GARDNER, Mass. – Joe Siciliano had dreams of becoming a contender as a young boxer, making hour-long drives after class at Leominster High to train with up-and-coming fighters in Lowell.
Eventually, life got in the way. The trip to the gym seemed a bit longer, and soon he was enrolled at a community college and applying for law enforcement jobs. He got one – as a prison guard, then as a police officer – and stopped boxing.
He put the gloves on again in his 30s, had success in the amateur ranks, and turned professional in 1999. He took on Peter “Hurricane” McNeeley, the Medfield native best known for his first-round loss to just-out-of-jail Mike Tyson.
It ended badly. McNeeley stopped Siciliano in the first round. That was seven years ago. Now Siciliano, a 49-year-old detective on the Leominster Police force, is working on another comeback.
On March 9, he’ll climb into the ring to challenge 400-pound Eric “Butterbean” Esch. With Siciliano pushing 300 pounds himself, the bout in Worcester promises to be more rock-’em sock-’em than sweet science.
“When I feel I can’t do it anymore, that’s when I’ll stop,” he said during a recent training session in Muscle Works gym in a converted chair-manufacturing plant in the north-central Massachusetts city of Gardner, near Siciliano’s home.
“To me, age is just a number,” he said. “If I feel good and I can still do it, then I want to do it.”
And if 60-year-old Sylvester Stallone can get back in the ring – as the fictional “Rocky Balboa” – then why not Siciliano versus the larger-than-life real character Butterbean?
“He’s never been knocked out,” he said of Butterbean. “I’d like to be the first one to do it.”
In boxing, the journeyman fighter with professional record of 4-3 expects to sell out the 2,500-seat Palladium in Worcester for a four-round fight.
He’s not alone among unlikely pugilists. Rick Rushton, a Worcester city councilor who turns 40 this year, is fighting on the same card as Siciliano. The former college basketball player first boxed in a local charity event five years ago, and caught the bug.
“There’s nobody that can save you. It tests your manhood every time you go in there,” said Rushton, a married father of two who also is running for mayor of Worcester to replace Tim Murray, the new lieutenant governor.
Siciliano expects to make about $4,000 to face a fighter with 57 knockouts, but he’s not in it for the money. He wants to be a trainer when he retires from the police department, and says high-profile fights will enhance his reputation with young boxers.
Of course, this is not how Siciliano would have written the original script.
Thirty years ago he was a 175-pound light heavyweight competing in the Golden Gloves amateur tournament. As a backup plan, he took classes in business and criminal justice at Mount Wachusset Community College, and then spent one year as a Department of Correction officer before joining the Leominster force.
He eventually returned to fight as an amateur in charity events and briefly tried to open his own boxing gym. The reason it failed is the reason so many people like him, friends say.
Along the way Siciliano developed a loyal following. His no-nonsense style was a crowd pleaser.
Butterbean, a baldheaded brawler who specializes in 4-round bouts, has a pro record of 76-7-4. He’ll earn $20,000, according to Jimbo Isperduli, Siciliano’s manager.
“I don’t do it for money,” Siciliano said. “That doesn’t motivate me at all. It’s a challenge, to see how far I can go.”
AP-ES-02-10-07 1246EST
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