“Listen to me: Kurt Scoby is going to be a huge star and a world champion… AND he can punch holes through walls.”
— Lou DiBella promoter
There was a time when boxing might not have been part of the Kurt Scobyhis ultimate plan Maybe if it were up to him, he’d dash over a thousand yards in the NFL right now.
But that did not happen. So he will have to settle down to become a potential world champion in the professional boxing world.
He’s doing great, with an 11-0 record and nine KOs, but he’s about to hit a roadblock, as he’ll be up against former world title challenger Hank Lundy on the June 29 card due Boxing Insider Promotions awarded.
It won’t be unusual for us to tell you that this is a fighter who had a difficult upbringing. But Scoby’s can be tougher than most. Hailing from Duarte, CA, Scoby had an abusive home life, and was later placed in foster care, where he found himself in fourteen different family backgrounds. Along the way, he became an accomplished athlete.
Scoby was once a soccer player and a boxer. At Monrovia High School in the greater Los Angeles area, he was the leading backrunner, dashing at a staggering 13.5 yards per take and scoring 35 touchdowns as a youngster. is a high school student. In one game, he actually had 287 yards in just 12 runs.
Of course, this would bring interest from major college programs, and Scoby accepted a scholarship offer from the State of Fresno. But he redshirted there, and then moved to Azusa Pacific (famous as Christian Okoye’s alma mater), where he raced to 2704 yards in three years, averaging over six feet on a single attempt.
For football, Scoby is listed between 180 and 190 pounds, and can weigh even more. He had to do a lot of weight loss to be fit for both football and boxing. The truth is, he says he found a real home in the boxing gym — in this case, Duarte Boxing Club — and he won the California Golden Glove title as a… part of the career has about 150 matches.
During the 2020 pandemic, he traveled east looking for a coach and some experience at the Big Apple. He received a plan ticket for $11 from Los Angeles to New York and admitted, “It was crazy to do what I did.” He trains at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, under the tutelage of Don Saxby, who he says has been a father figure to him.
His professional career began in September 2020 with a first-round loss to Pablo Luna. Admittedly most of his opponents were inferior, and he maneuvered them accordingly. So the criticism is that he is relatively untested.
That is supposed to change on February 17 this year, when he takes on John Mannu, an undefeated Australian male tennis player nicknamed “The Beast” who has beaten undefeated foes in his previous two matches.
This match, a ShoBox feature from Topeka, KS, turned out to be an introduction for Scoby, who overwhelmed his opponent with a second-half stop, scoring four kills.
He came…… almost.
And as his journey continues, he has a remarkable team around him. That includes not only Saxby, but co-managers Daniel Gonzalez and Brandon Stump; Leon Taylor, a former professional light heavyweight and bodybuilding legend who once defeated Michael Spinks in a duel, and Vlacheslav Papka, a fitness expert with lots of assistive technology, who helped keep Scoby fine-tuning.
Yeah, maybe Scoby CAN punch through walls. But this is a step-by-step process, and the next step is up against an insidious veteran who has entered the ring with some of the best in the business.
Maybe this guy can cross the finish line.
Tickets for the June 29 show are priced at $95, $125, $200 and $325 and are available through TicketWeb. Information about the table, contact [email protected]. Doors open at 6:30pm, with the first bell expected at 7:30pm.
Founded in 1997 as the premier boxing news and information destination, Boxing Insider has, over the course of the past ten months, moved into the advertising business. This will be Boxing Insider’s fifth pro boxing promotion.
Sony Hall is located at 235 W 46th St. in Manhattan, at the end of the Paramount Hotel, right across from the Theater Royal.
The event will be streamed for free on BoxingInsider.com.
