers’ former trainer from the early days at McKinney Boys Club.

Flores and Rogers resumed training three years ago with 6:30 a.m. workouts to accommodate Rogers’ schedule. Initially, the plan was to just train, but soon, the two were planning a return to the ring.

Flores suggested the Ringside championships.

The Comeback

The annual four-day Ringside event is the largest amateur boxing tournament in the world, attracting about 1,500 fighters. Rogers said boxers from all 50 states and 20 countries were at this summer’s competition.

In 2004, Rogers won the tournament with three wins by decision. He fought the title fight with a broken nose.

Flores, unable to attend, said this Rogers victory was especially notable.

“To be away from boxing for 17 years, and come back and win something that big, that’s a big accomplishment,” he said.

Rainey Rogers (right) and Barney Flores pose in the ring.

Preparing for the 2005 tournament, Rogers sparred with former pro Jesse Shelby, who once fought Evander Holyfield. It was a valuable, but painful, experience.

“Professionals don’t fight like amateurs,” Rogers said. “Professionals are gonna work your entire body.”

Three days before the tournament, Shelby connected with an upper cut to Rogers’ chest, breaking two ribs and ending his hopes for a repeat.

At this year’s tournament, accompanied by Flores, Rogers opened by hitting his first opponent hard, right in the gut.

The match was over in the second round by technical knockout. The fighter told Rogers later, he was done with that first blow.

“When you get hit [there], like that, all you want to do is just go sit down and cry,” Rogers said.

The title bout also ended with a second-round TKO.

Rogers said having Flores in his corner was a big plus.

“He tells you what you need to do,” he said. “And if you do it, you will win. If you don’t, you probably won’t. He knows what he’s doing. He’s been there.”

In The Family

Rogers began boxing at 15, after a dust-up with a colleague.

“I got into a fight at school and I did pretty good,” he said.

Boxing runs in the family. Rogers’ brother, Scott, was also a Golden Gloves champ and their father boxed in the Army.

Rogers’ Tale of the Tape

Weight: 225
Height : 6-2
Nose broken: Seven times
Can he tell when it breaks now? “Pretty much,” he said.
Best fight ever? Evander Holyfield vs. Buster Douglas – the second time.
Notes: Has been to New Zealand, the Himalayas, Africa, Siberia and the Amazon. Rogers and wife, Tammy, are MHS graduates. They have five children. “We love McKinney,” Rogers said. “It’s a great place to raise our family.”

Rogers’ Golden Gloves career included light heavyweight crowns at age 16 and 18.

At 23, he quit boxing at the suggestion of a coach who said he no longer saw the “fire” in Rogers. Actually, Rogers was starting a family and a business and had little time to train.

“To me, boxing is just the best all-around sport,” Rogers said. “I love the workout. I love the training. When that alarm goes off at 5:30 [a.m.], the motivation is, ‘I’m getting in a ring with some big guy that could knock your head off.’”

His training schedule aims for the Ringside tournament each August.

Rogers trains twice a week now, increasing to four or five per week by spring. In July, he’ll train most every day. A three-mile run precedes each workout.

Never Knocked Down

With a lifetime record of 55-6, Rogers said he’s never been knocked out – or even knocked down.

“There have been times where I’ve been hit as hard as … anybody can be hit,” he said. “You don’t really feel pain in the ring, but everything kind of starts spinning around.”

What makes Rogers a good boxer?

“He’s got a lot of heart,” Flores said. “If you don’t have the heart to be a boxer, you’re not gonna do it.”

Rogers said his edge is a 32-inch reach and superior conditioning.

“I can handle getting beat by a better boxer,” he said. “[But] nobody will ever be in as good a shape as I am. I can control that.”

How long can Rogers keep going?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I enjoy the workout enough to where there might be few years left.”

Get Stallone. We may have a Rocky VII script.