Vernon boxers to square off Saturday in N.J. Golden Gloves Saturday

VERNON - For Dean Spadavecchia, it’s a chance to find out what kind of fighter he is. For Charlie Williams, it’s a shot at redemption. The two Vernon teens, who train here at the Team Boxing facility, are each scheduled to fight in their first New Jersey Golden Gloves competition taking place on March 10 in South River. Spadavecchia, 17, took up boxing nine months ago after seeing an advertisement for the gym. “I thought it would be a good experience,” said Spadavecchia, who will fight in a preliminary bout in the 132-pound novice class on Saturday. Williams, also 17, has been a regular at Team Boxing’s facilities since last summer. After three months of intense training, Williams got his first taste of competitive boxing in September when he participated in the New Jersey Diamond Gloves competition in Plainfield as a 152-pound sub-novice. Despite his tireless work ethic, he lost his first fight in the first round to Juan Rodriguez of the Union City Boxing Club. But the loss didn’t faze him, said Vernon PAL Boxing director Tom Watson. “He didn’t miss a beat,” said Watson. “He was back in the gym the next day and he’s been sticking with it. He’s hungry.” Watson will step in as trainer for Spadavecchia, Williams and another Team Boxing prospect, Ryan Mulligan, a 23-year-old 152-pound novice. For the past few months, the three fighters have been trained by ‘Furious’ Freddy Curiel, a Vernon resident whose career as a welterweight fighter was rejuvenated last year when he was selected to appear on ESPN’s “The Contender” reality program. Curiel left for Florida recently to train for a new “Contender” program that will pit him and six other American fighters from the first two seasons of the series against a stable of British fighters, including Ross Minter, the son of Alan Minter, a world middleweight champion in 1980. Although all of the fights across various weight classes will take place on March 30 at the 10,000-seat Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England, ESPN plans to record the fights and use them as the basis for a new program called “The Contender Challenge,” a six-episode series that will debut on the network beginning April 10. In the meantime, Spadavecchia, Williams and Mulligan each have their own fights to prepare for.