The boxing judge

In the ring, Larry Permuter isn’t a judge and he isn’t 63 years old and his wife isn’t sick. In the ring, Permuter is just a student of the sweet science who’s learning some hard lessons.

In Round One, the punch to his face lands fast and hard.

Larry Permuter stumbles backward in the ring, then falls on his side, his nose bloodied. On a white towel, his trainer presses out six, seven, eight meat-red stains. There’s no shame in calling it a day.

But the 63-year-old associate circuit judge says he’s good for more. So he and his 16-year-old opponent, Tommy Daniels, square off again.

Permuter’s day job is handling criminal misdemeanors in St. Louis County. Four years ago, he saw a flier for Sweat, a boxing gym in Clayton. He didn’t know boxing was the sport for him. He just knew he was sick of the treadmill.

But now, Permuter boxes because boxing gets results the treadmill can’t. Because when he’s boxing, there’s no stress — the everyday stress, he says, and the stress of his wife, Darlene, being sick.

She has multiple sclerosis. When things get bad, he thinks, “I gotta get to that gym and start hitting the bag.” When things get worse, he hits harder.

When Permuter told Darlene he was going to start working out at a boxing gym, she said OK. When he told her he was going to get in the ring, she was afraid.

“But I tell her, ‘Don’t worry about it. I know how to protect myself.’”

They’ve been married 29 years. He dedicates every match to her.

Permuter fights because he’s serious about getting better, and you don’t get better unless you fight — and take hits. He shows up at the courthouse with marks: a black eye, maybe, or a bruised nose. He tells the truth: He was boxing.

“Some people will say, ‘Yeah, the guy is crazy,’” Permuter says. “Other people will say, ‘Hey, if he can do it at his age, maybe I can do it.’”

So far, not one of the other judges has taken him up on his offers to try out a group class at Sweat.

“I guess most of them are happy with a half-hour on the elliptical while reading the paper.”

After the match, his trainer, Jose Ponce, tells the judge the kid taught him a lesson. Permuter needs to work on his balance, keep up his sagging arms and tighten his punches.

That’s what Ponce says, but this is what Permuter hears: “I have to train harder.”

Daniels is an aspiring pro, and it’s Permuter’s “absolute goal” to beat him. He says that the day of the match, the last Saturday in October. A few days later, he’s more measured.

“I want to be able to go three rounds with Tommy,” he says, “and not necessarily win, because I don’t think I can win, but to lose without getting hurt and lose on points only.

“I’m gonna keep fighting until I improve. If I get hurt bad enough, I’ll hit the bag.”

Published Nov. 8, 2010