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Fighters, carbo-loading at the Aramingo Diner. |
By Jeff Meade You can smell the pancakes from two blocks away.
Inside the Aramingo Diner in Port Richmond, members of the Sacred Heart Boxing Club of Newry, Northern Ireland, are chowing down on a genuine Philadelphia diner breakfast. Mounds of scrambled eggs, omelets oozing melted cheese, plump sausages, maple syrup dripping off the plates—it all makes the “full Irish breakfast” look like an appetizer.
Maybe it’s all part of an evil plan by their hosts at the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 51 in Fishtown to weigh the lads down before their bouts tomorrow night. The boys of Sacred Heart are in town to square off against local boxers in a charity event hosted by Division 51 at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory at Roosevelt Boulevard and Southampton Road. Bell time is 8 p.m.
Joining the Northern boxers are fight fans and supporters, many of whom are helping with financial support to make the visitors’ stay in Philadelphia enjoyable. They’re all clustered around the diner’s tables and tearing into their own oversized breakfasts. As the meal progresses, Bill Taylor, president of Plasters Union Local 8, Mike McGinley, Firemen & Oilers Local 1201 president, and Ron Kirschner, president of Firemen & Oilers Local 473, are joined by some out-of-town field reps from the Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association.
Sacred Heart coaches Seamus McCormick and Francis McCormick, together with manager Owen Murphy, are grateful for the hospitality. Club boxers have been coming to Philadelphia for 20 years, Seamus says. “It’s a very good experience for us,” he adds. “It’s good for boxers from Ireland to fight American-style boxers. And we are always shown so much kindness here. We could never afford to do it. We always make good friends.”
Friends? Boxers? You mean those hulking brutes whose single goal in life is to inflict pain and knock the other guy down?
Oh, yes, says Seamus. “After the fights are over, the boys do make friendships.”
All the same, it’ll be no love feast in the ring—and it’ll be worth your money to come out and see for yourself why these fights are so popular.
Read: Welcome to Fight Club
