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Answering the bell
Mike Dunn likes being in control and figuring things out. The Leesburg resident, a cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, is a soldier as well as a scientist. But he derives no greater pleasure from his efforts than to master the sweetest science of all.
"There's so much that goes into boxing," Dunn says. "Being able to judge your own reach, your opponent's reach, how far you're going to punch, what your next punch is, how you're going to move."
Dunn's penchant for analysis combines with his toughness to form a 20-year-old with a firm grasp on his life's direction. He knows what he's doing, whether laboring over a final in discrete mathematics or trading punches in the Wing Open finals.
Tall with sinewy arms, Dunn will soon enter his third year in the ring for the Air Force Falcons, fighting in the 147-pound weight class. He is a power puncher, using his long reach to keep his distance and deliver what he calls "a mean right hook."
The Falcons are college boxing's premier program, winning 18 national titles since 1980 with 10 runner-up trophies. Last year was somewhat disappointing for Air Force, as it placed third behind rivals Army and Navy.
This season, Dunn has something to say about that.
Twice he has made the finals of the school's prestigious Wing Open, a heavily attended and televised event pitting the Academy's top boxers against each other to determine who goes on to the National Collegiate Boxing Association championships.
"Our coach [Eddie Weichers] considers it bigger than the national finals," Dunn says.
Twice Dunn has narrowly lost in the Wing Open finals by split decision to Nate Liptak. But Liptak, two years Dunn's senior, has graduated, and Dunn's prognosis for the coming year is good.
"This year I feel a lot more confident in the ring, throwing better, bigger combinations, moving around," he says. "It opens up for me."
Dunn has his brother to thank for his boxing acumen and his grandfather to thank for his inner strength.
New life at Academy
Born in the Denver suburbs, Dunn quickly developed a passion for snowboarding and skiing and a fierce admiration for his grandfather, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, doing time in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
"He's the strongest man I've ever known," Dunn said.
Dunn's older brother, James, was similarly inspired by their grandfather and chose to attend the Air Force Academy. While there, he earned a berth on the Falcons' boxing team, fighting bouts at the college level while younger brother Mike was flourishing as a lacrosse star for Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington.
Mike Dunn received lacrosse interest several Division I programs, but he followed in his brother's footsteps to the Air Force Academy, and earning one of about 1,200 freshman spots out of about 40,000 applicants.
"You don't really know what you're getting into," Dunn says of the academy's strict, regimented lifestyle. "But you kind of jump in feet-first and you enter into a whole different society. I've grown to love it."
He tried out for the Falcons' lacrosse squad, ending up as the team's final cut. That's when James Dunn, then a senior and an intramural coach, pulled him into the ring.
Brothers in arms
Dunn already knew he could box. He knew it from sparring with his brother and from impromptu bouts with acquaintances at school.
And he knew it from the Academy's boxing course, mandatory for every male freshman cadet and a proving ground for the varsity boxing program, which does not recruit talent but develops its own.
"I put one kid in the hospital. I knocked out another kid with three punches. Nobody beat me," he says matter-of-factly. "I had the highest grade in the class."
Catching Weichers' eye, Dunn assumed a spot in the 147-pound class as a challenger to Liptak, one of the nation's top college boxers at that weight.
Dunn parlayed gladiator-like emotion and steely determination into success in the squared circle.
"I enjoy it immensely. Being in the ring, having the crowd around you, bleeding down the side of your face. It's just the greatest feeling," he says. "It's nirvana."
Dunn was first to arrive at the three-hour practice every afternoon, and the last to leave. He began participating in Friday Night Fights, an open showcase for any cadet who thinks he can hold his own in the ring. There, he gained the stamina to fight for three grueling two-minute rounds.
"It absolutely destroys you," he says. "You must be in good shape."
Dunn's best moment in the ring came Oct. 3, 2008, when the sophomore faced a senior from the Naval Academy.
Dunn defied expectations against the stockier, more experienced opponent in front of the Air Force Academy's superintendent, the commandant and a four-star general.
"I just started pummeling this kid," he relates. "He never had a hold on me for a second.” Dunn won via unanimous decision.
Looking forward
The boxing season runs from August intramurals through winter invitationals before the all-important Wing Open in February. Regional and national championships take place in spring.
With the prospect of claiming his first Wing Open title, Dunn seeks to represent his beloved school on the national stage for the first time.
"I've been improving massively over the last two years," he says.
He speaks not only of his boxing prowess but of his overall growth as a person. In a few months, the junior will be trusted to teach Rocky Mountain survival training to incoming freshmen.
In two years, Dunn will graduate and receive his commission as an officer and his base assignment. While brother James has moved on to flight school in Oklahoma, Dunn aspires to a more covert position, preferring more clandestine operations.
"I want to be more in special or security forces," he says. "I want to be on the ground. I signed up with the military to be a soldier."
Such an attitude, maximizing effort to manifest his desire, earns Dunn victories inside and outside of the boxing ring.
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