SURFSIDE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – A celebrity boxing champion is making his sport affordable for children and teens on the Grand Strand.
Todd “The Punisher” Poulton comes from a boxing family.
“My dad was a champion, my grandfather was a semi-pro and I said, ‘This is in my blood,'” Poulton said.
Before becoming “The Punisher,” Poulton fought something not in the ring.
“It almost took my life 17 years ago on Christmas Eve,” said Poulton.
He says his obsessive-compulsive disorder made him suicidal.
“Odd numbers represented danger,” he said. “I was checking to see if my stove was on over 600 times a day. I had to give up my teaching profession.”
Poulton said what helped was boxing on the celebrity circuit, which he had to join because he was too old to turn pro. He’s a three-time world celebrity boxing champion. He’s fought in notable matches against former MLB star Jose Canseco and Michael Lohan, the father of actress Lindsay Lohan.
Poulton started Southpaw’s Boxing Academy last August after his daughter moved to Myrtle Beach to work as a doctor. She told him there was a need for boxing classes at the youth level in the area.
Now, the western Massachusetts native, with a face tattoo like Mike Tyson’s, splits his time near Myrtle Beach, offering low-cost boxing classes, mainly for kids and teens.
“He’s been teaching us how to move our head and use combinations in fights,” said Dominick Tonzola, a boxer at Southpaw’s.
“Just to be thrown in there, on your own, with the sparring and you have to get out,” said Nick Palmisano, a certified athletic trainer who works out at Southpaw’s. “You have to fight. It’s all on you.”
Dwayne Alcorn of Socastee says he’ll try going pro when he turns 18 in a year.
“My goal, if I went pro, for sure, would be (going) 10-0,” said Alcorn, who first started boxing when he joined Southpaw’s about six months ago.
In Southpaw’s first year, Poulton has worked with at least 50 kids. He also trains people with heart issues, Parkinson’s disease and other disabilities.
Poulton says it’s all about teaching challenging yourself to knock out whatever life throws at you.
“We teach everything, everything,” he said. “Mainly respect and respecting the adults. I’m in with the teachers. The kids have to get good grades on their report cards.”
He also says teaching kids how to fight for sport, not out of anger, helps them learn self-discipline.
“It wasn’t there when I was a kid,” he said, referencing his days of underground boxing as a teen. “I had to sneak around doing it. Now, I want to give back to our community.”
Southpaw’s is getting ready to participate in its first match.
Some kids will fight in Columbia at a junior amateur boxing competition on Saturday.