Hawk felt slightly grounded while fighting at 200 pounds

Shawn Hawk stood in the middle of his curtained cubicle backstage at Northern Quest Casino, trying to explain himself.

The Coeur d’Alene cruiserweight boxer had just made his professional television debut, scoring a unanimous decision over Spokane’s Paul Purcell during ESPN2’s live “Tuesday Night Fights” telecast from Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights.

“No, Mom,” he tried to say three times. “Mom, I was fighting at 200 pounds.”

Hawk has never fought at 200 pounds – and would never intentionally enter the ring with that much weight. But the bout was offered at the last minute – and the resulting win left him 7-0 with five knockouts as a pro.

Hawk, who turned 21 last week, was training for a June 16 fight and hitting the training table as hard as he’d been hitting the heavy bag.

“Mom,” he complained, “the camera adds 10 pounds, you know that.”

Hawk vowed he would never again fight as heavy as he fought Tuesday.

“I could feel it in my legs, especially while was trying to chase (Purcell) around the ring,” he said. “I wasn’t as quick.

“I would rather fight at 175 if I could, but (manager) Moe (Smith) doesn’t want me to. I think I can fight at 175 and still have power.”

The turnaround from being an undercard bout well after the television cameras were turned off to prime time was a last-minute development.

“They told me about it (Monday),” Hawk said. “I’d fought here on these cards before, so they knew me here.”

Steve Christilaw