For Jessie Nicklow to have evolved into a professional boxer with an undefeated record and dreams of becoming a world champion, all it took were a bunch of street fights, a few stolen bicycles and a mother who was fast running out of ideas on how to control him.
Susie Linton steered her son toward the Brooklyn Boxing Club when he was 15 as a last-ditch attempt to keep him off the streets. She needed a place for Nicklow to occupy his free time, and the ring seemed like a better choice than jail.
"I had to work a night shift and Jessie ran with the wrong people - sneaking out, going out at night," she said. "I told him if he could not get in any trouble for two weeks, just two weeks, that I'd take him someplace as a surprise."
"She brought me here," he said, a gray, hooded sweat shirt keeping him warm as he taped his hands before a recent workout, "and I've been here ever since."
The Patapsco Avenue gym turned out to be more than a haven for Nicklow. It might launch him toward a junior middleweight title.
Nicklow, who recently turned 21, still lives with his mother and stepfather in Severn. He has a plumbing job that frees him up around 2 p.m., when the real work begins - running, exercising and sparring into the late hours. And he's hoping it pays off again in his next bout, tomorrow at the Pikesville Armory, where he'll put his 15-0-1 record on the line against Richard Hall (10-20-2) of North Carolina.
"Nobody works harder in boxing than me," Nicklow said.
He won his last fight by majority decision over Josh Snyder, knocking down his opponent in the fourth round. The only blemish on his record is a controversial draw with Matt Berkshire on March 10, 2007, when the fight was stopped in the first round because of an accidental head butt delivered by Nicklow.
"It should have been a no-contest," said Josh Hall, who trains and manages Nicklow. "The doctor said, 'He's cut in a bad spot.' I said, 'All cuts are in a bad spot.'"
"The draw was total [nonsense]," said promoter Jake Smith, who continues to line up fights for Nicklow. "Not even half the round was finished. It just started heating up. That's a bad ruling. It wasn't anything intentional."
Berkshire was undefeated at the time, but only three of Nicklow's opponents had winning records. Hall and Smith are being cautious with their young fighter.
They recently turned down a bout against unbeaten middleweight Ronald Hearns, son of former seven-time world champion Thomas Hearns, that would have aired on Showtime and paid Nicklow $15,000. He has never made more than $3,000 or gone longer than eight rounds.
"That's an enticing offer for a kid who's [21]," Hall said. "He looked at me like, 'Whoa, that's a lot of money.' But down the road, if both of them are still undefeated, that $15,000 can turn into $50,000 or $100,000. We also were offered a televised fight in Canada, and Jake said, 'Don't take him up there,' and he was right. I just can't make any mistakes, and between Jake and I, we haven't made any mistakes.
"I don't want to look back and think, 'What have I done?'"
Said Smith: "You've got to hold back sometimes, and especially someone like Jessie, who wants to fight anyone. He doesn't care who you put him against. Just because he's a physical specimen and can do things most men can't, you don't just throw him in there."
Nicklow has learned to take instruction, whether it comes while he's resting between rounds or trying to get inside the ring.
"I've only had 16 fights," he said. "I'll be 21 and I haven't hit my peak yet. I won't be my best for two more years. Whatever they decide is fine with me."
Asked to grade Nicklow at this stage of his career, Hall puts him between a B+ and a C-, marks that would have been celebrated at his three high schools.
Nicklow started out at Chesapeake in Pasadena, where he was placed in a program for students with learning disabilities. Just as he was about to be mainstreamed, he got into a fight and had to transfer to North County because he lived outside Chesapeake's district in Ferndale.
Once Linton grew concerned that Nicklow was hanging with a bad crowd, she moved the family to Severn, which is how he graduated from Old Mill.
"Trying to keep him out of trouble is a never-ending job," she said with a laugh.
That includes the day she discovered some bikes that he had swiped with a friend. Linton made him go to the police station and return them.
"I found out because I find out everything," she said. "He said I was mean because I turned them in, but he was young and I wanted him to learn what he did was wrong. He learned from it."
The lessons continue in the ring. Nicklow lost his first amateur bout and almost quit the sport, but his mother persuaded him to go back to the gym. He turned pro two years ago and exudes a confidence that belies his early struggles and doubts.
"It was good for him," she said. "It kept him away from the people I didn't want him hanging around. It kept him busy because after school I'd take him to the gym, he'd do his workout and training, and I'd pick him up around 8 o'clock. The whole day was over with. And he's been dedicated to it."
Linton led her son to boxing, but she worries about him every time he laces up the gloves. She tapes his fights and prays that they end quickly. Only then, after a decision has been rendered, do the butterflies in her stomach go away.
"You get nervous and anxious, but it's good for him," she said. "He could be doing a lot worse stuff. Jessie has a good heart. That's the thing about him. He has a good heart and he loves athletics. I see kids his age and they're out there doing all kinds of stuff. He's no angel, either, but he's done good. I've got to give him that.
"He did all his mistakes when he was young. He's still young now, but he's grown up a lot."
Will he grow into a champion? Hall and Smith believe it's possible, given his skills and obsession with conditioning. Smith compares him to Ricky Hatton, rated by The Ring magazine as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
"He has the same style as Ricky," Smith said. "His aggressiveness is like that. And he's got that same desire."
Said Hall: "Another two or three years, he'll probably be an A fighter if he does everything he's supposed to do."
roch.kubatko@baltsun.com