{"id":11415,"date":"2011-06-10T10:26:11","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T14:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=11415"},"modified":"2011-06-10T10:27:27","modified_gmt":"2011-06-10T14:27:27","slug":"dat-be-dat-nguyen-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=11415","title":{"rendered":"Dat “Be Dat” Nguyen Speaks Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>World-renowned trainer Buddy McGirt did a double take the moment he first laid eyes on Dat \u201cBe Dat\u201d Nguyen during a sparring session with Arturo Gatti before Gatti\u2019s second fight with Micky Ward in late 2002. \u201cI saw this guy who could really hit and said he should be knocking everyone out,\u201d McGirt said. \u201cHe was in there doing his thing and I liked him. Someone said they were looking for a fighter so I gave them Dat\u2019s number. And that\u2019s how we met.\u201d For the past five years, McGirt has trained Nguyen of Vietnam, who will headline on a special edition of ShoBox: The New Generation on SHOWTIME\u00ae this Saturday LIVE at 10:35 p.m. ET\/PT (delayed on the West Coast).<\/p>\n

Nguyen (17-1, 6 KOs), a U.S. resident now living in Vero Beach, Fla., will face promising Luis Orlando \u201cOrlandito\u201d Del Valle (12-0,10 KOs), of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, in a 10-round featherweight fight at Roseland Ballroom in New York City. The card co-promoted by DiBella Entertainment and Gary Shaw Productions will include an 10-rounder that pits 2008 Puerto Rican Olympian, power-punching Jonathan Gonzalez (13-0, 13 KOs), of Rio Piedras, against Colombian Richard Gutierrez (26-6-1, 16 KOs), of Miami, in a junior middleweight match.<\/p>\n

A former kickboxer who was born in Bien Hoa about 45 minutes north of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Nguyen graduated from high school in 2001 and received a full scholarship to Northern Michigan University, home of the U.S. Olympic Center. He spent three years there studying computer information systems.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Nguyen has won his last six starts, all by decision, including an eight-round decision over Andres Ledesma in his last fight on Oct. 10, 2009.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s been 20 months since he\u2019s fought, McGirt doesn\u2019t believe in ring rust when you\u2019re young. \u201cThat\u2019s a load of crap,\u201d he said. \u201cAs long as you take care of yourself it doesn\u2019t matter how long it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nguyen answered six questions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There will be a lot of Puerto Rican fans in the crowd on Saturday rooting for your opponent. Are you concerned about that and do you hear the crowd when you\u2019re in the ring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that there will be a few Vietnamese fans there. I\u2019m sure their will. But it doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m always in for putting on a good show for whoever is there. It all depends. Usually when I fight I don\u2019t hear anything. If I concentrate and pay attention and try to hear them, I can sometimes hear them. When I\u2019m focused then I can\u2019t hear them.\u201d<\/p>\n

What has training with Buddy McGirt meant to you these past five years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBuddy has trained multiple world champions. With Buddy, he\u2019s very calm and when he\u2019s calm I\u2019m relaxed. He just has so much experience. I do whatever Buddy says to do. Buddy doesn\u2019t really take the credit for all the champions he\u2019s produced. He\u2019s very humble and doesn\u2019t talk about a lot of his other fighters. I\u2019m just happy to be part of his stable of fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think about the featherweight division right now and are you ready to call anyone out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c(Laughing) No. Not quite yet. There\u2019s a lot of talent in this division and I\u2019m happy to be part of it. There\u2019s (Yuriorkis) Gamboa and Chris John and all the other champions. (Juan Manuel) Lopez just lost but he has so much heart. Those are saome of the guys I would like to fight because they are so well known and well respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

You opened your own gym called Miracle Boxing Academy in Vero Beach. Would you like to stay in the fight game after your boxing career is over?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI love this art and I\u2019ve been doing it so long it just felt like the right thing to do. It\u2019s made me a better fighter. I\u2019m doing homework every day when I\u2019m training other people. It\u2019s been a real blessing for me. It\u2019s something I did to give myself the best opportunity to succeed as a fighter right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not many boxers get full college scholarships for boxing, but you did. How did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I received a full scholarship to Northern Michigan University where the U.S. Olympic Center is. I fought in the U.S. Nationals and the coaches like Al Mitchell recognized that I had some talent. I even beat Andre Dirrell in the 1999 National Junior Olympics. I left after three years to turn professional and am still a few credits short of getting my degree. It gave me a lot of confidence and opened up my eyes to a lot of different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

You are a self-described \u201ccomputer nerd\u201d and even operate your own website. What do you plan on doing with your computer education?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always worked on computers and I fix people\u2019s computers. I do everything on my website (www.miracleboxing.com). If I didn\u2019t get the boxing scholarship and wasn\u2019t so focused on making the Olympics then I would probably be a computer engineer right now. If I do something I go the whole nine yards so it\u2019s something I\u2019ve kind of put on backburner for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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World-renowned trainer Buddy McGirt did a double take the moment he first laid eyes on Dat \u201cBe Dat\u201d Nguyen during a sparring session with Arturo Gatti before Gatti\u2019s second fight with Micky Ward in late 2002. \u201cI saw this guy who could really hit and said he should be knocking everyone out,\u201d McGirt said. \u201cHe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,870,3648],"class_list":["post-11415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-buddy-mcgirt","tag-dat-nguyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11415"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}