A Fistic First

For the first time in Wildwood boxing history, two local fighters appeared on the same pro card in New Jersey when light heavyweight Chuck "The Professor" Mussachio and junior welterweight Josh "No Limits" Mercado stepped into the squared circle in Star Boxing's "Super Saturday" show at the Tropicana in Atlantic City on March 6.

Both Mussachio and Mercado are Wildwood Boxing Club alumnae - indeed, the Professor was one of the founders - and both are ex-collegiate champions, Mercado having followed Mussachio to the Pennsylvania pugilistic hotbed of Lock Haven University.

The veteran Mussachio, 14-1-2, with 5 KOs, entered the ring against Richard "White Lightning" Dalphone, of Pensacola, Florida, who sported a misleading record of 2-5-3, with 2KOs, while Mercado brought a perfect 3-0, 1 KO, slate in against Millville's Ismael "Tito" Garcia, making his pro debut.

Neither local guy had an especially easy evening, with Mussachio, 30, earning a unanimous, hard-fought six-round nod over the 21-year-old Dalphone, while Mercado lost to the surprisingly talented Garcia by identical 40-36 scores from all three judges in their four-rounder.

Mussachio, a guidance counselor at Middle Township High School, said of his young opponent after the fight, "That kid can fight. Never underestimate your opponent. He's a lot better than his record showed. That was one of my toughest fights."

Nonetheless, Mussachio had "White Lightning" Dalphone in serious trouble in the fourth round, but couldn't close the deal. "I punched myself out and was winded in the fifth," he admitted post-fight. Indeed, Dalphone had a big sixth round, but Mussachio grabbed the unanimous duke.

Mussachio's father and manager, Al, affirmed his son's opinion of Dalphone. "I told everyone not to look at his record," he said. "His management put him in with a bunch of guys who were 8-0, 8-1. He can fight and Chuck knew it."

In a conversation between Al Mussachio and Clarke Dalphone, Richmond's father, manager, and trainer, after the fight, the elder Dalphone revealed that "White Lightning" had 69 amateur victories and was the 2006 Florida Golden Gloves champion at heavyweight. No wonder it was no walk in the park for The Professor, whose trademark Frank Sinatra fedora was held by Michael Brown of Whitesboro, one of his students who won the honor at a raffle at Middle Township High School. Of his students, Mussachio said, "They need someone to look up to in their lives and I wanted to make them proud."

In Josh Mercado's first defeat as a pro, he, too, found himself in with an opponent whose record meant little in relation to his talent. Ismael "Tito" Garcia handled himself like a vetted pro despite being in the ring for pay for the first time. Tall, lanky, and chiseled, he punched with both-handed authority and had "No Limits" Mercado on the ropes far too long during the bout and was clearly the winner of every round.

For his part, Mercado took the loss with good grace. "I've always been a firm believer that a person's character is measured by how they bounce back from their lowest point. I'll learn from this and I'll be back," he told Dave Weinberg of the Press of Atlantic City. "The toughest thing was losing in front of so many people."

Between the two Wildwood fighters, at least half the near-capacity crowd was from the Greater Wildwoods area, and they carried on with their usual leather-lunged enthusiasm. The best line of the night, though, went to eight-year-old Cole, the son of Christine Rothwell, who owns and operates the Appolo gym in Rio Grande, where Mussachio trained for the fight. Mussachio, his hands already taped and wrapped, was working the crowd before the show began, and Cole Rothwell took one look at Chuckie's hands, and asked, "What happened to your hands?"

Cole Rothwell

It was Cole’s first fight. What’s he going to do for an encore?