Fighting chance: Reclaiming Louisville's place in heavyweight boxing history

The 1950s and 60s were Louisville’s boxing heyday. Casey Harden, senior director of engagement at the Frazier History Museum, said at the time many gyms were in community centers operated by the city, allowing them to flourish. 

Harden said there was also a supply of dedicated trainers, like the Columbia Gym’s Joe Martin and Presbyterian Community Center’s Fred Stoner, teaching young people to box.  

"They could go to their community center and be with this adult who supported them and taught them things and got them into the ring,” she said. "You had this kind of legacy of trainers that were helping to kind of cultivate new boxers." 

For a long time though, young boxers of color couldn't compete at the highest levels. While amateur boxing in Kentucky integrated in 1948, Harden said nationally, the Golden Gloves stayed segregated until a 1959 Supreme Court ruling. 

Louisville’s own Cassius Clay won a national Golden Gloves championship the same year, opening the door for his competitors and sparring partners alike. 

"We had eight individuals, eight men, between 1959 and 1988 come from Louisville and win national titles for Golden Gloves,” Harden said. 

In the 1980’s there was even talk of a Golden Gloves headquarters in the city. But Harden said the plans fizzled out, which she pointed to as a turning point.  

"There weren't boxing gyms on every corner or boxing gyms in these community centers, if the community centers were still around,” she said. "Funding gets cut right, and what's the easiest to cut first?" 

When Aaron Scheckles of Louisville’s Five Star boxing started coaching years later, the ever-present gyms of his childhood had dwindled to two or three. Creating new opportunities for young boxers became his passion.   

“What everyone else sees is them throwing punches," he said. "What I see is how you threw it, what step you took to throw it, how did he look when he threw it, what was his goal when he threw the punch."

Five Star boxers like Armond Jackson have found amateur success competing against major gyms from cities like Cincinnati and Detroit. Belief in their team and their city is often a hard-won battle.  

“Respect is never given, you always got to take it. And that's what we're doing right now, we're going to take it. Kentucky is going to come back and Louisville especially,” Jackson said.  

Timothy Moten, a Louisville-based professional boxer, had similar experiences as an amateur. But he pushed through, turned pro, started booking smaller fights, and eventually went overseas to spar with former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. He even recently sparred with Jake Paul in preparation for his fight with Mike Tyson, which aired on Netflix in November. 

Back home, he worked odd jobs to make money while training. After seven years of hard work, Moten won the American Boxing Organization's America's Championship, making him a professional champion. 

Former boxer Malachi Malone had her fair share of success too. After starting boxing later in life, in 2016, she made the USA travel team, training for a chance to go to the 2020 Olympics.  

"Just by having a talent and grit and a will to put yourself out there, and just apply yourself, can open so many doors that you can never imagine,” she said.  

But Malone joined Louisville Fire in 2018 and had to make a choice: prioritize her shot at Olympic glory, or take a steady job to support herself, and her nephews. 

"What am I going to lose if I walk away and what am I going to gain if I stay?” she asked of herself.  

For Moten and aspiring young boxers like Five Star’s athletes, the dream lives on – part of it, to one day bring another world heavyweight championship belt home.  

Scheckles said while it only takes one fighter to win, success for Louisville’s boxing scene will take financial support from the city.   

“Ali had support; he didn't do it by himself,” Scheckles said. “Because Ali led the way it opened the gate for everyone else.”  

Muhammad Ali shines as an example of how an athlete can turn from a talented kid into a legend, and the story of how a young Cassius Clay first put on a pair of boxing gloves is well-known throughout his hometown.  

Cassius’ red bike was stolen outside of the Columbia Gym, in Smoketown. When Clay went inside for help, he was pointed to an off-duty police officer named Joe Martin. 

Clay told Martin he was going to “whup” whoever stole the bike. Martin, in turn, took charge and started training Clay as a boxer. 

Ali began fighting on a television program called Tomorrow’s Champions as an amateur. In 1960, he announced himself on the world stage by winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics in Rome. He turned pro later that year.  

"He wanted to get into something that made a name for himself, but he wanted to bring everyone around him with him and that included the community of Louisville,” said Amelia McGrath, archivist at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. 

“That's why he always said I'm from Louisville Kentucky and I'm the best because I'm from Louisville, Kentucky,” she continued.  

“He continued to point back to Louisville, Kentucky and that meant a lot to people in the community,” said Ali Center CEO DeVone Holt. 

In Ali’s 21-year career, he fought 56 times and won three world heavyweight championships. The self-proclaimed “Greatest of All Time” also used his platform to become a symbol for change outside of the ring. 

"He did some extraordinary things inside the boxing ring and they're still exciting to watch today. But when you think about how he leveraged celebrity, leveraged his resources to make life better for people,” said Holt. “Everyone, when they turned on their televisions, when they read the newspaper, when they turned on the radio, got a glimpse of Muhammad Ali." 

Ali took notable stances against discrimination and on the civil rights battle in America. He became a flash point for protests of the Vietnam War. 

Ali refused the draft, citing that his religion wouldn’t let him serve. As a result, he was stripped of his world heavyweight championship, suspended from boxing for three years, fined $10,000, and sentenced to five years in prison. He appealed, and didn’t serve any jail time.   

That made his comeback to the sport in 1970 all the more exciting. Ali fought his last fight in 1981 and passed away in 2016.

"It was Superman and it was Muhammad Ali,” Holt said.  

While Ali is Louisville’s most famous heavyweight champion, he wasn’t the first. That title falls to Marvin Hart, whose career started in 1899 at 23 years old. 

In 1905, he won a fight in Nevada to become the fifth gloved heavyweight champion of the world.  

Hart retired in 1910, became a boxing referee and ran a Louisville tavern. He died in 1931 at 55 years old.  

Decades passed before Ali took the title in 1964. Shortly after, Ali’s lifelong friend and sparring partner Jimmy Ellis became the city’s next champion.  

Jimmy’s brother, Jerry, said after two fights as amateurs, Jimmy and Ali traveled, sparred and fought together for years.  

When Ali was stripped of the world title in 1967, Jerry Ellis said the World Boxing Association called for a tournament to fill the vacant title. Jimmy competed and became the world heavyweight champion in April of 1968.  

These days, Jerry Ellis hopes his brother will one day be honored with a Hometown Hero banner, just like Ali.  

"I just feel like more champions deserve a little more recognition,” he said.  

While the banner hasn’t become a reality yet, Ellis does have an honorary street sign, crossing Muhammad Ali Boulevard, unveiled in 2017.  

Similar signs were put up in early 2024 for Marvin Hart and the city’s most recent champion, Greg Page, who won his title in 1984.  

At the time, he was also raising a growing family with his then-wife Brenda Page.  

"The dad at home did everything he thought a dad was supposed to do. And he really wanted to be a dad,” Brenda Page said. 

Greg Page stepped away from the ring in the 1990’s, though his retirement wouldn’t last. A return to boxing led to a return home, for one final bout in Erlanger, Kentucky.   

"The tail end of his life and his legacy go past 2001,” CJ Duncan, Greg’s stepson, said.  

During that fight, Page suffered a subdermal hematoma, or a brain bleed. His family said there was no ambulance, no oxygen, and no physician licensed in Kentucky on hand at that fight. 

By the time Page arrived at a Cincinnati hospital, he suffered a stroke, which left the left side of his body paralyzed and ultimately contributed to his death in 2009.  

In 2006, the state’s general assembly formed the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Association, tasked with regulating the rules for professional combat sports in the commonwealth. 

The next year, Page and his family settled a lawsuit against the state for $1.2 million. The settlement required the KBWA to create a medical review panel for athletes. New protocols were put in place requiring oxygen, ambulances, and a licensed physician at each fight, as well as forming a medical review panel to check on the health conditions of athletes.  

In 2016, the KBWA was reformed into the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Commission bringing about more specific requirements regarding drug testing, bleeding, and medical treatment.  

The KBWC still hosts regular meetings, and trains officials on regulations and safety standards. 

One of the chief ways young boxers build a brand is by getting in the ring and competing. In November Louisville’s Police Activities League put on a new Amateur tournament, as an opportunity to fight.  

PAL worked with local gym TKO Boxing, where James Dixon started coaching almost 15 years ago.  He believes the sport is growing and points to boxing’s past to keep building its future.  

“Who greater than Muhammad Ali to use the lesson and say ‘hey Muhammad Ali came from boxing, look what he became,’” he said. “There could be the next Muhammad Ali in the city, so it takes the city to get behind them and support it.”

Aaron Scheckles’ boxers at Five Star have competed at tournaments at home and across the country, and often won. They credit a strong relationship with Scheckles, and lessons that stay with them outside of the ring, for their success.  

“The days you feel like not working hard, the days you feel like slacking a little bit, you just got to wake up earlier than them, go harder than them in every single thing you do,” Armond Jackson said.  

So far, Five Star’s strategy has been a recipe for success. 

Lavant Brownlee is a 2024 National Junior Olympic champion, ranked fourth in the country for his weight class. Jackson is a 2024 Golden Gloves champ and ranked seventh.  

At a December tournament in Virginia, both will have a chance to secure a spot on Team USA, to potentially train for the 2028 Olympics.  

It’s their shot to join their city’s legacy and step into their own.  

“I know it’s going to be done. There will be another world champion from the state of Kentucky and the city of Louisville,” Scheckles said. “That's going to happen. Mark my words.”