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Meet Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, the 11-year-old boxing and gymnastics prodigy

At only 11-years-old Javon “Wanna” Walton has already started making waves in the world of boxing and gymnastics. He got his nickname “Wanna” because he wanted to do everything when he was little.

Javon is defying the traditional route athletes usually take sticking to one sport. That’s not good enough for the 6th grader. He wants to go to Olympics for both sports.

This is the first time we have ever seen a kid like this. Despite being so young Javon has a crazy work ethic if he doing something he wants to do his absolute best no matter what it is and boxing and gymnastics are no exception.

Javon starts training early in the morning usually starting with boxing for a couple hours, then gets some schoolwork done, and then he will head to gymnastics practice. Then he will do some more boxing training at night time and then call it a day.

The determination that this kid shows is absolutely insane and has a team behind him that is pushing him to be his absolute best. He is trained by his father in boxing who recently opened a gym so they train daily. The young man has his goals set high and plans to surpass his old man one day saying,

“Man, I love my dad but when I grow up I’m really looking forward to sparring with my dad.”.

Yeah, this kid is absolutely wild.

He also has an older sister who is a gymnast and was influenced by her brothers work ethic. Now she’s boxing herself and absolutely hooked.

Javon was recently featured in an Ander Armour commercial featuring The Rock it called team UA Next.

He had to submit a video showcasing his skills as an athlete and he had to compete against thousands of kids and he was chosen along with some other phenomenal young athletes. When The Rock saw him, he knew Javon was the perfect fit.

The UA next campaign and commercial led to Javon develop more fame than he already had but despite being in this commercial his family is not letting the fame get to his head. His father said,

“The commercial has awarded him a lot of recognition but we are constantly reminding him that there are a lot kids out there that put a lot of work in and to be able to dedicate yourself and still have time to be a normal kid it’s cool to have a really big following on Instagram but unless you are really chasing your dreams and doing what you love to do all that really doesn’t matter.”

Cleary this kids has the work ethic and drive to get him where he needs to go and we can’t wait to see him in the Olympics in the future.

Eric Kelly on his gym SouthBoX, gentrification, and the NY fight scene

From Bed-Stuy to the Bronx, Eric Kelly damn sure knows the fight scene and how fighting can save the yougins. When his new gym, SouthBoX got labeled as the source of gentrification by the New York Times, you know he had to pull up.

“Gentrification killed boxing, that’s why in a gentrifying neighborhood, I put this gym here and I ain’t gonna kill boxing, because I am boxing.”

And that he is. Kelly is a veteran in the boxing game, he’s a two-time Golden Gloves champ and former U.S. Olympic Team member but as much as he loves boxing, he loves guiding the youth more.

After seeing the neighborhood of Mott Haven consistently  ignored and underdeveloped for years, Kelly decided to link up with Keith Rubenstein, his client and close friend of 10 years, to open up SouthBoX.

A safe haven where models, Wall Street folk, pro athletes, and most importantly, the youth can all gather and learn some boxing skills.

“The goal is to make sure they have a place to go. Some kids come here and they can’t even afford the membership, so I let them shoot hoops outside. As long as they ain’t in the streets, as long as they’re right here in my cypher, and I can help them, that’s whats important. Everybody’s welcome.”

Kelly is big on authenticity and maintaining the legacy of the sport of boxing, so when a bunch of fancy, led-light filled boxing gyms started popping up in the city, he wasn’t having it.

“You got Rumble, ShadowBox, Overthrow–that’s not my thing, I’m here for real boxing, I’m not here to make a mockery of my sport. Those gyms aren’t for the kids, they can’t afford those. What’s keeping the kids off the street?”

Kelly has a scholarship and training team dedicated to the kids of the neighborhood and has seen a handful of fighters come up from their diaper days. You know Sadam Ali, the middleweight that snagged the Junior WBO title from Miguel Cotto?

https://twitter.com/KultureHub/status/937115081535401984

He’s been in Kelly’s cypher since he was a toddler. Kelly knows plenty of young local fighters who are making noise in the game and gives props to boxing programs such as Atlas Cops and Kids in Brooklyn and Staten Island for giving them those opportunities.

Simultaneously, as new boxing gyms have been opening up around the city, so have mixed martial arts gyms.

Hell, back in November boxing heavyweights Deontay Wilder and Bermane Stiverne went at it at the Barclays Center while we saw the return of UFC vet, Georges St. Pierre at Madison Square Garden on the same night.

Kelly doesn’t hate on the MMA folk, he gives big ups to their athleticism and even trains UFC fighters like middleweight Oluwale Bamgbose.

While the two sports have their differences, Kelly acknowledges that they share similarities, such as fighters using performance enhancing drugs. Kelly stresses,

“It’s all of these strength and conditioning coaches, handing you this and making you that. Fighters never used to need that. Muhammed Ali ain’t do that shit.”

Between the businessmen, rappers, and even UFC President Dana White who have tried or shown interest in promoting boxing, Kelly thinks we should just “leave it to boxing people to do boxing.”

Despite the MMA beating boxing on the pay-per-view numbers side, Kelly is loving the current state of boxing and can’t wait to see more fighters from the city glow up.

“New York is in the house and I’m just happy to be apart of it. I’m happy to have passed the torch to some pretty good guys and they’re  gonna take the sport farther than I did and I love it.”

Who is the bigger savage: Floyd Mayweather or Conor McGregor?

The superfight of the century is almost here and people have pretty much made up their minds.

While Conor has most definitely been giving Floyd the verbal hands, it seems the popular opinion is that Mayweather is gonna wash him quick. Don’t tell that to any Irish fan but at the end of the day, the fight itself is gonna be trash so we all sick.

Still, never have we seen lead up quite like this and when it comes to trash talking and being an all around savage, this match has already delivered a greatest of all time performance.

Sure the press conferences leading up were wild but it’s the respective trash they’ve talked throughout the years to other opponents, elderly people, and in other big fight situations that makes them truly savage.

So who has the upper hand in the mind games department? The truth is, both men are so well off (especially Floyd) that none of this petty shit really matters to them.

They are both in control and have crowds hanging on their every word. People are really gonna buy this fight, and yes, they are really gonna generate hundreds of millions of dollars each off of this.

Of course Mayweather has the upper hand there but it’s the whole reason why Conor McGregor is trying to take fights like this in the first place. He has now placed himself at the class of the elites in the fight game.

Who knows, maybe all this trash Conor has been spewing may actually pay off and he can surprise Mayweather. But realistically, yeah… nah.

At the end of the day I can ramble about this shit all day or you can watch the video above and pull up to the pop up in Vegas and make sure you got something to remember this history by.

Eric Kelly

Former boxing champ Eric Kelly talks regaining success after losing it all

Eric Kelly knows what it’s like to be at the top of his fight game.

He also knows what it takes to get there from the bottom and what it’s like to have it all taken away.

Born in Florida, Kelly moved to Brooklyn and was forced to learn how to move in the streets at a young age. The most pivotal experience came when he was jumped by a group of kids on his block and was left to scrap with no experience while outnumbered.

From that moment on, his father decided to equip Kelly with the knowledge on how to defend himself for good.

He began boxing and was a natural. With the training of his pops, and a newfound focus, he became one of the best in the city in a few short years. By 1999, Kelly graduated from high school and won two consecutive New York Golden Gloves. During his rise, he was competing with some of the best in the world like Jermaine Taylor and Andre Ward. He was being interviewed by Chris Rock for HBO and seemed truly destined for greatness.

BK back in the ’80s and ’90s was significantly different than it is now. Eric may have witnessed a lot at a young age but those experiences also made him the multi-faceted person he is today. In a recent interview with Kulture Hub Kelly said,

“Growing up in Brooklyn was tough but that’s what made me a man… I remember being in the park playing and gun shots start firing off in the park and seeing crack viles all over the ground… Growing up in Brooklyn was tough and it made me tougher, so I guess it’s only natural that I became an Olympic boxer.”

Kelly was eventually selected to train at the United States Olympic Education Center and competed in the 2000 Olympics representing his country. He was on the road to becoming one of most prolific young boxers of his generation.

But with all the success and opportunities starting to finally open up, Kelly allowed himself to get caught up with the distractions outside of the ring that ultimately jeopardized his boxing career. He admitted his mistakes saying,

“I was on the perfect path. I lost focus though. I started going out partying (never did any drinking or drugs) and staying up late and f*cking with girls. I’d got my first taste at being a regular kid and I fell in love with it. Little did I know that that was my time to be a man. I was out getting in to fights and ultimately I got kicked out of the USOEC program.”

Of course when it rains it pours. This led to a downward spiral that left Kelly with a life-altering incident that ultimately led to him losing out on the rest of his boxing career.

After dipping out on his dad to avoid bearing the consequences, he went to Detroit to start training at Kronk Gym while staying with his sister when everything changed at the blink of an eye. He recalled the fateful moment,

“I was so afraid to tell my dad, I sort of hid it from him until I started needing to call the house for money all the time. So I moved to Detroit with my older sister and that’s where I started training at the Kronk Boxing gym. Like a year later, I got in to a fight at a sports bar in Detroit and got hit in the eye with a pool cue and it f*cked up my boxing career.”

The abrupt end to his boxing career was a tough pill to swallow for the once promising prospect and champion.

He would move back to Brooklyn in 2007 where instead of breaking down, he started a family, got refocused, and reclaimed success on his own terms. Taking the lessons he learned from his past, Kelly was able to to take everything that made him a great prize fighter and turn that into a new career. His personality has always been larger than life and that’s what makes him one of the best trainers in the game. He’ll keep shit real with you whether you’re ready for it or not.

Today, Kelly has fully transitioned fully into a mentor, coach, and business owner of his SouthBoX Gym in the Bronx, NY. It was the center of a New York Times investigation about gentrification in the South Bronx, which Kelly states his gym is not a part of in any way.

While the gym and business itself is new, that authenticity he brings is what makes it so attractive.

He gets plenty of neighborhood kids looking to learn the sweet science, giving them an opportunity to succeed. He also has a lot of high profile clients from models, to artists, and pro athletes like Brandon Marshall who pulls up for private sessions.

A post shared by Eric Kelly (@erickellylife) on

Kelly’s personality shines the brightest these days and that’s what VICE noticed when they featured his story and eventually had him host an entire VICE Sports series where he investigated different parts of the sports world and did all types of shit like go to the MLB All-Star game and learn from a combat drill sergeant.

That same energy he had as a boxer has evolved into helping him create the role he has today. He stays in touch with the youth and his audience (which he says is made up of mostly middle-aged white men), to deliver content and most importantly a message about how to live a happy life and how to get more out if it. Even after losing his boxing career, Kelly never let that stop him from achieving more.

My Kellilization! #Christan #Ashton #Alexandria #Eric #MyKids #HappyDad #4Pack #Family #GetYourEricKellyOn

A post shared by Eric Kelly (@erickellylife) on

Seeing guys he faced progress over the years was sort of bittersweet but at the end of the day Kelly has the perspective to appreciate it too. Even after losing to Andre Ward at the 2001 US Nationals, he knows his time at the top even back then served as an inspiration to the future gold medalist.

Everyone needs someone to look up to and for Ward, it was Eric Kelly. Kelly shared,

“I remember Ward sort of looked up to me. When we fought, after the fight he told me how much he respected me and watched me as he was coming up, he even asked me to autograph his boxing glove. Today I love the guy, he is the perfect definition for how one is supposed to behave as a man, an athlete and a champion!”

No matter what Eric decides to do next, he will go about it the only way he knows how and that’s keeping it real always. If one thing is for certain, it’s that he’ll be here ready to teach the next generations of boxers how to do it the right way.

He knows what it takes to build a champ just how his father did it for him, it’s all about getting someone to believe in themselves first. Now that he’s taking that role of mentor for these younger guys, the next Golden Gloves champion in the city could very well be in large thanks to Eric Kelly.

To this day, he still credits that scrap he took as a kid, which introduced him to a new world where he was able to make his living and legacy, one of the most important moments of his life.

“Ironically, the neighborhood kids wanting to kick my ass is ultimately what saved my life, because that’s when I was introduced to boxing!”

Sometimes in life, you just need to get your ass kicked to learn how to get up.

Is Conor McGregor ready to throw the hands with Floyd? An investigation

Conor McGregor is one of the most polarizing sports figures in recent memory.

He’s a vocal individual and probably one of the greatest MMA trash talkers in the past few years.

The Irishman achieved huge success and notoriety after defeating Jose Aldo for the UFC Featherweight Championship at UFC 194 in just thirteen seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6AK9PaMm4k

At UFC 205, McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, becoming the first man in UFC history to hold two different weight division titles.

He’s on top of the UFC mountain and soon he and Floyd Mayweather began trading shots on social media with fans clamoring for a clash between the two fighters.

Conor Mcgregor Mma GIF by UFC - Find & Share on GIPHY

Rumors swirled for weeks about whether the fight would be in the Octagon or in a boxing ring.

Sure enough, the fight was confirmed on June 14th as it was announced the two would clash in a boxing match at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Floyd is undefeated in the boxing world with a pristine 49-0 record with 26 knockout victories.

Conor Mcgregor Boxing GIF by UFC - Find & Share on GIPHY

Conor on the other hand, has never fought in a professional boxing match but is known in the UFC for his striking power.

It’s a blatant mismatch but Conor has been hard at training for his boxing debut.

In training with Chris van Heerden, Conor clearly gets tagged multiple times and slumped like a sack of potatoes. He looks like he’s playing Wii Sports Boxing out here.

Recently, video footage of Conor’s latest spar have surfaced and it shows some form of hope for the Lightweight Champ.

In it, McGregor seemingly knocks out a former champ Paulie Malignaggi in what has stirred up plenty of controversy in recent weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaQxWZsX0hg

It seems like an impressive achievement for the 29-year-old however, there are clearly flaws in the “achievement.”

Conor and his camp claim that Malignaggi wasn’t able to land a single blow on McGregor and McGregor himself claims to have whooped Malignaggi during the spar.

Many former boxing champs are not impressed and neither am I.

For one, even though Malignaggi is a former champ, you can clearly tell that he’s way out of shape and he’s not as young as McGregor.

Three-division champion Shane Mosley watched McGregor’s sparring video and says he doesn’t think highly of Conor McGregor’s abilities as a pugilist. In an interview Mosley said:

“(McGregor) throws more at the fighter, instead of through the fighter. If you’re going to throw at Mayweather, you’re never going to hit him with anything.”

Mosley has a point. McGregor’s only throwing at and not through his opponent. If he wants to have any chance of beating Mayweather, he needs to punch through.

McGregor has also been seen gassing early and been knocked out by a heavy bag in an open practice.

Does McGregor stand a chance of knocking out Floyd? Nope, there’s no chance in hell McGregor will beat Floyd.

Or, he could shut down the naysayers and etch his name yet again in the history books as the only man to ever beat Floyd Mayweather.

#TBT: When the WWE tried to become boxing and it ended terribly

Let’s remember the Brawl for All, a shootfight boxing tournament with a prize of $100,000 concocted by the mad mind of one Vince Russo.

Seen on WWF Raw in the late 90s, the tournament was an opportunity for many underutilized guys to get TV time.

Today marks 19 years since the favorite in the Brawl for all Tournament, “Dr Death” Steve Williams, was surprisingly defeated by Bart Gunn in the second round via TKO.

What To Expect When Barts Expecting GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

During the match, Williams tore his hamstring muscle and was soon knocked out by Gunn. Williams was slated as the favorite to win the tournament and enter into a profitable PPV program with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

The Brawl for All was a mess of a tournament made to give some underused midcard talent something to do.

Instead, it created a filler between programming that fans just weren’t interested in. Here’s how it came to be.

Vince Russo created the idea as a result of John Bradshaw Layfield saying he could knock anyone out in a bar fight.


The tournament consisted of three one-minute rounds.

Shocked Vince Mcmahon GIF by WWE - Find & Share on GIPHY

At the end of a round, whichever wrestler connected with the most punches per round scored 5 points.

In addition, a takedown scored 5 points and a knockdown was worth 10. If a wrestler could not answer an 8 count, instead of the standard 10, the match was ended


Bob Holly claims that Dr. Death, being the favorite to win, was already paid $100k before the grisly fight against Bart Gunn.

Happy Make It Rain GIF by BrownSugarApp - Find & Share on GIPHY


Bart Gunn went on to beat Bradshaw and win the tournament and $75k. Bradshaw received $25k.


Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock, two of the toughest men in the promotion at the time, did not participate in the tournament as Severn was removed after defeating the Godfather in the first round.

Hair Compels GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Severn was displeased with the rules and having to wear gloves. Shamrock straight up refused. Smart move Shamrock…


Along with Dr. Death, many other wrestlers such as Godfather, Savio Vega, Steve Blackman, Road Warrior Hawk, and Brakkus sustained injuries.

Family Guy Knee Injury GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY


Jim Cornette criticized Vince McMahon for risking injury to his roster in order to put on such a dangerous tournament as well as not capitalizing on Bart’s win to build a new star.

Shocked Vince Mcmahon GIF by WWE - Find & Share on GIPHY


Thankfully, WWE never hosted another Brawl For All after this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCXz6hXCX7M&t=298s

Conor McGregor is bringing out the petty in Floyd Mayweather again

Yesterday in LA, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor finally met face-to-face in the first of four press conferences leading up to their fight on August 26th.

It was pretty much what everybody expected. Conor was violating Floyd off the jump, prancing around in his custom suit and firing off mad Irish expletives.

Mayweather on the other hand was looking completely sick at first but by the end of the press conference, one thing was for certain: the old Floyd is back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6WaGr4Ee0Q

Not the old Floyd from 20, 10, five or even two years ago in the ring. The man is 40 and his best boxing days are well behind him. I’m talking about that gully kid from Grand Rapids who used to disrespect his opponents similar to the way Conor does today.

Lately, Mayweather has been a little more subdued and low key. He’s been in the game long enough to not let things get to him. But then he met Conor McGregor.

If you don’t remember, Floyd used to always take shit to the next level.

Remember when he pulled up to the De La Hoya fight in a sombrero?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzscDz3iKf8


Or when he tweeted this meme about Manny Pacquiao?


But what about when he violated an entourage member for fucking up his coffee?


Things got real when Floyd disrespected his own father on camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJoI0bXl3Q


What about when Larry Merchant told him he’d kick his ass if he were 50 years younger?

As you can see this is a guy who can go toe-to-toe with Conor McGregor.

When it comes to petty, shit talking, and just overall being disrespectful, I might even give Floyd the edge here.

If one thing is for certain, it’s that things are only going to get uglier as they hit three more cities, including Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, before their big fight.

It seems that Floyd Mayweather has finally met his match when it comes to shit talking.

Check out the full press conference here:

Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor are going to fight… but why?

On August 26th in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor will finally fight after years of posturing and bullshitting back and forth.

The spectacle will probably earn both fighters about 9 figures, with the entire world set to tune in, but the fight itself is mostly pointless.

Yes, the fight will make everyone involved a shit-ton of money. I mean, you’re gonna buy the pay-per-view, shit, I’m gonna buy the pay-per-view and I’m writing words about how the fight is going to suck.

But it will suck, mostly because one dude is an undefeated boxer, maybe the greatest pound-for-pound boxer in recent history, who has been fighting professionally for over 20 years and the other dude is not a professional boxer at all, and while he’s good at hitting people, again, he’s not a professional boxer.

Granted, McGregor’s greatest strength within THE OCTAGON is his punching. He has quick and powerful punches, unnerving his opponent with combinations, mostly relying on footwork that gives the illusion of an incoming kick, and then striking with his hands.

The issue here being that McGregor can’t kick, or do virtually anything that he knows how to do, within a boxing ring. McGregor has to basically learn an entirely new sport and then try to beat a dude who has never ever lost at that very sport.

The only chance McGregor has is to attack Floyd and bring some chaos into the ring, he’s just not going to outlast Money Mayweather.

Floyd’s style of boxing is perfectly suited to stamp out any fires that McGregor will try to bring to the ring. Floyd is defensive, quick, and opportunistic. He wins fights by not getting hit, while hitting this opponent with efficient blows.

While it’s hard to imagine Floyd knocking out McGregor, at the same time there’s just zero chance McGregor can last 12 rounds of strategic and calculated boxing against the greatest boxer of the last 25 years.

Again, McGregor’s only chance is to knock Floyd out, but that is just straight up not gonna happen, because it’s never happened in Floyd’s 49 career fights against actual boxers.

As much as it hurts to count out my Irish brother, the odds are ridiculously stacked against him, literally. Mayweather started out as a -1100 favorite in Vegas (for all you non-degenerates out there that means you have to risk $1,110 to win $100).

So, the question we must ask ourselves is why is this fight happening? The answer is, of course, money, with both fighters set to take home an estimated $100,000,000.

But that Floyd is coming out of retirement to fight McGregor also reveals flaws in the world of boxing itself. Is there really no one that can generate as much hype and excitement fighting Floyd than a UFC fighter?

Anyways, this fight is a huge farce from a sporting perspective, but an ingenious idea from a marketing, entertainment, and money-making perspective, which is ultimately what Floyd, McGregor, and boxing are all about.

The whole world will tune into this spectacle to watch Floyd toy with an amateur and then they’ll both head home with their bank accounts padded and we’ll all be out $100 cash to Showtime and wonder why we just watched this shit.

On the bright side, we can all laugh at Piers Morgan.