Race creates a path to the top all his own

HUDSON — Hudson boxer Christian Race was faced with a life-altering decision.

Race’s amateur career in the ring had just started to take off under the guidance of trainer Todd Smith, but a childhood dream of joining the military and serving his country that he had put on the back burner began to pull at him again.

After some soul searching and lengthy heart to heart discussions with Smith, Race made up his mind to join the United States Navy, where he will also continue his boxing career.

Race, 19, explained what led to his decision, saying, “Before boxing was my dream, the military was my dream. I always dreamed of being a soldier. Something rough and tough where I could help people and teach people, and then when boxing came along, the military dream blanked out and that became a new dream.

“From day one I told myself, my sole purpose is to become world champ, nothing else. Every day is living and breathing boxing, then all of a sudden, when you least expect it, that old dream comes along and that great opportunity to be a soldier comes along and it caught me by surprise. As soon as that opportunity came along, I had to make my decision. It’s only a two-year term and I can box, too. I’m going to go out there, build my amateur career, serve my country and help protect my country, come home and follow that dream to become a world champion.”

Race made it clear to his recruiters that he wanted to continue boxing while serving.

“I made sure they did that because I wasn’t going in there clueless,” he said. “They’re going to make sure I box right after boot camp, but it’s not like Hudson where you walk in the gym and they hand you a pair of gloves, you have to prove yourself and that’s what I love about it. It’s going to bring me back to that warrior stage. When I first came to Todd, I didn’t get to hop right in the ring, I had to prove myself and that’s what I’m going to have to do in the Navy. It’s going to give me a better mindset, it’s going to keep me from getting that thug attitude, that savage attitude in the ring. It’s going to make me more of a man and ready to fulfill a pro career and be a professional.”

Smith, who Race considers a father figure, was proud of his young protege’s choice.

“I told him if he didn’t go I was going to kick his butt,” Smith said. “I tell them all, if you have opportunity to go in the military, serve your country and become a man. Not just a man, but a self-made man. All of my friends that went in the military, they came back with a different persona. They were very respectable, they had a plan, goals, they were goal-driven, and that’s how I want him to be. We’re just shooting from the hip right now. He’s winning with just natural ability, now it just needs to be molded and fine-tuned and when he comes home in two years, business as usual.”

Smith plans to stay in contact with Race on a regular basis and sees this opportunity as a win-win situation.

“This man’s plan is awesome. He’s got it figured out,” Smith said. “He takes a two-year hiatus, gets away, sees the world, gets disciplined. He’s still rough around the edges, he’s very humble, but I noticed in his last few fights, even when he gets an eight-count, he doesn’t clebrate. He just humbly walks to the neautral corner and gets ready to fight. This is what he needs. Being in the Navy, it’s going to build his character. I’ll get to talk to him every week, it’ll be great. This was the best decision for him. He was struggling with it, but I told him to go for it.”

Race credits Smith with helping to make this major decision easier.

“Todd is more like a father to me, he cares about my well-being more than the money,” Race said. “Some trainers would be like ‘nah, you got to stay.’ He knows what our plan is. He knows my sole purprose is to become a pro. I’m not doing anything else, but box. This is one of those things like a stepping stone. I love the Navy and I love the country, but there is nothing that can take me from boxing.”

Race leaves Monday for basic training at the Recruit Command Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. After that he will be stationed at one of his three choices: Virginia, Florida or Hawaii.

“I come from a military family. All of them did some type of service, so it was always my dream,” Race said. “I grew up watching war movies, so I always wanted to be a warrior. Boxing gave me the way where I can fulfill my dream of being a warrior, just without the weapon. Now I have the opportunity to do this and box. I’m a universal, spiritual person and I feel things happen for a reason and obstacles come into your life for a reason, to test you and see when you really deserve it.”

Race plans to take what he’s learned from Smith and fine tune his skills even more in the Navy, before returning home to begin a pro boxing career.

Smith sees a bright future ahead for Race.

“Sky’s the limit,” Smith said. “It’s his world, I’m just living in it. I’m just going along for the ride. I’m going to enjoy the journey, but it’s all him. My job is the easiest, he’s got all the hard work. My job was hard as an amateur trainer of his, as a father figure, it’s hard to separate the two because he’s like my son and sometimes you get emotional. He’s easy to tick off, so you have to walk a fine line, but I’ve seen it before. I’ve had well over 60 kids that have participated in competition and over 600 that have been in the gym and trained, and I’d say over 90 percent of them didn’t have father figures in their lives, so I had to play that role, but they understand the respect aspect of it.”

Once his two-year hitch in the Navy is complete, Race hopes to follow in the footsteps of other fighters like Steve Cunningham, Ray Mercer and Timothy Bradley, who also served their country while continuing to box.

“When I go pro I’ll be 23, I’ll be in my prime, I’ll be ready,” Race said. “I’ll still have the ring experience and I’ll go into the boxing world and a lot of people will be doubting me like crazy. People will be asking ‘where’s his pro record?’ ‘where’s his ring experience?’ They’re not going to know anything about me because it’s all done overseas. I’m going to come in there and eat whatever fish get in my way. It’s going to be great. I feel like it’s the best plan. It took me awhile to understand and I hated the fact that I was leaving the kids, leaving my supporters, but it started to look like a really good idea. I’ll have money in my pocket for the beginning of my pro career. I have all sorts of reasons to do this.

“This is God seeing what I really want. He brought back this opportunity because he knows Christian has only had two dreams his whole life: to become world champ and to become a soldier.”

On Monday, his journey really begins.