A Southwest Mississippi Community College student hopes to be boxing in the 2016 Olympics.
Dwight Lee, 18, of McComb, has competed in matches across the country gaining enough recognition to qualify for the Pathway to the Glory Olympic Trial.
He’s hoping it earns him a spot in the Olympics.
Lee is the only Mississippian who has made it this far.
He has won matches in Hattiesburg at the Future Champ Boxing Club in 2009, the Pearl Boxing Club in Jackson in 2012, the Gulfport Boxing Club in 2012, the Texas vs. Louisiana Brawl in 2014, Hands of Stone Boxing Club in Houston, Texas, in 2014, and the Norman Boxing Club in New Orleans in 2015, among others.
“I’ve traveled to Gulfport, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Little Rock, Jackson,” Lee said. “That’s like the hot spot, we always go to Jackson. Hattiesburg will do a show every now and then as well. I went to Junior Olympics last year and won there.”
Lee, a recent graduate of McComb High School, has been boxing for about eight or nine years, and he hopes to turn pro within the next two years.
“I have a contract signed with Iron Fist. My first fight will be $9,000 and my second fight will be around $2,000,” Lee said. “I started boxing when I was 9 years old. I used to be focused on playing football but came across the sport of boxing on television. My dad found a guy who used to work with me called Andre Rials. He trained me up until 2013 when my dad started to train me.”
Lee is majoring in criminal justice but he said he did weigh the decision of skipping furthering education at one point and proceeding in chasing his professional boxing career.
“I talked to my dad about deciding to go pro now and boosting my record and starting to make money,” Lee said. “He told me to go to school, get at least an associate’s degree and have at least some type of background.”
Lee said he gets inspiration from Muhammad Ali and Roy Jones Jr.
“Roy Jones Jr. inspired me to keep working and I actually met him before,” he said. “He was a nice guy and didn’t come off as a real famous person. I met him at a fight in Pensacola, Fla. He told me, ‘If nobody’s got your back, just know that God’s got your back, don’t worry anything that anybody says. Focus on your goal, keep working, and get an education to have something to fall back on.’ ”
Boxing is a sport that relies heavily on routine and repetitive training — something it seems Lee has embraced.
He gets up at 4 a.m. each day, gets in a two-mile run, comes home and gets ready for school. Afterwards and goes back home and gets right back to where he left off — running and hitting the bag every day at his house. He doesn’t have a certain diet, but does make it a priority to stay away from fast food.
“My dad used to always tell me, ‘Never let somebody tell you something you can’t do. And if they do, do your best to show them,’ ” Lee said. “When I first started boxing, people used to always say I wasn’t going to be able to make it in boxing. Now that they see that I’m gaining recognition, people have started to regret saying the things they did. (May dad) always told me, ‘Pain is temporary, but you have to go through pain to receive the power.’ Every time I hear that, it just keeps motivating me. Something about that just keeps on giving me energy.”
Some of Lee’s fights are on YouTube. He’s not sure where his future in boxing will take him, but does want to make sure he has a lasting impact on the community of McComb.
“I see myself being successful enough to be able to start up my own boxing club and bring in kids that need help and get them off the streets by showing them something positive,” Lee said. “... I feel like I can bring more stuff to McComb if I make it big. So kids won’t have to walk the streets and get in trouble. We’ve got a lot of talented kids that are out here that can probably box better than me, but they don’t know where to go to.”
