Golden Gloves: Represent Our Chicago Community

The purpose of this letter is to respectfully request your reconsideration of the recently enforced policy of refusal to allow legal residents of the greater Chicago area to participate in the Chicago Golden Gloves tournament due to the fact that they are not citizens of the United States.

Three talented young boxers who have fought successfully in past Chicago Golden Gloves tournaments, Jose and Javier Rivera, and Pako Saldana from Rumi Maki Boxing Club were recently denied the opportunity to participate in the Chicago Golden Gloves because they are not U.S. citizens; they are by far not the only local boxers affected by this change in registration practice.

The reasoning for the change in registration was explained to their coach as a manner of assuring that any local Golden Gloves champion who went to the national Golden Gloves tournament was indeed a U.S. citizen. It is understood that this is a requirement for participation in the national Golden Gloves, and, if a champion there, in the USA Boxing National Championships from which the national team is determined.

We understand fully this concern that U.S. citizenship is required for further levels of competition, and understand that it could not be possible for a boxer who wins Chicago’s Golden Gloves to participate at the national level without U.S. citizenship. However, as was shown during the registration process, the reality for our Chicago tournament is that many boxers in Chicago are not U.S. citizens, though they are legal residents of our area.

Clearly, during registration, it is possible to determine who is not a U.S. citizen, and so we ask you to consider an alternative that does not omit talented boxers from our Chicago tournament. Instead of blocking their participation, we ask you to simply allow all Chicago boxers to participate in our city tournament, fully representing the diversity and talent of Chicago’s boxing scene, and then only allow citizens to move on to the next level where citizenship matters in the outcome. If someone wins first place at the Chicago level and they are not a citizen, then the highest-ranking citizen should attend the national tournament.

Certainly, that type of scenario would allow for benefits to all parties; the legal residents would have the honor of participating in this respected Chicago event, their fellow fighters who are U.S. citizens would have the benefit of facing the strongest opposition in preparation for the next level of boxing, and the Golden Gloves organization itself would have the benefit of the most exciting fights and highest number of participants possible, bringing in both greater interest around the sport and greater revenue to send our Chicago-area boxers to the next levels of tournaments.

In the discussion of the benefit to the Golden Gloves organization itself, we feel it is important to also mention the goals of the organization as stated in multiple public forums. To quote directly from the website, “Chicago Golden Gloves Charities believes that training in boxing instills a sense of self-respect and accomplishment in the youth of our community who, at this impressionable age, are choosing their path in life. Thousands of young men, and now some young women, have learned discipline, self-esteem and how to realize goals through daily training at various boxing clubs throughout greater Chicagoland. We understand that boxing can't save every young person, but we know that given opportunity through sport, lives can be guided and shaped, resulting in positive, productive citizens.”

The boxers that were refused participation this year are young people striving to meet these goals that are in line with those of the Golden Gloves Charities. To highlight this, we would like to briefly share the story of two brothers, Jose and Javier Rivera, who participated in the Chicago Golden Gloves in 2012 after over a year of disciplined training with their coach, and with the passion and respect for the tournament and the sport that will lead talented young people to victories, as they both achieved when they won their weight classes in the amateur division.

The opportunity to participate in the more challenging open division of Chicago Golden Gloves this year, and the dream of again winning victory despite the difficulty, drove these young men through countless hours of hard training all of last year, and pushed them not only in the gym, but in all areas of life, to strive to be their best. For these Chicago area residents, Golden Gloves is exactly the motivation the organization strives to be.

In examining the illustrious list of former boxers who have come through Chicago Golden Gloves in the past, it is clear this event has hosted some of the best fighters of their time. But in addition to their phenomenal talent, names like Cassius Clay, Joe Louis, and Barney Ross also represent social, political, and moral issues our society has grappled with, ones that the sport of boxing perhap...