Saved by the bell
Late-blooming boxer lands ticket to Beijing
A few people close to Dan O'Connor have trouble pinpointing the root of his intense ambition, the quality that helped him win a state high school wrestling title and fueled his meteoric rise in the boxing world in just four years.
His father has an answer, though. Laughing, Tom O'Connor chalked up his son's drive to "Irish stubbornness."
Although boxing is a sport in which the elite train at increasingly earlier ages, the Framingham native didn't take up the sweet science seriously until a year after high school, in 2004, when he was 19 years old. Yet this week, he is in Beijing as an alternate in the 141-pound weight class for the Summer Olympics.
O'Connor, 23, is one of three athletes from area communities who will be wearing Team USA across their chests in China, where he will join triathlete Jarrod Shoemaker of Sudbury and sailor Stu McNay of Lincoln. In addition, 2000 Brandeis University graduate Tim Morehouse will compete in fencing, in the epee discipline.
"I'm definitely relieved," O'Connor said in a phone interview from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. "I'm at the highest level of sports in the world, from all the hard work that I did, so I can't complain."
And in the vernacular of his home state, he added, "I'm wicked happy."
Although O'Connor may not set foot in a ring during the Games, back home he's already come a long way.
The only child of an accountant and a graveyard-shift electrician at the state prison in Norfolk, O'Connor grew up in a house at the end of Framingham's Colby Avenue. With an aunt living two houses down, and grandparents across the street, O'Connor was raised "by the neighborhood," as his mother, Eileen Neas, puts it. Neas often sent her son across the street to be with his grandfather, Henry Neas, a World War II veteran and boxing fan. The boy wanted to watch cartoons, but his grandfather would have none of it. Often, Eileen would find the two sitting in the same chair, eyes glued to the television set, watching old boxing tapes.
Henry Neas passed away in 1994, when O'Connor was 9, but the seed had been planted. Several years later, O'Connor started working out with Pablo Ramos, a trainer at the Danforth Gym in Framingham. To this day, the young fighter calls Ramos "a grandfather."
The first sign of O'Connor's passion came as a freshman at Framingham High, when he decided to go out for the wrestling team. He had dabbled in soccer, baseball, and football, but was immediately hooked by wrestling.
As a sophomore, in just his second year of competition, he took down Newton North's Dylan Ahearn for the Division 1 state title in the 119-pound class.
"He was just so talented, you wouldn't have to teach him," said Framingham High's head wrestling coach, Jon Kanavich, an assistant for the Flyers at the time. "He's incredibly focused when it comes to a one-on-one situation."
That same drive didn't replicate in the classroom, though. O'Connor struggled to keep his grades up to remain eligible for wrestling through his junior and senior years. He was dismissed from the team halfway through his senior year for academic issues, and ended up finishing at the Framingham Alternative School. He graduated from the school in 2003, and spent one month at Mass. Bay Community College before leaving.
And so, he returned to the gym. Without a consistent full-time job, he was able to submerge himself in the sport, traveling to Hudson and the 401 Club in Providence. Sometimes, Eileen would wake in the middle of the night to find her son alone in the middle of the street, shadow boxing.
In 2004, he performed in his first amateur fight, and has since risen quickly through the ranks. Last August, with the opportunity to fight in Beijing at stake, he earned a bronze medal in the light-welterweight (141 pound) division at the US Olympic Trials in Houston.
Third place meant he would not be traveling to China. But a month later, while on vacation at Walt Disney World, O'Connor was informed he would take silver medalist Danny Garcia's place as an alternate, behind Javier Molina.
Most of the last year has been spent traveling all over the country and overseas, including training at the US Olympic facility in Colorado, and boxing in exhibition tournaments in the Dominican Republic and Russia.
In March, he beat Emmanuel Taylor on points, 9-7, for the light welterweight title at the US Future Stars tournament in Colorado Springs. In six matches, he allowed just 22 points, and won all but one. Two months later, O'Connor took the welterweight title at the National Golden Gloves tournament in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Way back, watching the fights on television in his grandfather's living room, O'Connor became a big fan of Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker, who became a world champ in four weight divisions after winning a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. Like Whitaker, O'Connor is a southpaw known for his defense. But in the last year, training at the 401 Club under John Andrade and David Keefe, he has developed power in addition to a sound defense.
"A year ago, his defense was not sound technique, just being a natural talent on his feet," Keefe said. "He was awkward, would move in funny ways. Now he's making people miss because his technique is tight. He'll take a punch off the gloves, whereas before he'd move out of the way."
The Providence gym is also sending Demetrious Andrade to Beijing, where he will fight in the 152-pound class.
How powerful are O'Connor's punches? Just ask Tim Ramos, the young nephew of Pablo, who spars with O'Connor at Danforth.
"He's rang my bell a lot of times," Ramos said. "I don't know what to compare it to . . . a bat? He hits pretty hard, though."
As expected, the suitors have been calling. Fight promoters have inquired, and O'Connor has plans to turn pro after the Beijing Games.
"I think one day he could be a world champion," said Carlos Cancel, a friend of Dan's since their days at the alternative school and himself a former Police Athletic League national champion. "He's one of the hardest workers I've ever seen."
Brendan Hall can be reached at bhall59@hotmail.com. 
