When the clock strikes 5 p.m. the streets of Pawhuska turn cold and one by one the street lights begin to flicker, as the evening grows bitter the light from inside Gilkey’s Karate studio outshines the rest.
The echoes of punches and jabs bounce off of the worn walls and mirrors throughout the depleted studio as the boxing State of Oklahoma Middleweight Champion Ben Cottingham swings at a punching bag.
Cottingham, Osage and Seneca-Cayuga, is the 6-foot-2, 165 pound illuminating glow in the studio that brightens the small town of Pawhuska.
