Boxer Profile: Tyler Hultin

When a writer sits down to begin a composition, whether he’s a reporter or an author, one of the things he or she strives for is a hook.  A hook is the point of interest that grabs the reader and holds him captive until he finishes reading.  A writer who can fabricate or discover a hook will ensnare his readers – even against their will – and that will keep his articles, books, or stories in demand as long as he can churn them out.

Consequently, one fatal trap for a writer is the subject which presents no obvious hook.  The person or event about which he is writing has no rough edges, no gripping drama – no angle presents itself – and then he’s got a dilemma.  Why would anyone begin reading this article?  Once they’ve started, why would they finish?

Tyler Hultin, a product of the amateur boxing club of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, isn’t loud or obnoxious.  In fact he’s placidly self-assured.  He doesn’t self-promote or brag about his great future accomplishments.  He deflects attention from himself and compliments others, sometimes even at his own expense.

This is the dilemma presented by Tyler Hultin.  He’s modest, polite, mild-mannered, and self-effacing.  What am I supposed to write about a guy like that?  Who does he think he is, putting me in this position?

This is Tyler Hultin:

He originally got into boxing at the age of 14 without his parents’ blessing.  In fact, he worked out with the Fergus Falls club for a good eight months before coming clean, and he only did it then because he wanted to enter competition.  Hultin lost his first fight, and the next three after that.  “It was a pretty rocky start.  Very rocky,” Hultin smiles.  “I lost pretty bad.  I had my doubts, thought maybe this isn’t really for me, but instead of giving up I pushed myself pretty hard.”

All that hard work eventually paid off, as Hultin earned a Silver Gloves title in 2003, the Golden Gloves region IV title at 152# from 2004 through 2006, the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves title in 2006, and then the Region IV title at 165# from 2007 through 2009.  Along the way Hultin amassed a cumulative record of 80-27 over a nine-year career, and ultimately won over his mom.  “After my mom came to the fights for the first time, now she’s the loudest fan I have.  Oh yeah, she’s a die-hard,” Hultin winks.

Maybe it’s natural, and maybe everyone feels this way about their club, but Hultin thinks there’s something special about the Fergus Falls club.  “Our club doesn’t win the most awards or the most championships, but I think that we’re the most feared club in the area.  I mean, fighters coming in from other clubs are confident that they’ll win, but they also know that win or lose, they’re going to have been in a fight.  They’re going to feel it the next day.”

Hultin turned pro in May of this because he was feeling restless and bored, and because of a particular phone call.  “In amateurs it got so nothing was original – you knew how everything was going to go down, and I was always at a certain weight, and you pretty much knew who was out there to fight…I think I fought one guy sixteen times.  I got my name known throughout the amateur scene, but it didn’t really get me anywhere.”  Then came a fateful phone call: “After my last year of Golden Gloves I was just about ready to hang up my gloves.  And Andy Kolle called me and goes, ‘I heard that you wanted to go pro for so long, are you ready to do it?’  I told him I was thinking about hanging it up and he asked me, ‘Is that really what you want or is it just nerves and false thoughts?’  I thought about it and I decided that I can’t get out of it.  I’m only 22 years old I have to keep going.  So Andy had a lot to do with it.”

Of course, the last two pro fighters to come out of Fergus Falls (Kolle and the Jungle Boy, Zach Walters)  have moved to Duluth to train at Horton’s Gym.  I asked Hultin whether he might do the same.  “The thought has come into my head, but for now I’m in school in Alexandria, and I’m committed to finishing that.  The Saint Cloud Golden Gloves team wanted me to move down there and train them, too, but now that I’ve gone pro I’ll hold off on those things for a while.”

Back in Fergus Falls there’s another Hultin who Tyler would like boxing fans to know about, and that’s his little brother Tanner Hultin.  “If he had my conditioning he would probably be better than me.  He’s a southpaw, too!”  Tanner is 18 years old and still in high school, but Tyler offers high praise: “Tanner is my best sparring partner.”

To date Hultin has only had the one pro fight, winning his debut contest against Lakendriek Craig with a first-round knockout on May 21^st up in Duluth.  What his future holds, Hultin won’t speculate.  His goals are articulated thusly: “First, to keep fighting, and second, to work my way up.”  I explained that most fighters use their interviews to predict a signature win or a championship, or some other kind of great success.  “I think one day, yes.  That would be nice.  I have a lot to learn first.”

Sigh.

The Fistic Mystic says: Continuing a great new tradition in Minnesota boxing, I asked Hultin to name some other young fighters whose names we should remember.  There were no stunning revelations, but as usual, some candid and interesting recollections.

“Obviously, my brother Tanner Hultin.”

Javontae Starks – “We clashed heads back in ’07 or ’08, then he dropped me with a body shot.  I finished the fight, though.”

Jamal James – “You don’t hear very much about him, but he’s really good.”

Robert Brant – “I fought him twice, lost them both.  He’s a natural.”  A prodigy, even?  “Yes, and he’s a nice guy, too.  Going to give Kelly Pavlik a run for his money.  I’m serious.”

Boxer Profile: Jesse Barbot

The popular vision of boxing is that it’s an urban sport, its landscape dominated by run-down gyms in lower-class urban areas, the gyms populated by minorities and poor whites.  And to an extent, it’s true – urban gyms like the Rice Street Gym in St Paul or COD and Uppercut Gym in Minneapolis bring us more than their share of exceptional amateur and professional fighters.  But a counterpoint to that image comes to us from small towns in Minnesota.  Anthony Bonsante hails from Crosby-Ironton by way of the Brainerd boxing club.  Fergus Falls produced Jungle Boy Walters, Andy Kolle, and new pro Tyler Hultin.  Chris Holt came from Detroit Lakes, John Sargent from Naytahwaush, and in the more distant past we had Duane Horsman from Chatfield and the Bobick brothers, Duane and Rodney, from little Bowlus.

Another small-town boy who has found a home in the pursuit of combat sports is Jesse Barbot, originally from Red Lake Falls.  Now living in Casselton, ND, Barbot competed in amateur boxing as a golden glover, making the trip to Grand Forks for competitions two or three times a year on his way to compiling a 15-7 amateur record.  Today Barbot, who is billed as “The Blue Collar Brawler,” is active in both boxing and Mixed Martial Arts, though he says he values his 6-4 boxing record more than his perfect 8-0 record in MMA.  “I do prefer boxing,” Barbot explains, “I’m just more comfortable in the boxing ring because that’s my background.  You know, I didn’t wrestle in high school, I boxed!”  Another aspect of the business that influences this preference is the fact that despite its current popularity, MMA combatants make significantly less money than boxers.  “People would be surprised to know that fighting in MMA probably on average pays half of what boxing does,” although Barbot hastens to add that from a fan’s perspective, “I’m just more of a fan of boxing than MMA.”

It’s a little unusual to run across a fighter in the midst of his professional career who is married with kids.  Boxing tends to be a youngster’s game, often populated by wild boys who drink to excess and carouse.  Fighters can often be seen leaving the scene of a fight with a pretty girl on each arm and an ugly one following behind.  How does Barbot reconcile that image with his lifestyle?  “I’ll be honest, when I was younger…[laughs]…well, when I got married it kind of put the stop to that, that young behavior.”  And how does boxing fit into his life as a responsible adult?  “My family likes it, but I don’t think any of them are going to be heartbroken when I give it up.”  Barbot shakes his head, but his eyes twinkle.  “You’re working forty or fifty hours a week and trying to train and fight on the side.  Sometimes it isn’t easy.”

Barbot, with his 6-4 record, is an example of the old stereotype, a “club fighter.”  Rough and ready, proud of his skills, he loves to train and he enjoys being a competitor – though the competition itself isn’t always fun.  There aren’t many real club fighters around anymore, mainly because the old club boxing venues – the seedy nightclubs and fight clubs that used to be so common – are virtually extinct.  It isn’t that there aren’t willing fighters, but there’s a general lack of opportunities to fight.  Here in the Midwest, the club fighter has been replaced with the Indian casino fighter.

But Barbot is the very image of a casino fighter; an able competitor with his eyes on a more modest prize than the usual formula of belt and paycheck.  What does he hope that the sport of boxing will do for him?  “I know I’m not going to be a world champion or make hundreds of thousands of dollars.  But what boxing has done for me is it’s let me travel, it’s given me a reason to stay in shape, and it’s given me an opportunity to compete.  I like putting it on the line, and what I lack in athletic ability I hope I make up for in toughness.”

Jesse Barbot is scheduled to headline a nine-fight boxing card on October 23^rd at Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen.

Boxer Profile: Javontae Starks

Sitting for interviews can be a tiresome and tedious exercise, particularly for one who has done it many times before.  Javontae Starks, though just about to turn pro in boxing, is an old pro when it comes to interviews – and to his credit he is also a thoughtful, soft-spoken, and candid interview subject.

Javontae Starks, photo by Jesse Kelley of www.minnesotaboxing.com

The first thing you need to know about Javontae Starks is that has been widely acknowledged as the premier amateur boxer in Minnesota for the last couple of years.  Barring any last-minute surprises his final amateur record will remain 98-16, the number of losses having been inflated somewhat by the caliber of competition he has faced.

The 2007 Roosevelt High School grad was raised in south Minneapolis by his mother, who was only 16 years old when he was born.  Of his family Starks says, “I have a little sister and three little brothers, and  a father I didn’t see much.  My uncle, who had been in jail, was one of the people who wanted something better for my life.  So he heard about the gym [Circle of Discipline, on Lake Street in south Minneapolis] and he got me signed up there”

Young Starks had his first competitive match in 2001, only seven months after first setting foot in the gym, and showed some aptitude early on.  By 2002 he had won the Ohio State Fair championship and in 2003 he was the Minnesota Silver Gloves titlist and then the Ringside World champ.  “My brothers are much younger than me, and money was always short, but the little bit of money we had my mother would scrape together for me to participate in tournaments and travel and stuff.”  To date Starks has also won the UMGG title at 152# twice, the USA Boxing Minnesota state championship at the same weight twice, the national U19 title once, and in the last year he has been runner up at the P.A.L.  National Championships and the National Golden Gloves.  Starks has been an understudy to former Olympian and current professional prizefighter Demetrius Andrade, and has fought with the US National Team in international competitions.

Despite all his accomplishments, Starks is best known for being the boxer who returned to competition after nearly dying from a gunshot wound.  No more on that here; you can Google “Javontae Starks bullet” if you haven’t heard that story yet.  Suffice it to say that he feels he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  “It wasn’t a personal vendetta against me or anything.”  What was it then?  “I wasn’t even involved.  I was there, but I wasn’t involved in a dispute and I didn’t do anything to provoke [the shooting].”  Reflecting on his survival and recovery, Starks has this to say: “I’m very fortunate to have survived and to be here today.”

Javontae Starks, photo by Jesse Kelley of www.minnesotaboxing.com

As his amateur career draws to a close, Starks has been contemplating the benefits of the experience.  “It showed me that the world is a bigger place than just Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It motivated me to work hard and practice more…It introduced me to good friends like Sadam Ali and Gary Russel Jr.  And it allowed me to have vacations.   To go places like California, Mexico, Philadelphia, Ireland…It really did change me.  It changed my outlook.”

It’s a fact that the nineteen year old Starks is opinionated and outspoken on internet forums as well as on Facebook and Myspace, expressing opinions about people, places, and events in a way that projects him as brash and arrogant.  Yet he doesn’t feel that he is either.  “I don’t hide my feelings.  I speak my mind, but I’m thoughtful.  I know that I’m blessed to have what I’ve got.”

What Starks has got right now is a promising future as a prizefighter.   “I’m going to have a little bit of money.  I’m going to have some obligations now.  I’m having a daughter in October.  The expectations for me are high.”  The expectations that Starks has for himself are in line with those of others.  “At home I have an unsigned five-year contract from Cameron Dunkin of TKO Boxing Promotions.  I’m probably going to sign it.  I originally planned to sign with Top Rank, but Dunkin’s proposal looks better because of the term and the number of fights.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t take one last look at Top Rank, though.”  Dunkin’s organization is based in Las Vegas.  I asked Starks whether he planned to relocate or stay at home in Minnesota.  “I’ll live in Minneapolis, and I’ll keep working out at COD, at least until I get to the upper level, the world-class level.  Then I’ll probably have to have my camps in Las Vegas. But  I’m still a Minneapolis fighter.”   Being the provincial Minnesota boxing fan that I am, I wondered whether he had designs on any local opponents, and without hesitation he named two: Cory Rodriguez and Jon Laboda.  Smiling broadly, Starks explained: “If we can do any shows in Minnesota, the mandatory is Cory Rodriguez.  Cory is a very nice guy.  The only reason I want to fight him is because he beat me twice in amateurs – although I thought I had beat him the last time.  But it’s the judges who decide, and what it is, it is.”  Laboda?  “Johnny Johnson’s son!  Do I think that Johnny believes in his heart that his boy can beat me?  No, I do not!”  (More about Johnny Johnson, proprietor of St Paul’s Rice Street Gym, in a minute.)

It’s become a tradition for interview subjects to tell me that their style is more suited to the pro game than to the amateurs, so I beat Starks to the punch, asking whether the same was true of him.  “Yeah, I believe that I’ll be a way better pro than amateur because of my speed and my accuracy.”  Asked to describe his boxing style, the lanky youngster turned the usual designation around: “I’m a puncher-boxer.   I would compare myself to Gerald McLellan or Tommy Hearns.”

As usual when interviewing young fighters from the area, I asked Starks for his take on the local scene.  I led off by asking Starks to name some local amateur fighters who we should keep an eye on, and he named a bunch.

“You definitely have to look out for Robert Brant, obviously.  He’s definitely a natural.  He’s only been doing it two or three years, and he won a national title [the USA Boxing Nationals] this year!”

“Jamal James.  Very nice movement and hand speed, a sort of a Mohammed Ali –style fighter.  Watch out for Jamal to start sitting on his punches a little more now, to crack more than he been doing.”

COD teammate Delorean Carriway “probably won’t win right off the bat, and he’s only had about fifteen matches so far, but he has a lot of potential.”

“Jonathan Perez.  Our little guy, he went to Nationals this year.  He only lost because he got two points taken away.  We checked the scores.  If it wasn’t for that he would have advanced.”

“Delano Henton is a very good super heavyweight.”

“Oscar Soto might turn out to be very good.”

Javontae Starks, photo by Jesse Kelley of www.minnesotaboxing.com

Noticing that his list was heavy with fighters from his own gym, I asked Starks to name the best gym in Minnesota – other than COD.  After pondering my question, Starks spoke slowly and deliberately.  “Rice Street  Gym in Saint Paul.  They’re the only other gym that attends national tournaments on a regular basis.  We don’t  see Uppercut or Rochester or Wadena there.  From White Bear Lake we only see Robert Brant.  I think Lisa [Bauch, from Uppercut Gym] went to Golden Gloves nationals for the first time this year.”  Taking the discussion a step further I asked what sets Rice Street and Circle of Discipline apart from the many other gyms in the state.  “I think it’s the coaching.  It’s Johnny Johnson.  And the other thing is that most of the other gyms are run like businesses, but our organization is a non-profit.”

Having taken away a good part of Starks’ morning, and knowing that he was committed to helping with a cleaning project at the gym, I thanked him for sharing his time with me.  Before I turned to go, I asked whether there was anything else that he wanted people to know.  His Minnesota roots were evident when he answered: “Tell them that I wouldn’t mind fighting Cory or Jonny.  I wouldn’t mind it at all.”

Boxer Profile: Willshaun Boxley

The subject of this profile is a highly touted young prospect who everyone on the Minnesota boxing scene knows a little bit about, but about whom no one seems to know much.

Willshaun Devon Boxley was born in 1981 in Indiana, then spent a few years of his childhood in Detroit before arriving in Minneapolis around the age of ten.  Boxley considers himself a Minnesotan, though he draws a distinction between his residency in Minnesota and native born citizenship.

Boxley’s interest in boxing, like himself, was born in Indiana.  “I always knew that I was going to be a good boxer, even when I was a boy.  I was just a good little Christian boy in Elkhart, Indiana but…you know, sometimes you just know without even trying that you’re going to be good at something…I just knew.”

When Boxley began his amateur career in 2000 he was already a young adult.  Over seven years he compiled a record of 45-15 or so – “Ballpark,” he says.  “Your book gets lost sometimes!  I always just say that I had about sixty fights and lost about fifteen of them,” he explains.  Other accomplishments as an amateur include 3 Upper Midwest Golden Gloves championships, 5 trips to the Golden Gloves national tournament including 3 trips to the quarterfinals, and 2 USA 4-State championships.

Like every other young pro ever interviewed, Boxley feels that his style is better suited to the pros than the amateurs.  He has let go of that amateur past, saying “I still love those guys at COD [Circle of Discipline, his amateur gym in Minneapolis], but I don’t want to stay caught up in the amateur scene.  This,” he says, gesturing expansively at the interior of the little ACR Gym in Coon Rapids, “this is where I am now.”  Boxley is unusually soft spoken but he exudes confidence, becoming animated and frequently leaving his seat to demonstrate strategies and punch sequences.

Why go pro?  Boxley is quick to acknowledge that some of the best fighters he faced as an amateur have given up on fighting without turning pro.  “A lot of guys do it just to say, ‘Son, I used to fight.  I used to do it.  I was in Golden Gloves.’  Not me.  I want people to look me up, to know who I am.  I want to leave a legacy.”  Later Boxley continues down the same path: “I got an old-school heart with a new-school game.  I’d like to fight ten times a year if I could.  It can be done; Jason [Litzau] did it.”  I pointed out to Boxley that Litzau has been a road warrior and ask whether Boxley is willing to travel so much.  “Of course!  I want to buy a home and live here, but party elsewhere.”  [Editor's note: in his busiest calendar year Litzau fought 8 times between December 5 of 2003 and December 3 of 2004, but Willshaun's point is well taken.]

The internal drive of Willshaun Boxley is considerable.  Those who follow the local scene are aware of his pride, his relentless self-promotion, and his reputed willingness to fight any potential foe – though few proposed bouts actually materialize.  “My passion for boxing is amazing, even to me,” he acknowledges.  It’s also clear that unlike some gifted fighters, Boxley is an enthusiastic fan of the sport.  “I want my own gym.  Once my career is going good I want a gym of my own.”

What kind of fighter is Boxley?  “Nobody knows what I’m going to do in the ring.  I’m unpredictable.  That’s why I would hate to give anyone rematches, and that’s why I want to stop everybody, knock them all out.”  Trainer Ron Lyke thinks Boxley has what it takes to do so.  “Willshaun is talented as hell.  He’s so talented, no one has ever really made him work.  I’m trying to straighten him out, sort out his fundamentals, and get him to do things right.  When he punches straight and keeps his weight back, doesn’t just use his arms but really does it right, he has as much punching power as some good super middleweights who work out here.  He’s tripled his power in the two weeks since he started working out with me.”  Says Boxley, “I don’t back up – I’m up front and center and I’m in your grill, or if I’m backing up I’m cracking you – BAM! BAM! BAM! – while I’m doing it.”

With introductions completed and the formal interview concluded, Boxley begins to prepare for six rounds of sparring with another good young pro.  To the Fistic Mystic, he leans in and confides: “I want this guy to fight me, so I’m going to make him look good.  Watch this.”

The sparring session is revealing.  In the opposite corner is a good young pro, taller and lankier than the 5′3″ Boxley, a practitioner of the Mexican style of boxing: tremendous aggression mated with exceptional conditioning and a never-say-die attitude.  Boxley is short, but he’s a big short.  Instead of a delicately built, small-boned small man, he is one whose hands and feet are generously proportioned.  Compact rather than tiny, Boxley is square shouldered and well-muscled.  It’s easy to see him adding weight as his career progresses.  The sparring match begins slowly, both men pushing their punches and taking it relatively easy in the first round.  The second round sees both men accelerate their workrate and punch with greater earnestness.  By the third, with his partner throwing cruel hooks to the body, Boxley begins to punch with more evil intent.  One begins to suspect that he is holding something back.  Boxley lays back on the ropes, rope-a-dope style, allowing his opponent to dig at his body like Ali in Zaire.  He plays with a halfhearted peekaboo style in the manner of James Toney, then roars back to life with extended combinations of power shots like Tyson.  He leans in to land single hooks and overhand punches from unlikely angles, emulating Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather, and dances about the ring like Emmanuel Augustus.

All the clowning draws exasperated grins from onlookers.  Afterwards when trainer Ron Lyke is asked what he saw from Boxley, Lyke responds sharply, “I saw Willshaun playing.”  Pressed for more, Lyke goes on.  “This is okay for now, for the kind of opponents he’s facing at this level.  But when he steps up to a higher level this kind of shit isn’t going to fly.  Willshaun wants to put on a good show, so he does all this stuff for the crowd.  But people love knockouts, that’s what they want to see.  I’m a fan, and that’s what I want to see.  Knockouts sell tickets, and if Willshaun wants to, he can knock people out.”

The Fistic Mystic says: Willshaun Boxley has the potential to be a great ambassador for boxing in Minnesota.  Fast and fluid with impressive natural athleticism, Boxley is a striking example of the relationship between quickness and speed:  quickness relates to the rapidity with which one begins and completes a task, while speed relates to the swiftness with which one performs the task.  Boxley fights with both quickness and speed, as well as with commendable power.  Time and competition will reveal just how much of that other valued commodity, toughness, Willshaun Boxley possesses.  Let’s keep an eye on this young man, and see how his career unfolds.

Profile: “Jungle Boy” Zach Walters (Part 2)

Attempting to rebound after a shocking loss to Shawn Hammack on August 31, Zach Walters was scheduled to fight Cory “The Cobra” Phelps on October 25.  That event, however, has been postponed until November or December.  Walters announced the postponement in an October 15 press release that included this somewhat cryptic statement: “The plan is to make a huge fight card to burst the local boxing scene to a new level.  We hope to keep our fight with Cory Phelps for that date and so far that looks like it will work out.”  The Fistic Mystic is as curious as you are to find out what it all means.  In any case, Phelps’ 13-4 record doesn’t include any significant victories, but as Walters points out, “Phelps is not coming to lose and we can’t count out our fellow boxers that come in to give us a rough night.”  Walters didn’t like it that I called Phelps a tomato can in an earlier article.  “I think it is disrespectful… I am prepared to make sure the fight is a solid win for me, of course, but your comment takes away from the win and leaves the fans to take it for granted.”  He’s absolutely right, and I suppose that I’m guilty as charged.  I’ll have to pull out the old thesaurus and see whether I can find a less insulting euphemism for an opponent with a limited chance to win.

I asked Walters to analyze his boxing style and he described himself as a boxer/puncher, but said “I can drop a big bomb when I need to.”  His strategy is to cater his style to his individual opponent.  His training generally consists of running in the morning and boxing in the afternoon, but he is reticent to reveal too much about his training.  Since turning pro at the age of 21 Walters has fought as a light heavyweight almost exclusively, and plans to stay there – “I feel very comfortable at 175 lbs.”

As he attempts to regain ground that was lost with the defeat to Shawn Hammack, Jungle Boy’s training is taking place in a new setting.  Last spring a fire damaged the building that housed Horton’s Gym and rendered most of the gym’s equipment unusable.  By the end of the summer a new home had been found in downtown Duluth, but in the meantime Horton’s stable of fighters was forced to improvise.  “We trained in a pole barn out of town [until the new location was ready]…the transition was rough, but fighters and trainers hung together. Now we have a new beginning in a nice facility.”

Walters had this to say about his friend and gym mate Andy “Kaos” Kolle.  “Kolle’s last fight was a big opportunity for him. Kaos is the kind of guy that never backs down from a challenge. He stepped in with a guy that is regarded as the pound-for-pound most dangerous fighter. Paul Williams must be everything he is talked up to be because I have known Kolle since we started boxing and I have never seen him hurt like that. I know that if Kolle can see a shot coming he’ll brace himself for it and it won’t hurt him. The hook he got hit with came wide behind his vision. That’s what I think got him. I watched him prepare for the fight. His level of intensity was off the charts. I figured Williams was in for a tough night with KAOS. When it ended as it did I was shocked. Kolle makes no excuses and he is in good spirits. He lost a fight to a two time world champ. His career is very accomplished for having less than 20 fights. He will come back strong as ever before.”

Walters offered a further endorsement of two other Horton’s Gym cohorts: “RJ and Gary are good. They have their own styles and are polar opposites aside from their potential to make some waves in the boxing scene.”  RJ Laase (4-0 with 2 kayos) is known as a smooth and technical boxer, while Gary Eyer (4-0-1 with 3 kayos) is a flamboyant fighter with good power.

One of the very compelling aspects of the Jungle Boy story is his desire to bring a title fight to Africa.  It should come as no great surprise that a young professional athlete wants to ply his trade in front of the hometown folks, and it’s natural that Walters has a persistent vision to bring a title fight to Madagascar.  “Back in 1999 I was in Madagascar with my brother Jake on a mission trip. Before leaving the island for the US we had a chance to visit with many of our friends. My Malagasy was rusty from not using it much in the states, but I had enough vocabulary in order to tell them that I had gotten into boxing and would someday return to Madagascar. At the time I was an amateur boxer. When I turned pro the sport opened up new doors for me. When I won the WBC-African Boxing Union title I thought it would be a great opportunity to line up a title defense in Madagascar. That way I’d fulfill my promise to return and would also get a chance to showcase my boxing.”  That vision may not be on the back burner, exactly, but it isn’t front-and-center at the moment.  Losing is bad in any game, but in prizefighting it’s a calamity.  Usually a fighter who wants to win a major title isn’t allowed to lose at all on his way to the top.

In one of my more presumptuous moments I asked Walters to tell me something he had learned from each of his three professional losses.  His reply to that query was one of the more emphatic responses I got from him.  “The first loss [to 10-2 cruiserweight Robert Linton in 2004] I got ripped off by the judges. I learned not to rely on the judges to get a win. I learned that to win a fight I have to take it away from my opponent. I became more aggressive after that loss and worked on my punching power.  The second loss [to 38-3 Hugo Pineda in 2006] I learned about prefight distractions. I learned that I can’t beat everyone on determination alone. After that fight I focused on my boxing skill to become a better ring general. My trainers worked on giving me more dimensions. I became a better boxer after that fight. This last loss [to 15-6 Shawn Hammack] I learned about dehydration. I was boxing superbly and had the fight in the bag. I don’t feel like was beaten by my opposition. The loss was the result of a fluke punch that found its mark at the right time.  I found out afterward that an element of dehydration is a surge of endorphins. I could feel a cramp developing in the back of my left leg, but didn’t think much of it because I had plenty of energy. Anyway, when I got hit I knew something was way off. I couldn’t shake the punch. Dehydration got me.”

The Fistic Mystic says: The time can’t be too far off when the Jungle Boy will be given an opportunity to step up to the next level.  Here’s hoping that this loquacious young man with the fascinating story will make a major splash in the rapidly evolving light heavyweight division.

Profile: “Jungle Boy” Zach Walters (Part 1)

“My childhood was a big adventure for me,” the young man begins.  I think to myself, well, whose wasn’t?  He continues, “I was into all sorts of stuff; netting fish, trapping birds…hunting with a slingshot and fighting chameleons with my buddies.”

Welcome to the world of the Jungle Boy.

Professional boxer Zach “Jungle Boy” Walters (23-3 with 18 kayos) was born in Taolagnaro, Madagascar, to missionary parents in February of 1981.  He lived primarily in Madagascar to the age of 12, so his identity is tied as much to Malagasy natives and the tropical climate as it is to white people from the Midwestern United States.  The articulate young man tells more of his own story:

“I left the island when I was 12 years old, so many of my childhood memories are from my time there. Madagascar, to me, was a place that made sense. Most of my buddies were Malagasy. I understood the cultural customs and my place among my native friends. Initially, when my family moved to the states I believed it would be only for a short time. I thought we would be back in the tropics of Africa after this visit to the States. Year after year the return to Madagascar did not happen.  This is when I started to get into trouble and rebel.”  In what ways did he rebel?  “I did everything I could to show I didn’t care. I was a terror in school, I did the opposite of anything my parents said, got into stealing cars, a lot of fighting, and partying.”

Trying to fit in, “I gave organized team sports a try, but was continually frustrated at my inability to catch on to the rules and strategies. At a dead end for options, I found myself at a Taekwondo studio my younger brother, Jake, trained at. I didn’t want to join their club because Jake would be a superior belt to me. This would be unacceptable in my mind so I asked the instructor to teach me how to kick box. After a few weeks of training, and thoroughly getting in the way of regular classes, the instructor mentioned the idea of boxing. I thought it over and figured it was another non-team fight sport so I’d check it out. I did and it was a fit right away.”  It is perhaps difficult to understand how significant this connection was to a young man for whom American team sports seemed just as foreign as American culture

The damage to Jungle Boy’s identity, caused by his displacement from a familiar environment, was soothed when he discovered combat sports.  “If not for boxing, I’m not sure I would have found an identity in the States. Boxing was a fit right away. Even though it took me several years after joining boxing to finally secure my life in order, boxing was something I clung to as a ray of hope that life in the US would be alright after all.”

In spite of the struggles of his youth, Walters remains a committed Christian.  This is one of his more visible personal characteristics.  Yet his faith isn’t as showy or in-your-face as some professional athletes.  “I believe that Jesus has a plan for my life and at this time His plan is for me to be a boxer. I work hard, pray hard, and leave the rest up to Him.”

After a successful amateur career, Walters turned pro out of Horton’s Gym in Duluth, Minnesota in 2002.  “I met Chuck Horton through fighting in the USA Boxing senior’s tournaments. [Andy] Kolle and I got to know Chuck over the years and when I finished high school I wanted to continue boxing. That’s when I made the choice to move to Duluth.  I have lived in the Twin Ports since 2000 and I am now proud to consider it home. I am a proud Duluthian. My boxing career has taken me all over, but at the end of the day I will always come back to Minnesota.”

What does Walters hope to accomplish in his career?  “I hope to win a world title. It seems the commentators don’t give us boxers from the Midwest a shot.  I don’t care. I know that hard work is hard work.  I don’t expect an easy way to be paved out for me.  I have had to get what I have the hard way and expect nothing less for my rise to the top.  I’ll take my scrapes along the way and still forge ahead to reach my goal.  I see these fighters on HBO and Showtime that come from minute counties.  This shows me that toughness does not have a zip code and no matter where you come from you can still make it.  That is my belief and until my career comes to a close that is the way I see it.”

Talking about the future is something Walters will be doing more and more of now.  Recently married, he concedes that having a spouse alters the way he looks at his career.  “Being married didn’t change my life too much, but it did change my outlook on what I do.  When I make a choice I have to think of how it will affect my marriage as well.  Someday I’ll have childen and I have to think about that now so I can be prepared to give [them] the life I want to.”

Walters hopes that his near future includes a world title shot.  “I feel ready for a title shot, but my last fight has served as a temporary setback for me.  I hope to get there in the next two years.  That is my goal.”  The “last fight” to which he refers is his August 31 loss to Shawn Hammack, in which he dominated 7+ rounds of action but was shockingly dropped in the eighth and final round by a haymaker.  That fight ended with Walters on the ropes, taking a lot of punishment.  “We were boxing outside on a black top parking lot that was so hot that spectators’ chair legs were melting into the ground….Dehydration is a weird thing.  I didn’t feel fatigued at all.  Actually I felt elated!  I knew I had developed a cramp in my left leg, but didn’t think much of it.  Then I got caught with a solid shot and realized I couldn’t shake the punch off like I had earlier.  That’s when I knew something was off.  After the fight I told my corner I had been feeling a cramp in the back of my left leg since the middle rounds.  They drew the conclusion that I was dehydrated.  Boy was I ever.  I drank seven bottles of water and three 32 oz. Gatorades before I was able to take a whiz.  The ring doc was tempted to get an IV hooked up to me, but we didn’t end up going that far.  I hate needles.”  Walters acknowledges that the loss is an impediment, but takes it as a motivator.  “I’m mad. The ripple effect of a loss in boxing is tough to deal with.”

In part 2 of this profile, Jungle Boy hopes to rebound from an unexpected loss, comments on Andy Kolle’s recent bout with Paul Williams, and shares more thoughts about his pro boxing career.  To be published on Friday, October 17.

Profile: Phil “The Drill” Williams

Our interview was conducted over the phone, and Phil “The Drill” Williams didn’t answer when I called.  I left a voice mail and waited for him to call back.  When the phone finally did ring, he was apologetic: “Sorry I didn’t call you back right away, but I had to get the kids sat down for supper.”  A fellow dad…I like this guy already.

Introductions and formalities aside, I asked Phil to tell me a little bit about himself.  After all, for all the hype that accompanies his 8-0 (8 kayos) record, little is known about the Drill.  First off, he was born in Queens, New York.  He was named after his mother’s father at Grandpa’s request – it seems Grandpa had no sons, and wanted a namesake.  His mom took him and moved away when he was about six years old, and after some side trips to North Carolina and Chicago, they settled in North Minneapolis not long after.  So Williams is New York bred but Minnesota raised, and that makes him a real Minnesotan.  As a youth Williams says he was always athletic, and he was enthusiastic in his pursuit of basketball and football, but admittedly “didn’t have the grades to participate as a student.”  As a young man he went to barber school and found a good job working in that field.  But then he began to think, he was always a pretty good fighter, how good could he really be?  Pretty good, it turns out.

Williams walked into the now defunct Glover’s Gym in NE Minneapolis (at Lowry and Central), and although he was a late starter, he blossomed right away, winning three state titles (‘03-’05) and two Upper Midwest Golden Gloves titles (‘04 and ‘05) at light heavyweight on his way to compiling an amateur record of 31-4.  He’ll tell you matter-of-factly that he had plenty of power even as an amateur, but he’s had some really spectactular moments as a professional.  Most notably, his destruction of Marcus Upshaw in June (which was posted to YouTube) has gotten him some real attention.  This summer he’s heard from Richard Steele and Buddy McGirt, and even traveled to spar with Andre Dirrell in July.  How did that go?  Williams is both philosophical and cryptic: “That was a good experience…the only thing about it is that when they bring you in to spar, they want you to be sparring partner, not a fighter.  And I’m not a sparring kind of guy; I’m a fighter.”  So was it a good experience?  “Yeah, I learned about techniques and different ways of training and whatnot.  The way they do their sparring and training, and I like to learn other ways of doing things…I want to pick up good things from different people and places.”  Williams is still managed by Chuck and Pete Daskiewicz, and they’ve decided that for now Williams needs to focus on the task at hand, which he is doing.

The task at hand is a headlining appearance on August 29, on the Seconds Out show at Grand Casino Hinckley.  He’ll be facing 13-0-1 (10 kayos) Marcus Oliveira of Lawrence, KS.  I mentioned to Phil that he is wasting no time in going up the ladder.  “No sense in going backwards,” he laughed.  He explained that with his unexpectedly rapid rise in the Boxrec rankings and the attention he’s been getting, he couldn’t see fighting a man with a 4-11 record at this point in his career.  In fact, he had thought for a long time that his goal would be a match with Minnesota’s reigning light heavyweight king Zach “Jungle Boy” Walters (23-2 with 18 kayos) of Duluth, but now he’s focusing on other things.  “I actually wanted to fight Rubin “Mister Hollywood” Williams, and I told Tony G to get him for me, but when Tony called me back and said that Oliveira was available and he’s unbeaten, I agreed to fight him.”  I asked what Williams knows about Oliveira and he deadpanned: “His name.”

By this time in the interview I was thinking that this dude is one of the most earnest, upbeat, and positive people I’ve talked to in boxing, and then he took it to another level.

“I have got a grand plan,” he confided.  “I want to start a DRILL foundation, a DRILL movement.  DRILL is an acronym for Directly Related to the Inner city with Love and Loyalty.”  Here the Drill began to get animated.  “In this part of town young guys give up when they get into trouble, or when they aren’t doing well in school.  They feel like failures, and as a result they get into whatever’s going on around them, they’re misdirected.  But I have some influence, in this neighborhood: when I talk people listen to me.  They come to the shop or they come play basketball with me.  They respect me, I talk to them and they hear positive stuff out of me.  They hear me, and they understand me, but they don’t have the means of doing it.  You can talk about positivity till you’re blue in the face, but when they go home it’s a different reality for them.  So I want to help them find the means to do the good things they want to do.”  How can he do this?  “Through boxing.  Boxing has helped me to find discipline and focus, to really connect with that discipline that I found in the gym, and I want to share the blessings with other people.  I want to open my own gym someday, I’ll call it ‘The Drill Camp,’ and our team will be ‘The Drill Team.’  And we’re gonna have some positive stuff going on.”

The Fistic Mystic says: Phil “The Drill” Williams is a very passionate guy, full of his message and excited about life.  Keep an eye on this man, because he’s headed for big things, both in and out of the ring.

Profile: “Golden” Caleb Truax

The interview takes place at the Olympia Café in downtown Osseo, just blocks from Caleb’s home.  He says he eats here all the time, and while we eat the owner comes out to greet him and shoot the breeze.  Dimitri says that Caleb isn’t just a customer, he’s part of the family.  Truax says he sees himself as a nice guy – and he seems to be both friendly and thoroughly at ease.  “I’m approachable, people can talk to me.  People who know boxing know that we all aren’t like Mike Tyson.  People say to me all the time, ‘you don’t seem like a boxer; you don’t seem angry.’”  Truax smiles.  He orders the “Big Fat Greek Omelete,” and I order the same.  It is delicious.  Thank you, Caleb, for introducing me to this restaurant.  We talk for an hour over our omelets, and Truax is very open and enthusiastic.

The story of how Caleb “Golden” Truax became a boxer has been told and retold, but it’s worth repeating here.  Truax was an exceptional athlete as a child.  “I’ve always been an athletic dude ever since I was a little kid…baseball and football were my games.”  He also likes to fish: “I’m from Minnesota, what else would I do?”  Truax was a very good high school football player despite painful knees, and signed up to play football for Division II Virginia State.  Arriving at Virginia State, Truax participated in practices, but the discomfort in his knees became too much.  Not wanting to submit to surgery, Truax chose instead to give up his sport.  After returning to Minnesota and enrolling at the U of M, Truax happened upon an ad for ACR Gym in City Pages, and walked in.  He had always been a casual fan of boxing, but had never imagined fighting – in fact he didn’t even know there were any gyms in Minnesota before finding the ACR ad.  His first coaches were John Hoffman (then the proprietor of ACR), Ron Lyke, and Tom Halstad, who is still his coach today.

Truax trained for a couple of months before his first amateur bout, which ended in a surprising knockout win.  In his first year as an amateur, Truax beat the odds by participating in the Minneapolis Golden Gloves tournament (in only his fourth fight, a slight breach of the rules), winning the Upper Midwest golden gloves at the 178 pound weight, and making the semifinals in the Ringside international tournament.

Turning pro wasn’t part of Truax’s plans at the time, but just as he was hitting his stride as an amateur, someone notified the state amateur governing body that he had participated in a novice-level amateur toughman competition before his first amateur bout, and he was disqualified from further competition.  This disqualification is the cause of some controversy even now, but the issue is dead, as Truax did indeed turn pro in April of 2007.

To date, Truax is flaunting a record of 7-0 (4 kayos), his most recent match being a breakthrough: he was invited to participate in a Goossen-Tutor promoted card at the Taachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California.  Truax virtually glows as he describes the treatment he received: He was picked up at the airport by a limousine, given a $100/day meal allowance, and bunked in his own room with a king-sized bed: “First class all the way.”  He didn’t meet Dan Goossen, but he dealt extensively with Dan’s son Craig Goossen.  Truax’s final word on Goossen-Tutor: “The whole operation was great.”

In training a couple of weeks before that fight (against then 3-1-2 Thomas Rittenbaugh on June 26) Truax had been sparring with Matt Vanda and Mohamed Kayongo.  While sparring with Kayongo, Truax had his nose rearranged a bit by a strong uppercut and the resulting tenderness resulted in some quick bleeding against Rittenbaugh.  Nevertheless, Truax decisively beat Rittenbaugh by scores of 60-54, 60-54, and 59-55.  His performance must have pleased the out-of-town promoter, as he was offered an opportunity to fight on the July 18 card in southern California that now includes St Paul’s Antonio Johnson.  This was an opportunity he had to pass on, to give his nose a chance to heal.

What does the future hold?  Truax is unusually forthcoming when asked about his ambitions.  First of all, he never planned to turn pro, so this all seems like a bonus to him.  He seems thrilled to be undefeated, but he’s getting a grip on his situation and is starting to think big.  In the immediate future he’s planning a move down from super middleweight to middleweight, beginning with an incremental move in his next bout (August 29 at Grand Casino Hinckley), which he thinks will be contested at 164.  His opponent for that one was initially announced as Butch Hajicek, but now Butch is out and Stephan Pryor (the son of Aaron Pryor) is the tentative opponent.  Should Pryor fall through, Kendall Gould and Jorge Alberto Gonzalez have been mentioned.

Asked who he would like to face, Truax doesn’t beat around the bush. “Right now I’d love to get two or three more fights and then get in with Kenny Kost.  He’s an interesting guy, and he’s been around the block.  He’s a little smaller than me, but I can get down to his weight without too much trouble.  Hopefully he’ll think the same way…and maybe it’ll happen this fall at the U of M or in Maple Grove.”  That’s pretty interesting, considering that right now Truax is walking around at 185#, and Kost has lately been fighting as a middleweight.  “My coach, Tom Hall, is always getting on my case, wants me to stay around 180, but all through high school I was a solid 190.  (laughs)  “I just can’t drink too much beer, and no candy, and stuff like that.”

The big picture is less clear, but Truax does offer this:  “I love what I’m doing – it’s really coming at me fast, but I’m learning a lot.  I never thought I was gonna be a pro…I had always said, ‘that’s not something I’m gonna do, getting beat up for a little money,’ I never thought I was gonna be a pro, but I’m loving it more and more as I’m getting deeper and deeper into it….it’s been awesome so far, the first year in.”  Truax is proud to be a Minnesota boxer and says that fighting on the Minnesota scene is okay, but “within the next year I’d definitely like to get a TV fight.  I like that I’ve started out right, here in Minnesota.  But I’d like to get on TV a bit and develop a little bit of a national following…you’ve got to let other people see you…I see myself getting to about 12-0 and then starting to take the bigger fights, traveling a lot and fighting on TV.”

On the topic of boxing in Minnesota, Truax speaks of his pride in the current crop of very good professionals.  “We’ve got a lot of good fighters [in Minnesota] right now.  Vanda, Jungle Boy and Andy Kolle, the boys from up north, lots of other guys, too.  Phil Williams, I’m excited to see what he’ll do.  Jonny Schmidt, Wilton Hilario, I love to watch him fight.  And Anthony Bonsante.”  This leads us to a discussion of Bonsante.  Truax disagrees with his friend Corey Rodriguez, who said that Bonsante goes easy in sparring.  “That’s because Rodriguez is a little guy!  I’m bigger, so he’s pretty hard on me.”  Truax laughs heartily, and then speaks of Bonsante with some seriousness.  “When I first turned pro Bonsante was a good guy to me.  He taught me some stuff, some veteran tricks.  He was very cool.”

One gets the idea, talking to Truax, that he’s a natural born networker, and he confirms that.  He’s friendly with other fighters, he says, but “I won’t even talk to guys I’m going to fight.  I’ll say ‘hi,’ but that’s all.”  This led to an awkward moment before his last fight, when Rittenbaugh tried to be friendly and Truax wouldn’t engage.  He tried to make up for it after the fight, though, buying Rittenbaugh a beer and chatting him up a little bit.

I asked Truax about his management team, and he spoke highly of four men:  “Tony G [promoter Tony Grygelko], he’s a good guy, a bubbly personality.  He’s always talking and joking, and…he took me under his wing when I was just starting as an amateur and he was still a pro fighter.  He gave me advice and tips, and we were friends before he became a promoter.  When I turned pro I could trust him and he was my friend – that’s a big thing.  And he’s a hard worker and is keeping me busy, [so] we’re going nowhere but up.  Ron Lyke is a great manager and also a coach. He’s got a ton of experience, he’s an old-timer who gives me the right tips.  Jim Maurine, my cut man/coach/punching bag, spends a lot of time working with me.  And Tom Halstad is an innovator, an awesome coach.  He’s taught me a lot and he has me in awesome shape.”  Bottom line: “I’m really happy with my team and where I’m at right now.”

Editor’s note: Truax made a point of mentioning some amateur boxers from the area who he likes, and I can’t let this pass without making a mention:  “Tony Lee is good, everybody knows Javontae Starks.  Jamal James…also keep an eye on Bruce Butler, and there a bunch more of them, man…and David Colon.  He’s amazing to watch, he’s only eleven years old but he fights like he’s 18, his comfort and the way he moves.”  Truax chuckles.  “He’s one to watch, man.”

Profile: Corey Rodriguez

Corey Michael Rodriguez of New Hope is (like this writer) a graduate of Robbinsdale Cooper High School, albeit from different classes (‘92 for the writer, ‘97 for Rodriguez).  Corey’s brother is John Rodriguez, back in the mid nineties a star baseball player for the Hawks, though Corey is partial to football and boxing.  His uncles Raphael, Rudy, Bobby, and Kenny all fought as pros, though his father John did not.  The Fistic Mystic had decided to dispense with the customary first-interview starter (“how did you get into boxing”), but Corey volunteered that his dad began putting mitts on him when he was three years old and first brought him to the Camden Gym when he was ten years old.  Rodriguez had two amateur careers: the first one, which lasted from age 11 to 17, culminated in an Upper Midwest Golden Gloves championship at 139#.  After moving away for college and then getting a job, Rodriguez took up the sport again eight years later with the intention of going pro.  On his father’s advice Corey planned to log about 20 more amateur fights before turning pro, hoping to recapture the form he’d had before quitting the first time.  He exceeded that goal by a bit, eventually winning two more Upper Midwest titles at 141# and 152# and compiling a final amateur record of 60-16.  Corey very candidly admits that it took him some time to get comfortable in the ring again during the second go-around, but says that he finally feels like he’s got it all back.  He also proudly notes that during his amateur career he faced Mark Suarez, Charles Haley, Javontae Starks, Anthony Hanshaw, Jacob Hudson, and Daniel Hernandez, among notable others.

 

Corey turned pro in 2007.  To date, his professional record stands at 4-0 with 3 kayos.  He’s frequently mentioned as an opponent for other welterweights from the upper Midwest, and there are a lot of them.  Welter is probably the most populous weight class in the region, and it’s generally (though not universally) agreed that Rodriguez represents the cream of the crop.

 

In his most recent bout, against Raphael Magdaleno of the Rice Street Gym at the St Paul Armory on May 17, Rodriguez was dominant.  It’s known that an altercation occurred between Rodriguez and some gentlemen from the Rice Street Gym following his destruction of Magdaleno, but exactly what happened is only rumored.  Does Rodriguez want to comment on the scene at the Armory that night?  “Er…not really.  My version of what happened is on paper.”  Does that mean that there’s something going on in the legal realm?  “Yeah, there’s legal stuff happening.  That’s really all I want to say right now…but there were people from Rice Street in the locker room who shouldn’t have been in the locker room.”  Rodriguez does say that he wasn’t cut as badly in the Magdaleno fight as was rumored, though he confirms he needed eight stitches and he does have a nearly inch-long scar running horizontally below his left eyebrow.

 

The welterweight’s current walking-around weight is about 165#.  Though he’s able to make weight at welter without much drama, he’s still thinking seriously about moving up to junior middle or middleweight.  He said he isn’t taking any fights this summer, only because summer isn’t a good time to try to sell tickets.  Rodriguez speaks at length about his desire to cultivate a positive image.  For him, that effort means keeping in touch with reporters from the mainstream press as well as web-based writers, and keeping up a profile on a variety of message boards.

 

Asked to name a professional boxer he admires, Rodriguez smiles broadly.  Oscar De La Hoya before he got rich…Miguel Cotto…Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.  He is not especially high on Floyd Mayweather, who he feels gets away with too much in terms of questionable defensive tactics and and who he says can’t be considered a true #1 until he gets in the ring with Cotto.  Though reluctant to name anyone from Minnesota whom he admires, he does speak very respectfully of Minnesota middleweight titleholder Anthony Bosante.  Rodriguez remarks, “He’s worked really hard to get to where he is.  It didn’t happen overnight.”  When it is pointed out to Rodriguez that he and Bonsante are the same height (5′9″) he makes an interesting inside observation: Bonsante (with whom Rodriguez has sparred) doesn’t spar the way he fights.  “He is a very strong guy but he doesn’t always show it…He doesn’t really go all out in sparring; he kind of takes it easy.  When he’s in a real fight, Bonsante can kick it up a couple of notches.”  On the subject of Bonsante being called out by light heavyweight Zach Walters (23-2) of Horton’s Gym in Duluth, Rodriguez doesn’t see the logic.  “I think that what the whole state really wants to see is Bonsante versus Andy Kolle (a 17-1 middleweight from Fergus Falls).”  Rodriguez has an idea how it should go down, too: “Kolle and Kenny Kost (14-4) should fight, and the winner of that one gets Bonsante.”  He thinks that that event would get a lot of attention and sell a lot of tickets, and he’s probably right.

 

Rodriguez passed on the opportunity to make mention of any desired opponents.  In fact, he takes a decidedly low-key attitude on the subject, offering no comments even when solicited.  But everyone must know by now about the trash-talking that occurred between him and Sam Morales this spring.  John Johnson of the Rice Street Gym has declared publicly that there’s no longer any chance of the two meeting, but if both remain unbeaten after a few more bouts, you can expect the talk to start up again.

 

At the end of the interview Rodriguez is in a hurry to get back to his two kids.  He’s left them in his parents’ care on this Saturday morning, and his desire to be with them underlines what’s important to him.  The young man whose boxing career is a product of his father’s training and encouragement and who is driven by his uncles’ accomplishments, who speaks with pride of his brother’s amateur baseball career, needs to spend time with his children.   At the Rodriguez house, it’s family first.

Profile: Antwan Robertson

My impression of the Uppercut Boxing Gym: a well equipped and airy converted warehouse at 1324 Quincy St NE in Minneapolis. The gym is shaped suspiciously like an old Roman cathedral, with wide central nave flanked by two adjoining aisles.

My impression of Antwan Robertson: short and wiry, hands and feet in proportion to his body; a genuine small man – not just a big guy on a diet. Robertson makes his appearance slightly late, attired in “superman pants,” T shirt, and the obligatory bulky winter coat. His personality is engaging and outgoing. He’s eager to share and excitable.

I am first greeted by Robertson’s coach and promoter, a gentleman named John Hoffman. Hoffman graciously invites me to follow to the elevated ring where he will be working Robertson out. The workout begins haltingly, with much instruction and single jabs thrown. Robertson eventually progresses to two and three jab combinations, with the larger Hoffman occasionally bulling him around the ring. The work is interspersed with occasional pauses, when the two hang on the ropes and watch others work out, or visit with others milling about. But as the workout progresses, Robertson throws more meaningful single hooks, then combinations.

After a brief break to work out a cramp, the workout resumes. The workout moves to another part of the building and I move with it, and Robertson explains along the way that he’s been struggling with a persistent cramp for a week, and his footwork is suffering. As the workout continues it becomes clear that Robertson is a little powerhouse, throwing strong combinations and finishing with hooks that would make a larger fighter proud. Several seven-punch combos follow in quick succession.

Having worked up a good lather in the ring, Robertson moves to the heavy bag, working hard to keep the bag moving. After about fifteen minutes on the heavy bag, a nearly winded Robertson moves further from me, to run on a treadmill at the opposite end of the building. I occupy myself watching another workout, waiting for an opportunity to speak with Robertson at greater length. Clearly taking pity on the stranger, coach John Hoffman ambles over for a visit which turns into a fifteen or twenty minute conversation. What a nice guy he turns out to be! Finally, after a vigorous twenty minute run, Robertson returns to my end of the building with situps on his mind.

But I’ve got an interview on my mind, and I ask Robertson if we couldn’t talk now, and so our interview begins.

We begin by talking about Robertson’s amateur career. He explains that he discovered boxing about four years ago while doing community service for an unspecified offense. He dropped in on Hoffman’s gym in Anoka (now under different management) and was instantly hooked. “I was at that gym Monday through Saturday every week,” he explains – “I just loved [boxing] right away.” However, learning the game takes time and Robertson took part in just twelve amateur matches in nearly four years as an amateur. He compiled a record of 9-3 before turning pro in 2007, including the 2007 Upper Midwest Golden Gloves championship at 112#. It seems that Robertson may have remained an amateur, but he lost his eligibility as a consequence of appearing in a toughman contest in 2007. That’s what prompted him to turn pro. To date his professional record is 3-0 with 2 kayos.

Robertson speaks in glowing terms of his coach/manager/promoter, John Hoffman. Hoffman is a coach and a teacher, he says. He credits his time in amateur boxing (also under Hoffman) with keeping him “out of trouble.” Yeah, boxing is good for that.

As has been mentioned on this blog before, it’s difficult for a very small man to find opponents in this part of the world. Robertson acknowledges that this is the case. Ideally, he says he would like to fight “every couple of months,” up to six times per year. “That would be perfect,” he affirms. In order to stay active, Robertson says that he’s willing to fight above his weight. “I’ll fight guys up to 120, 122 pounds.” This is quite a concession for a man who walks around at about 116 pounds. Asked who he would like to fight, Robertson first mentioned Brad Patraw “because he beat me in amateurs,” then he reconsiders. “Not yet,” he says of Patraw, “I’m still learning the basics, the fundamentals.” Along the same lines, when I complimented his strong hooks he nodded and laughed. “I never threw a hook the whole time I was an amateur! Never, not in any fight, not even once.” The man is still learning to box.

The future is unclear for Antwan Robertson. He doesn’t know what his pro career will look like, but he’s hoping that hard work and talent will take him far. “I never worked so hard as a amateur. I mean it. I run so much – I never ran this much as a amateur. Boxing is HARD. I mean, it’s hard work! People don’t know how hard you’ve got to work.”

The Fistic Mystic says: With a good coach and careful management, and with a good work ethic, this talented young man should be able to make a nice professional run. Just how far he will go, only time will tell.