Boxing commentator Xavier Porter said it best: “That’s more than a role model. That’s a hero.”
He was stunned — just like everyone else at the Twin Rivers Casino in Rhode Island after witnessing teenage fighter Michael Valentin reveal his jaw-dropping secret.
The kid from Providence was supposed to be celebrating the fourth win of his career. Instead, he chose this moment to announce his medical condition to the world.
Fighting on the undercard of the Ray Oliveira-Edwin Soto fight night, Valentin was awarded the fourth victory of his career via a unanimous judges decision against Demetrius Wilson.
When asked to address his home crowd, Valentin grabbed the microphone off the ring announcer and proceeded to thank event organizers and the crowd before revealing he would be forced to take a step back from boxing.
“I’m a going to take a break after this fight,” he said. “I know it’s going to hurt me, but, all my life, I dealt with adversity.”
That’s when he needed a moment to compose himself. Then he came right out and said it.
“I always fought with a colostomy bag. And for everybody who thinks I’m lying, look at me right now, I got a colostomy bag,” Valentin said.
He pulled the front of his shorts down below his waist to reveal the plastic bag attached to the front of his stomach.
“I’m a f–king fighter,” Valentin said. “I fight for anything. After this fight, I’ll be going on to surgery. I’ll be out for about eight months, nine months to recover, but I’ll be back. I’m going to recover. I’ll be strong and I’ll give it to anybody. I’m a f–king warrior.”
You can watch Valentin’s incredible speech at the 46-minute mark in the video below:
After posing for pictures in the ring at the end of the fight, Valentin proceeded to climb up onto the ropes and show off his colostomy bag to the crowd.
The Ring reports that Valentin was diagnosed as a baby with Hirschsprung’s disease, a birth defect in which nerves are missing from his intestines.
He had 10 surgeries before the age of 11 to try and manage the condition.
Part of his colon was surgically removed as a baby and re-attached to the outside of his body — creating a stoma where his stomach waste is able to exit his body and into the colostomy bag attached to his abdomen.
He told Porter and fellow commentator Michael Woods during the CES Fight Night broadcast that he will undergo scheduled surgery in April that should eliminate his need for the colostomy bag and make his intestines fully functional.
Incredibly, Valentin revealed the local government combat sports authority informed him after the fight that he had been suspended for failing to inform officials that his condition included the need to use a colostomy bag.
Because of his failure to inform officials of the exact nature of his condition, the governing authority has indefinitely suspended him, despite Valentin’s claim that he had a note from his doctor confirming he had been medically cleared to fight.
He was emotional after the fight, when Valentin, who dropped out of high school to pursue boxing, told the live webcast that the colostomy bag led to his being bullied in school.
He will still be pursuing a career in boxing when he returns in nine months time — just as hungry as he is now.