A POT OF GOLD
Story and Photos By Ray Kilgore
12-15-09

 

Robert Brant is touted as Minnesota's next golden hopeful.

The Star Tribune-one of the prestigious newspapers-covered him; he's considered one of the United States' top amateurs in the light heavyweight division, and recently left for Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia to compete at the World Cup December 17-20th.

Brant's boxing story is different than most:

He walked through the doors of White Bear Lake gym and into destiny shortly after getting his driver's license at age 16.

Up until that point, Brant never put on a pair of boxing gloves; however, it wasn't long before he told then 88-year old Emmitt Yanez he found his calling.

Brant immersed himself in the sport, and a month later, he won the 178 novice division at Ringside tournament.

The 5'11" Brant advanced his skills further-eventually winning the 2007 Ringside Championships, the under 19 National tournaments, and U.S. National Championships.

Oddly, his good fortune is also a target for added pressures,

"They [trainers and promoters] are already doing this [trying to allure him into the professionals]," says Larry Goodman, coach and owner of White Bear gym.

"I have to tell them to leave him the F--- a lone; don't talk with him about turning professional!"

Brant is a promoter's dream: quick to smile, pleasant, humanitarian, handsome, well-spoken, willing to learn, and has an interesting life story.

In fact, Dancing with the Stars could be around the corner judging by his moves to The Black Eyes Peas, "I Got the Feeling," and Michael Jackson's famous leg kick impersonation.

Forget the dance career because Brant says no other avenue excites him more than winning a gold medal,

"My number one goal is to stand on the podium and watch the USA flag raised first while the Anthem is played along."

He adds, "You can't let the pressure be there. The level that people hold you to can break you down and the nerves can shake you up."

The 73-year old Goodman says Brant has marketability as a boxer regardless of if he qualifies for the Olympic team or not; nevertheless, he doesn't want his pupil to become so consumed with boxing, his outside life is neglected,

"He has a college career to look at. There are USA and Ringside scholarships for a free ride to college through boxing. The pros will be there."

Brant holds a diploma from Tartan High school and plans to earn a degree in Elementary Education.

When he told Yanez he wanted to box, Yanez pulled Brant into the gym office and showed him a file cabinet of wannabes who told him similar stories; yet, revealed their commitment by never returning.

Brant took notice and vowed not to become a statistic,

"So many people want to be in the position where I am; getting there was extremely hard and staying there is so much harder," but he sure makes it look easy!