Like most fighters, Antonio Terry will not forget his first professional fight.
Unlike most fighters, Terry’s memory will start with a cracked protective cup.
“If you watch the video of the fight, you can see where he was hitting me down there, and I was taking the punches,” Terry said of his fight with Marik Black on April 30 in Laurel. “I dropped my glove every now and then.”
One blow hit Terry especially hard.
“It split his cup in two,” fellow boxer Zion Reed said as the two recounted their pro debuts on Wednesday.
And it hurt.
“The doctor told me you can’t do anything for two or three weeks,” Terry said. “I think it was a couple of days, and it wasn’t hurting as bad, and being the type of person I am, once the pain didn’t feel like it felt the first time, I felt like I could do it. I was running, doing stuff that I was not supposed to be doing.
“I was going to the gym, and my grandma was like, no, you’re not going to the gym. The doctor told you. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have gone to the doctor.”
Almost four weeks after that unanimous decision loss, Terry said he is doing better and ready to get back in the ring.
“I’m doing good,” he said. “I’m doing a whole lot better. I’m really waiting on my next fight. I want a rematch of that fight because it wasn’t supposed to end that way. There was a lot of stuff I could have done better, too. I feel like I beat myself that fight.”
Making the result harder to swallow is the fact Terry started well against Black.
“I was confident how the fight started off,” he recalled. “He didn’t land a punch in the first round.”
That wasn’t a bad start. Like Reed, Terry was making his professional debut. Like Reed, his opponent had a pro fight under his belt. But unlike Reed, Terry did not have any amateur fights before he stepped into the ring at Laurel’s Magnolia Center.
“I don’t have any amateur experience,” Terry said. “I just went pro.”
That seemed unlikely when Terry stepped into the gym on College Street in Columbus where Oliver Miller, Reed’s grandfather, has been teaching boxing and martial arts for years.
“When I first started boxing, I was in Georgia,” Terry recalled. “I didn’t box, I just knew how to fight, so I would just fight anybody with gloves on. When I came down here and actually started boxing, I was getting beat up.”
Gesturing toward Reed, Terry said, “My first time sparring with him, he hit me so hard …”
But Terry got the hang of it, and he found a lot more than he expected from Miller’s gym.
“Boxing to me is like therapy. It’s like having a therapist you don’t have to talk to,” Terry said. “These bags probably know more about what goes through my head than my mama does.”
And for someone who would rather not discuss his personal problems, the gym plays a vital role in his life.
“I’m not going to say I’m a violent person; that’s just how I let off steam,” Terry said. “I’ve never been the type to vent to people. I box in order to keep myself sane.”
Armed with sanity and a new cup, Terry will fight again on July 9, again in Laurel.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion