Hand Injury Forces Fighter Out of Golden Gloves

, an amateur boxer from a Crystal Lake gym, announced he was pulling out of the Chicago Golden Gloves due to a hand injury.

The resident of Bartlett, who works out at the School of Hard Knocks on Main Street in Crystal Lake, showed a lot of promise, said coaches Tony Prignits and Gary Dobry.

“We thought this could be Bobby’s year,” Prignits, a native of London, said.

“I was training really hard for this,” DeCore said. “I wanted to ignore the pain and keep with it, muscle it out. But then I listened to Tony. I figure it’s for the better. I was just a little bit down after I made the decision. Like Tony said, 'There is always next year.'”

Last week DeCore said he still had trouble making a fist.

DeCore, a tool and die maker at the family business, DeCore Tool & Mfg. Inc. in Bartlett, said a few weeks ago he dropped a steel plate on his right hand and injured the tendon along the middle knuckle.

He tried to keep training, favoring his right hand. His doctor and boxing coaches all told him the same thing: Forget the Golden Gloves and give your hand a rest.

“Bobby is twenty years old, just a baby,” Prignits said. “If he were thirty, I might say go ahead, fight in the tournament, you don’t have much time left to fight. But he’s young. He’s got a lot of time left. A fighter’s most important tools are his hands and he doesn’t want to ruin those.” 

Getting ready for this year’s spring tournament, DeCore traveled around the greater Chicago area, looking to match his skills against the toughest sparring partners he could find.

About 400 amateur boxers signed up for this year’s tournament, which will be held at Gordon Tech High School. The preliminaries start Thursday evening. Click on the Chicago Golden Glove site here for more tournament information.