Pat Moran, a 2011 graduate of Orchard Park High School, followed the footsteps of both his father and grandfather by boxing in the Golden Gloves competition.
Moran continues family legacy at Golden Gloves
Pat Moran
Orchard Park High School senior Pat Moran, a member of the football and lacrosse teams, wanted to take on a new challenge between seasons and figured he would try the sport at which both his father and grandfather excelled.
“My dad and grandpa used to box and I thought I’d get into it,” said Moran, who will box for the first time at the Buffalo Golden Gloves competition at the Burt Flickinger Center on Friday, March 18.
To prepare for the fight, Moran has been training two hours every weekday night for 10 weeks at the Northwest Buffalo Community Center on Lawn Avenue, under the tutelage of his father and former professional boxer Don Patterson.
A training session is comprised of shadowboxing, sparring with other boxers, hitting the heavy bag and jumping rope.
It’s the toughest training Moran has ever experienced.
“I’ve never trained harder for any other sport,” said Moran, who has dropped from 250 pounds down to 215 since football season. “It’s draining,” he said of the training. “I go to lacrosse and it’s just not even close.”
His father Mike, a 1983 graduate of Orchard Park High School and former silver medalist at the Golden Gloves, and Patterson trained together under legendary boxer Jackie Donnelly, from Buffalo’s First Ward, at the Babcock Street Boys & Girls Club.
According to Patterson, Moran’s pedigree, athletic background and work ethic have helped him launch a strong start in the ring.
“He’s coming along very well,” said Patterson, a member U.S. National Team in 1989-1990. “He’s progressing very well. He has an athletic background and he comes from a good pedigree, so he goes back a few generations with boxing.”
In addition to his father’s background in boxing, Moran’s grandfather, Paul, who routinely attends his training sessions, was a Golden Gloves champion in Pennsylvania.
“It is real fun,” Moran said during a recent training session. “My dad is helping train me and my grandpa comes out.”
Moran, who will have several members of his family and friends attend the fight, will box in the super novice level in the super heavy weight division of the Golden Gloves. He will be box in a three-round bout.
“He has no fights (behind him),” said Patterson. “He’s a sub-novice, but he’s doing very well.”
Some of the areas Patterson said he has been working on with Moran are the natural things that everybody has to work on when they first start boxing. Patterson said. That includes judgment of space and how to protect oneself on the inside.
“Those are the things you want to see as he develops,” Patterson said of Moran. “That takes experience, and that starts March 18.”
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