"Bobcat" Ben Hankins is back on the boxing trail, fighting in his second season at Thursday Night at the Fights in Anchorage.
Weighing in at 205 pounds, Hankins evened his record at 1-1 with a win on Jan. 2 in a "main event" rematch against the "Samoan Corrupter" Vatau Alenepi, who weighed 220 at fight time.
Hankins won the match by a split decision, giving him a measure of revenge for a loss by split decision on Dec. 19.
"I was pretty disappointed (with the first decision)," Hankins said. "So getting the win in the rematch felt pretty good."
Hankins is 8-2 since he started boxing last season. Tonight he is scheduled to fight once again. On Jan. 16, he will face the "Samoan Hammer," Seko Iloilo, a 205-pounder who challenged Hankins after the Jan. 2 bout. A southpaw, Iloilo has a 17-3 record, Hankins said.
Shootout on tap
The Owen Marine/Arctic Cat End of the Road Shootout, hosted by the Homer High School junior varsity basketball teams, gets under way at 3:30 p.m. Thursday with the Nikiski girls versus Soldotna junior varsity.
The Mariners will be joined in the three-day tourney by boys and girls teams from Homer Christian School, Anchorage Christian School, Nikiski, Soldotna (JV) and Kenai (JV).
Skate-a-thon slated
The Homer Hockey Association Mites and Mighty Mites will hold their annual skate-a-thon on Jan. 18 from 1:30-3 p.m. at the hockey rink behind Homer Middle School.
The fund-raiser will help the Homer Hockey Association to pay upkeep -- lighting, heat in the warming hut and other operating costs -- for the outdoor rink.
Any leftover money will help fund the club's effort to establish a refrigerated rink in Homer, something that proponents say will help keep Homer's fledgling youth program on equal footing with others in the state.
"The skate-a-thon is an educational opportunity for the community," said Mite coach Scott Simmons. "It's like -- 'Hey we've still got a great group of young kids here that want to skate."
The concept of the skate-a-thon is simple -- kids from the two age-group divisions will skate as many laps as they can in an hour. Contributions can be made in a straight sum, rather than on a per-lap basis.
For more information on the event and how to pledge, call Julie Zundel at 235-1962.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
