"Punch-Out!!" At Ring One | New Haven Independent

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“Punch-Out!!” At Ring One

by Thomas MacMillan | Jun 5, 2009 1:16 pm

(17) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Sports, The Hill

A venerable Hill neighborhood boxing gym got a Nintendo-themed makeover, just in time to send a top fighter off to national championships.

Graffitti artists were hard at work Thursday, putting up a new mural on the side of Ring One, the boxing gym on Congress Avenue in the Hill. The new paint job features characters from the classic Nintendo boxing video game, “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” including the fearsome King Hippo and even Tyson himself (pictured).

The mural is a colorful extension of a classy new paint job that the front of the gym received in May, which transformed the gyms faded blue crumbling exterior…

into a sleek black and gold facade.

Meanwhile, gym owner and trainer Brian Clark has been readying his top teen fighter for the national amateur boxing championships in Colorado next week. Clark will fly out to the Rocky Mountain state on Sunday with 16-year-old Hill native Tremaine “Mighty Midget” Williams. If all goes well, the 114-pound fighter will fight four bouts next week and come home on Friday as the national champion in his weight class.

Ring One is one of two boxing gyms in the city that train mostly teenage fighters. The other gym, Boxing in Faith, opened recently in Fair Haven.

Ring One’s new black and gold exterior is the result of some recent donations from gym supporters. The Woodbridge Rotary Club, a longtime friend to Ring One, put up the money to fix some crumbling woodwork on the front of the building. Those repairs inspired Clark to repaint the whole front of the building, which he did in May. He had the money to do it thanks to a $1,200 donation from a former fighter of his, who read about the gym’s financial troubles in an April Independent story.

“It looks tremendous compared to what it was,” said Clark. Black and gold have always been the Ring One colors, the trainer said.

Clark said that his neighbor from across the street organized the graffiti artists to decorate the side of the building. Local artist NEIN (pictured) got together his friends ELROY, BARNE, and VOLPE to help out.

Working all Thursday and into Friday, the four put their own names on the wall, interspersed them with video game characters, and reinterpreted the name of the gym in a Nintendo font. Pulling out a couple of computer printouts on Thursday afternoon, NEIN explained that the group had downloaded internet images of characters from Nintendo’s “Punch-Out!!” a classic video game from the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

Despite his vivid spray can depictions of the cartoon Mike Tyson, NEIN said that he’s not really a boxing fan. “But I could get into it,” he added.

Stepping out of the gym’s side door, Ring One boxer Danny Cordero examined the work while he wrapped up his wrists and knuckles.

“These guys got some talent,” he said approvingly.

Midget Back in Action

Two months ago, a trip to the nationals with his top fighter didn’t look like a possibility for Clark. Back in April, the trainer had kicked Williams out of the gym, after the boxer started skipping practices. All that’s changed now, Clark said on Friday.

“We’ve been doing great,” Clark said. “He’s realized what’s up.”

Williams has been training hard and he has a good shot at the nationals, Clark said. Out of the 14 fighters in his weight class, Clark predicted “it’ll come down to him and maybe two other kids.”

“He’s definitely ready. He’s in very very good shape,” Clark said. “Put it this way, you gotta beat the Midget to win.”

Midget went to a weekend Jr. Olympics competition in Lake Placid last month, Clark said, where he was up against a fighter that had been talking trash the night before the fight. “Midget gave him an eight count with a jab,” Clark bragged. “That’s how stiff just his jab is.”

Williams is a four-time Silver Gloves and eight-time national champ, said Clark. Click here to see the boxer — in black and gold trunks — flip after winning the Silver Gloves in 2007.

With shiny new paint job, a colorful mural, and his top fighter back in the ring, Clark was cautiously optimistic about the state of Ring One. “Everything’s going alright,” he said. “We’re still poor as hell, though.”

Comments

posted by: CITIZEN on June 5, 2009 1:24pm

[Comment deleted.]

posted by: Whatsername on June 5, 2009 3:45pm

@Citizen: Yup, that sounds like a GREAT idea. Nein brings fellow artists together and they contribute a cool mural to a local establishment that are 1) working to keep youth off the streets, as well as channeling youth aggression in a positive way, which was on the brink of closing—so of course the natural progression should be that he gets arrested. How can you take a positive article and turn it into a call for an arrest, detracting from the actual purpose of this bit of reporting? Call the police yourself if it’s such a big issue for you.

posted by: QAve on June 5, 2009 6:52pm

@ Citizen: I hate graffiti as much as the next person, probably more, but I do think we should make distinctions between random, ugly tags (like those that have suddenly appeared along Grand Avenue) and graffiti like this, which really does show some talent and can, in these circumstances, serve a community-building function. Regular tagging is about expressing contempt for the community. By the way, the gym’s new black & gold paint job looks fantastic!

posted by: Rocco on June 6, 2009 5:59am

This so called art, is a crime against the comunity.
If you want your city to look like New York Subway cars, incorrage this type of art. I would supply some canvas for this guy.

posted by: HewNaven?? on June 6, 2009 10:34am

Citizen,

Nein is clearly an amazing artist. Only someone with an axe to grind would want to stop such talent.

—H.N.

posted by: ART LIVES on June 6, 2009 10:48am

Maybe if more artists had an outlet to paint upon like bridges (free public property), or abandoned buildings that will get knocked down any way, they wouldn’t be ‘vandalizing’ your property.

I would rather see my tax dollars go towards funding MORE public street art, or art education, than to pay the legal system to incarcerate a young struggling artist.

posted by: cedarhillresident on June 6, 2009 10:52am

I am just impressed at how a little paint improved the look of the place Bravo!

posted by: Seven Eight on June 6, 2009 10:54am

New Haven Independent: According to the ‘Rules of the Road’(NHI rules for comments):

“‚Ä¢ No allegations of criminal behavior or other extreme personal wrongdoing based on facts that haven’t been published in articles.”

I think you should take CITIZENS post down, because it is an allegation NOT based on published fact that NEIN has vandalized property.

Several people could write NEIN - so its not a fact.

[Ed: You’re right! We took it down. Thanks.]

posted by: playdough on June 6, 2009 11:31am

Obviously this current outbreak of contemptuous scribbling is going to drive away all the business for this gym. And it just looks bad!

posted by: kams on June 6, 2009 11:37am

I think that Dr.Neiner is an outstanding artist, he gives myself and other graffiti artists/writers opportunities to get up legally. I have watched him in action and he is pure dedication and charisma_-100 percent. many local hill neighborhood business owners have offered him spaces to paint after seeing him in action. i called him up to paint the day he was doing the mural and he set me up with a spot at another legal wall thus keeping me off the street and on the real. -Kams

posted by: cedarhillresident on June 6, 2009 11:59am

ART LIVES
There are several legal walls and underpasses to “loosely allow” this form of art. I just think many of the novelist are unaware of them. I think that some how organizing events and incentives to redirect the graffiti to be only in those ok places is what is needed.

posted by: Been Called Worse on June 6, 2009 5:17pm

Some of you cantankerous curmudgeons need to calm down and realize the difference between graffiti as artistry and vandalism.

I think the new colorscheme looks great, and thumbs up for the Punch Out theme.

And to Rocco - when was the last time you were on an NYC subway car? I take the subway daily and no graffiti-vandalism to be found. If New Haven had public transportation as fast, efficient and clean as NY I would endorse it as a realistic alternative in the city.

posted by: robn on June 7, 2009 7:18am

“No allegations of criminal behavior or other extreme personal wrongdoing based on facts that haven’t been published in articles.”

I didn’t see the allegedly offensive comment from CITIZEN, but something about the NHI policy caught my eye. Its the use of the word “fact”. The introduction of facts not mentioned in the reporting is done routinely in comment threads. Shouldn’t this policy simply be ...

“No unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing.”?

posted by: Streever on June 8, 2009 9:18am

Looks beautiful—great work NEIN & the other artists involved.

Reminds me of Montreal, where the buildings are broadly decorated with really beautiful graffiti art.

posted by: selam on June 9, 2009 9:02am

Nice article. I love make-over stories especially in New Haven and other urban areas. I would have liked to see what it’s like inside though…

i think graffiti is art! but me thinks if the city designates an area for it, then it ceases to be graffiti for the artists, right?

posted by: kieser sozai on June 14, 2009 12:06pm

i thiinkk it loooks better than it could if the owner tried, while saying do what you want with a boxing theme and was kept in the loop through the progression of the wall, it was not exact “logo” material but thats what makes it what the artist “wants” so unless it was all black with nothing but the logo its not anyones art and he should have done it himself

posted by: jimmy5 on June 19, 2009 1:19pm

RING ONE IS NEW HAVEN’S CHAMPION FOR ALL THE INSPIRATION IT GIVES TO OUR YOUTH AND FOR CREATING A TRUE CHAMPION IN CHAD DAWSON AND THE OTHERS WHO WILL FOLLOW…THANKS BRIAN CLARK..KEEP IT GOING.

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