Bret Masters running in a 5 mile race on the day of the Miller Lite Fight Night II. Photo by Terri Blair.

Story and Photos by TERRI BLAIR
online editor

After any battle, the winning warrior reflects.

That’s exactly what Bret Masters, graduate student from Huntington, has done this week.  His battle was fought at the Veterans Memorial Field House Saturday night during Miller Lite Fight Night II.

Masters used precision punching and quick jabbing to outpoint "Irish" Pat Collins in four rounds in the welterweight division. The 35-year-old Huntington native received a 39-36 unanimous decision.

Masters looks on from the neutral corner while watching his opponent receive a standing eight count.

He fought, and he won.  But not without a price. 

His face shows the price he paid for this win.  His left eye is almost swollen shut and he has a one-inch gash under his chin that required medical treatment.

After the battle when the reflection began, Masters pondered, “I probably just go through and critique the whole fight.  I usually start with the bad.  I don’t know if people are always hardest on themselves than anybody else so you go through the bad things that you’ve done and then move on to the good things that you accomplished and what you want to continue to do.”

He said, “I wish looking back on things and how it went, I probably rushed in a little bit too much at the beginning.  There towards the end, my corner was telling me to just let him come to me.  He wasn’t really coming but I would circle him and just use my reach to my advantage and I could just hit him.  I’d circle him and then use my reach and then hit him and then finally I’d just jab in towards him.  You know if I was going to do this over again I’d use my reach from the beginning.”

When looking back on Saturday night’s fight, Jim Brown, owner of Seconds Outs Gym and Masters’ trainer, said, “[Masters] did real good.” 

“Masters needs to work on his defense and counter-punching more before his next fight which will probably be in November or December,” Brown said.

John Johnson, manager of Coach Boxing organization in Columbus, Ohio, said, “Bret’s a great young man.  He’s always going to put forth a great effort.  And he won [Saturday night].”

Masters is aware that the chance to box professionally was passing him by.  “It was now or never,” he said.

Masters works full-time as a Huntington firefighter in addition to his many other "jobs."

He works full-time as a firefighter, is the father of two sons whom he shares custody with his ex-wife, and is a full-time graduate student.

He knows he’s not a young boxer like Jeremy Brown of Barboursville, who is 21 years old and has at least 10 good years ahead of him.  Masters is 35 years old and is taking a chance that most people wouldn’t take.  He is risking his health, his job, his looks, and his time.  All for a dream.

“He’s living a dream right now that almost passed him by,” Johnson said.  “We’ll just let him fight and see how far it takes him.  If it never takes him any further than Huntington, it will still be a wonderful experience in his life that he will have been able to experience and share with his kids and grandkids.”

“If you take it from a standpoint of heart and desire and everything that you need to be a great fighter, Bret has all those things.” 

Dr. Allan Stern, Program Coordinator for Safety Tech said of his student, “Getting beaten up isn’t the safest thing to do because you’re putting yourself in potential danger but you shouldn’t not necessarily do something because of the danger if that’s what you want to do.”

“And who knows, he might make more money boxing than being a firefighter.”

As competitive as he is in the ring, Masters said, “Sometimes winning’s not everything but I guess when you get to a certain point that you want something really bad then you go after it.” 

That’s what boxing is - something that he wants really badly.

Masters lands a right against his opponent "Irish" Pat Collins.

Masters is not concerned about his sons wanting to fight.  “Everyone has different talents and interests, whatever that might be just kind of help them with that,” he said.  “You can’t really change somebody from what they are.  If everybody was the same this would be a boring place.” 

He doesn’t consider himself a health “freak” although he looks like someone who carefully watches what he eats.  He said he does avoid junk food and leans toward fruit for snacks but does admit to eating quite of bit of ice cream.

For Bret Masters, one battle is over, the wounds are healing, and the preparation begins when he goes back to the gym next week getting ready for his next battle against a new opponent that will take place in December.

Additional Photos.