Cue the Rocky Theme
THUR 4/8
Seriously, are all Midwestern cities as crazy about amateur boxing as St. Louis seems to be? In the past year, venues as wide-ranging as the City Museum, the South Broadway Athletic Club and Soulard's Mad Art Gallery have hosted amateur fight nights. Hardcore enthusiasts have turned their south-city garages into makeshift training HQs. And now the Budweiser Golden Gloves Championship takes place at 7:30 p.m. at the Orlando Gardens Banquet Center (2050 Dorsett Village in Maryland Heights).
Unlike those at the aforementioned amateur events, however, the winners of the seventeen bouts on the Golden Gloves' fight card advance to the nationals in Kansas City in early May, and those winners then compete for a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing team.
Tickets for ringside tables of ten are $150; general admission tickets cost $15 apiece. Tickets are available at the door or by calling 314-552-1160 or 314-638-7987. -- Rose Martelli
Foot-sketball
Warner fires...swish!
FRI 4/9
Sadly, the next time Kurt Warner leads a St. Louis team to a championship might be at the Mike Jones Celebrity Basketball Game. Jones -- the savior of Super Bowl XXXIV -- runs the Michael Jones Foundation, which started the celebrity b-ball games in 1999 to help disadvantaged kids.
Among this year's celebrity hoopers are Warner, Adam Timmerman, Keith Lyle, Roland Williams, Dré Bly and Dexter McCleon. Players will sign autographs from 6 p.m. until tip-off at 6:30 (Vashon High School, 3035 Cass Avenue). Proceeds from the game will go to the Vashon football field. Admission is $5; call 314-524-0733 for more information. -- R.L. Nave