I’d like to come out of retirement for a minute to give a shout out to my man Dave Brunelli who recently outlasted some of the worlds best competitive eaters to earn an impressive second place finish at Wing Bowl 25. The popular retired heavyweight fighter knocked out a whopping 389 wings in one sitting and took home a brand new Harley Davidson Fat Boy for his efforts.  

Before the Big Ticket from Tacony went from “ring to the wing” – he was best known for filling local boxing venues around Philadelphia with a loud, rowdy crowd. Over the course of his five-year career, he won a couple good ones, lost a couple tough ones and always rolled with one of the most supportive teams in the last consistent era of local Philly boxing events. 

His best night as a pro came in June of 2007 at The Legendary Blue Horizon. Coming into the fight, he was tabbed a big underdog against then undefeated Arron Lyons of Mississippi, a fighter who was fresh off a big upset in the same building a couple of months prior to this bout. Many thought Brunelli was being served to the wolves. 

On an extraordinarily steaming summer fight night where workers on press row were sweating like roofers, Brunelli proved the talkers wrong – pitching a near shut-out over 6 rounds to take Lyons “0”. Nothing dramatic, nothing super flashy – he just came to the fight in great shape and put forth a strong workman like effort from bell-to-bell. 

I can’t imagine the hell it was like fighting under those bright lights and I don’t know how on Earth he ate all those wings.

Here’s to you DJ – keep on beating the odds! 

credit – Pete Terry