By Greg Chrapek
WKTV Contributor
greer@wktv.org
Boxers from all across West Michigan descended into the Sturrus Sports and Fitness Center on the campus of Aquinas College for the 2025 West Michigan Golden Gloves Finals this past Saturday and a large crowd was treated to four hours of outstanding action.
A total of 16 bouts were on the card and nearly every one provided plenty of action as boxers fought it out for West Michigan titles and the opportunity to advance to the state finals at Aquinas College May 2 and 3.
Wyoming’s PK Boxing Gym sparkles
Locally, PK Boxing Gym of Wyoming enjoyed a productive night. PK Boxing had two boxers in the finals and the duo actually fought in back-to-back matches. In a pair of hard-fought matches, Sebastian Romo and Jose Jimenez-Gonzalez both came away winning decisions and West Michigan titles.
Boxing in the 127-pound Youth Novice Division, Romo defeated Teodocio Magana of the Crown Boxing Club of Lansing. The bout was an intense struggle from beginning to end.
“It was exciting”, said Romo, a student at Jenison High School. “I love everything about boxing. It was intense. It was a good fight. I thought it was a war and I had a good time.”
Romo has been boxing for three years, and this is his first time competing at Golden Gloves. He became interested in boxing while watching the sport with his family growing up.
“I was basically just watching a lot of fights at home with my dad and my family,” Romo said. “We watched a popular fighter, Canelo Alvarez, and after that I wanted to start boxing.”
In the following bout in the 147-pound Youth Novice Division, Jimenez-Gonzalez defeated Jeremiah Henry, also from Crown Boxing, in another close, hard-fought match.
A student at Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy, Jimenez-Gonzalez has been boxing for a short time and his match in the Golden Gloves was the first of his career.
“I was nervous at first, but once I got in there, I was ready for war,” Jimenez-Gonzalez said. “It was exciting. My body shots were working the best, mainly my uppercuts.”
Like his teammate, Jimenez-Gonzalez grew up watching boxing and especially Canelo Alvarez.
“As a youngster I used to watch a lot of fights”, Jimenez-Gonzalez said, “especially Canelo. My grandpa used to fight, too. He never made it pro, but I wanted to follow his lead.”
Winning their bouts back-to-back was extra special for the teammates.
“We talked about it a lot,” Romo said. “It was fun to do it back-to-back.”
Floyd Santiago back
While Romo and Jimenez-Gonzalez were a pair of younger boxers making an initial name for themselves, Floyd Santiago was an older boxer who was back in the action after a lengthy span away from the sport. Boxing out of the Michigan Golden Gloves Association (MGGA) gym in Grand Rapids, Santiago was back in the Golden Gloves for the first time in eight years. Santiago showed no signs of any rust after the long time away from boxing as he won the 187-pound Elite Novice title by stopping Matt Rogein of Jet Boxing from Okemos.
Santiago displayed a relentless style piling up points and also recording a standing eight count in his victory. Getting the win after eight years of missing the sport was extra special for Santiago who thought about boxing the entire time.
“It feels great,” Santiago said. “Even through the eight years I had stopped boxing, I was doing body building, so I built up that discipline to be able to consistently do something every single day. But the whole time that I stopped boxing, I just regretted it. I love boxing so much. I regretted stopping. So now I’ve been back for six months, and I’ve been able to do this. It’s pretty great.”
In the Elite Open Division, another MGGA boxer, Siderio Mitchell (see below), came away with a championship. Boxing in the 143-pound Open Division weight class, Mitchell met a familiar face in the finals in his teammate from MGGA, Mike Guzman. In one of the most crowd-pleasing matches of the evening, Mitchell won a decision against his MGGA teammate in a bout that was full of action for all three rounds.
The two boxers were meeting for the first time in an actual match despite having sparred each other countless times at the MGGA gym.
“I probably have over a hundred rounds sparring with him,” Mitchell said. “He’s pretty good, that’s why I sparred him a lot. I told myself even though I sparred him this way, maybe I switch it up. I switched it up a few times in sparring, but tonight, I really need to switch it up.”
The plan worked out as Mitchell delivered his shots and avoided getting caught.
“I knew I couldn’t go out there and fight him the same way I did in sparring because he is going to expect that,” Mitchell said. “So when he was expecting to trade punches; boom, boom, boom, I hit him, then I got out the way. He wasn’t expecting that. Then the last 10 seconds, I know he’s a brawler. Last year I saw him brawling. He’s really good at that and he won most of those, but I made sure I hit and got out the way, finishing up my last 10 seconds doing laps around the ring and I won it. I did it.”
Another West Michigan title for Kalamazoo’s Gentle Gibson
The 132-pound Open Division final between Gentle Gibson of the Kalamazoo Boxing Club and Aarkeyse Higdon of Crown Boxing was another match that had the fans involved. Gibson, who won a state title last year, added a West Michigan title this year as he won in the second round on a referee stoppage.
The final two bouts in the Open Division also were won by boxers from the Kalamazoo Boxing Club. In the 154-pound weight class Evan Jackson defeated Alejandro Hernandez of Anahuac Boxing while in the 165-pound open final Jermont Reece defeated Joseph McDaye of Westside Boxing in Kalamazoo.
In the Elite Novice Division, Davone Jones of Crown Boxing beat Harrison Hevelhurst of LaCasa Boxing Club in the 132-pound weight class. At 143 pounds Mohammad Aliyar of United Boxing Club defeated Mekhi Know of Muskegon TCB. At 154-pouonds in the Elite Novice Division Carlito Aggers of Kalamazoo Boxing defeated Mateo Diaz of Sakwamdo Boxing Club of Holland. Ontess Toliver of Blue Gym in Grand Rapids beat Joe L. Johnson of Crown Boxing at 176 pounds.
In the 165-pound Elite Novice Division, Tommy Watts of TCB Boxing of Muskegon defeated Nate Dotson of Crown Boxing. In the 198-pound Elite Novice Division, Monta Perkins of Kalamazoo Boxing defeated D’Angelo Williams of Team Glass Boxing of Lansing, while in the 198-plus Elite Division, Aiden Baker of MGGA defeated Robert Lathan of Kalamazoo Boxing.
In the long Bantam Novice Division match of the evening, Ricardo Emiliano of Westside Boxing defeated Ethan Edmonds of Crown Boxing, and in the lone Junior Novice Division bout, Tayshon Whitfield of Crown Boxing beat Ronald Salvador of Eli J Boxing Club.
