Pine Bluff's Gloves Not Guns boxing club hosted the Arkansas State Silver Gloves tournament with hopes of eventually turning the city into the boxing capital of the state.
But the path toward that goal has taken a step back.
A state administrator for USA Boxing, the country's sanctioning body for amateur boxing, said Friday that the Region 6 Silver Gloves championships will move to Searcy after Gloves Not Guns could not come up with the funds necessary to successfully operate the qualifying tournament for the national Silver Gloves. The region tournament, which was scheduled for July 22-24, will now be at the Carmichael Center in Searcy from July 29-31.
"We were too close; I couldn't wait much longer," said Bryon Hurford, the Arkansas local boxing council president for USA Boxing and state/region Silver Gloves tournament director. "I told the mayor I could give them to Monday, but she sent a text message that there was no way that they were going to finance our tournament."
A call to Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington was not returned.
Albert Brewer, the organizer and coach of Gloves Not Guns, said he counted on the city for additional support and thought hosting the state Silver Gloves June 4-5 would have sparked further interest.
"I just knew without a shadow of a doubt the city would help me host the regional," Brewer said. "If not, I wouldn't have hosted the state tournament."
Brewer said he used funding from the Pine Bluff Advertising and Planning Commission he received before the coronavirus pandemic to host the state event after Hurford approached him in April about it. Brewer said the remaining funds from A&P, following an April 24 fight card at the Convention Center, which were about $7,500, were allocated to host three more cards, and that he was granted permission from A&P officials to spend about $7,000 of it toward the state Silver Gloves.
"The financial obligation is to host the tournament and come up with the money for the awards," Hurford said. "Silver Gloves isn't even allowed to keep a dollar of the proceeds. The money would have come back to the city or Mr. Brewer, but they weren't even interested in supporting it."
Brewer said he takes full responsibility for the gamble on the Region 6 tournament, which hosts qualifiers from Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
"I'm upset -- disappointed -- but I've just got to keep going," Brewer said. "Nothing in this world could have told me Pine Bluff wouldn't support this regional tournament."
Silver Gloves boxing is open to youth fighters ages 8-16, and tournaments are in the spirit of the more prestigious Golden Gloves, open to amateur fighters 17 and older. While turnout for Silver Gloves events isn't as good as in Golden Gloves, Hurford said, the Region 6 Silver Gloves would have attracted more people to Pine Bluff because of the travel and lodging demands.
The loss of the Region 6 Silver Gloves, however, will not keep Pine Bluff out of consideration for other tournaments, Hurford said.
"Pine Bluff is not off our radar, but it is for Silver Gloves," he said. "I was really looking forward to it being in Pine Bluff, and I hadn't had anybody say anything but good things about Pine Bluff."
Brewer is now focused on coaching his fight club at a tournament in Fort Smith and is hopeful he can send six boxers to Lubbock, Texas, for the USA Boxing National Junior Olympics, scheduled for July 7-17. The boxers are Darrion White, 10, a 55-pounder; Amere Oliver, 9, a 55-pounder; Kaden Crutchfield, 9, a 65-pounder; Jaizon Mason, 8, a 70-pounder; Jonathan Mason, 9, a 100-pounder; and Tre'von Evans, 8, a 71-pounder.
Donations can be made to Brewer via Cash App at $CoachBarksdale (Barksdale is Brewer's birth name), or to Gloves Not Guns through Bank of America.
"I'm a fighter," Brewer said. "We'll just have to keep at it."