‘This was for her’: how boxing brought a mother and son back from the brink

Reese and Desiree Mistretta are the first mother-son pair to win New York’s prestigious Golden Gloves, but their deeper bond is how boxing helped them survive life’s hardest hitsReese Mistretta wasn’t thinking about history after he climbed through the ropes on Saturday night. He was thinking about his legs, which felt like cement. About his lungs, which wouldn’t quite fill. And about the man across from him: Ali Conde, a sinewy technician from El Maestro’s Gym in the Bronx who has made his mark by waiting for opponents to strike first, then exploiting their openings.Two nights earlier, Mistretta had narrowly beaten Conde under the lights of Madison Square Garden in the elite 176lb final of the Ring Masters Championships, New York’s premier amateur boxing competition. But the finals are double elimination. If Mistretta wanted to bring home the title, he’d have to beat Conde a second time at a sweaty gym in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. “He definitely came back, re-corrected, he put it on me a little bit more,” Mistretta said. “So I had to be a little busier, not get countered at the same time. He’s a good counterpuncher.” Continue reading...