Mike SciaccaJimmy Nolan is used to playing...

Mike Sciacca

Jimmy Nolan is used to playing many roles in sports -- football

player, head coach, business owner and trainer.

On Feb. 16, he’ll try on an entirely new role when he has his

first “Rocky-esque” experience.

Nolan, 31, will make his pro boxing debut as he takes on Keith

Kinnunen of Oklahoma City in a light middleweight fight that is part

of a solid bout card on the opening night of the 21st season of

boxing at the Irvine Marriott’s “Battle of the Ballroom.”

Kinnunen is 1-1 as a pro.

Nolan has no boxing experience, other than working out on occasion

in the past year with well-respected professional boxing trainer

Frank Rivera.

Rivera trains 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing champion Jose Navarro.

While those two were returning from the World Bantamweight

Championships in Tokyo in December, Nolan had just finished up his

first year as head football coach at Laguna Beach High.

“I have made a big speech to the boys, about how I am constantly

pushing them so hard in running and lifting weights, because of the

‘David versus Goliath’ league we are in, and when I had this

opportunity to fight, with absolutely no boxing background, and only

one month to learn how to box and get ready to have a pro fight

against a guy with a long amateur background who knocked his last

opponent out in the second round, it reminded me of what my kids are

going through,” Nolan said.

Rivera, a former amateur boxer from East Los Angeles, said he and

Nolan have been in “serious” training mode for the past three weeks.

He got to know Nolan when he was head coach at Cantwell-Sacred

Heart of Mary High.

Rivera’s son played for Nolan at the Montebello school, and Nolan,

the owner of Speedkills, a speed and agility training school where he

trains nearly 500 southland athletes, went on to train Navarro and

became part of his “corner” during his fights.

“Jimmy’s always liked the idea of learning to fight,” Rivera said.

“I mean, this is a guy who is doing this at a later age. Not that

it’s uncommon, but he’s getting a late start.

“But what Jimmy has to offer is a lot of drive, a lot of moxie.”

Nolan works on his boxing footwork with Rivera, as well as different

punching combinations and defensive strategies.

“Sometimes Frank will punch me in the face to see if I can handle

a hit,” Nolan said. “That’s always nice of him, but that’s probably

one of the only good things I can do so far, take a hard punch to my

face.”

Nolan trains at a small gym in Laguna Beach, “No Limits” in Irvine

and recently started sparring at the Westminster Boxing Gym.

“I am getting a taste of what it like to be in the ring,” he said.

“Frank has me sparring a Golden Gloves champ turned pro, and an

Olympian from Mexico.” Nolan, who played football at Mater Dei and

the University of Utah, is six-feet and weighs in at 160.

The weight for the fight is set at 156 pounds.

“Originally, we were aiming for middleweight of 160 pounds,

because my normal body weight is about 175,” Nolan said. “Boxers need

to be quick and agile without a lot of muscle bulk to slow them down.

Frank said I was carrying too much muscle, so he made me stop lifting

weights.

“He called from Japan right before Christmas and told me to start

eating right and stop lifting. Since Christmas, I have lost almost 15

pounds and am now around 160 pounds. It is not good to work out at

the weight you fight at. Normally, a boxer will starve himself and

dry out a few days before the fight to make the absolute lowest

weight possible. So, now, we are supposed to fight at light

middleweight, which will be about 156 pounds.”

Generally, boxers run to increase stamina, but because of an

Achilles rupture that has crippled Nolan to where he can’t run, he

has to stay on his right heel and can’t lift to his toes because

there is not a full Achilles connection and/or functioning right calf

muscle.

That injury has left Nolan with an unorthodox boxing style.

“Normally, a boxer is on his toes,” he said. “I am on my left toes

and right heel. My leg is totally atrophied after my Achilles

surgery, followed by a couple months in a wheel chair and then

crutches for two months. My legs look like those of a flamingo.

I’m trying to build muscle by climbing the Laguna Beach football

stadium stairs to get my boxing stamina, instead of doing the

running.”

That type of drive is what has impressed Rivera.

Still, he said he tries to “discourage” amateurs early, so they

“don’t turn pro.”

“But I can’t shake Jimmy,” Rivera said. “He’s really into this.”

Nolan, who recently accepted a professional head football coach

job in Italy -- he’ll leave three days after his fight and be gone

for three months, before returning for spring football at Laguna

Beach -- said that how things turn out on Feb. 16 will determine his

boxing future.

“If it were up to my family, it would be a one-time deal,” he said

of his boxing debut. “They don’t want me to get hurt. If my body

allows me to keep doing this and if I am any good at it, I would like

to do it again.”