Ronald “Akeem” Ellis was in a dark place three years ago. He was coming off of a no-contest against Steven Tyner in January 2013 after testing positive for marijuana. Compounding that was major surgery on his left elbow that would sideline him from the ring even longer.
Akeem (12-0, 10 KOs) on Friday will make his national TV debut in an eight-round super middleweight fight against Jerry Odom (13-2, 12 KOs) on Showtime’s ShoBox, from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He can thank Rashidi, who just signed a deal with Golden Boy Promotions, for getting him here.
“We’re brothers and that’s what we do; we stick together,” said Rashidi, who will be at ringside to back his brother. “Akeem was helping my father work. I didn’t want him to give up on boxing. He has so much talent, and I’m happy he listened to me. He was in a bad moment there. I would talk to him sometimes about not wasting his talent.
“There were a lot of people that gave up on him,” he added. “I wasn’t about to, and the people close to him weren’t going to do that. He’s the one that got me involved in boxing, and I wanted to support him like he supported me.”
Akeem, 27, defines this fight against Odom as a big leap. He admits there are some nerves right now, but by fight time, he promises they will subside. His uncle used to box and coaxed him into the ring. Akeem made the move to boxing, though he gave up football to do so.
“I always wanted to box, and when I found a boxing gym, that was it. I loved it,” Akeem said. “Me and my cousin Warren fought early on, and my uncle kind of forced us at first to fight. Then we kind of got to love it. Right after that first sparring session, I quit football. That was it. I was boxing. In football and basketball, I was a ball hog. I always wanted the ball. When you lose, I always blamed everyone else. I was a kid. Kids think that way sometimes. I liked boxing because it’s an individual sport. In boxing, [if] you lose, you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Akeem rarely lost. He turned pro in 2011, stopping six of his first seven opponents. Then came 2013, and a career that appeared arcing upward got derailed. First, there was a lapse in judgment with the positive test after his fight against Tyner in Madison Square Garden -- a four-rounder Akeem won by unanimous decision.
“I made a mistake and it was dumb,” he said. “You live and learn.”
Then his left elbow blew out soon after.
“I thought I was done after that,” Akeem said. “It was a rainy day and I was reaching up to pull my hood up over my head. I heard this pop and I went right to the hospital. They told me I had to have surgery that day. It was one bad thing after another, and I was ready to pack it up. I was off for a while and I would watch Rashidi fight, and that got me going again. I didn’t give up on myself.”
Akeem expects a tough fight from Odom, an orthodox fighter with some pop. Akeem is coming off a strong training camp and easily made weight.
“I’m comfortable and ready to show everyone what I’ve wanted to do for years,” he said. “I didn’t have to kill myself to make weight. I may even think about dropping down to 160 over the next few fights. This is my chance to prove who I am.”
He has taken a winding route to get here, but he has arrived.
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.