A professional boxer from Racine is training for his second pro fight. Jerome Lambert hopes to stay undefeated when he competes this Saturday, June 24, but he also wants to see his teammates succeed. And when the fight is over, he plans to continue teaching local children how to box because it’s a sport that he says has changed his life.
Lambert, 28, says he was a teenager when he first watched a televised boxing match. That's when he told his dad, "I want to do this." Lambert says he also wanted to train because he was bullied.
"When I was a kid, I fought quite a lot because guys would make fun of my weight," he says.
His boxing training led to amateur competitions with USA Boxing for about 12 years before he stopped fighting. "I fell back from boxing for a little bit because life was just hitting me in all type of angles," he says.
Lambert's time away from the gym led to spending more time in the streets, he says.
"I was doing bad things and one day I ended up getting into a huge fight," he says. "A guy ended up pulling out a gun and shooting at me and he ended up grazing my leg."
That's when Lambert realized he wanted to focus on fighting again and giving back to the community by teaching kids how to box through Boxing Saves Lives Academy.
"That hour, two-hour gap that I have these kids — they could be anywhere doing anything, but instead they're in the gym, safe, boxing, learning about themselves, learning about discipline," Lambert says.
Lambert will compete June 24 at Boxers Make Boxing 3 at the Waukesha Expo Center. We spoke with Lambert when the event was originally scheduled at Fiserv Forum.
