(Today’s installment of Throwback Thursday features a piece I did on one-time boxer Johnny Deas of Lewisville for a local website back in 2008. Deas made his professional debut in the main event of a Texas Slugfest card back in 2008 against Shug Dorsey (who has since fallen off the face of the map). After posting my less than stellar impression of his victory, Deas invited me to his house to set the record straight. An interesting character study soon took place as Deas explained his passion for fighting, amongst other things.)
As I groggily opened my email inbox on the morning of February 7th my attention was immediately beckoned by the first email I opened:
Clinch-a-thon…? Booing Deas throughout…? That’s funny… did you watch the fight? If so, its funny how you made no mention of how I dominated round 1 and round 3, I have the tape if you want to see it. You also failed to print how Deas gave up 16 lbs and 6 years and home field advantage. Give an old man some credit. Do you want to know why I was tearful? It’s because I was supposed to be going to the gallows, the consensus was that I was being served up to a younger, local favorite launching his pro career. Now you tell me Mr. Malone, what idiot goes toe-to-toe with a disadvantage in weight and power. Even a casual fan knows that’s not how the sweet science works.
Whether you write it or not. I went into your boy’s back yard and got it done against a younger, stronger fighter with a lot more to lose. I have a great deal of respect for Shug Dorsey. I told him after the fight that I was confident that he will go on to have a great career. But here’s one thing you nor anyone else can take away. On January 31st 2008, yours truly was the better fighter. I taunted the crowd, yes, but it wasn’t out of disrespect for the people of Fort Worth, it was out of self-confidence and belief in the person that is Johnny Deas.
I thought writers were supposed to be unbiased.
Regards,
Johnny “Lets Get It Done” Deas
Wow. Talk about a wake-up call.
Lewisville based heavyweight Johnny Deas had taken offense to some off-handed remarks I penned in a column on January’s Texas Slugfest card that appeared on Fighthype.com early last month.
Now I stand by what I originally wrote. I stated that the co-featured fight between Deas and Fort Worth based-slugger Shug Dorsey was devoid of the action that the crowd on hand had eagerly anticipated. However, after exchanging several emails with Deas, I thought it only fair to give the fighter a chance to speak his mind.
I met up with Deas at the Texas Karate Academy, the 34 year-old father of two works out at in the converted boxing gym in the back. Deas is one of the most affable and loquacious individuals you will ever meet. Graciously he allowed me into his home where he explained the circumstances surrounding his professional debut.
Deas admits the circumstances were less then ideal for a man embarking on his first professional prize fight. To compound the danger, it was taking place in the heavyweight division.
“[Right after Christmas] coach tells me, I can get you a fight January 31st” explains Deas. “And I haven’t even been training. So I’m like, ok and he says it’s a four rounder but I told him that I was not in boxing shape.”
After some prodding by his coach, Deas signed on to fight. Unbeknownst to him his opponent for the evening would be the Ft. Worth-based slugger Shug Dorsey. They say ignorance is bliss and it was probably in Deas’ best interest that he knew as little about Dorsey as possible.
“If I would have known Shug Dorsey was the Harrison’s fighter, I never would have taken the fight just out of fear that they would rob me,” Deas states flatly.
“I found out after the fight that he was their fighter. I knew he was from Ft. Worth and I knew he knocked some cat out in the amateurs, that’s all I knew about him. Coach was downplaying him, trying to make it seem like it was going to be an easy fight. Then I started researching this dude, and this dude was coming to fight, you know what I mean?”
This is not to suggest that the Harrison Boxing Group has any record of shady decisions but is simply a concern that every fighter faces when doing battle with a promoter’s house fighter.
Deas also had apprehension because of the short notice he received prior to the fight.
“So I had like three weeks to train for a fight and this dude has an amateur record; the last time I fought in the amateurs was 13 years ago. I’m 34, the last time I fought in the amateurs, I was like 20. So I’m like ok, now this is after I signed the contract, I’m finding all of this out.”
Intrigued by their colleagues endeavor into professional boxing, Deas’ coworkers began to do some research on Dorsey. Thanks to some eye-opening clips of Dorsey knocking an opponent out on YouTube they discovered more then they bargained for.
“Everybody thinks I am going to get knocked out and I have like 30 people coming [to the fight]. So this pressure is building up and I got my boys calling me, you know how your boys are trying to be your boys but they really think you’re going to lose.” Deas says with a laugh.
With these thoughts and uncertainties weighing heavily on the mind of Deas, he soon found that the responsibilities of his day job would offer little reprieve. A Senior Business Analyst for Citibank by day, Deas was forced to deal with the demands of his job at the most inopportune time the night before his fight.
“The night of the fight I had a report due. It had to be in Chicago on Friday. This is the night before the fight. Wednesday night, coach for whatever reason, picked me up late. So we didn’t get to the weigh-in until Shug had already gone. We get to the weigh-in late, get back from Ft. Worth late and I have to go back to Irving. [I] ran into problems with Excel and the numbers weren’t right so I pull an all-nighter. I don’t go to sleep until 6:20 am Thursday morning, the day of the fight.”
Not exactly the kind of issue a fighter typically has to deal with prior to a bout.
Deas soon found out that he had very little knowledge of what to do the day of a fight.
“After a while you start to get those little doubts, like maybe I shouldn’t do this. I woke up around 12:30 so I got me about six hours of sleep, went and got me some salami; you know I don’t know what to do.” Deas admits. “This is my first fight. I look on the internet and it said salami gives you energy so I was like; hell let me get a salami sandwich. I went and got me a Jamba Juice drink so I was feeling pretty good.”
Deas was in for a surprise upon arriving at the Cowtown Coliseum for the fight. Not only was this going to be his first fight, against a powerful puncher, but this fight was to be the co-main event of the evening.
“I get to Ft. Worth and I look on the damn [bout] sheet, here I thought there was going to be four fights, there were six fights, I thought we were like nobodies [and] we the damn co-main event!” Deas reminisces with a grin.
Then the moment arrives, time for Deas to get ready for what most would consider being a nerve wracking endeavor, stepping into the ring to fight a man trying to tear his head off. According to Deas, when the adrenaline starts pumping fear is no longer a concern when you step inside the squared circle.
“So I go down and get warmed up for the fight. Then we go out for the fight and I’m hyped. The adrenaline really kicked in during the warm up and I had to bring myself down because I was peaking in the warm up. I was hitting the mitts like I was going to kill him. We get out to the ring and I’m looking into the crowd, and it may have come across as taunting but it was really like, this is my night and I had to give a little shout-out to my cheering section were my wife was recording [the fight]. So the kid comes out and when he gets in the ring I start to think that I got this dude because he’s short and I’m fast. All I have to do is stay on the outside and throw punches, that was my game plan.”
While the partisan crowd had hoped that the unheralded Deas would turn out to be a limited face-first brawler – the type of fighter custom made for a slugger like Dorsey – Deas did not show up to lose.
“First round, I execute the plan. Second round, his corner had to have told him he lost the round, because he came out firing. Second round he was beating me, at least I felt that way and he landed a couple of shots. So instead of sticking to the outside, I start to get aggressive back with him. Which was probably the smart thing because he really spent a lot of gas in the second round. Second round he came out blazing and coach even told me that I lost the round and it was all evened up.” Deas explains.
“So I tell myself I got to win round three because we in this dude’s backyard. So I come out and pull it off, I was tired, he spent a lot of gas in round two but so did I. I get back to the corner and coach tells me good job and I’m through, I’m done. I’m so freaking tired that when I sit down, I’m like, I am so exhausted that’s when I tell myself, you have to dig deep Johnny. So I got up and just sucked it up and it was just guts and glory, there was no technique. It was all guts. Even though he caught me with a few good shots in the third I just went all out and let the chips fall.”
In the end the all three ringside judges gave Deas the win by unanimous decision with all three score cards reading 39-37. The outpouring of emotion displayed by Deas was genuine despite my off handed remark to the contrary.
“I started crying because it all came to a head. This dude is 28 years old. This dude weight 224 pounds. I’m 37 and 208 pounds soaking wet. This dude came out, you heard the crowd, and it was like Michael Jordan was there. So I’m like nobody expected me to win, I came to this dude’s backyard and I beat him. It’s not like I don’t fight. I can box. So it’s not like oh thank God I won because I expected to win all along. It was like thank God I won despite everything. I was good man when I heard my name “Let’s Get it Done”. I was still crying when I got down to the locker area. My wife came done and she thinks I’m crying because I felt I did bad.”
Deas went into this fight needing to scratch the itch of trying his hand at professional boxing. And despite his 1-0 record, Deas claims to have no urge to make boxing his day job.
“I beat this dude in light of incredible odds and I’m good. I don’t have to ever box again, I’m straight.”
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