Mark DeLuca, a seasoned trainer with a blue-collar approach to boxing, understood the harsh realities of the sport when he prepared his fighter, Mike Ohan Jr., for a bout against highly touted lightweight Abdullah Mason.
The end result was decisive. Mason stopped Ohan in the second round last Saturday at the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Canada.
From the outset, DeLuca recognized Mason’s talent. “That kid’s a special talent,” De Luca said. “We haven’t seen him truly tested yet, but you can see that he can fight.” The fight, however, was more about managing expectations and maintaining professionalism—ensuring that passion didn’t cloud realistic expectations while keeping the fighter’s safety at the forefront.
As Ohan entered the ring, DeLuca was well aware of the potential outcome. Mason, who is now on a five-fight knockout streak, is shaping up to be a future titleholder. The fight started out bad for Ohan.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but I could see it was only going to get worse,” DeLuca said. “He got hit with two really sharp shots—a brutal uppercut and a straight left that put him down twice. But he didn’t take much damage; he left the ring with his health, which is important.”
For De Luca, the challenge was as much mental as it was physical. He knew the fight was going to be tough but couldn’t share his doubts with his fighter. “It was tough. I didn’t want to share my true thoughts with Mike because I didn’t want to skew his confidence,” DeLuca said. “You have to toe the line between a winner’s mentality and being realistic.”
Despite his doubts, DeLuca knew he had to instill belief in his fighter. “I told Mike, do your thing, don’t lay down for anybody, and we’ll see how the cards fall.”
Ohan, a talented regional fighter, was stepping into a big spotlight. The last time he took a significant step up, he was stopped by Delante “Tiger” Johnson in December 2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. De Luca knew the odds were stacked against him, but professionalism demanded they give it their best shot.
This night was different. As Ohan fell to Mason, De Luca’s fears were confirmed, yet his commitment to his fighter never wavered. Even in defeat, the lessons of professionalism, perseverance, and the gritty reality of the sport remained clear.
DeLuca had been on the other side of the coin, just two years prior, when his underdog fighter Michael Ogundo from Kenya stunned the boxing world by knocking out Lamont Peterson on a major undercard. “We were most certainly not supposed to do that,” De Luca recalled with a grin. He knew it was possible, but it would be difficult.
The irony of the situation is Ohan had just had a big moment. Just last year, Ohan had his own mini-classic in the northeastern club scene, defeating Harry Gigliotti in a back-and-forth brawl at Memorial Stadium in Quincy, Mass. Gigliotti hit the deck in the fifth round but kept fighting. Ohan won a unanimous decision in a fight that both will likely remember as their ‘heyday’ in 20 years—a great regional fight. Now, a little over a year later, referee Alain Villeneuve stopped the bout 40 seconds into the second round, which could mark the end of Ohan’s professional career.
Lucas Ketelle is a proud member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and author of “Inside The Ropes of Boxing” (available on Amazon). Contact him on X @LukieBoxing.
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