Boxer battles back from the brink
Harden overcomes drugs, earns spot in championships
By Hillard Grossman
FLORIDA TODAY
MELBOURNE -- Troy Harden floats into the University Boxing Club gym, says "hi" to everyone and gives his mom a soft kiss on the cheek.
"That's the Troy I always used to know," Melinda says, beaming about her 18-year-old son. "He's back to being the normal, respectful, innocent Troy that he used to be."
It's the same kind of innocence he possessed when he took apart and rebuilt his Tonka trucks as a 2-year-old, or when he brought his mom snakes and lizards dangling on the end of a stick, or when he'd wear his cute little cowboy boots and hat everywhere, even to church.
But, at the age of 15, selling drugs on the streets of Melbourne not only knocked him out of the gym, but also out of school and into an Orlando rehab clinic, where he hooked up with former world heavyweight champion Pinklon Thomas, a former drug addict himself.
Troy is now back in the gym, having swept his way to six consecutive wins in the State Junior Olympic tournament and the Southeastern Regionals to earn a berth in the weeklong Everlast USA Boxing Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., which begin Sunday.
"He's a real success story," Thomas says proudly.
And, Troy's success -- in and out of the ring -- has helped bring his divorced parents closer together. At the regionals last month in Davie, nearly 25 family members were on hand, hollering until they were hoarse, while Troy knocked out all three of his 132-pound opponents.
"Well, we didn't actually sit together, but in the spirit of things we were together for the same cause," says Troy's father, Roy, who has worked as a painter, laborer and janitor for 44 years at Kennedy Space Center. "We were all pulling for Troy. My (present) wife thinks he's a piece of gold. Everybody's happy now."
"I was more nervous watching that than what was going on in the ring," laughs University Boxing Club coach Gary Gregory, who has trained Troy since he was 12. "My eyes were going back and forth, back and forth. It was like that old hillbilly feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. But next thing you know, they're all hugging and shaking hands."The wrong crowd
It was eight years after his parents went their separate ways that Troy hit rock-bottom.
"I knew something was wrong," Melinda says, her eyes tearing up under her contacts. "He stopped coming to practice. And he always gave me a kiss when he left the house, but he stopped doing that, too, and then wouldn't tell me where he was going. He'd be gone for days at a time. I couldn't sleep. Every time I heard a siren pass by, I was afraid they were going to come knocking on my door. It was a scary time. It took a lot of prayer."
Troy admittedly got mixed up in the wrong crowd.
"I just wanted to get out of the house," he says. "That's all."
He was arrested for selling drugs and had a drug-possession charge later dropped. Facing a possible sentence in a juvenile detention home was not enough to scare him.
After Palm Bay High refused him admittance, he got kicked out of an obedience school in Melbourne when "he thought he'd be bad there, too," his mom says.
It was his father who convinced a judge to hand down a more lenient sentence.
"I pleaded with him to send him to a rehab clinic," Roy says, "because I knew he's not like that, that he had just gotten in with the wrong crowd, and that maybe this happened because his mom and dad were separated. And, thank the Lord, the judge listened."Meeting a legend
Nearly eight months into his 10-month sentence at the Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando, Troy met someone who might have had the biggest impact on his comeback.
Thomas, a former World Boxing Council and International Boxing Organization heavyweight world champion who had more comebacks than the McRib sandwich, had been working there as a mentor and counselor since 1993, when he retired from the sport.
One day, he intercepted one of the numerous letters of encouragement that Gregory had been sending Troy. Years ago, Thomas had managed another of Gregory's fighters, Ed Slatter.
"I saw this kid walking around, and he saw me, and then we started talking," says Thomas, 45, from his home in Orlando. "I called Gary, and he says, 'Oh yeah, this kid has the fastest hands in town. He's great.' I'm like, 'OK, Gary, whatever.' But I put some hand pads on him, got him working out and just built his confidence back up. The kid's a real success story."
And so is Thomas, who spent 23 years as a substance abuser -- "When you're victorious, you're always going to celebrate, I'm not going to lie to you," he says -- before entering a 28-day drug treatment program in Royal Oak, Mich., after losing to Evander Holyfield in 1988.
Thomas says he's been drug-free for 15 years and soon will be releasing his book, "The Trouble He's Seen," which traces the highs and lows of his 15-year pro career.
"Someone like Troy, who comes from the bottom to the top, is a success story," Thomas says. "I've already been through the drug trip. I was a heroin addict, I went through cocaine and other drugs . . . heck, my stories are so big that when I hear their stories, I tell them I can stick those in my pocket, and that gets them motivated.
"I always tell them it's not where you've been, but where you're going. And Troy's one of a kind. I've never been so excited about a young fighter in all my life."'Pretty to watch'
Troy joined the University Boxing Club when he was 12.
"When he came here, I thought he'd already trained with someone else," says Gregory, who also had trained Junior Olympic champions Isaac Holder and Joe "Biggie Boy" Elegele. "He'd studied boxing on TV, and his movements were unique. He's a perfectionist, too."
In July, Troy was still fighting in the 119-pound class, but "he was starving," Gregory says.
He moved up to 132 pounds and has boosted his record to 21-7 with six consecutive wins to earn a spot on Team Florida under former U.S. Army coach Johnny Hernandez.
"I told Johnny that some of the stuff he uses might be too far over his head, but if it worked, he'd have someone he's never had before," Gregory said. "And it's happened.
"It's been so pretty to watch. Every movement has meaning. It's a style all his own with parts of Sugar Ray (Leonard), Roger Mayweather and 'Sweet Pea' Whitaker. I hold my breath every day, because usually there's a time when a boxer will level off, but with Troy it keeps getting better and better."
In Colorado, it will take a grueling five victories in seven days to wrap up a national team berth. The Olympic Trials will take place in Scranton, Pa., at the end of the month.
"I'm feeling pretty good, feeling happy about myself now," says Troy, who's been training about four hours every day. "I've gotten a lot of support, especially from my family."Plenty of support
Things are indeed looking good for Troy these days.
He holds down a job at the Melbourne Square mall Subway shop, where he does everything from baking bread to cleaning up. And, in June, he hopes to wrap up his GED (General Educational Development) degree by going to night school twice a week.
"My baby's growing," says Melinda, a Health First dietician assistant at Holmes Regional Medical Center.
So is the University Boxing Club. Brevard County Sheriff Phil Williams recently provided the gym with $20,000 from a $50,000 donation left by the William E. Backus estate.
Everyone, in fact, seems to be behind Troy.
"I'm pretty amazed by all of it," he says. "The coaches have always been behind me, and some of the other fighters have given me compliments, so that's been nice, too. I've got a bunch of little nieces thinking I'm their hero, and I've got Pinklon, my mom, my dad . . ."
His father gave him a leather jacket as a Christmas present so he could take it to Colorado.
"You know, his whole life changed since he got out of that center, and the only things I hear now are good things," his father says. "I've told him, 'Win or lose, you have done your part. You have showed me something, and I'm not going to look at you as anything but great.' "
Melinda is happy for her former husband, too.
"I can tell he's getting excited, but I tell him he could have been doing this the whole time, seeing his son grow up. He's taking the credit now, saying, 'Yeah, that's the ol' Harden blood.'
"Well, I'm not saying anything. I'll let him take the credit -- for now, anyway."
Want to help Troy?
Melbourne boxer Troy Harden is heading to the top. If you'd like to become one of his first sponsors, call (321) 723-8704.
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Weigh-in @ Port St. Lucie Eventco Promotions 4-19-07
Troy Harden wraps his hands before a workout at the University Boxing Gym in Melbourne, Fl.
Troy Harden defeats Miguel Orengo in the finals to win the 2003 State Championship at 132lbs.
