La Dolce Vita
February 7, 2013
Santo and Fab, two boxers and best mates who walked into our gym a few weeks ago and it feels like they have been with us for years. They seem to fit the tone of the place perfectly. They work hard, they’re tough, they want to fight and they want to learn. They’re also great fun and very generous with what they know.
By day, Fabian Matutini, 31, (pictured right) is a pastry chef with Brunetti’s and Santo Surace, 24, is a sports-mad electrician who has just discovered that he’s also a dab hand at portrait painting.
And both of them are Boxing Central’s newest boxer members, joining our team and adding to the knowledge base. They’ve had seven fights a piece with Joe Demicoli’s Ultimate Gym. All but one of Santo’s encounters have been in Muy Thai and only one has been at the Calabria Club while Fab has had seven amateur boxing fights.
They are connected through Fab’s cousin who also happens to be Santo’s girlfriend. But they admit they probably spend more time with each other, training twice a day, than they do with any girlfriends.
They say they never argue and they certainly seem simpatico, not just with each other but with the whole Boxing Central culture. They love the fact that the gym is all about improving and they’ve already shown signs of progress with their own boxing skills. Both came up to the plate when we had a sparring session with boxers from two other gyms who came to visit recently. They showed that they were tough and determined and responded well under pressure.
The best thing about these guys is their sociability and sense of humour! They always come to training with beaming smiles and truckloads of enthusiasm and energy. They also always find time to help out other boxers and even non-boxers in the gym, helping create the kind of atmosphere that makes everyone feel comfortable.
They bring a little of La Dolce Vita to Boxing Central, and bringing a batch of his grandmother’s freshly baked biscuits to the gym cemented Santo’s place as a really good bloke. All we need now is a stack of profiteroles from Brunetti’s and we’ll be set.
I hope they stick around, develop their skills and win plenty of fights this year. You’d be hard pressed to find two more deserving guys.
