The San Francisco Bay Area has a crop of young fighters beginning to emerge that may make up the next wave of world champions to come from the region. One fighter that has received some attention, partially due to his unique story of balancing time as a Stanford student, majoring in Art Practice, with a career in the fistic arts, is junior middleweight Dante Kirkman. The Silicon Valley native’s story of perseverance as a fighter overcoming injury is one just as intriguing and inspiring as his tale as a student-athlete.
Kirkman (3-0, 1 KO) of Palo Alto, California found appeal in boxing as a youth where other team sports had disappointed him. Growing up, Kirkman tried his hand at just about every sport possible, having played soccer, football, basketball, running track and competing as a wrestler.
“I remember, with team sports, I never felt like I was getting my fair chance,” explains Kirkman. “I felt like in football, the coaches would play their sons the most or give their sons the ball the most. Or we would lose because somebody didn’t block or something that was out of my control. In boxing, I could control my own destiny and with my dad being a boxing fan, he always wanted to raise my brother and I to protect ourselves.”
Kirkman’s father, Robert, is not only a boxing fan, he took part in the sport as a young amateur growing up in East Palo Alto. Robert’s passion for the sport did not diminish once his time as an athlete concluded and he eventually passed down his love of boxing to his son.
“Where my father grew up was, at one point, the murder capital of the U.S. I believe, but he found a great path in life in amateur boxing, competing in the local Golden Gloves and traveling with his gym team,” details Dante. “He never really knew how to pursue boxing as a career, so it was just something he was really good at and really proud of. He was a big Sugar Ray Leonard fan and boxing fan in general. He always kept watching boxing and eventually introduced it to me at a young age.”
Robert’s fighting career did not blossom into a profession, but when his son expressed interest in boxing, Dante’s father wanted to make sure he got started off the right way so that if he displayed an aptitude for the sweet science, Kirkman would be set up for success. Eventually, Robert was put in touch with retired formerly world-ranked contender Mitchell Julien, who had carved out a noteworthy career mainly in Northern California rings.
“With my dad’s background in boxing, he had always felt that he wasn’t able to pursue a career because of where he was training at and people not knowing the real route to success,” explains Kirkman. “Because of that, my dad would call and ask around for people that had a deeper history in boxing than he did, like Mitch Julien, who I believe at one point was ranked number eight in the world and fought Roger Mayweather. Mitch wasn’t going to be staying here. I believe he was moving to Houston, but my dad asked Mitch, ‘My son is going to box and I am not going to just bring him to a fitness instructor. I really want him to be led the right way from the beginning.’ So Mitch recommended Eddie Croft.
Croft, a former world title challenger and one of the most well-respected trainers in Northern California out of his B Street Boxing in San Mateo, turned out to be a perfect fit for Dante and, just as his father had hoped, the young Kirkman would be led the right way from the start.
“From the beginning, Eddie’s and my personalities were very similar,” says Kirkman. “I really appreciated Eddie’s hunger and knowledge for boxing. All of the things he was teaching to these ten and eleven-year-old kids, he wasn’t just letting them go through the motions, but actually enabling them to understand how boxing works. Eddie was actually teaching them and not letting them slack off.”
By the time he turned 16, Kirkman had progressed to the point that he was ready to take on the best fighters in the country in national tournaments. Unfortunately, the only thing that could hold Kirkman back was his own body.
“I had a lot of injuries growing up, from overtraining and issues with my growth plates,” explains Kirkman. “For example, I started out orthodox and I hurt my left shoulder. Then I started training southpaw for a year or two and injured my left shoulder and switched back. I would constantly have something, whether it was a shoulder, elbow or hand, just something that would allow me to have a few fights and then take me out for a little bit. Eventually those injuries slowed down enough for me to be able to compete. My team and I decided it was the time to really start doing it and getting to the next level.”
While the injuries to his shoulders were a hindrance to his amateur career at the time, the experience of learning to box out of both stances will prove to be quite useful as he pursues his professional career.
“What is funny is that I am left handed, but I played sports like I was right handed,” recalls Kirkman. “So when Eddie asked me to show my stance, I hesitated for a bit, but I went into the orthodox stance. It wasn’t until two years later, when I injured my shoulder, that Eddie learned that I was actually left handed. Because of that, it was a pretty smooth transition to southpaw because I was actually left handed.”
All the while Kirkman was pursuing athletic achievement in the ring, the Palo Alto native was also excelling in the classroom. When away from the gym, Kirkman applied his studious nature not only to his classwork, but also to improve as a fighter.
“I would do film study, where I would see examples of these cool switches, like Willie Pep doing cool sidestep movements and I played around with how I could integrate these subtle switches or how I could do these things,” explains Kirkman. “I ended up doing whole national tournaments orthodox and other whole national tournaments completely southpaw and whole national tournaments going back-and-forth. So that was a great experience for me to be able to have that in my arsenal.”
While learning to box from both stances was a positive side effect from Kirkman’s recurring injuries, the young boxer was going to need to find a way to stay healthy if he wanted to pursue his Olympic or professional dreams. Luck would have it, that Kirkman’s trainer Eddie Croft knew someone very well that could be of great help.
“SNAC [Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning] started helping me, through Eddie’s wife, Casey Croft, who is a director at SNAC and has been amazing for my career, about five months before the Olympic Trials,” recalls Kirkman. “I started at the USA Boxing Eastern Qualifier. That was the introductory point, where I just started to get help from them, but even a week made a huge difference in how my body felt. After that, I had a full summer training camp, or multiple training camps with them, where my body completely changed. I grew a lot because I was getting the food I was supposed to eat. I wasn’t overtraining and so I noticed a big difference in my body.”
Healthy and fully-focused on boxing, with a respite from his workload as a Stanford student, Kirkman performed well at the U.S. Olympic Trials, besting two national champions in early rounds of the December of 2023 tournament, but ultimately coming up short in a semi-final bout with Keon Davis.
“It was a great experience,” says Kirkman. “I was there to compete, but it also just felt really good to be around the best fighters that in the coming years are going to be competing for or defending world titles. It felt like I belonged there and the legends before me, whether they won or lost, like Terence Crawford, who lost in the Olympic Trials and was there at that Olympic Trials as well, it definitely made me realize that I could do something special in this sport. No matter my story, whether I won or lost, it would be a part of my unique path and one day lead me to greatness.”
With his Olympic Trials experience in the rearview, Kirkman and his team immediately turned their focus to his professional debut, which would ultimately land in Redwood City, California in May of last year and result in a four-round unanimous decision over a seven-fight veteran. In his second bout, Kirkman would take another four-round decision, this time in Oakland, California, and again sweep all four official scorecards. Unlike some young prospects, Kirkman is planning to keep busy fighting at home and not make any trips to Mexico or elsewhere to fill out his record. It is part of a concerted effort to build his name in the local markets.
“It has been a choice,” explains Kirkman. “As a Bay Area native, inspired by Andre Ward, I have always felt that I wanted to have that fanbase behind me and to fight in front of friends and family. I want to be able to gain a larger fanbase behind me and someday fight in the 49ers stadium or Stanford Stadium or the Warriors stadium and have a big Bay Area show.”
Last time out, Kirkman scored his first professional knockout over Jose Madrigal Rodriguez in the third round back in Redwood City. For Kirkman, the victory was extra sweet as he felt he may have silenced some critics by his display of power.
“That felt great,” explains Kirkman. “I would always get little comments questioning my power from people. It never bothered me. My power played a factor in my amateur fights, and that was with extra padded gloves and headgear, but I would have fight-altering power at times. Also, in my first two fights, once my opponents felt my punches, they did not want to feel them again. It was just awkward, trying to get someone out that once they felt the power, they did not want to feel that again and kind of hopped on the defensive end. So finally getting to close the show in the third fight felt like a confirmation of my hard work and fighting ability.”
Kirkman will return to the ring on March 8th against eight-fight pro Jose Cruz in a four-rounder at the Venue at Thunder Valley in Lincoln, California. Kirkman will come prepared, having studied his opponent and preparing as best he can for the test come fight night.
“He’s a bit of an awkward guy,” Kirkman has surmised from his study. “He has a little bit of flash. He’s not a showboat, but he has some extra stuff. He tries to think a little bit. I am just interested in doing what I have to do. My coach Eddie Croft and I have a gameplan and we’re always going to be able to execute it. I just look forward to putting on a good show against a good opponent and hopefully have an exciting fight and get the job done and get my second knockout.”
To get to this point in his career, it has been a long road traveled from those early years of watching boxing with his father on television for Kirkman. Given his skill, determination and attention to detail, Kirkman’s journey ahead could be one to keep on every Bay Area fight fan’s radar. The promising young fighter looks forward to building his name in just under a month’s time at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort.
“My fans can expect to see someone that is very passionate about boxing, displaying their skills on the blank canvas of the ring and doing what I always do: bringing the heat,” says Kirkman. “As my Inferno nickname indicates, and hopefully putting on a great show and a dominant performance.”
Tickets for the March 8th event, promoted by Upper Cut Promotions, are available online at uppercutpro.com
Photos by Ed Silva/Original Solo Photos
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at [email protected]
