Front Street’s Barnes Put On Miles For Tonight’s Fight

Some say that the most important factor of a boxing match is the work you put in during training camp. If this theory holds true for Jimmy “The Bull” Barnes then tonight’s fight in Iowa should end successfully for the Pine City native. Barnes has traveled literally thousands of miles to prepare, driving an incredible 350 miles per day.

A typical morning begins with a trip from home in Pine City, MN down to the cities where he trains with Daleco James at Wurk Gym in Hopkins. Then Barnes travels back up north to the Front Street Gym in Barnum. Like most good training camps, some days are spent with a focus on strength and conditioning while others feature sparring based action either at Wurk, or at other area gyms where Barnes has been fortunate enough to train with boxers like Joey Abell, Colton Warner, Mengistu Zarzar, Terrence Walker and more. He also travels to Bemidji to train with head boxing coach Joe Lorenzi.

“I’ve had a lot of good people in my corner like Ray Nelson, Mike Mckean, Mark and Dakota Goed. I was talking to Joe Lorenzi while getting his wisdom on starting a gym and asked him if he knew of anybody looking to train a pro. He says hmm, I think I know a guy. Well it turned out to be him. We started working together and just kind of meshed from there. Tuesdays and Thursdays I head down to Lykes and get to work with Joey Abell and Colton Warner. It’s a really good heavyweight camp. I feel like it’s the best that I could possibly get. Joey’s kind of taken me under his wing and given me great pointers, he’s a beast. You can learn a lot by getting your butt kicked (laughing)!”

Barnes is the director of operations and head coach at the Front Street Training Center in Barnum, MN which opened it’s doors in August of 2020. Following his work in the cities, he says it’s time to make the trip back up to Front Street for classes which range from weight transformation boot camps to training the amateur boxing competition team. Barnes has two boxers currently preparing for the 2021 Minnesota State Silver Gloves tournament taking place on July 24th in Bemidji. Willow “Wonder Woman” Strangeland and Cody Marohn who Barnes says have been working hard to give their best in Bemidji. Strangeland recently boxed well against the #1 rated female in the Nation (16-1 record) in only her second fight after boxing for six months.

“I originally started the gym when Covid shut things down, I didn’t want to be inactive. I ended up opening it up to the community because I wanted to give back. I set super cheap rates and let people come in. There are a lot of new faces who have never done boxing before and some that have. We have about three active fighters right now.”

Tonight’s opponent opposite Barnes is South Dakota’s Michael Birthmark (2-11). The two are scheduled to meet in a four round heavyweight bout although Barnes doesn’t plan on a final bell needing to be rung.

“I’m expecting him to come and fight. Anybody that steps into that ring is a badass in my book. It sounds like he’s more of a working man and not so much of a training guy. But this is the heavyweight division and none of that matters. You can get caught by anything. He’s a journeyman and has a lot more fights that I do. With that said, I expect him to come to fight and I think I’m going to lay him out.”

– Jimmy Barnes

Fight fans can stream the fight on www.Fite.tv or they can get tickets on www.15throundboxing.com. The action is set to begin between 6:30 and 7:30 PM. Promoter Evangelos Giovanis of 15th round Boxing Promotions says they expect a sell out.

“Our main event is Ron “Diablo” Cruz who is a current WBC Latino Champ with a record of 17-1, 12 KO’s” said Giovanis. “We added a co-main event with Serhii Bohachuk 18-1, 18KOs who is a former WBC Continental Champ and is with Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions. Andre “The Little Giant” Marquez who is our fighter out of Sioux Falls will also fight and he is 9-2, 6KO’s.”

– Evangelos Giovanis

Danyelle Williams of Minnesota was scheduled to box on the show but pulled out for personal reasons last Thursday. Taking his place is Valhalla Combat heavyweight Dennys Reyes who makes his pro debut. Reyes was 2-0 as an amateur with a KO win over mixed martial artist Keefer Bender in his last match.