Local boxer Bradley Blankenship prepares for professional debut

By Brett Okamoto

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 | 7:48 p.m.

Bradley Blankenship is capable of many things.

He was an all-State running back for Sierra Vista High School in 2007. As an amateur boxer, he’s built a record of 27-6 and will make his professional boxing debut sometime in early 2010. And as a boy, he helped his mother raise his two younger siblings.

There is one thing however, that gives the 20-year-old Blankenship trouble — not smiling.

“I’m going to be the only boxer ever to smile in all his pictures,” said Blankenship during a recent attempt to appear serious for a photographer at Top Rank Boxing Gym.

“It’s just what I’ve told a bunch of people,” he said. “I’m sitting on Cloud Nine and I’m not coming down. I haven’t stopped smiling this whole time. I box for a living. How cool is that?”

On Nov. 10, Blankenship signed a contract with TKO Promotions and boxing manager Cameron Duncan that officially turned his successful amateur career into the start of a professional one.

The event was just the latest milestone in a remarkably short path Blankenship has taken so far through the sport of boxing.

Because of his mother's worries, the closest Blankenship got to a ring until his freshman year of high school was watching Oscar De La Hoya and Mike Tyson fights on television.

Already a football standout at the start of high school, Blankenship persuaded his mother to let him begin training with Gil Martinez at Elite Boxing Gym with the promise he wouldn’t actually fight anybody and would continue to work toward a football scholarship.

“I always loved boxing, but my mom wasn’t for it,” Blankenship said. “My freshman year of high school I told her, ‘Come on, let me try this out. My main goal will still be a football scholarship.’”

Blankenship kept true to his word and withheld from amateur fights throughout high school — a popular time for young boxers to start gaining experience in regional and national tournaments.

After graduating from Sierra Vista in 2007, however, Blankenship was 18-years-old and couldn’t keep himself out of the ring any longer.

“Football didn’t work out for me and as soon as I turned 18, I was a legal adult and could do what I wanted,” Blankenship said. “I went full-force on it and have been ever since.”

Despite his relatively late start in the sport, Blankenship’s natural boxing abilities earned him a quick reputation in the amateur circuit.

At the National Golden Gloves Tournament this year, he defeated nationally ranked Ray Rivera and Jesus Correa en route to a third-place finish in the 165-pound division.

His knack for the sport has even won over his mother, Iada, who picked up a second job so her son could train full-time instead of picking up a part-time job.

“The first time she watched me was my fourth fight, and I had to force her to go,” Blankenship said. “She even has trouble going to the fights today. She’ll sit in the corner and close her eyes.

“But after that first fight she said to me, ‘You’re going to do this. You still have to go to school, but I’ll work hard so you can dedicate yourself to this.’”

Blankenship has rewarded his mother’s efforts by reaching the professional level of boxing while managing to maintain his business studies as a full-time student at UNLV.

Blankenship acknowledges that he’s missed the parties and athletic events that go along with the college experience. But with the prospect of his first professional fight somewhere in the next few months, he smiles as he dismisses any sacrifice he’s made.

“I don’t have a normal college life. I do miss out on a lot,” Blankenship said. “But I think it’s definitely worth it. You have to take chances in life; this is mine.

“I’d rather sacrifice four years of having a good time to live the dream of a professional athlete, then have a good time for four years and then work a nine-to-five job.”

After a relatively short amateur boxing career that consisted of constantly looking for fights to make up for lost time, Blankenship says there is no rush now when it comes to the early stages of his professional career.

At this point, the fighter has yet to schedule his debut and has opted to leave Martinez and train with former Olympic boxing coach Kenny Adams.

Adams, who worked with the U.S. Olympic boxing team in 1984 and 1988, has focused primarily on slowing Blankenship down, as he has built the habit of throwing too many punches as an amateur.

“He’s been in the amateurs awhile and developed the habit of throwing a lot of punches,” Adams said. “He did a good job in his amateur career, but that doesn’t always mean you’ll have a great pro career. In his case, I see a difference because he’s blossoming. He’s learning and he’s getting ready to explode.

“He’s a nice kid — honest, hard worker and he wants it.”

Blankenship has fought his entire amateur career in the 165-pound division but is planning a move to either 154 or even 147 pounds for his professional debut.

No matter what weight he’s fighting at, he says his goal is to become a world champion someday.

That would surely be something to smile about.

“When the time is right, I want to be a world champion and I want to be remembered,” said a smiling Blankenship. “From what I understand, there’s never been a boxer born and raised in Las Vegas that really made it. There’s been a bunch of fighters who came to train here but originated somewhere else.

“I’m the natural-born Las Vegas fighter. I think that’s kind of cool.”

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected].