Boxing has taken over my life since the first time I had stepped in a gym. I first started out boxing while in middle school about 11 years ago. I can remember before I started how badly I wanted to fight. I would always have a lot of energy but I would never have anywhere to channel that energy until I started boxing. It was also a great stress reliever.
I lived just one block over from my trainer Galen Brown. He was a few years older than me, so he was able to drive us back and fourth to the gym. I think I was 13 and I had been in the gym for 3 months and I was scheduled to fight in the West Bottoms in Kansas City, Mo. I was so scared because I did not want to get in there and look like a fool and lose my very first fight. It didn’t help my nerves any that I knew all my friends and my whole family was there to watch and support me. Plus I just didn’t want my opponent to think I was scared of him.
My first amateur fight came and went without a glitch and I won my first amateur fight by knockout in just 8 seconds. I had three other fights as an amateur and went 3-1 with 2 knockouts as an amateur. Although I didn’t get the amateur career I would have liked to have or needed, so I would be properly prepared for my professional career, but that didn’t matter to me. I was just ready to get in the ring as a professional fight as soon as I could and start making money for it.
As an amateur I had 4 fights in a 5 year period of time. At the age of 18 I turned pro and had my first fight in Jefferson City. I fought a Mexican kid that had already had over 100 amateur fights and was on his fifth pro fight. But at the end of the, fight I had lost by unanimous decision. That is where both fighters last until the end of the fight, so then it is up to the judges score cards to determine who won the fight. The judges score the fights on a 10 points scale, whoever wins the round gets 10 points and the loser gets 9, whoever has the most points at the end of the fight wins. It was after my first pro fight that I told myself that I was either going to either train like I should or I was going to give it up after my first fight. I chose to take it serious, so I started to train twice a day, six days a week. After that, it was like I did a complete 180. I would go on to win my next 9 fights and 7 of those would be by knockout.
After all those fights and all those wins, I got a call one morning and it was my trainer, he said to me “you finally got your shot” and I asked him what he was talking about. He explained that a man from south Kansas City called him and asked if I would be interested in fighting for a world title, and of course I was in shock then immediately replied yes, it has always been one of my dreams to fight for a world title one day.
I was scheduled to fight a guy named Derrick Campos from Topeka Kansas, his record was 9-1 and we were fighting for the MWBA . The winner of the fight would automatically be ranked in the top 20 in the world. We fought on July 23rd at Terrible Casino in St. Joseph, Mo. Derrick was one of the hardest hitting guys that I had ever fought, not only could he hit very hard, he could take a really good punch, so no matter how hard I would hit him he would just keep coming forward. He was my toughest opponent I had ever faced but I dug down deep and pulled off a major upset by winning by unanimous decision.
The following month I would receive a phone call that would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I received a call from one of Don King’s match makers, They asked me If I wanted to go out to Las Vegas and fight the number 6 ranked fighter in the country. His name was Julio Caesar Chavez Jr, the son of the world famous Julio Caesar Chavez Sr, who wad a former world champion himself. The fight was scheduled for the summer of 2007 and was going to be held at the MGM Grand hotel and casino on HBO PPV. I went into the fight determined, but as the fight came closer it started to hit me that even though my friends and family wouldn’t be in Las Vegas with me, they were still going to be watching me on T.V. That did not stop me from getting in there and trying my best, unfortunately my best wasn’t good enough that night, I lost the fight. I went into the fight thinking I would be ok and nothing would happen to me, I was completely wrong. During the first round I was doing ok, he would hit me a few times and I would return a few myself, that went on the whole first round, then the second round started and from the very beginning he hit me with a right hand straight in the nose and broke it, then he started to hit me in my ribs and my stomach and I couldn’t take anymore and the referee stopped the fight.
I would go on to fight two more times in Las Vegas and meet some of the sports biggest stars such as Floyd Mayweather, Oscar de la Hoya, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Rickey Hatton, Manny Pacquieo, Bernard Hopkins and Cory Spinks. I would not only meet the sports biggest stars, but I would get the chance to meet some movie stars such as Michael J Fox at the Thomas and Mac center, I met Mario Lopez and Alex Baldwin at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Then one of my most memorable moments in my whole boxing career was when I got the chance to sit with Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson, Jay-Z and Beyonce at some fights at Caesars Palace.
After my loss in Las Vegas, I decided to take some time off of boxing for awhile. But I knew it wouldn’t take long for me to get back in the gym. I fought six more times in my hometown, and I won all six of them. My confidence was up and I was feeling great, that’s when I decided to get a little out of control when it came to taking certain fights just for the money. I would fight seven more times and everyone of those fights was for the wrong reasons. I would take fights for vacation purposes or because they would pay me a lot of money, I didn’t want to stop boxing and most importantly I didn’t want to have to get a normal nine to five job. In those seven fights, I was able to fight in Tampa, Florida, Santa Barbara, California, Ontario, California, Charlotte, North Carolina, Reno, Nevada, Saint Louis, Missouri, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Every one of those fights was a loss and a severe reality check for me. After all of these losses, it had me really rethinking my career choices. I would take two years off of boxing and think about everything that was important to me. My record went downhill fast. I went from 11-2 to now 12-13. As of right now I train as hard as I can, stay in shape, wait until I get called for a fight so I can get back into the swing of things, and get my boxing career back on track so I can begin earning legitimate money.
All in all my boxing career has been like a really long roller coaster ride, with a lot of ups and a lot of downs. It has taught me a valuable lesson about life and friendship, because when you are in a sport that involves fighting and money there are a lot of people that like to use you to make them money. I don’t think about ever wanting to change my decision with boxing and the career path I chose to take, however, I do think about my future in boxing. I don’t know if I’m going to stick with it and give it another try or to give it up permanently.
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