The sport of boxing began in ancient Greece. They believed it was one of the games played by the gods on Olympus.

A boxer from Tuscaloosa, Alabama Deontay Wilder recently won the heavyweight title championship. Joe Lewis and Evan Holyfield were also from Alabama.  Even closer to home, our very own Patriot Deondre Douglas knows a thing or two about boxing.

Deondre Douglas started in the fifth grade and boxed for a club team in Huntsville named Rocket City Boxing Club. He started boxing in the weight class of 105 pound and absolutely dominated, so they moved him up 10 pounds. When he moved up, he trained 10 pounds harder.   He did not gain much more weight but when he weighed in before a fight he ate and drank tons of water to get closer to the weight he needed to be. He says, “Some of the biggest fighters were the easiest to beat.” Deondre felt as if he was on top of the world his 8^th grade year after he had fought 12 fights and had not been beaten.

His ninth grade year he had been moved up again. He ran into a kid that had just moved in from Ohio where boxing is the number one sport of the state. This kid was 32-1 and had been fighting longer than Deondre had.  Deondre fought the kid and lost by TKO and had a minor concussion.  At this point, his Deondre’s mom pulled him from boxing, and Deondre focused on other sports like football and track.

Today, he continues to box in the summers on his off time