Morant has vision for Gloves, future
ALEXIS Morant is back in the Daily News Golden Gloves finals, but this time she plans on fighting with full vision.
One of the more memorable moments of the 2014 tournament saw Morant (Mendez BC) emerge victorious over two-time champion Christella Cepeda (Yonkers YMCA) even after losing one of her contact lenses along the way. Morant returns in 2015 as the defending champion in the 132-pound female division, but this year she’s hoping she won’t have to fight half blind.
“I’m used to them falling out,” Morant laughed. “They fall out during sparring, too. I’m used to fighting with one eye or no eyes. You just go off memory at that point . . . but yeah, that’s not ideal.”
Morant will likely need her best in the finals on April 2 against Alexandria Williams (Freeport PAL), who has been a force in this year’s tournament. The 132-pounder has scored a pair of stoppages in her two bouts of 2015 and even defeated Morant this past November in the Metros.
“Some people thought it was closer than what I thought. I want to beat her again to prove it wasn’t as close,” Williams said of her win over Morant. “I would like to get three stoppages, but I just want to win one pair (of Golden Gloves). This (semifinal win) broke my streak. I had lost two semis in a row.”
Morant has the edge in experience after winning last year, but she knows that experience only gets you so far. After all, Morant unseated the heavily favored Cepeda last year, and Williams will be hungry for her own gold.
“I think being the underdog really helped me relax and just go in there and do my thing. I don’t think many people thought I would go in and get the upset against Christella,” Morant said. “But I’ve been training harder and doing different things so I kind of expected the target (on my back) to come. I’ve been stepping up my level to go beyond where I was last year.”
“I’m hoping that winning a second one would put my name out there on the map as one of the great female boxers or good female boxers in the city,” she continued. “Hopefully I can go from there to new levels like the national one and get my name out there as well. I’m hoping this next (Gloves championship) really prepares me for that.”