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Above: Jackie Kallen cheers the announcement that
Scotty Buck has beaten Levi Gray.

Below: Buck eyes Gray.

40

his weight class go undefeated," Leon
said.
Once Scotty decided to resume his
boxing career, Ms. Kallen knew what
she had to do — put him back into the
ring with Cantu.
"I thought the best way for Scotty to
regain his confidence was to beat Can-
tu decisively," Ms. Kallen said. "I real-
ized setting up that match could
backfire, but I wanted to
get Scotty back on
track."
Scotty beat Cantu in
the rematch, held at the
Palace in December. As
a matter of fact, he
knocked him out in the
second round.
"It's no secret that
Scotty has had his prob-
lems, and I've promised
his family I'll keep him
going in the right direc-
tion. That's why the sec-
ond Cantu match was so
important," Ms. Kallen
said.
"If Scotty had quit
boxing for good and gone
back to the streets, his
story wouldn't have had

a happy ending. It would have been a
real waste of potential.
`These days, Scotty is always the first
guy in the gym and you can see him im-
proving as a boxer all the time.
"He's matured as a person, too. He
isn't a kid anymore — he's a man, and
he's taking his boxing seriously because
this is the career he has chosen."
Scotty trains six days a week. His
routine usually includes a 3-to-4-mile
run in the morning, three hours of work
at the Galaxy gym in Redford in the af-
ternoon and another two hours of ex-
ercise in the evening at a West
Bloomfield Township health club.
At this point in Scotty's career, box-
ing isn't a lucrative profession because
he's still considered an apprentice.
Typically, he earns $100 per sched-
uled round each fight with 10 percent
going to his trainer. He won't compen-
sate Ms. Kallen for her managerial ser-
vices until he starts getting some bigger
paydays.
Scotty can't say enough about Ms.
Kallen and his trainer for the past six
months, Jessie Paul.
"Jackie's great. She's like a mother
to me. There's nobody better," Scotty
said. "I really appreciate the fact that
she has so much confidence in me. I re-

'

alize now that God has given me a gift,
and I should take advantage of it. I want
to be a champion.
"Jessie has been great for me, too. I've
had two knockouts and a unanimous
decision in three bouts since I started
working with him."
Scotty's next match is expected to
take place later this month at the
Palace.
He's hoping for a better performance
after what he called a "fair" outing in
his win over Gray, who weighed in at
132 pounds but probably was closer to
140 by bell time. Scotty weighed 127,
one below the featherweight limit.
Because Gray was a last-minute re-
placement, he was allowed to fight at a
higher weight.
"The bottom line is I won, and that's
all that counts," said Scotty, whose long,
white fringed boxing trunks include a
Star of David on his left leg. "You can't
knock out your opponents all the time."
Former champion James Toney, who
also is a member of the Galaxy Boxing
team, was at ringside offering encour-
agement to Scotty during his victory
over Gray. The two have become good
fi iends and Scotty calls Toney his box-
ing inspiration. ❑