Young St. Paul boxer who returned to gym after suffering first big loss is inspiring others
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Most athletes know the greatest victories don't always come from winning.
At the Rice Street Old School Boxing Gym in St. Paul, one young fighter is learning no matter the obstacle, he can always come back stronger.
Owen Emerson, 13, knew becoming a boxer wasn't goin to be easy.
He's back in the gym for the first time since a fight that didn't go the way he hoped. During Emerson's second official fight, he took his first loss. It was a loss that stung.
"You want to learn one thing from that fight, you didn't lose," said coach Mike Evgen.
They told him to take a week off, but he came back to the gym, no excuses, no complaints.
"A week without the gym makes me crazy you know," said Emerson.
He may be young, but he's learning one of the toughest lessons that life has to offer.
"Failure isn't fatal. If you fail at something, you gain more than people who didn't. It's part of life and it's good for you," said Emerson.
"That guy there is a great motivation for our gym, he may be the smallest, but he's one of the fiercest I've seen walk in here," said Ray, who attends the St. Paul gym.
Now he is putting his gear on for the first time since his loss.
Emerson's Dad, Chris knows all too well that in boxing, as in life, every punch, every failure is a lesson.
"He knows that in any situation, to be a gladiator that steps up in a ring in front of three-four hundred people and fights somebody, it takes a certain type of person to do that. You can use those things in life," he said.
Emerson may have lost that fight, but he didn't lose what was in his heart.
The Rice Street Old School Boxing gym is a non-profit organization that they say never turns down someone looking to join.
