Tulsa Man Uses Boxing To Give Kids 'Fighting Chance'

One Tulsan is using boxing to develop passion in young people and keep them off the streets and out of trouble. He's shaped the lives of hundreds of kids, including at least one pro athlete.

It all goes to show that just one life can have a positive effect on others, especially for the kids who step into the ring at Tulsa Boxing and Fitness.

Felix Valdivia not only has a strong left hook, but a strong idea of where his future will take him.

“I want to become the world’s best boxer,” he said.

To get that title, he’s going to have to compete with 14-year-old Israel Gomez.

“I like getting hit and I like hitting,” Gomez said.

Most of the children who train at Tulsa Boxing and Fitness aren’t just fighting one another; they're fighting the constant pull of the street life that has taken so many of their friends.

“What we’re doing now can last a whole lifetime. Not only now, but when they 50, 60, 70 years old, they still have the cleverness with the mind to be sharp,” said trainer Allen Hutchinson.

Valdivia said, “I have a lot of anger issues. So, I'd rather use them inside the ring than outside the ring. Like, I don’t like to get in street fights, I’d rather spar my friends here, put on the gloves and we’ll just spar.”

Randall Blankenship said the gym saved his life a few years ago. He decided to stay and train just a little bit longer one night before heading to a friend’s house.

That night, a car drove past the house in east Tulsa and someone fired bullets into the garage where a group of Blankenship’s friends were standing.

One of his best friends, Christian Reyes, just 18, was hit and died at the hospital later that night.

10/27/2010 Related Story: Police Arrest Teen In Connection With Drive-By Shooting Fatality

Investigators said both Reyes and the shooter, also a teen at the time, were in rival Tulsa gangs.

“I was like, ‘Alright, I need to, you know, kinda separate myself from that and start boxing, concentrate on that,’” Blankenship said.

At that pivotal time, Steve Douglas decided to concentrate on Blankenship and hundreds of other children in Tulsa.

Years ago, Douglas found himself headed down the wrong path. He got mixed up in the world of drugs and he even found himself, while living in Florida, in a maximum security prison for months.

“What I realized is when I got out of boxing, when I was younger, I got in trouble. I noticed that when I always had a gym to go to, had somebody to talk to, had a coach that cared about ya, that I never go in trouble,” Douglas said.

Now, he’s paying it forward.

“We tell them to pray at night when they go home and talk to God. We work with them from a different viewpoint. It’s not just boxing,” Douglas said.

All but a handful of his students box for free. He said his entire life savings, and life passion, is in the four walls and the young minds.

“My wife, she’s threatened to kick me out ten times this year,” he said. “I told her I enjoy doing this more than anything I’ve ever done in my life, so she said all right, all right keep doing it.”

“He loves the kids. He loves to help the kids, he loves the difference that he’s making, that it makes in their lives. He’s one of the few people, one of the few people, that I’ve met in my life that’s really like that,” said Professional Boxer, Allan Green.

Not all of the children will go pro like Green, who’s boxed on ESPN and has a super middleweight pro record of 32-4-0 with 22 knockouts, but there is no denying that Douglas has impacted a lot of lives.

“They tell you to keep away from drugs, gangs, they’d rather be here instead of working, trying to get money, they’re here helping us,” Valdivia said.

Gomez said, “I don’t want to go down the wrong road like other people. I see all of them, they’re are all doing good, and I guess that really motivates me to do good myself.”

For Douglas, he knows he is helping, but he still remembers those few that slipped through his grasp.

“I knew I needed to get a gym started, and I told them I’m gonna have a gym they’re gonna come, but one of them got shot and killed before I could,” said Douglas. “And if I could have had a place and a gym for them to come to, had a place to go every night, that might not have happened.”

Now what’s happening is a new generation, hundreds of Tulsans, from ages 7 to 27 are learning how to take on the ring and take on life.

“Thank you for giving me the confidence and teaching me how to box, I mean I love it. If it wasn’t for that, there’s no telling where I’d be,” Blankenship said.

Part of the story that can’t be left out is that the kids are making waves. They brought home the championship title for the regional junior Olympics and in October, they're headed to nationals.

Tulsa Boxing and Fitness is at 21st Street and 145th East Avenue. You can learn more about them online.