TRAVIS WALKER

• NABF/IBA Continental Heavyweight Champion

Travis has been a professional boxer since July 2004 following a brief, but distinguished amateur career, which he didn’t start until age 21. In posting an amateur mark of 24-8, Travis won the 2003 National Golden Gloves title as a super heavyweight. Three of those eight losses were to Jason Estrada – the latter of which cost him a shot to make the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team for the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

Managed by Steve Munisteri and trained by the duo of Dwight Pratchett and Dickie Wood, Travis has been making up for his late start in boxing to fight 22 times in less than 2 ½ years.

He knocked out five of his first six opponents in the latter half of 2004, winning the other by majority decision.

In 2005, Travis was busy fighting nine times, winning eight of those and battling stablemate Jason Gavern to an eight-round draw in September. To date, that draw and a controversial loss to TJ Wilson in 2007 (since revenged) are the only blemishes on Walker’s record.

A month prior to stopping Agustin Corpus in December of last year, Walker and another stablemate, Raphael Butler, were brought in to spar with then-WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko to prepare him for his title defense against Hasim Rahman.
That fight never came to be, as the sparring partners reportedly gave Klitschko all he could handle and more, and the sessions came to an end when Walker dropped the Russian giant with a body shot. Several days later, Klitschko announced his retirement.
Travis has been extremely active in 2006, having fought and won seven times – including an impressive second-round TKO of John Clark on the James Toney-Samuel Peter undercard at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

FAMILY:

Travis, age 28, was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida by a single parent – his mother, Diann Walker – who worked as a law clerk.

He has an older brother, Gregory (28), who works at an automobile dealership, as well as a younger sister, Khadijah (16), who is a high school student.

For several years, Travis has served as a “Big Brother” to a young boy who moved from Tallahassee to Orlando. The boy is now age 9 and Travis continues in that role making the three hour drive whenever possible.

EDUCATION:

Travis successfully went through the Tallahassee school system. He attended the Bond Elementary School, the Nims Middle School and Rickards High School, from which he graduated in 1998.

In high school, Travis played football as a defensive end and offensive guard and received several college scholarship offers. He also excelled in track and field, running the 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 relays and throwing the shot put and the discus. He also set state records in weightlifting in both the bench press and clean and jerk.

WHY BOXING:

Travis was pursued by Rickards High boxing coach Alonzo Johnson to take up boxing, but he declined because Johnson was also the dean of his high school and as he put it, “Nobody likes the dean.”

However, after graduation he saw then-heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis score a quick, first-round knockout over an opponent who made more that $300,000 for less than two minutes in the ring, and the thought of that type of income gave Travis a change of heart about boxing.

Travis admits he took up the sport for the money, as he was not interested in going back to school.

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS:

CHILDHOOD HERO: “My mother, Diann”

PEOPLE MOST ADMIRED: “My mother and Willard Stanley II, the father of a friend”

EARLIEST BOXING MEMORY: “My first amateur fight in 2000. I got dead tired early, but I still won.”

GREATEST SPORTS MOMENT: “When the Florida State Seminoles won the national title in 1999.”

PRE-FIGHT FEELING: “I feel ready to get in the ring. Everything I trained for I am ready to put to work.”

HOBBIES/INTERESTS: “I like working with kids, being a Big Brother. I’m also a TV watcher.”

FAVORITE MOVIE: “The Last Dragon.”

FAVORITE MUSIC: “Hip-Hop” especially by Little Wayne.”

FAVORITE MEAL: “Barbequed Ribs”

FAVORITE BREAKFAST CEREAL: “None, I don’t eat cereal.”

FAVORITE JUNK FOOD: “Cake and ice cream together.”

FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR(S): “Vanilla”

FIRST JOB: “I worked at McDonald’s.”

FAVORITE BOXERS TO WATCH: “Evander Holyfield, one of the smartest boxers of all time.”

TOUGHEST OPPONENT: “Jason Gavern”

FAVORITE FIGHT: “TJ Wilson at Tachi Palace in California because I stayed calm and focused to avenge what I considered a bad stoppage in our first fight.”

MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: “TJ Wilson premature stoppage in our first bout.”

CHILDHOOD DREAMS: “To be a pro football player.”

GOALS: “To be heavyweight champion of the world and, after boxing, to be a hands-on owner of a number of Boys and Girls-type clubs.”

THINGS YOU WOULD LIKE BOXING FANS TO KNOW ABOUT YOU: “I love kids. I want to change the way kids look at life, to get them off the street so they can have a future. To show them it is easier to work and make something happen than to be in the streets and make something happen.”

PRESENT:
On February 29, 2008 Travis stopped TJ Wilson in the second round on Showtime to avenge his controversial first meeting late last year.