Darwin Price Jr., a former Grambling State track standout, has hung up his spikes and finds peace through boxing after the tragic death of cousin. Courtesy photo
Price, who is a 140-pound prospect, has a record of 14-0-0, with seven of those victories coming by knockouts. He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. Courtesy photo
Former Grambling State University track star Darwin Price has changed careers and it may not be the sport those who knew him from his time on the oval at GSU would expect.
Price has taken his fast feet to the boxing ring and is taking the sport by storm.
The St. Louis native earned accolades for his distance running while at Grambling State University, where he led his team to victories across his collegiate career. However, boxing had always been a dream of his.
After his college career Price continued to train himself in becoming better in the arena of track and field with eventual hopes of going professional. Little did he know, he was keeping himself fit for the boxing life to come later.
Price’s goal was to master his academics before anything else, yet it proved to be a struggle.
“I am all for college education, especially among African-American men, but sometimes I feel like I wasted my time going to college,” Price said.
It simply had not been in his plans to attempt to chase his then pipe dream of working toward a career in boxing.
It was not until after college that childhood friend Lamarkis Cowan urged Price to get into the ring and pick up his true dream.
Price’s transition to boxing was not as bright and happy as one would hope. While training in college preparing for his professional career, he received the troubling news that his cousin Preston Freeman, who was a boxer, had been killed returning home before another fight.
Freeman’s trainer, Max Garcia of Garcia Boxing, called to break the news. Price had spoken to his cousin about taking up boxing before he graduated, but never took it serious enough to train or work towards it. This tragic incident caused him to look into chasing the dream he thought was so out of reach.
To him, the hardest is not facing a boxer with more experience or more wins, its having to be away from his two daughters, Kiley and Kamorah, to train for his upcoming fights.
“I always said I would never leave my girls after I leave college, it was hard enough leaving them for college.” Price said.
Initially, very few had faith in him or his potential to go far in the sport. With a background in track admittedly boxing would seem far-fetched, but Price exemplifies what a strong will can do. He trained and earned his first victory in July of 2013.
He has not turned back since his first technical knockout and is sitting at an impressive 14-0-0 record, with seven knockouts as of April 2019.
Not bad for a former track star turned boxer.