Sixteen-year-old Riverhead boxer wins first regional tournament championship

A young boxer from Riverhead is now an amateur boxing champion, after winning in a regional tournament earlier this month at the New York Fight Club in Brooklyn.

Sixteen-year-old Oleksiy Bodnariuk, a native of Ukraine who settled in Riverhead with his family after Russia invaded his homeland, won the USA Boxing Metro junior division 165-pound open class tournament on Nov. 2. The USA Boxing Metro is the governing body for amateur boxing competitions in New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley region.

Bodnariuk was one of two boxers to enter the competition class, which is for competitors 15 and 16 years old. He won his match in a unanimous decision from the competition’s judges, his trainer at Hill Street Boxing in Riverhead, Justin Mattera, said. 

The open class tournament is for experienced fighters — those with at least 10 matches of experience. Although Bodnariuk never boxed before coming to the U.S., and had only seven fights before the tournament, he was required to enter the open class tournament because fights outside the U.S. cannot be verified by the boxing organization. Mattera had Bodnariuk train with more experienced fighters since the young boxer started competing roughly one year ago. 

“I felt that he had a good chance of winning it versus the rest of the competition. I feel like Oleksiy has paid his dues. He’s been sparring against a high level of opposition for a while now and he’s held his own, and I felt that this was going to be his time,” Mattera said.

Six days after winning his championship belt, Bodnariuk won a second belt during a “belt show” match in New Jersey. His record is currently seven wins, two losses.

Bodnariuk’s win makes Mattera proud. There is a lot of trust in their relationship as fighter and coach, he said.

“Oleksiy hasn’t had an easy transition to this country… I think that he has found himself in our gym in Riverhead and I’m just happy for him and I’m proud,” Mattera said. “And he’s only 16 years old. I think we have a lot more to accomplish and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.”

Both the trainer and his student didn’t dwell too long on the championship victory; both quickly set their sights on future fights.

“I was happy with the victory in the first fight after a long break,” Bodnariuk said in a text. “but I wanted to get back to training and preparing for the next fight as soon as possible.”