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 Chazz Witherspoon – Bringing A New Look to the Heavyweight Division
 By Thomas Gerbasi (December 7, 2004)
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If they knew what line of work Chazz Witherspoon was going into, maybe the powers that be at St. Joseph’s University would have allowed him to take two Stats courses this semester instead of making him wait to take the next one in 2005, when he will graduate in May with a degree in Pharmaceutical Marketing. But that’s okay; he’s enjoying his stay under the radar for now.
"I want to try and stay out of the limelight while I can," laughs Witherspoon, who may have a tough time doing that after he makes his professional boxing debut this Sunday against James Daniels at the D.C. Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
At 23, Witherspoon may be just what the doctor ordered for the heavyweight division – an aggressive fighter who can bang a bit, who has the right lifestyle and temperament for a sport in need of some positive role models, and one who is still learning the game, having been boxing for less than three years – two years and eight months to be exact.
And if the name is familiar, it’s because Witherspoon’s second cousin is former heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon, who could definitely tell the budding heavyweight a thing or two about the pitfalls a fighter needs to avoid outside the ring.
"When I first came into this I talked to Tim and he told me some of the pitfalls that he made so I got to learn through his experience and that’s always the best way to learn, so I don’t have to go through it myself," said Witherspoon. "He told me some of the things to watch for and it’s definitely an advantage having him there to tell me about that."
But just talk to Witherspoon for a few minutes and you just get a gut feeling that this is one fighter who won’t end up as a cautionary tale. Level headed, humble, and with a firm grasp on reality and where he wants to take his fight career, Witherspoon exudes a maturity not seen in many 23-year-olds.
"I think the maturity comes from the fact that I’m the oldest of my brothers and sisters, plus, my parents allowed me to make my own decisions at a young age," said Witherspoon. "At the age of 13 I was allowed to make my own decisions, and my mother and father would help me and guide me with them, but basically I was allowed to make my own decisions on different things, and that kind of made me mature. It made me look at the positive and negative ramifications of my actions, so I think that helped me mature a lot faster. Plus, I tell people that they know I’m 23, but I tell them I’m 46. I double my age because I think of myself as an older man. I don’t think like a younger guy."
That attitude has paid dividends in Witherspoon’s life thus far, even if it didn’t make him the life of the party when his buddies wanted to go hang out when he had a test to study for or training to go through.
"When you’re a kid, you think naïve and everything, like the sky’s the limit and everything is beautiful," said Witherspoon. "As you grow older, you see things for what they are, and it is more important to study than to go out, or it’s more important to handle your business than to go play. It’s good and bad because I’m older than what I’m supposed to be at a young age, but I’m not mad at it and I wouldn’t change it. I’m glad that I can see things through the eyes of someone older than myself."
Born in Philadelphia, where he now holds an apartment during the school year, Witherspoon isn’t your typical pro prospect, many of whom had gloves on their hands shortly after getting out of diapers. For Witherspoon, basketball was always his thing, and as a senior at New Jersey’s Paulsboro High School, he averaged 21 points per game (fourth in South Jersey that season) and was flooded with scholarship offers, despite being a 6-3 power forward.
Yet Witherspoon turned down the basketball offers to stay close to home and go to St. Joseph’s University. His goal was to try out as a walk-on for the Hawks but he scuttled those plans to concentrate on his schoolwork. Did I mention that he had a full academic scholarship?
"I was supposed to (try out for the basketball team) my freshman year," said Witherspoon. "I wanted to make sure my grades were going to be all right. That was first and foremost. I was here with some academic money so I didn’t want to mess that up for the basketball."
And about his chosen area of study?
"I wanted to go into an industry that I knew was going to be around for a long time," said Witherspoon. "People are living longer nowadays, they’re making more medicine, and they need somebody to sell that medicine. And for the most part, when you come out of school you can get a job starting at $60,000 and up, so that’s a beautiful situation."
But first for Witherspoon will be a career in a sport that was originally just an outlet for him to fill the void left by basketball. But as he progressed in the sport, he found out that he wasn’t just a weekend warrior – in fact, he found out he had the goods to take this all the way.
Busting onto the scene in 2004 with a National Golden Gloves championship, where he was the first fighter in history to win all five of his tournament matches via knockout, Witherspoon wound up as an Olympic alternate in 2004, an amazing feat considering he was competing against some fighters who had years of experience and over 100 fights to their credit.
"It was surprising," Witherspoon admits. "But I know I worked hard and I had a good support system that got me there. I was very blessed and fortunate to be there; I had a good family that was behind me and supported me in everything I did, and I had good coaches, so I had a strong network of people to help me get there. Some of the other boxers don’t have a good support system like that so I attribute it to that and hard work. I don’t think it was all me."
And even though his family continues to support him as he enters the pro ranks, mom was a bit of a hard sell.
"My mother doesn’t really like it, but she supports me in whatever I do," said Witherspoon. "She doesn’t like the idea of seeing me getting punched on and all that. But I try to tell her that I do most of the punching. That kind of comforts her."
All assurances aside, boxing is a risky business in the best of circumstances, and doubly so for young men with college degrees who need all their brain cells intact for their lives after boxing.
"I always think about the risk involved in boxing because you have to weigh both the pros and the cons, and that would definitely be the con - sustaining physical and brain damage from boxing," said Witherspoon. "But I plan on doing this while I’m young and while I’m strong, and getting out before it’s too late. I know everybody has said that before, and I’ve heard other boxers say it, but I’ve got a lot of family around me, and it’s not like my ego is involved in this. I don’t box because I think I’m tough or because my pride is on the line or anything of that nature. I box because it’s something that I’ve been blessed to be able to do pretty good, and I’m just going to take advantage of it while I’m young. I don’t plan on doing it more than ten years as a pro, but while I’m doing it I want to dedicate myself to it fully and totally because your life is on the line anytime you climb through the ropes, so I really don’t want to play with it. While I’m doing it, I’m gonna do it all the way, and when I put it down, I’m putting it down for good because this is a hard sport and you can’t cheat in this sport because the only one you’re cheating is yourself. I understand that and I respect the sport; you’ve got to respect it or you’ll get hurt."
Ten years is a long time in the fight game, yet for a fighter with Witherspoon’s work ethic, intelligence, and raw ability, it may be all he needs to reach the top of the division and begin a reign that can put to rest the negativity surrounding the sport’s glamour division.
"The heavyweight division is a division that’s not wide open, but not as packed with talent as some of the other weight divisions," said Witherspoon. "And I do know that boxing needs someone with good character and good qualities that can extend beyond the realm of boxing and just be a good person in any light, whether it’s as a professional athlete or just as a model citizen. I know I’m a model citizen as far as that’s concerned, so the fact that I’m an athlete and I have a degree, I could be a role model for other kids. I thought of that and I think it’s a good time for that, especially with boxing, because boxing has a black eye right now with different guys who are not doing right. It’s a good time."
No, it’s the perfect time for fighters like Chazz Witherspoon or fellow collegian (and WBA lightweight champion) Juan Diaz to show the other side of the sport, to break the stereotypes that have wrongly dogged boxers for years and let the world know that the athletes in this game are as valid as human beings outside the ring as inside of it. It’s a role that Witherspoon eagerly accepts.
"It’s very important because I think that would allow people to start looking at professional athletes in a different light," said Witherspoon. "Right now they automatically assume that boxers are dumb or basketball players are dumb, and that’s not the case with everybody. Some people think that if I’m in college, it’s something boxers shouldn’t do, and I say ‘I’m not the everyday person who is just all about sports.’ You always need a backup plan and that’s the first thing I always tell kids when people want me to talk to them. You have to have a plan B or a plan C because plan A might not always go through. So it’s good for kids, more so than to break the stereotypes their parents have or that grownups think. I would try to reach the kids and tell them to make sure you always have a plan of action and make sure you have more than one plan in case your first one doesn’t work. If school doesn’t work for you, then learn a trade, or if you want to learn a trade, make sure you know something else about school. That way you can be a diverse person. You never want to be one-dimensional."
That’s one thing Chazz Witherspoon would never be accused of.
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E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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