(MAY 15) QUINCY, MASS – On June 10, 2023, on “Fight Night at the Vets Club” card, at the Veterans Club in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, lightweight Arika Skoog, 1-0-1 (1KO), returns to action to fight Sarah Click. The event is presented by Granite Chin Promotions.
The 29-year-old Skoog was a dynamic Olympic-style boxer who captured top honors at the 2020 USA Boxing Elite National Championship, as well as three times in the New England Golden Gloves Tournament. Fighting out of Boston, she trains at Nonantum Boxing Club in Newton, Massachusetts.
“When Arika’s trainer, Nico Gargaro, reached out to me about putting her on the show,” Granite Chin Promotions president Chris Traietti commented, “I was thrilled. All of Nico’s fighters come to fight, bring a crowd, and put on a show. I don’t expect things to be any different with Arika. She has a great amateur pedigree and comes from an awesome gym. I am honored to play a small part in her journey and hopefully become a champion.”
A 2020 USA Boxing Olympic Team alternate for Olympic bronze medalist Oshae Jones, Skoog spent most of 2020 traveling as a member of Team USA, after winning the USA Olympic Trials, resulting in a challenging transition period when she returned home to live.
She could have remained an amateur and taken a shot at making the Team USA Olympic Boxing Team and qualifying for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. “I came home and needed to get focused. I was almost 30 and needed to get my life on track. I needed to pay rent and loved boxing. It turned pro to balance my career and box. I needed to be more grounded for my future.”
Skoog, who faces Sarah “Switch Kick” Click (1-4-1, 0 KOs) in a six-round bout, earned her master’s degree in business from Holt International Business school in Cambridge (MA). She works for Wayfair, but soon hopes to join the Newton Fire Department having recently received her EMT license.
Arika never should have taken her second pro fight, last January in Boston versus pro-debuting Dupe Akinola, which ended in a four-round draw.
“Because of my resume (amateur background),” she explained, “it wasn’t easy finding an opponent. I ended up fighting a last-minute replacement nobody knew about. I didn’t know until between rounds, when the ring announcer said that she (Akinola) was 40-0 as an amateur (from Nigeria). I had a lot going on and didn’t want to take the fight. I’m not saying I didn’t want to fight a real fighter. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty and I was lucky to pull out a draw. If it had been a six-round fight, I would have won that fight, and that’s why I wanted this one (coming fight) to be six rounds.
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