Gold Medalist Reid Ready for Pro Debut

With one thunderous punch, David Reid won gold in perhaps the most dramatic ending in Olympic boxing history. He’s now ready to prove that it was no fluke.

Reid is beginning what he and his financial backer hope will be a big-money pro career with a middleweight bout against Sam Calderon, a fighter out of Campbell, Ohio, with a 10-0 record.

The fight, March 21 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., comes about six months after what’s now known simply as The Punch.

Reid, needing a knockout to win, landed a gold-medal, million-dollar overhand right that knocked down Alfredo Duvergel of Cuba in the super middleweight final in Atlanta.

When Duvergel went down, Reid went up.

“When I jumped up so high, I kind of landed the wrong way and kind of messed up my ankle,” Reid said.

He managed to get to a neutral corner, where it appeared to him that “the referee was counting so slow. I thought, ‘Oh man, I better not celebrate so fast.”’

Some observers believe the 23-year-old Reid also is going too fast into his pro debut, which has been delayed by surgery to correct a muscle problem that caused a droopy left eyelid and forced the eyeball out of alignment. Reid boxed in the Olympics with the problem, which did not hinder his sight.

“Calderon is not a world beater, but he hasn’t lost,” said Lou DiBella, president of HBO Sports, which will show the fight as part of the telecast of Roy Jones Jr.’s WBC light heavyweight title defense against Montell Griffin. “He’s a test for the kid’s first fight.”

Indeed!

While Calderon, 29, has opposed only two fighters with winning records (7-6 and 6-0-1), his own unblemished record is virtually unheard of for the first opponent of a hot pro prospect.

“I wanted my first fight to be against somebody who had some skills,” said Reid, a Philadelphian. “It didn’t interest me to be in there with a fighter who wasn’t all that good. Forget the pro debut. I wanted somebody who will be there to fight, a guy like Calderon, because I knew if the other guy was overmatched, they would lose interest.”

Interest in Reid as a pro increased dramatically when, trailing 16-6, he knocked down Duvergel with that overhand right early in the third round. Duvergel got up, but the referee looked at his eyes and stopped the fight, ruling it a knockout. Enhancing the victory was the fact that it was over a Cuban.

Reid, who also displayed boxing ability in earlier bouts in Atlanta, will be trained by Al Mitchell, head coach of the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team, and managed by Mat Tinley’s America Presents, which signed the boxer in September to a five-year contract.

Tinley said the deal, which calls for 12 fights in the first two years, could be worth $30 million to $50 million.

Reid also got a $1 million bonus, and bought his mother a house in Philadelphia, himself a luxury car, and moved into a high-rise in his hometown.

Reid was expected to make his debut in January, but two eye operations pushed it back. He said the muscle problem started when Daniel Santos of Puerto Rico punched him in the eye during the 1995 Pan American Games welterweight final, which Reid won.

“During the Olympic trials, the eyelid suddenly dropped,” Reid said. “It forced the eyeball down and it wasn’t on the same line as the right one.”

On Dec. 4, the eyeball was realigned. On Jan. 10, the eyelid was fixed.

“I’m ready to show that winning that gold medal wasn’t a fluke,” Reid said.