Fighter 'Goes to Camp' Before Second Pro Fight

“Going to camp” is an old-school boxing term — it means closely monitored training away from a boxer’s home so he’ll have fewer distractions before a big fight.

Paul Settepani, 23, is going to camp. He’s training in Crystal Lake for his second professional fight. The 125-pound fighter is moving in with his mother in McHenry for about a month. Today he will start training “full-time” at .

He doesn’t know yet whom he will be fighting Aug. 19 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN. He wants to get in good enough condition so he’ll be ready for anybody.

Settepani said he is going to miss his 2-year-old son, Max, and girlfriend, Tracy. They will be more than an hour’s drive away, at their home in Rockford.

He said there is no time for domesticity. He wants to concentrate on the task at hand.

He’ll run five to seven miles and do weight training before breakfast.

After that, he’ll head to and hit the heavy bag and the speed bag and jump rope. After lunch he’ll spar eight rounds. He’s training for a four-rounder.

When training for his first fight he commuted between Crystal Lake and his home in Rockford, which cut into gym time. 

Going to camp shows the same kind of self-discipline Settepani used to turn his life around.

After dropping out of Huntley High School when he was 16 to “smoke weed and get into trouble,” Settepani said he slowly realized he was making a mistake.

“One day I kind of grew up. I just thought to myself I am wasting the talents God has given me,” Settepani said. “That’s when I started to get serious about it and soon (boxing) became a roaring flame of passion.”

Settepani said that as a kid, he had approached his parents with plans of becoming a boxer. They told him boxing was too dangerous and enrolled him in a karate class.

He would box with friends in the basement of his parents’ Lake in the Hills home. He and his friend, Nick, used to watch old videos of Mike Tyson, Willie Pep, Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones “to learn the beauty and art of boxing.”

It wasn’t until 2007, when he met Doug Mango, head coach of , that he realized he had a future in the sport. Under Mango’s tutelage, he won a Chicago Golden Gloves championship in 2009 and finished with a 16-5 amateur record.

He wanted more experience by way of more amateur bouts, but turned pro for the money after Max was born.

In his pro debut in April, Settepani knocked out Aaron Lucky of Anderson, Ind., in the first round. Lucky’s record fell to 0-2. 

“Paulie is a devastating puncher,” said Bobby Hitz, fight promoter. “He’s got the real stuff. He’s a phenom. He’s a super featherweight that stands 6-foot-1. Usually those guys are about 5-foot-2. He’s got the tools to go all the way.”

Also on the card Aug. 19 will be Mango Boxing Club-mate , winner of this year’s Chicago Golden Glove super-heavyweight title belt. This is to be Correa’s first professional fight, Mango said.

The main event of the evening is former WBC Lightweight Champion David Diaz (36-3-1, 17 KOs). He’ll be taking on Philadelphia’s Henry Lundy (20-1-1, 10 KOs).

By way of TKO, Diaz lost to Manny Pacquiao in 2008. Diaz has had five fights in the last four years, his last a 10-round decision over Robert Frankel. 

Hitz said the venue holds about 2,000 and he’s expecting a sellout.