BY CLIFF SMELLEY
They’ve been working and training together for approximately three years, so it felt good when boxers Colton Crane and Rudolph Moulton could both call themselves winners at the end of the day.
Crane and Moulton have been training for approximately three years with Giovanni Cruz, who has a gym at his Keystone Heights home that he makes available for free to those interested in boxing. A recent event saw Crane (135-pound class) improve his record to 5-0, but what gave Crane the most joy was seeing Moulton (155-pound class) win for the first time in four fights.
“He deserves it more than anybody with the way he works,” Crane said. “He has no quit in him at all.”
Cruz, too, spoke of Moulton’s perseverance, saying, “He never gave up and kept his eyes on the prize. He pretty much gave me what I knew he had in him all this time.”
Moulton said his emotions in the aftermath of his first-ever win had more to do with the strides he’s made as a boxer than with the actual head-to-head result.
“I was happy about the win, but I was more happy about how much better I’ve gotten,” Moulton said. “That was way more important to me.”
For Cruz, the wins are just the icing on the cake.
“We say our prayer before our fight,” Cruz said. “We want them to come home safe. That’s the most important thing. We don’t pray for the win. We just pray for their safety, but we definitely enjoy the blessing of the win.”
The blessing turned out to be a unanimous decision for both boxers.
“They pretty much both dominated their fights,” Cruz said.
Crane was sick the day before he fought at the recent event he participated in, but he said he felt better when he woke up the following morning.
“I had to pull it together and get it done,” Crane said. “There was no way I was backing out after all the days I did in training.”
After fighting his match, Crane was able to watch Moulton finally get his first win.
“I think the biggest thing for him was he was mentally prepared for this one,” Crane said. “Mentally, he was not taking a loss.”
Moulton admitted his mindset was the biggest difference in his recent match, but it had to do with not thinking of the match in terms of a possible win or another loss.
“It was just going in there and understanding that win, lose or draw, I was going to do my best,” Moulton said.
Each boxer will tell you the other has helped him get better. That’s because they go against each other as sparring partners, with each bringing something different to the ring.
“He’s got the reach,” Crane said of Moulton. “He’s taller and longer, so he makes me really work for it. I can’t get too close (to him).”
Moulton uses two words to describe Crane: “speed” and “counters.”
“Whenever I get into the ring with him, I have to be smart,” Moulton said. “I can’t just swing wildly. He helps me work on my reaction time.
“I get into the ring with other guys, and I realize those guys are not as fast (as Crane), and they don’t hit as hard as he does.”
They may be partners in training and sparring, but the relationship between Crane and Moulton is so much more.
“They’ve become like brothers,” Cruz said.
These boxing brothers are putting in the work to be the best they can be in the sport, but their efforts are resulting in more than just a payoff inside ring. Crane and Moulton both say that through boxing, they’ve learned discipline, which helps them with all aspects of life.
Crane added that the training that goes into boxing is far harder than anything he’ll ever face in life.
“If we can make it through training camp, we can make it through anything,” Crane said.
Cruz is motivated to do what he does so that others experience success in whatever they do. He said he’s always used boxing “to teach them to not only fight inside the ring, but also outside the ring.”
Life lessons, boxing techniques, work ethic, friendships — it all amounts to something Crane will remember fondly in future years.
“No matter what happens or where we go with this, these will be some of the best memories of my life — being in the gym and being around these people and just learning the sport of boxing in general.”
