The hardest punch you?ll ever take is from the streets.
This credo rings true for young local boxers as they attempt to fight their way to a better place: fame, riches and glory.
On his way to this dream, Mike Dietrich nearly fell by the wayside, like many before him. At 7-0 (2 KO?s) in the heavyweight division, Dietrich ? or “The American Dream,” as he goes by in the ring ? nearly lost it all on a late December night in 2005 when he was stabbed five times.
Preparing to go away on a training trip, the up-and-coming Dundalk native took one last visit to a friend?s place before hitting the road. But the visit ? and Dietrich?s penchant at the time for running with the wrong crowd ? almost cost him his life. Attacked with a knife, he was stabbed in the intestines and heart, where he still bears scars today. As Dietrich fell unconscious, clutching his wounds, he said his body felt it was covered with a “fresh, warm blanket from the dryer on a cold winter?s day.”
Slipping into a coma, Dietrich nearly had his rib cage and chest cracked open for surgery at the hospital, but a doctor intervened and was able to piece Dietrich back together. The recovery process lasted more than a year. Today, following a pair of surgeries, a bout with personal depression and the support of his true friends to keep him away from the wrong crowd, the 23-year-old is ready to put himself back on a better path.
“My whole life is different,” Dietrich said. “You see who your real friends are.”
Following surgery several weeks ago to remove a colostomy bag that weighed him down just as much emotionally as it did physically, Dietrich was able to get back in the ring and start working out. For the last month, he has been training at Baltimore Boxing with his manager and promoter, Jake Smith, to prepare for an upcoming bout in Baltimore in May.
Under Smith?s tutelage, Dietrich is starting to regain some of his old form and setting himself up for intense training in the near future.
“He?s staying focused and not playing around,” said Smith, the owner of Baltimore Boxing and a Maryland Boxing Hall of Famer. “We want him to go as far as he can go and make all of his dreams and goals come true.”
The Catskills Mountains in New York will be Dietrich?s home during April, when he is slated to train with Kevin Rooney, Mike Tyson?s former trainer. Rooney previously worked with Dietrich before his injury, helping him with technique and conditioning. Prior to his near-fatal incident, Dietrich was running six miles a day as part of his training regimen ? a mark he now hopes to exceed. For a man whose heart stopped twice, had three blood transfusions and was literally holding his insides in, very little fear remains.
“I?m a much stronger person,” Dietrich said, “and will be a much stronger fighter.”
Back in the ring
Mike Dietrich?s is preparing for his first fight since nearly dying from multiple stab wounds in December 2005.
» When: May 11, 8 p.m.
» Where: Du Burns Arena, Baltimore
» Ticket info: Call 410-375-9175
