After I secured two tickets from David Malul's mom on the front steps of his plush house in Jamaica, Queens, I fumbled in my pocket and realized I had lost my credit card. Thirty minutes of trying to figure out how to get ApplePay to work on my phone, and I was back on the F train headed to meet Brooklyn Barwick, a 5-0 featherweight who just turned pro in March.
Barwick and I had made plans to watch Malul's promotional debut, and fourth professional fight, at Melrose Ballroom, not far from my hotel. While I was trying to lock my lost credit card, I got a text from Barwick, "I'm right outside the hotel." I went outside to find her, but it turned out she was at the wrong hotel. I then realized I had left our tickets back in my hotel room, so it was an inauspicious start to the evening.
We walked to the ballroom, exchanging boxing gossip about which fighters and coaches were antisemitic, who got rocked in sparring recently, and plenty of other topics. We arrived a little before 5 o'clock for a show that was supposed to start at 7. Melrose was dark, so we decided to stroll around the block. "I forgot my energy drink," Barwick remembered as she slid into a convenience store and bought a Celsius. One hot subject was her recent appearance ringside at a Boxing Insider show in Atlantic City. She was called out by Lia Lewandowski's team during the event and felt a bit set-up by the ordeal.
At 5:30, a group of fighters opened the door to the ballroom just as we walked by, and we instinctively decided to follow them in. Our tickets weren't together, but Barwick declared, "You're sitting next me! I don't care who I have to yell at." After our slick entrance, we took our seats as a booming voice repeatedly bellowed, "Fighters and coaches only! No spectators until 6:30!" Around us security talked aloud, "Are they fighters or coaches? Should we kick them out?"
Only Barwick's extreme confidence and my meds prevented me from repeatedly gagging out of anxiety. I've never met someone so comfortable in her own skin, although she paradoxically desires plenty of validation. She spotted someone she knew and got up to go schmooze, "You're gonna be ok here? Just call me if there's trouble," she told me. When Barwick came back to her seat, she delighted in the fact that so many at the show knew who she was.
Several times the Atlantic City confrontation came up. Video shows Barwick yelling at the ring after Lewandowski's victory, but she wanted to set the record straight that she had been provoked. Some of the night, she texted with Boxing Insider promoter Larry Goldberg, who ran the Atlantic City show a week earlier. Their banter was hilarious, deserving of their own podcast, which I suggested they consider. When Barwick brought up the possibility, Goldberg shut it down, "I'll never do a podcast with you!" he replied half-jokingly.
Another prevalent topic was Barwick's conversion journey. Her father is Jewish, but she is in the process of converting to Orthodox Judaism. Wearing a NY Cops and Kids windbreaker and a long navy blue skirt, one friend told her that she was "modestly dressed," which pleased her tremendously.
She called fellow Jewish boxer Lev Jackson, who is based in Vancouver, and wished him luck on his upcoming fight in Mexico. They talked about possibly competing in next year's Maccabiah Games, where boxing could potentially make a return for the first time since 1977.
Still it was too early. Barwick yelled out to ring announcer Matt Competello, who worked the Boxing Insider show the previous week. Competello tested the microphone by describing what he saw. He later asked Barwick which tie color would be most acceptable to the majority Jewish audience. He went with a smart light blue and white tie with diagonal stripes. At one point, I joked, "Maybe we should yell, 'That tie's antisemitic! Take off that Nazi tie!'" Barwick laughed and later told Competello my joke when he stopped by. He was not amused because his concern about potentially offending the Jewish audience had been genuine.
While conversing with me, texting boxing people, and ever-mindful of her social media presence, Barwick also scoured the arena looking to network, which was more fruitful when 6:30 rolled around and other people were finally let in. "It's 6:30, we didn't get kicked out," I said in relief. Barwick chuckled. She was never going to be kicked out, even if someone had tried it, which they didn't.
Barwick made sure to introduce me and graciously hype up
The Jewish Boxing Blog whenever talking with boxing luminaries or fans. The reactions to me ranged from polite to disinterested. Well-respected
boxing journalist Ryan Songalia was the lone exception, flatteringly mentioning that he follows the
The JBB and has used it for research for his outstanding articles about Malul, Cletus Seldin, and other Jewish boxers in the area. Everyone, however, was excited to meet the 5-0 fighter with 5 KOs and the effervescent personality.
To Songalia, Barwick described her 3-0 record on BoxRec as incomplete. Her last two fights in Colombia have yet to be posted on the site. Songalia, who also works as a record keeper for BoxRec on the amateur side, explained that the Colombian promoter needed to inform BoxRec before changes could be made.
Afterwards, Barwick grabbed some kosher fried chicken from Crunchy's pop up stand. She's on-weight for her featherweight fight in the Dominican Republic on December 5, so she allowed herself to indulge in a chicken sandwich. She offered me the French fries, which I happily devoured. The old cliché that boxing writers never refuse free food held true.
When the lights came on at 8:00, Barwick exclaimed, "Finally!" I reminded her that it only felt like a long wait because we had snuck in hours early, a retort she accepted. She looked around and declared, "He did it! He actually did it!" She had been worried that either promoting the event would take Malul's eye off boxing or boxing would take his eye off the promotion. But he had managed to put together an exciting show while headlining. The only oversight was the absence of ring cards; the girls instead used their fingers.
In the first fight, Paul Anthony faced Stephen Barbee. David of
The Fight Photos had given us his predictions for the night and felt this would be a competitive bout. He was right. Anthony nearly stopped Barbee in the first, but took his foot off the gas and was outboxed by Barbee most of the four rounds. Barwick yelled instructions at Anthony, but Anthony didn't follow them and came away with a disputed hometown decision. Next up was Ryan Zempoaltecat, who seemed to listen to Barwick's screams and scored a stoppage victory with an overhand right. Barwick called the right punches for Joe Elzey, who also won by second round stoppage
"When does it become real to you that you're about to be in a fight?" I asked her.
"When I'm in the ring. Before, I'm chilling, but once I'm in the ring, it's like, 'Oh, shit!'"
Barwick decided to save her voice for Malul's fight, so she remained quiet during the clash between Ronny Reyes and Terrence Williams. David of The Fight Photos predicted this one correctly as well. Reyes outhustled Williams to a split decision win. Incidentally, I had it a draw.
Barwick was called down to ringside before Malul's fight. She was introduced with the other fighters present and spent the fight below one the neutral corners. After the bell rang and Malul and Colin Huntington felt each other out, Barwick could be heard around the ballroom yelling, "Melech!!" Hebrew for "King," Malul's nickname. Over the four rounds, she screamed herself hoarse, pleading for Malul to take the victory,
which he did with three scores of 40-36.
After the fight, she marveled at what a great show David had put on and expressed her desire to fight on a King David Promotions card in the future. She dreamed of other fighters like Lev and Odelia Ben Ephraim rounding out an all-Jewish event.
We waited to congratulate David on his victory and successful promotion. Afterwards, we went for a short walk to decompress about a great night at the fights. The entire time, Barwick was updating her social media while maintaining conversation. Self-promotion is second nature to her. In a sport that seems to be fading with our forefather's memories, self-promotion may just well be the key to staying relevant.
