Punching above his weight
Young amateur boxer learns the ropes in Pawtucket
When Nasaiah Shelton came into this world at Memorial Hospital during the early evening hours of June 17, 2005, his dad Ernest took one look at his newborn and nicknamed him “Bubba.”
He did so “because I looked into his eyes for the first time and could just see that fire,” stated Ernest. “He looked like a ‘Bubba.’ The first time I held him, I said quietly, ‘Show time!’”
The elder Shelton had already raised two boys – including Rameil (now 25) and Davhon (23) – and thought it best to teach them how to box at a local gym. He knew back then he’d do the same with his youngest son.
“I grew up in the streets of Pawtucket, and that was like a boxing ring back in the ‘80s,” noted Ernest, who most people around these parts know as a solid amateur boxer, not to mention a former talented hoopster for the Davies Tech varsity basketball team between 1988-1992. “I didn’t want my sons to be afraid of bad things that happen there.
“If something did, I wanted them to know how to defend themselves,” he added. “I didn’t want them to get so desperate or scared where they’d pick up a pipe or bottle and – God forbid – hit somebody. I didn’t want them to get in trouble.”
Now 12, Bubba doesn’t know the word’s meaning. At this tender age, he’s already captured four national youth boxing championships – his first at age nine – and currently preparing for more. He’s the No. 3-ranked boxer in his age group in the United States, ranked behind only Ruben Miranda of Brooklyn, N.Y. and Ben Johnson of the Washington, D.C. area.
In addition, he’s currently chasing glory as a premier running back for the Mount Hope Cowboys’ Pop Warner Pee Wee Division grid squad (11-12), but it gets better.
As a valued member of the FAST TRACK Track & Field Club, based in Central Falls, the youngster qualified for the second consecutive year to attend the USA Junior Olympics in Lawrence, Kan. as the anchor of his age category’s 4 x 100-meter relay.
(FAST TRACK Founder, President and Head Coach Ernest Fennell, however, was unable to bring his record number of
“He looked like a ‘Bubba.’ The first time I held him, I said quietly, ‘Show time!’’’ — Ernest Shelton on his 12-year-old son and rising boxing star Nasaiah “Bubba” Shelton
athletes to the University of Kansas due to financial constraints).
What makes Bubba’s young life all the more remarkable is that he was struck by a car near the intersection of Newport Avenue and Robinson Street on Tuesday, June 13, though needed less than two weeks to get back into the same phenomenal shape he had been.
“I was coming home from school (Goff Junior High) after 2:30 (p.m.), and walking toward Central Avenue,” he explained. “I was dribbling a basketball with my friends, and a lady driving her car stopped to let us across the street. All I remember is someone driving a gray car was swerving, and it hit me. “I don’t remember anything after that.” According to his father, he had been home waiting for Bubba to arrive when his cell phone rang. Apparently, Bubba’s cousin and good pal Ja-Sean Penate had called his mom to tell her of the accident.
“She told me he had been hit by a car, and I just said, ‘Is he OK?’ All she said was,” He’s in an ambulance!’” Shelton recalled. “That’s when I got scared. I jumped into my car and drove over to Robinson Street (mere blocks away), saw him being treated, and I went crazy.
“I saw the woman’s car inside a travel agency, and I thought, ‘Is he going to survive?’” he continued. “(Paramedics) rushed him to Hasbro Children’s Hospital; before that, I saw him in the ambulance and there was blood everywhere. His arms and legs looked broken, his eyes were crossed and he wasn’t making sense with his words.
“They wouldn’t let me ride with him because I was freaking out, so a Pawtucket Police cruiser brought me. I knew he suffered a concussion because he was talking crazy, and they took X-rays of his entire body to see if there were any broken bones. There weren’t any, which I thought was a miracle given the way he appeared to me.
“His mom (Jessica Quinn) and I were still worried about a brain injury because I had an aneurysm when I was 27, and I needed surgery to survive. We were afraid he may have suffered a brain bleed. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life – and Jessica’s.
“He ended up with a partially collapsed left lung, some bruised ribs, stitches on his left elbow and had scars from head to toe. I was thinking he’s lucky to be alive, but he told me that night, ‘Call Coach Fennell and tell him to save me a spot on that relay. Tell him I’ll be back. I didn’t believe it, and I don’t think Ernest did, either, but he did, and that’s all that counted.
“I truly believe he didn’t have more serious injuries because of the shape he had been in his entire life. He’s been exercising or been involved with sports since he was an infant. Plus, when you’re boxing and you’re about to be hit, your body tenses up to defend itself, and I think that’s what Bubba did. He’s a very good defensive boxer, so that’s the only logical thing I can think of.
“Then again, I believe God had something to do with it, too. The first four or five days, he couldn’t walk; he was in so much pain, I had to carry him. I took him to the track and the gym after that, and he struggled to finish a 100meter dash. He’d be holding his rib cage, but he kept saying he’d battle through it, just like he would in the ring.
“Right after it happened, he’d take an ibuprofen, but that’s it. It didn’t take long for him to get back to full strength.”
Some may find it cruel, even insane, but Shelton mentioned he began taking Bubba to the gym when he was less than 18 months old, right after he began walking.
“Rameil and Davhon were six or seven, and they were boxing, so I’d bring Bubba, too,” he grinned. “I was a single dad at the time, and it allowed me to spend some quality time with them. I also coached all three boys in football.
“I was a decent amateur boxer; the sport’s always been in our family. I only had 22 fights, but did have 16 wins at 165. Bubba loved watching his brothers; he was wide-eyed, just a little kid who seemed to take right to it.
“It was probably that same day when he started throwing punches, a couple of weeks before Christmas (2006),” he added. “In fact, the previous Easter, he was less than a year old when his grandmother gave him an Easter basket with a little punching bag and boxing gloves with the American flag (imprinted) on them.”
Because USA Boxing rules dictate no youngster may register for official matches before age eight, Shelton involved his boy only in “pickup” bouts beginning at four years old.
“He never lost, send some kids home crying,” he said. “I still believe it’s better than being bullied in the streets. What he did when he was five amazed me. Like I said, he started throwing punches at 18 months, maybe a little older, but he didn’t like doing the calisthenics.
“About six months later, he walked into the living room and said, ‘Daddy, watch this!’ He then got down on his knees and did 25 perfect push-ups. That blew my mind; I just told him, ‘Good job, son! But do me a favor. Can you do it again?’ I grabbed my camcorder so I could get it on tape, and he did.
“At that point, I just said, ‘OK, tough guy. Do them on one hand!’” he continued. “He hopped back down and did 10 with one hand, then 10 more with the other. That started his ‘push-up’ craze … We’d actually test him, put candy down on the floor to entice him to do more, and he loved it.
“The number of push-ups he could do increased from 75 to 100, from 150 to 300, then to 400. When he was five, he did 500 straight. I actually videoed that session, and somebody saw it and put it on a social media Web site, World Star Hip-Hop, and it went viral. I remember it took him 16 minutes and two seconds to rattle off 500. “Incredible!” Shelton mentioned Bubba did lose his firstever USA Boxing-affiliated bout to Richie Hogan of South Boston at age eight at Classical High School, but hasn’t suffered many since.
After snaring the Silver Gloves’ Rhode Island and Northeast Regional tournament crowns in the 8-9 age division in 2013, he qualified for the 2014 national event, held in February in Independence, Mo. and placed second.
That July, the tandem traveled to the Northeast Junior Olympics in Lowell, Mass., where Bubba took gold in the 70-pound class, and he did the same thing at the 2015 National Silver Gloves Tournament in February 2015 back in the “Show-Me” state.
He tacked on a bronze at the National Junior Olympics in Charleston, W. Va. in June before capturing the 10-year-old national title at the Junior Golden Gloves in Las Vegas (85 pounds). He also collected the National Police Athletic League Youth Tournament championship at the same weight in Oxnard, Calif.
His last title came last July at the 2016 Ohio State Fair National Amateur Tournament, less than a month after his 11th birthday. As for football, Bubba led the Cowboys’ Junior Pee Wee squad in carries, yards and touchdowns (27), and hopes to do the same within the Pee Wee category this summer/fall.
When asked his favorite sport, the youngster with the chiseled abs didn’t hesitate.
“Football,” he answered. “I don’t know why, except it’s a team sport, and I like playing with other kids my age.”
Bubba doesn’t know where his athletic prowess comes from, but his dad has an inkling.
“When I was younger, I played for the Pawtucket Crusaders because everyone thought I was fast, and I played hoop at Davies, but it’s more than that,” he offered. “It runs in my family. My brother Charles was an All-American in basketball at Pawtucket East, and my brother played at Tolman. Larry Shelton is my cousin, and we was really good in football at Tolman, and Rameil and Davhon both turned pro in boxing,” the latter this past February.
“I have to say, at his age, Bubba is better than all of us; it pains me to say that, but that’s the truth,” he added with a laugh. “Boxing is second nature to him. He learned how before he could read or write. It’s similar to learning a language. A little one can speak English or Spanish because he learns it in the home.
“Some kids can go to kindergarten and already know the alphabet or how to count to 100, and he’s the same way with his boxing skills. It’s second nature to him. He took to it like a fish does to water. He’s definitely Rhode Island’s youngest-ever national champion; he’s been ranked No. 1 in the country in every weight class he’s been in.”
Stated Bubba: “I love boxing because I’m good at it – and I like the traveling. I like the punching, and being kind of well-known. I don’t know if people are afraid of me in school, but I know they won’t fight me.
“If I had my choice, I’d rather be on a national champion college football team than one in boxing,” he continued. “It’s more popular, there’s more recognition. My main goal is to go to a great private high school, then go to college.”
There’s no question that Dad, his mom, brothers, sister, friends and coaches believe he will – and excel.
For now, though, Shelton continues to bring his son to the Bix Six Boxing Academy in Providence, where he receives mentoring from former U.S. Olympic boxers Jason Estrada and Demetrius Andrade, not to mention Estrada’s father Roland – and Cowboys’ practices.
“When Bubba was five and he did those 500 push-ups, he told me, ‘Daddy, I think I can do 10 hundred!’” Shelton chuckled. “I just said, ‘You probably can.’ I haven’t doubted him since. That accident gave me a scare, but he battled through it.
“Now he’s saying he wants to play college ball at (the University of Southern California), and I have no doubt he will. I’d prefer to see him at Oklahoma; I’m an OU guy, but he’ll decide. If he wants USC, God bless him.”
For Bubba, the phrase “Show time” certainly fits.
“Boxing is second nature to him.” — Ernest Shelton on his son Nasaiah