About PopPop
I fell in love with boxing at the age of 6 years when I watched Sugar Ray Leonard win the gold medal at the Panama Olympic Games. It was the first time that all the boxing hype was not about heavy weights. This guy was the same size as my father. So I decided right then to become a boxer.
I started doing exercises that boxers do like jumping rope, push-ups, sit-ups, etc. I punched the air “A LOT!” No training, just me and my shadow boxing. I eventually asked to take lessons and was told that there were no boxing gyms in my area. The bell rang for the first round and I was down by one.
In my teenage years, the dream sparked back up when a friend who lived down the street got a boxing ring. My friends and I spent hours beating each other. No training. Just manning up every round. Slowly as days went by and we found other things to do, the dream went back to sleep. The bell rings for round two.
After I graduated high school I decided to try another route for fighting sense. Boxing wasn’t available. I started taking taekwondo. I made it all the way to the green belt before dropping out. I loved the striking part, but I didn’t care too much for the kicking, guess you can’t take the boxer out of me. The bell rings for the third round, down by three now.
Years later, a boxing gym finally made it to Alabama. I went to check it out but it was only boxing fitness. No fights. I wanted to learn to box and this was the only opportunity I had around so I took it. I trained there as often as I could but I wanted to fight. So I started looking again and found a full-contact boxing gym had opened up not too far away from my house.
I trained at this gym like a beast. Great bunch of fighters. Great gym. My fighting career had begun. I had several fights, wins and losses. I was moving up, however, it was not meant to be. The gym closed down due to financial reasons. Ring the fourth and final bell, the dream was out for the count, or so it seemed.
After many years and millions of hours studying the sport I loved, I decided to become a boxing coach. I studied the USA Boxing Rule book which included the safe sport and graduated. That makes me a USA boxing certified coach and a safe sport graduate.
I have trained as a boxer, I have walked the aisles to the ring, and had my hand raised and lowered. I walk out blood, sweat, and tears into the sport of boxing and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Now, I am coach Poppop of Poppop’s Boxing Gym. I have started the career of some fine fighters. We’ve had wins and losses, but we still keep pushing on. My goal is to train a champion, professional or Olympic, and to teach life lessons through the sport of boxing.
PopPop
email us at n2grillin@aol.com