When Dante Craig made his pro boxing debut at the Garden last night, it marked the end of a long, arduous climb through hell and back.
Whenever a boxer goes pro, skeptics always question if he’s tough enough to handle the fights, strong enough not to get swallowed up by the sport. Don’t worry about Craig. With where the 22-year old has come from and what he has gone through, he can take it.
And while opponent Darren Fallen was no slouch, Craig had overcome far tougher obstacles: the disappointment of missing the ’96 Olympics that caused him to quit the sport; the death of his mother two years later that convinced him to come back; and fighting his way through the Olympic Trials despite grieving over the death of his infant son a year ago this month.
Maybe all that has made him more grounded; or maybe it was his family upbringing; or maybe that’s just his innate personality. Either way, this is a man with his priorities in order.
“I want to be a boxer who really has his life straight,” Craig said. “I never want to go broke. I love the simple life. I want to live comfortably, and not flashy. I want to get out of boxing with my common sense.”
He clearly has some. Lou Duva – his co-manager and trainer, with Tommy Brooks – has groomed a lot of championship fighters, like Pernell “Sweat Pea” Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor and current IBF welterweight champ Zab Judah. Duva says Craig has his head on straight.
“Remember the name Dante Craig,” Duva said. “Let me tell you about this kid. A lot of managers go after fighters because of their talent. I go first of all for character. If the guy’s got character, the talent we can take care of. That’s what kind of fighter this kid is; he’s got tremendous character.”
He’s had to overcome plenty of adversity to build that character. Craig was a promising prospect growing up in Cincinnati, and has sparred 200 rounds with Ricardo Williams, another one of the five Olympians who made their debut last night. But after Craig failed to make the ’96 Olympic team, he quit the sport and worked for a local dry cleaner for two years.
When his mother Mary died of breast cancer in ’98, Craig came to a crossroads. Craig said his brother Dion told him their mother had come to him in a dream, and that she didn’t want the youngster to let his gift go to waste. Craig picked up the gloves again, and now he’s glad he did.
“I was out of it for over a year after ’96. I couldn’t get myself back on focus. I gave it up ’96 all the way until my mom died,” Craig said. “But my brother came to me and said he had a dream about my mom. She was asking me to get back into boxing. I decided to give boxing one more chance.
“When I came back, my only plan was just to do good, make it to the Olympic Trails, and maybe I could sign a contract. That’s all I wanted to do. But I made it to the Olympic Trails, I made it to the Olympics, I was like wow, one thing after another.”
Indeed, in more ways than one. A week before the Trials, his three-week-old son Dante Jr. died of a respiratory illness. A shaken Craig was on the verge of giving up the sport for good, but his father got him to stick with it.
“Dante Jr.’s death really broke me up. He died a week before the Olympic Trials. I didn’t want to go, but my dad said ‘You earned your spot,'” Craig said. “I didn’t train. I mourned all week, and lost in the finals to Larry Mosley. But I had another week-and-a-half to prepare to meet him again in the box-offs.”
He beat the two-time U.S. champ twice to earn a trip to Sydney. He fought his way through an Olympic qualifier in Tijuana despite having root canal that finished 1 ½ hours before the fight.
And last night he made his pro debut in the Garden’s history-setting card.