“I was teaching him boxing because he got beat up one day at school. I was teaching him how to defend himself.”
In that sense, Denis Douglin’s boxing career was born from a mother’s love for her child.
When her son was just eight year’s old, Saphya Douglin, introduced him to the sweet science. She began bringing him to work with her at the since-closed Rivera Boxing Gym in Brooklyn, where she worked as a personal trainer.
“Denis used to run around in the gym, not wanting anything to do with boxing,” she said. “But then he’d see all the other little kids in there and they were enjoying the sport, so he decided it was something he wanted to do.”
While he ultimately committed to the sport, Denis’s relationship with boxing was anything but love at first sight.
“I hated it at first,” he admitted. “I didn’t like the training. But it’s definitely something I’ve learned to love.”
And since those times in Brooklyn some ten-plus years ago, the two have embarked together on a fistic endeavor that has led to Douglin’s emergence as one of the highest touted junior middleweight prospects in boxing.
Under his mother’s tutelage, Douglin stormed through the amateur ranks, racking up New York, New Jersey, and National Golden Gloves titles.
Now residing in Marlboro, New Jersey and nicknamed “Da Momma’s Boy” for obvious reasons, Douglin owns an undefeated record of 11-0 with seven kayos.
After starting his career 7-0 with four kayos, Douglin began a descent in weight from middleweight to junior middleweight, a move to which he attributes his recent string of knockouts.
In his last four fights, although pitted against tough, veteran opposition — who have shared the ring with the Paul Williams and Yuri Foremans of the world — Douglin stopped them all, three of them inside two rounds.
The humble southpaw describes himself as a boxer-puncher who can outbox his counterparts and overwhelm them with meaningful high-volume punching. Douglin likes to throw his punches in bunches and keeps his foot on the gas pedal.
“I try and go in there and let my hands go,” Douglin said. “I try to throw as many punches as I can to get my opponent out of there.”
While “Da Mamma’s Boy” has battered six of his first eleven opponents into submission in two rounds or less, he is well aware of the dangers of getting into slugfests early in fights.
“I’m trying to be a little smarter in my first rounds. I’ve been coming out in first rounds throwing bombs, which leaves myself open,” he said. “We’re trying to work on being a little more calm, working more behind my jab, but after I work behind my jab, I’m still trying to drop a bomb and get him out of there.”
And on Friday night in Monroeville, PA — a small suburb just outside of Pittsburgh — the opponent Douglin will be trying to “get out of there” is West Virginia’s Matt Berkshire.
“I don’t know much about him,” he said. “He’s 11-2 and a right-handed fighter.”
At this stage in his career, Douglin doesn’t need to know much about his opponents. Combine Douglin’s work-ethic with his mother’s demands, and there is little to no chance that Douglin will ever enter a fight unprepared.
Further, the twenty-two year old Douglin frequently works alongside and spars with a world champion, surely drawing inspiration and gaining confidence from those experiences.
“Frankie [Edgar] is full of heart. He’s a small guy, but he keeps coming at you,” Douglin said of the UFC Lightweight Champion and frequent sparring partner. “Every time we spar he comes with something different, something new. I always have to make adjustments. He’s great, it’s been great work for me.”
When Friday’s fight concludes, Douglin will have fought six times this calendar year. While his activity rate seems relatively high, if Douglin and his mother had it their way, they would have fought twice as much this year.
Next year his mother would like to see him fight a “minimum of once a month.”
Douglin would have fought at about that pace this year if not for multiple last-minute fall-outs.
“It’s definitely a little frustrating when you have a date and you’re training towards that date and then you find out two weeks before the fight that the opponent pulled out or something went wrong and now you’re not fighting on the card,” Douglin said of his hard luck. “But I have a goal and that goal is to become a world champion, so nothing can get me unfocused.”
If all goes according to plan on Friday and Douglin finishes 2010 with a 12-0 record, the mother-son duo can look toward achieving their goals set for 2011.
Atop the list for both of them is gaining more exposure.
“My goal for the new year is that he is televised and has a big fight,” Saphya said. “And for us a big fight is not necessarily money — it means exposure for people to recognize that this is a diamond in the rough, that this is a person who can fight, that this is the next Mayweather or even bigger than that.”
Douglin agreed, echoing his mother’s statement.
“Hopefully my managers get me on TV a little more and get a little more exposure because I think my story is great and my style is great,” Douglin said. “I think it’s what boxing needs.”
Also on Douglin’s 2011 wish list: a fight with James Kirkland.
“I want to fight the best. I don’t want to be one of those fighter’s who just have a padded record,” he said. “I want to fight the best fighters out there. I really want to fight James Kirkland.”
But before the ball drops in Times Square and even before Christmas gifts are exchanged in ten days, Douglin has business to attend to in the form of Berkshire.
While Douglin is confident that he can adapt and adjust to overcome any obstacles that may be thrown his way, one constant in Douglin’s game plan is his mother in his corner.
During the fights, Douglin’s strategy is not overly-complex. It’s worked well for him so far.
“I come out in the first round, I see what my opponent has by letting my hands go and seeing how he responds to that,” he said. “Once I see what he does, in the second round and so on I’m able to go on and take over and take advantage of his mistakes.”
Between rounds is where his mother takes over, alerting him to his opponent’s flaws, enabling her son to make the necessary adjustments to succeed.
“My first question is always, “Are you okay?” she said. “But after that, then I start to tell him the things that I saw that he can capitalize on. I also tell him what I think he should do more of.”
Her mother first, coach second approach in the corner has a calming effect on Douglin, who gets the constant reminder that they are in this together.
“The advice that my mother gives me in-between rounds, it’s a relaxed feeling,” Douglin said. “She knows exactly how to get in touch with my emotions and bring the best out of me. It’s like going home in-between rounds.”
And with that said, all opponents of Douglin’s are effectively the road team, no matter where the fight takes place. With his mother in his corner, Douglin will always have home ring advantage.
