‘Living God’s plan.’ Craig Parker’s boxing path from loss, poverty to home in Rock Hill
On a gray August morning, you can hear Craig Parker.
His blows thud against a punching bag. He bounces on his toes and bangs his black gloves together.
He’s in a building that, from the outside, looks like a warehouse, overlooking two still ponds and acres of unkept grass in a quiet neighborhood off S.C. 16-31 in Rock Hill. He’s hiding in plain sight.
Thud.
Thud-thud.
Parker, 29, is a professional boxer. He’s an undefeated cruiser/light heavyweight who has dreams of one day becoming a world champion. Parker’s fighting career has lifted him from homelessness and taken him from Chicago to San Bernardino, Calif., to Las Vegas, to Rock Hill.
He spends a lot of time in this warehouse, which is really a state-of-the-art gym designed for him. It’s fit with a regulation-sized boxing ring. A sauna. Punching bags. Weight lifting machines. Its walls are cluttered with dozens of framed signed magazine covers and famous Friday Night Fight handbills.
Parker is preparing for his next fight, in a year when it’s been hard to schedule fights because of the coronavirus. It’ll be in the Rock Hill Gymnastics Center on Aug. 29.
Thud-thud.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
The bag swings more with each punch.
“Now that’s how you unload,” says Jesse Reid, Parker’s trainer.
Reid, 78, has his hands in his jean pockets. He wears a black polo. His long, dark hair is slicked back. His stories are old and plentiful.
Some of those stories are about his college football playing days in the 1960s, or about his pro boxing days in the early 70s, or his years of service in the Vietnam War.
Some stories recall the cuss-filled exchanges he’s had with the dozens of world champions he’s trained in his World Boxing Hall of Fame career — about guys like Roger Mayweather, Orlando Canizales and Johnny Tapia.
Many are about Parker, the man who Reid says will be his next world champion.
Beeeeeeeep.
Parker’s shoulders slump. He has a moment to rest.
Anthony Burkett, Parker’s manager, explains that the sound comes from a timer that emulates the cycles of a real boxing match: three minutes on, one minute off.
Burkett, 38, owns this warehouse. He’s a Rock Hill native. About a year ago, he asked Parker and Reid to come to Rock Hill to help Parker pursue the title.
“Listen, and I’m not bragging or anything, but I’ve been around boxing 40 years, and I’ve had some great fighters,” Reid told The Herald. “I mean, some great fighters. Go right down the line. Craig is probably, overall with everything about a person, the greatest fighter I’ve ever worked with. And I’m saying that — man, I’ve had some great fighters. Orlando Canizales was a champion for eight years. He also had the personality of Craig. Craig is special. He’s a story that kids can grow with.
“And I think with this team, it’s all going to come out.”
These men are partners. “God’s plan” brought them together, they say.
How far can it take them?
Parker aims for Rock Hill boxing history
Parker’s goal is a lofty one.
There are four main associations that award world championship recognition: the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Organization. Each crowns a champion in 17 weight categories.
A lot of former champions are natives of the northeast, from places like Philadelphia and New York. Some are from the South: Floyd Patterson, James Smith and Sugar Ray Leonard are North Carolina natives. Joe Frazier is from Beaufort, S.C. Lisa Garland, who won a world title in the welterweight classification of the Women’s International Boxing Council in 2012, is from Sharon, S.C., in York County.
Rock Hill can call some fighters its own — Mike Englart, a Rock Hill cop and former pro boxer, started a nonprofit for youth boxing in the area — but there are no current world champions from York County.
Parker now claims Rock Hill as his home.
“I’ve been around boxing,” Parker told The Herald in May. “I know what’s out there. I know who’s out there. And Rock Hill will have a world champion by the name of Craig Parker.”
How Parker met Reid
Parker’s story begins on the southeast side of Chicago.
He was the third eldest of eight children and lived in an impoverished neighborhood. He started boxing as a teenager. The ring was the first place he heard he “could be something.”
In 2016, Parker’s life would change forever. In April of that year, Terry McGroom passed away. He was an accomplished boxer who frequented Parker’s neighborhood gym and had become a mentor to Parker. And six months later, Parker’s mother died.
The two losses led Parker to buy a bus ticket from Chicago to San Bernardino, Calf., where he temporarily stayed with a friend and pursued a boxing career.
“There’s just so much poverty around you that when you grow up, you think this is the right way. This was in your house. This is what you see outside your house. This is what you see in everyday life. So when you grow up, you get so attached to it, and you don’t want to leave. You think if you go anywhere else you might get hurt,” he said.
“But as I transitioned and made that sacrifice to leave Chicago, and been to other places like California, Vegas, and here now, there’s just people who are out there who are willing to help you and willing to see your dream come true.”
In 2017, he moved to Las Vegas, the “boxing capital of the world,” where he worked odd jobs and cleaned the gym where he trained to help pay his membership dues. Some nights, Parker said he didn’t have money to pay for meals. He didn’t have a place to sleep.
He relied on people he met at the gym and others for help. One of those people was Elijah Thomas.
Thomas housed Parker. Fed him. Advocated for him. Thomas eventually got the attention of Reid, who then was living in Las Vegas.
Parker met Reid in 2018. And Reid did what he normally does when he meets a new fighter: He put Parker in the ring with a “real decent kid.”
Reid saw Parker fight, talked to Thomas, and he was sold: He committed to train Parker.
How Parker met Burkett
Soon after meeting Parker, Reid called Anthony Burkett.
Through an assortment of boxing connections, which included world champion Charlotte native Kelvin Seabrooks, Reid had met Burkett a year earlier. Burkett had experience managing amateur boxers and turning them pro, but none had worked out like he’d hoped.
“(Reid) called me up for some other fighters who, well, I wasn’t going anywhere with them,” Burkett said. “I looked at (Reid) and said, ‘You know what? I’m done with boxing.’
“About a month or so went by, and he called me back and said, ‘I got this kid you need to come look at.’ And I said, ‘Alright, I will fly back out, but this is my last time. After this, I’m done for real.’”
Burkett saw Parker spar, met Thomas, and asked Parker, Reid and Thomas if they’d be willing to move to Rock Hill.
Burkett helps run a construction company based in Fort Mill, and he didn’t want to fly to Las Vegas to see Parker.
Burkett agreed to buy Reid and his wife a house. He agreed to pay Parker’s salary. He facilitated a place to train for Parker, transforming his warehouse into a boxing gym.
Everyone came.
“I love Craig like a son,” Burkett said. “I don’t do it for the boxing. I don’t do it for the money. I do it for Craig and his future. Obviously I want to be able to make money at it. I want to be able to recoup my investment. Nobody is going to say I’m just throwing away money just for fun because nobody in their right mind is going to do that.
“But at the end of the day… it’s not about me. It’s about Craig. His life. Him making a career of this.”
‘These guys don’t know what they’re getting into’
The team hasn’t looked back. But they’ve surprised others.
“Anthony called us up and said, ‘Hey I’m going to take Craig down to a gym that’s away from here with a guy who’s 20-0 as a pro, never been beat, and I want Craig to spar with him,’” Reid recalled. “He just wanted to see if he was at that level.
“Anthony could tell ya: Everybody in that gym was going like, ‘Oh they’re going to kill Craig, like he’s just a pushover.’ And I’m looking at Anthony, and I’m kind of smiling like, ‘These guys don’t know what they’re getting into,’ you know?
“Well Craig doesn’t only beat the guy. He knocks him out!”
What’s next?
Heading into Saturday’s match, Parker is 7-0 with seven knockouts, according to his BoxRec profile, boxing’s “official record keeper.” Parker is listed as the 86th-best boxer in the cruiserweight classification. He’ll be competing in events at cruiserweight and light heavyweight in the future, his team said.
Parker’s match on Saturday will be the first since the pandemic hit, Burkett said. (In order to become a “mandatory contender” and get the chance to fight in sanctioned “belt matches,” fighters first build their records by competing in local/regional matches.)
“It’s really a dream come true,” Parker said. “I never imagined being here. Coming from the city of Chicago. A very rough neighborhood. So much violence. And you know, being in a place like this, being in Rock Hill, South Carolina — it changed my life.”
Before an interview for this story ended, so Parker could begin his workout on that gray August morning, Parker wanted to add one more thing.
He wanted to talk about his vision for a foundation he one day hopes to build for kids in need. He wants to call it “Living God’s Plan.”
“God’s plan is the plan that God has for me,” Parker said. “But living God’s plan is me going out there and doing the deeds of helping young kids, and helping young families who’re in need.”
Parker then paused and stared at the ceiling, as if he was making sure he’d said what he wanted. He then shrugged and flashed a smile.
He then walked away and fell into his routine: Reid taped Parker’s hands. Burkett set the timer. And Parker started punching a bag with his black gloves — preparing, whenever the time comes, for the fight of his new life.
Want to see Parker in action?
When? Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020
Where? Rock Hill Gymnastics Center
How? Pay Per View is $19.99. For more information, visit the event website.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 9:19 AM.
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