Up and Coming Heavyweight Travis Kauffman

By Boxing News - 02/11/2009 - Comments

kaufman3By Sam Gregory: I had the chance to speak to undefeated heavyweight prospect Travis Kauffman today, just home from his fight in Anaheim last Saturday night where Travis fought on the undercard of the Darchinyan-Arce fight scoring a first round TKO win and improving his record to 16 wins with no loses; 13 of the wins coming by way of KO.

Travis doesn’t sit back to contemplate his unbeaten streak, he’s just too busy. When I reached him on his cell phone today, Travis was dropping off his step-daughter Nevaeh for Karate practice, than he had a cardio class tonight himself at 6:30.

Travis and his fiancée Crystal have four children, Nevaeh and Julius, than there’s Travis Jr. who is three and the newest edition to the Kauffman family his 2 week old son Christian.

Travis stays in fighting shape by working out seven days a week; his next bout is March 14th, at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas on the undercard of the Tarver-Dawson fight.

Comfortable at his walking around weight of 226 lbs., Kauffman keeps in fighting shape by working out in some way seven days a week. His strength and conditioning couch Errol Washington, know as Junior to his friends is a karate instructor when he’s not working with Travis.

Born in Reading, Pa. on August 21, 1985, Travis was raised by his father, well known boxing trainer Marshall Kauffman. When Travis was 9 years old his father opened the KING’s gym (Kids In Need of Guidance) in Reading to keep inner city kids off the street. Travis would go to the gym to mess around; that eventually led to his first fight, an exhibition against his brother which was his introduction to competitive boxing.

When Travis was 14 years old he was jumped by some street thugs in his home town of Reading, Pa. One of the kids that jumped him was an amateur boxing. All Travis had on his mind at the time was revenge, and as it turned out, Travis’ father was hosting the regional Golden Gloves and told his son one of the kids that jumped him was entering the tournament. Travis entered the tournament and was matched with the same kid that jumped him; finally having the chance to fight and beat him and getting his revenge.

Travis continued to box winning the Middle Atlantic tournament at the age of 15. He was also picked to go to the 2001 Junior Olympics.

On June 7th, 2001 Travis’ mother passed away one week before the tournament was to begin. Kauffman was devastated but insisted on going and winning the Junior Olympics for his mother. Although he didn’t win, Travis placed third and was very impressive in his defeat.

At the age of 17 Kauffman made it to the 2003 National Golden Gloves where he reached the semi-finals where he lost to Travis Walker. Walker went on to win the tournament, scoring all his wins by knockout except for his close fight with Kauffman.

Kauffman received a full scholarship to Northern Michigan University for boxing, but after two months Travis opted out of the program having decided University life wasn’t for him. At the time Kauffman was ranked number three in the USA amateur boxing rankings in the open class.

One of Travis’ brightest moments came in winning the gold medal in 2004 at the PAL nationals. At that fight Travis had one of the best performances of his career, scoring one of the fastest KO’s ever over Nagy Aguilera.

In 2005 Kauffman was undefeated in international tournaments, winning the gold medal at the Jose Cheo’ Aponte tournament in Puerto Rico and at the USA -vs- Azerbaijan duel in Harvey, Illinois. Following a spectacular performance in beating a 2-time Olympian, Travis Kauffman decided that his time in the amateurs was over.

Travis finished his amateur career with a record of 52-12 and was ranked the number one super heavyweight in the country. With a clear path set to go the Olympics, Travis opted out to turn pro. When I asked him why he decided to turn pro rather than go to the Olympics Travis said, “There’s just too much politics involved in the Olympic boxing and the scoring is horrible; it’s discouraging in the amateurs when I knew I would win a fight and still not get the win because of the scoring. I always did box more like a pro than an amateur and I was glad when I was able to finally turn pro. Fighting in the pro’s comes a lot more natural to me.”

Kauffman made his pro debut on January 26th, 2006 against Jerome Boyer at Michael’s Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie, Md. Travis stopped his opponent in 2:31 of the second round. He went on to fight six more times in 06’ winning all but two of the fights by KO or TKO.

At the age of 23, Travis is a hard hitter that likes to brawl; he’s an excellent counter-puncher that fights in the orthodox style but feels just as comfortable switching to southpaw. Travis is well on his way to a very lucrative career in the heavyweight ranks.



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