{"id":14553,"date":"2012-08-08T23:05:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-09T03:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14553"},"modified":"2012-08-10T19:58:07","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T23:58:07","slug":"ringside-at-gillette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14553","title":{"rendered":"Ringside at Gillette"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Revolution defender Darrius Barnes stares down boxer Danny O’Connor outside Gillette Stadium. (Photo: Jason Dalrymple\/New England Revolution)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Last Saturday Gillette Stadium played host to a doubleheader featuring a 3-1 victory by Italy\u2019s AC Milan over Honduran club CD Olimpia in an international friendly and a New England Revolution 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City in MLS action. Such events \u2013 international friendlies paired with MLS games \u2013 are a fairly regular summer occurrence in the U.S.<\/p>\n

This Sunday\u2019s doubleheader is a bit more unique. Following the Revs match vs. the Montreal Impact at 7 p.m. will be a three-fight boxing card headlined by Framingham boxer \u201cIrish\u201d Danny O\u2019Connor (17-1, 5 KOs) facing Pawtucket, Rhode Island’s Eddie Soto (12-4, 4 KOs). The event will mark the first time Gillette Stadium has ever hosted a boxing match.<\/p>\n

Having O\u2019Connor headline the match is fitting. The 27-year-old two-time national amateur champion and 2008 US Olympic Boxing Team alternate is a longtime fan of the Revolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a Revolution fan and since the second I\u2019ve met the organization \u2013 I mean, in my mind \u2013 they are really special,\u201d said O\u2019Connor at halftime of Saturday\u2019s Revolution match. \u201cNone of this would\u2019ve happened if it wasn\u2019t for them, so I need to first of all thank of all them. All players, staff, everybody has gone out of their way to make this happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s great to be able to do a cross promotion,\u201d he added. \u201cI think a lot of the fans that come to soccer are fight fans and vice versa\u2026 I\u2019m just really excited to be part of the first boxing match ever in Gillette history. Regardless of what happens, when my son\u2019s older I can tell that. It\u2019s a special thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor\u2019s ties to Massachusetts are shared by his manager, Ken Casey, front man of the popular Boston-based punk rock group Dropkick Murphys. In May, O\u2019Connor sold out the House of Blues Boston showcasing his popularity in area.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s hoping Sunday\u2019s doubleheader will help introduce some of his fans to soccer, while also getting some of the Revolution supporters to start following him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember back in the days when [the Revs] had Alexi Lalas\u2026 way back,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. \u201cI think it\u2019s great the more popularity the team gets. I was hanging out with the supporters at the tailgate [on Saturday]. They\u2019re great. To see the type of fans like that that support a club, it really is an amazing thing\u2026 Hopefully with the cross-promotion some of my fans can now come and support the Revs and the Revs can support me. I\u2019ve had a lot of feedback from people being like \u2018I\u2019m so excited, I\u2019ve never been to a soccer game\u2019 and some of them are going to come here and fall in love with the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While O\u2019Connor has been impressed with the fans, he has also been impressed with the Revolution players and how they interact with the team\u2019s supporters \u2013 something he also prides himself on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI interact with a lot of [the Revolution players] and I see how they are,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. \u201cThey respond to their fans and they talk to their fans on Twitter. I really like that. They are accessible to everyone and they see what the fans want and their needs. I think there are a lot of similarities between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor recently attended a Revs practice where he got the chance to spend time with some of the players and while he\u2019s not sure any of them are ready to step into the ring, defender Darrius Barnes impressed him with his stare down.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarnes loves the stare down,\u201d said O\u2019Connor at Saturday\u2019s Revolution match. \u201cHe loves it. I was hoping because he was practicing [right in front of me], warming up \u2013 I know they\u2019re focused \u2013 but I was hoping he would look at me because we already did two or three stare downs together me and him. I don\u2019t know if he could make it in boxing, but he\u2019s excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor might not get the chance at another stare down with Barnes on Sunday, but fans at Gillette Stadium will have a unique opportunity to see both in action as Barnes and the Revs face Montreal in Foxboro for the first time and O\u2019Connor battles Soto in the stadium\u2019s first ever boxing match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revs fan Danny O\u2019Connor headlines soccer\/boxing doubleheader at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/oconnerbarnesfeature.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14553"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14553"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14634,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14553\/revisions\/14634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}