Boxer Peter Dobson is undefeated, but life outside the ring has stunted his career progression. Now focused, Dobson is looking to make an impact.
How long are you willing to spend chasing a dream? In boxer Peter Dobson’s case, he’s nearly 10 years into trying to fight his way to the top.
The problem with answering that question is that there’s no correct answer. It’s something that you feel. Sadly, there’s no guarantee that our dreams will ever come true. Often, they don’t.
However, hope and faith propel us on the hunt to achieve the goals that live in our hearts and minds. Dobson’s dream is to become a boxing world champion. He’s undefeated in the ring, but many obstacles stand in his way.
Dobson (15-0, 9 KOs) found boxing for the first time when he was 14. At the time, the sport was merely a tool to stay in shape. Dobson’s focus was basketball.
“Well, realistically, I started when I was 14, but I only did it for three months,” Dobson said to FanSided. ” And then, like because I was playing basketball at the time. So like that’s when I first got my first taste of boxing.”
After those three months, Dobson didn’t re-discover boxing until he was 16. Poor high school academics briefly took basketball away from him, so he turned to boxing to fill the void.
“And like when I was 16, I had got like bad grades, so I couldn’t be on the basketball team anymore,” Dobson said. “So I was like, I would just go box, and so I really, really started boxing at 16.”
The fighter from the Bronx, NY, grew more connected to boxing, but in spurts. His first love was still basketball, so he only shifted to boxing when the New York Golden Gloves Tournament came around.
“So I like he used to treat boxing like a season,” Dobson said. “Like I would only fight in the Golden Gloves. So like all summer, I wouldn’t be boxing. But then, like a couple months before the Golden Gloves, I will start training.”
Little by little, Dobson absorbed boxing into his life more. According to Dobson, he switched trainers and spent more time preparing for other local tournaments like the Metros.
Still, Dobson wasn’t fully invested in boxing. Competitive by nature, winning was Dobson’s euphoria. That’s why he enjoyed basketball and was looking for the same effect from boxing. To make the sacrifices of boxing training pay off, Dobson felt like he needed victory to make continuing boxing make sense.
“But before that, I had told myself, I fought in the Golden Gloves right when I was 19. And I told myself, like, if I don’t win the Golden Gloves, then boxing isn’t for me,” Dobson said. “Like because I have fought the year before, and I lost. And I was like, I’m gonna just do something else. Because, like in basketball, I always won. Everything I do, I don’t like it unless I’m winning.
“So I was like, if I lose Golden Gloves again, then just boxing isn’t for me. Then the next following year, I won the Golden Gloves. And I was like, alright, I’m gonna keep boxing.”
Watch Peter Dobson vs. Damian Coria on Saturday, June 11, on Bxngtv.com at 8 p.m. ET
Winning the Golden Gloves kept Dobson in the sport, but it wasn’t enough to command his full attention.
Dobson found a well-paying job in the following years, and boxing became an afterthought. He trained and competed periodically, but he figured that his position at a hospital was his future. Dobson’s friends encouraged him to stick with his job instead of boxing.
“And I wasn’t taking it serious because I had got a good job,” Dobson said. “And I got like a job in the hospital, and all my friends were like, ‘Oh, you good. You got a good job’ and all of this. But they’re regular dudes. They don’t box. They really don’t have any dreams.”
Dobson took his peers’ advice. The battle between economic safety and the insecurity of chasing a dream played on between Dobson’s ears. He might still be working at the hospital if it weren’t for the words of a friend’s famous father, music producer Damon Dash.
Dash, a music mogul, founded Roc-A-Fella Records along with Jay-Z. His comments carried more value than most because of his success. His encouragement convinced Dobson to commit himself 100 percent to boxing.
“My friend’s father is Damon Dash. But Damon Dash came to my first amateur fight ever. When I was 16, he came to my fight with his son because his son was like my best friend. I hadn’t seen him for a while.
“When I saw him when I was 23, he’s like, ‘You still boxing?’ And I’m like, ‘Naw, I’m not boxing no more because I took like, a year off and I started working.’ And he was like, ‘Man, how many hours you work a day?’ I’m like eight and a half. He’s like, ‘Yo, look. Look how much you get paid. He was like, ‘Imagine if you went to the gym for eight hours a day, how much you would get paid.'”
Dash’s words had an immediate impact on Dobson. He considered his point and decided to quit his job and give boxing his all.
Today, Dobson is 32 years old. It has been nine years since Dash’s words inspired Dobson to dive into boxing and turn professional. It hasn’t all gone smoothly for Dobson. He endured promotional disputes and injuries, but he’s still fighting and hoping he will be a world champion one day.
His next contest is on Saturday, June 11, at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, GA, against Damian Coria (10-3, 2 KOs) in a super welterweight bout. Dobson hopes his efforts in the ring will attract a major promoter to sign him. His talents have already attracted a new trainer in Barry Hunter.
Dobson keeps up the struggle to turn his desires into a reality, and Dash’s words are still alive in Dobson.
“Training with Barry Hunter was like unexpected, you know what I mean?” Dobson said. “But I think that’s a great move. I think it’s gonna happen eventually, man. Barry Hunter is a plus. But I know it’s gonna happen eventually.”