“It doesn’t matter how old you are and what shape you’re in, or what boxing or fighting experience that you have. I was in my 30s, I wasn’t in great shape, I had zero experience; I walked into a gym, and it changed my life. All for the better.”
People who remember the generous opening night receptions at Gallery C in are unlikely to associate Michael Napoliello with boxing. Along with his business partner Jason Moskowitz, Napoliello ran the high profile art venue for several years prior to its demise in 2007. Napoliello was just a businessman, right? – although a successful entrepreneur who was able to turn the old Bijou Theatre on Hermosa Avenue into the most prestigious art space the South Bay has ever seen.
These days, Napoliello, a Manhattan Beach resident, is a partner with Radar Pictures, a company responsible for “The Heartbreak Kid” with Ben Stiller, “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise, and (for better or worse) “The Revenge of the Nerds” movies. But like Clark Kent, Napoliello changes his jacket for a cape (or in this case gloves) when he steps out of the office. His co-workers may be headed home, but he’s headed elsewhere, to prepare for his upcoming match.
The lure, the mystique
We’re sitting outside on a warm spring day at Impact Gym on Aviation Boulevard in north Redondo. Michael Napoliello has just finished a two-hour workout and instead of being tired is upbeat and confident. And why not? This gym is like his second home; this gym is where it all started.
He remembers driving by on his way to work and noticing the boxing gym, and at first not giving it much thought. Slowly, however, he became more intrigued with what went on inside.
“I’m a thinker, not an athlete,” Napoliello says. “Boxing and martial arts was something incredibly foreign to me.” Eventually, his curiosity won out: “I wonder what those people are like; I wonder what goes on in there? It got me thinking, Maybe there’s more to life than my deskwork and a weekend game of volleyball.
“I walked into Impact Gym expecting to be intimidated, to get the cold shoulder, to be bullied a little bit by the fighters; and it was quite the opposite. It was very much ‘Welcome to our world, we’re really glad you’re going to try something new.’ It was really easy to get into it; they had inexpensive classes, group classes, beginning classes. And for me, from the first punch – from the first time I got punched – I fell in love with it.”
Startling words, perhaps, but Napoliello continues.
“If you’ve never been punched, there’s nothing like it; it changes your whole perspective on life. A rush of adrenaline, the discipline that you need to have, the character that it brings out in you – because you’re not looking for tears or rage, what you’re looking for is a calm acceptance of the battle. That epiphany, combined with the fact that it would be the hardest workout in the world. When I first started, I couldn’t finish a three-minute round, and I was an in-shape guy at the time. Over the course of the years, working with great trainers here and abroad, I can do 15 three-minute rounds now.”
Napoliello is 48. His doctor tells him he’s as fit as a 28-year-old.
Devoted amateurs
We’re not talking pro boxing in the sense of Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, or Mike Tyson. What Napoliello is so enthusiastic about is referred to mainly as white collar boxing, executive boxing, smokers, black tie boxing, or, a bit grittier, old dog boxing. Officially, it’s called master class boxing, and what it is, essentially, is a competitive sport for amateurs who are 35-years-old and up, that is, a sport embraced and practiced by men – and women – who are generally speaking well educated and affluent. They have not fought in the Olympics, nor have they ever been paid to fight. In the professional boxing world a fighter is lucky to be stepping into a ring after his or her 30s; in white collar boxing there’s nothing to say one can’t step into the ring after 40, or 50, 60, or even 70.
There’s no doubt about it, professional, world class boxing can be brutal. You can sit in the last row of an arena and catch teeth flying out of someone’s mouth after a cruel knockout blow. White collar boxing – which maybe falls somewhere between a hobby and an obsession – is extremely safe by comparison. Instead of 15 rounds – or 15 minutes of fame – there are three rounds, the combatants wear helmets, mouthpieces, kidney protectors, and thick gloves with no hidden horseshoes. It’s very controlled, one might say closely monitored, and the referee will step in whereas in a big league match they may not.
That said, Napoliello points out, this “is real human dramatic competition. They take it as seriously as the professionals take it.” And who, exactly, is in the ring? “Executives and vice-presidents and entrepreneurs and teachers and lawyers, competing at the highest level that their age and their careers and their lifestyles will allow.”
Lawyers? That alone may induce a lot of folks to take up the sport. One of the trademark slogans of white collar boxing gives it a clever spin: Come see if your boss gets his butt kicked.
Why the appeal?
Why would people take up this strenuous activity and not stick with bicycling, tennis, or volleyball?
First of all, it’s a bit out of the ordinary, and maybe they were encouraged by a friend or happened to take in a match and found themselves caught up in the excitement. “Or they’re like me,” Napoliello says; “they were curious about the culture and another world.” But possibly they find that in a way it simply complements the world they’re already in, especially for those in management positions where quick thinking and exact decision-making is part of their routine.
“With this it’s very specific what you can and can’t do, and you have to focus all of your conditioning, all of your skills, all of your power. Basically there are six punches, and that’s it – and I think the focus and the discipline that [play] into this really appealed to me, and maybe that’s why it appeals to men and women who may have very meticulous, formal, disciplined work lives. To use that same kind of mental energy, combined with a physical aggression, is why traditional boxing appeals to them so much, as opposed to other kinds of fighting with maybe more of a Wild West kind of approach to it.”
How many years have you been doing this?
“I’ve been training about seven years now,” Napoliello replies, “and it took me about four until I was ready to do my first amateur fight. I fought it in London because there wasn’t any master class or white collar boxing here at the time, and I’ve been waiting three years since then to have my first fight in the United States, which will be in Costa Mesa on June third. I’m really excited about that, and I’m training like hell because I don’t want to lose on my coming out party!”
Shaping up
In preparing for his match, Napoliello has beefed up his workout schedule.
“I usually try to do about a 10- to 12-week intensive training or workout for about 90 minutes to two hours a day, which includes running, sprinting, sparring, calisthenics, weight workout, and also nutrition. As a fight approaches you decide on a weight you want to fight at. They then match you with another person of that weight, and you better stick at that weight.”
He explains: “It’s a 10-pound weight bracket, meaning a 150-pound man or woman can fight a 160-pound man or woman, but not a 161-pound man or woman. If you show up to fight overweight, not only do you get disqualified, but unfortunately your opponent [is up the creek]. There’s not another [opponent]; each match is a match. It’s like your bride not showing up on your wedding day. There’s not another bride standing there waiting to step in.”
To extend the analogy, the bride doesn’t leave after the ceremony or the honeymoon.
“Everything you focus on and do – the exercise, the nutrition – doesn’t go away the day after the fight,” Napoliello says. “Sure, I relax a little; maybe I’m more likely to have a drink or have dessert during the weeks when I’m not training to fight, but the discipline and the lessons and the effort are still in my head, and it tends to inform the rest of my life: ‘Hey, remember when you were training for boxing? You don’t need the second piece of pie.’ ‘Maybe you can put in 45 minutes in the gym today, because remember how good you felt when you put in two hours?’ It gets in you, it becomes a part of your spirit as it were.”
Time, where are you?
Sure, but who has two hours they can pull aside from their lives every day?
Napoliello repeats one explanation he heard while in London, and while it’s a bit fanciful it does make a point: “After work, half the chaps go to the pub, and the other half spend those two hours in the gym.” Or, conversely, “In the early, early morning, half the chaps are in bed, the other half of the chaps are in the gym.
They’re not really taking any time out of their lives, they’re just replacing one thing, and possibly a bad habit, with an incredibly good habit. For me – I’m fortunate to be an entrepreneur, with Radar Pictures and with the gallery – I was always able to set my own schedule. But even when I can’t, I’ll get up at 6 o’clock in the morning or I’ll do this after work.
“The great thing about a gym like Impact, they’ll open up the gym for me. If they’re not here they’ll give me the key. Because fighting is like a community, it’s like a family. You want to make sure the guys are in shape, they’re protected; there’s a lot of focus on safety, on teamwork. Even though it’s one man in a ring, you’ve got a corner man, you’ve got a coach, you’ve got the gym owner. You’ve got your wife, your family; you’ve got people behind you. so if you really want to do this, suddenly not only do you feel that you can make time, but your world adapts to making time for you.”
And then the positive benefits accrue, chief among them health, discipline, and perhaps a quiet self-confidence.
“There’s a misconception about boxers,” Napoliello says, “that they’re aggressive, they’re tough guys, they’re tattooed bad-asses. In fact, I would argue, find the humble, self-composed, polite, competent guy in the room: More likely that’s the boxer because he doesn’t have anything to prove. He’s proved it in his own heart and in the ring. A lot of guys can talk loud, but very few will strap on the gloves and face down an opponent in a ring under the lights in front of people. Anybody can punch someone in a bar or in a dark alley and run away, but to get into that ring, in front of your friends and family, and put your courage on the line, is really something special, and it does something to you, not only physically but mentally as well.”
White collar boxing has clearly found a lifelong advocate in Michael Napoliello.
“What I’m hoping to do is two or three fights a year, which will be about half a year of intensive training, and the other half of the year just the same training that you see everybody doing – going to the gym for 45 minutes a couple of days a week. But during the fight it’s six days a week, 90 minutes a day. And, believe me, on the seventh day, I rest. You have to; I can barely get out of bed on that day.”
Oh, but he will; and the next day Napoliello is back in the gym.
The Master Boxers Summer Spectacular Charity Boxing Show, in which Napoliello will compete, takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3, in the South Coast Martial Arts/Boxing Center, 2990 Grace Lane, Costa Mesa. Talon Energy Blood Punch and Tongo Super Drink Coconut Water are sponsoring it. Tickets, $40 ringside; $20 general. (714) 545-5759 or go to southcoastmartialarts.com. ER
