RACINE - What's next for Donald Fields?

Are we talking about him being an All-Northern American Football League wide receiver for the Racine Raiders this coming season? Or is that even too conservative for this unique young man, who plans on doubling as a boxer and football player?

A little more than four years after he had to have about 60 percent of each of his feet amputated because of frostbite he suffered while homeless, the 25-year-old Fields won the 165-pound novice division of the Wisconsin Golden Gloves Saturday night at Memorial Hall. And his opponent, Andre Sawyer of the United Community Center in Milwaukee, entered the bout with more experience (11 bouts to seven for Fields) and the greater reputation.

But Fields immediately countered Sawyer's attacking style, putting him on the defensive for most of the first round with a flurry of explosive punches.

And when he was named the winner on points after three two-minute rounds, Fields acted as if absolutely no one should have been surprised. After all, he was issuing a guarantee after his semifinal victory a week earlier, saying, "I'm going to take it, OK?"

He did.

"If I say something, trust and believe I'll back it up because I'm responsible for me," he said.

To understand the significance of this, though, let's go back to when Fields' feet were reduced to stumps during that amputation procedure.

"I got a first opinion, a second opinion and a third opinion and every last doctor told me I'd never, ever be able to walk again," Fields said. "I wouldn't be able to stand for five minutes.

"Yet, I'm playing minor league football and I'm boxing. And I just won state, so it says if you believe in yourself and you put in the necessary work to achieve that goal, then anything's possible."

Just ask Sawyer. After keeping intense pressure on the Racine Boxing Club's Jeremy DeLabio throughout their semifinal bout a week earlier, Sawyer had the table turned on him. Using a brawling style, Fields maintained enormous pressure on Sawyer in the first round.

"He's a brawler - very awkward, so it's hard to hit him," Sawyer said.

In the second round, Fields landed a hard right that resulted in a standing-eight count. Sawyer mounted a comeback in the third round, but he had thrown so many punches that were off the mark by that point that he couldn't maintain it.

"I was throwing a lot of punches at the end of the fight and I was missing him, so, of course, that would tire you out," Sawyer said. "I just didn't have enough in the tank at that point."

One year from now, Fields intends to return to this tournament in the open division, making him eligible to qualify for the National Golden Gloves Tournament. Does anyone care to doubt him?

"If he sticks with it and he remains a student, he'll be just fine," said Scott Morin, a trainer for the RBC.

In perhaps the featured bout of the evening, Luis Arias of the United Community Center brought the crowd to its feet when he landed a hard right that floored Jesse Hart of Northern Michigan in the first round. Arias, ranked No. 1 at 165 pounds by USA Boxing, won his first Wisconsin Golden Gloves championship.

"I threw my overhand right," Arias said. "That's my money shot. I hit him right on the button."

- Howard Zaffke, owner of the Wisconsin Golden Gloves franchise since 1981, flew in from North Phoenix, Ariz., Saturday to attend the championship round. The 77-year-old Zaffke recently had a cancerous tumor removed from his kidney has been dealing with a multitude of complications.