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The night of June 24 at the Target Center was a night for boxing. Though Matt Vanda of St. Paul was headlining, there were other exciting fights to be had. One belonged to home grown star Tony Grygelko. In the biggest fight of his life, he not only held his own, but excelled on all accounts. In front of an announced crowd of 6,950 screaming fans, Grygelko defeated Dallas Jensen in two rounds, improving his professional record to 6-1.

With the victory in hand, Grygelko fully arrived into the professional world of boxing. Though it was his seventh professional fight, this one was just a little different; it was a pay-per-view at one of the biggest sports venues in the upper-Midwest.

When asked if he got a little nervous beforehand, he replied, “The couple of days before the fight I was a little bit, but, all I can control is to give it all I’ve got. Preparing is the most important part and whatever happens after that, happens.” The game plan was to come out strong in the first round and get a few solid shots in so the opponent knew what he was up against.

It didn’t quite go as well as it could have. “I was taking more hits than I should have,” he said, “but round one still ended decently.” At the end of the round his trainer reminded him, “Don’t worry about boxing, just go out there and fight.” Doing exactly that, Grygelko responded by knocking out Jensen 1:37 into the second round. It was a Technical Knockout, meaning the ref intervened and decided Tony’s opponent wasn’t able to fight. Normally fights go six rounds, each round lasting three minutes, so this was a quick fight. Grygelko didn’t even fight in his weight class of 147. Because his original challenger didn’t show, he was forced to fight one class up, a huge difference in the boxing world. Obviously, it was quite an accomplishment in his career.

Growing up in Stacy, Grygelko’s childhood dream was to be a professional boxer. He attended North Branch High School where he wrestled. After graduating in 1995, he took his career as a wrestler to Augsburg College, where he competed for three years. Though he was a good wrestler, he wanted to box. Meeting up with another boxer from North Branch, he began traveling to Coon Rapids to a non-profit gym that trained amateur and some professional boxers. There, he met his trainer, Ron Lyke, and began his career.

After five years of boxing at the amateur level, Grygelko decided to give professional boxing a try and left a 63-11 record and a lot of memories behind.

As a pro, he didn’t get in a whole lot of fights, but made the best of the ones he was in. He lost only once, boxing two weight classes up in a close fight. Now a pro for just over a year, he finally got his chance to shine and is reaping the benefits. Offers to fight are starting to roll in and the director of the gym has talked about headlining him for a match. The days of training for hours at a time are definitely starting to pay off.

Considering the normal boxing career, this is good. At age 28, you’d be just getting started in most careers, but in boxing, the end is not too far away. “Boxing isn’t the kind of sport that you can do until you’re 45,” Grygelko explained. I think I’ll give it three more years and just see how far it takes me.”

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