Iron willed in the Ironbound

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

JANOSKI, STEVE

It's raining heavily in Newark as the final press conference is about to get under way. It's two days before the fight, and the promoters, media, and boxers are gathered on the second floor of the Brick City Bar and Grill in Newark, a restaurant and bar with black hardwood floors and worn brick walls that sits next to the Prudential Center.

Vinny O'Brien sits at a long line of tables against the wall dressed in a black button down shirt and black pants, a huge grilled chicken salad in front of him, and we discuss a few upcoming pro fights before I steal off to sneak some of the bar's offerings.The smallish size of the press conference reflects the humble nature of the show. Kathy Duva, CEO of the promotional company Main Events, later says bluntly that this ticket, which features about a half-dozen lesser known fighters, is "a club show in the truest sense."

"That's what's really nice about a show like this," she says. "We can concentrate on making every single fight matter… and every fight that's going to be on the undercard really matters."

It's clichéd and inaccurate to call a press conference the calm before the storm — it's much more like putting a dozen piranhas in a tank and asking them to play nice for an hour. While it's not always a scene out of "Rocky IV," there is a measured sense of restraint emanating from the men who have trained for months with the singular purpose of collapsing each other's faces.

O'Brien's opponent, a Puerto Rican from Philadelphia named Rafael Montalvo, is not here. But O'Brien is clearly as at home in front of the press's flashing lights as he is in the gym.

As the conference starts, he sits at the end of a long black table filled with fighters, their names printed on cards in front of them. Duva sits in the middle and stands to give her opening remarks and introduce the boxers.

When she gets to O'Brien, a broad smile comes across her face as she talks about the kid from East Hanover and the hordes of fans he's drawn in his first two fights.

"He's truly an individual in every way, and watching him fight is just the most fun I can imagine," she says. "Between Vinny and his crowd, the way they interact… it's worth the price of admission just to see that."

O'Brien gives a standard fighter's statement about how he's excited for the fight and comes to win, but a brief remark hints that overall, he's as concerned with giving people their money's worth as he is with being victorious.

"I come to fight," he says. "So every time people come to see me and watch me fight, I can guarantee that I'm going to go out there and put on a show."

Ironically, the willingness to fight, to put on a spectacle, has been sorely lacking in boxing these days, and it's a refreshing statement, small as it may be, from a fighter who has yet to prove himself on the grand stage.

"You keep selling tickets like that and you'll be running the whole press conference one of these days," quips Duva.

O'Brien is laid back and amiable after the conference. He says that he feels "like a kid before Christmas" and that the only thing better than fight week is fight day.

"When I wake up, I got a big smile on my face," he says.

He's had a good camp, he says, and he can't wait to just get into the ring, and whatever nervousness he feels just feeds the internal fire that swirls in the stomach of a warrior before he goes into the fray.

"At the end of the day, you can talk about what you want to do in this sport, but I gotta take care of what I gotta take care of in the ring, and let the pieces fall where they may," he says.

One thing O'Brien doesn't want, however, is to let the fight go to the scorecards. He's got devastating one-punch power, and he means to use it. He doesn't want any part of a decision.

"Every time I fight, I go out there for a knockout," he says. "I'm not going out there to decision and put it in the judges' hands. I go out to knock out and end it early."

He's got a good feeling though, and he knows that sometimes, you just have to let things happen.

"The one thing I do know is 'Don't force anything.' In life, in boxing, whatever, you don't force anything, so I know that (the knockout) will come," he says.

Later on, we find out that his bout may not be televised on ESPN as previously advertised, but he's unfazed.

"If the cameras are on, the cameras aren't on, I don't really care," he says.

No matter what the network tells him, though, the cameras are always rolling. And the pressure, with the fight looming, is intensifying.

E-mail: janoski@northjersey.com

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