Senior Joey Pickus emerged victorious over his opponents at the U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Association National Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what to expect, but for collegiate boxing, it\u2019s a close-knit, niche type of group. So one of the coolest parts about the atmosphere of it was just making all types of new friends,\u201d Pickus said.<\/p>\n
Pickus has been boxing for over five years and decided to put his training to the test at the tournament held in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I\u2019ve been training all throughout college, so I thought, \u2018I\u2019ll never get this opportunity again.\u2019 I thought I\u2019d go out and do my best to compete for University of Tennessee, the best I could. And I was happy to bring home the championship,\u201d Pickus said.<\/p>\n
An accomplishment like this doesn\u2019t come without discipline and training. Pickus regularly trains at Eppolito Boxing Gym, a boxing gym in Knoxville.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been running five days a week. I\u2019ve been lifting two days a week. I just ran the marathon. So, definitely a lot that went into it \u2014 running, boxing, training, watching film, eating right, sleeping right, hydrating right. There\u2019s a lot that went into it,\u201d Pickus said.<\/p>\n
Eppolito Boxing Gym is more than just a training facility \u2014 it\u2019s a home and a safe space for boxers of all levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to come to a boxing lesson and learn how to box. You learn how to box, and you get life lessons on top of that, which is super cool. And everyone here is super welcoming,\u201d Jonah McMillen, a sophomore studying management, said.<\/p>\n
Those life lessons and the gym\u2019s rich history of boxers helped Pickus in the tournament, creating a strong support base.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Frank Eppolito and all the guys I trained with, I definitely wouldn\u2019t have been able to do it without them. Such a great support base here, which I feel like is second to none here at this gym,\u201d Pickus said. \u201cWithout my family and all my amazing teammates here, it wouldn\u2019t be possible to achieve something like this. All those people were such a great support base for me, and they were with me every step of the way. I wouldn\u2019t be able to achieve that without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickus is graduating in May, and while settling into his future career, he still has his eyes on boxing. He plans to train for the Wisconsin Golden Gloves and have the same level of confidence that helped him win the national tournament in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in very confident, but that confidence didn\u2019t come out of anywhere. It came from the preparation I put into the tournament,\u201d Pickus said. \u201cI would definitely give my advice to prepare very hard. And that\u2019s where you get your confidence from with boxing \u2014 go hard in the gym. Go hard on your runs. Eat right, sleep right and that\u2019s where you get your confidence, which is essential when it comes to fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a successful boxing career and a successful college career, Pickus remains a Volunteer at heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge honor representing the University of Tennessee,\u201d Pickus said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely one of the greatest schools out there. It\u2019s such a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior Joey Pickus emerged victorious over his opponents at the U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Association National Tournament. \u201cI didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-619241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}