Thomas McElroy Jnr first stepped in a boxing ring when he was four years old, but it was four years ago that he found a passion for the sport.
That passion now has molded him into a boxer who has been invited to the USA Boxing training camp in January, after he lost in the finals to Dustin Jimenez.
McElroy Jnr is trained by Kris “Lightning” Lopez, who runs Lightning’s Boxing Gym in Oakland, California, as well as co-trained by his father Thomas McElroy Snr. McElroy Snr is known as Big Tommy and McElroy Jr is known as Little Tommy.
After his last fight, Little Tommy has a major achievement. Boxing was more of a passion, something he liked to do. McElroy Jr played football and basketball, but boxing came and went in his life. He was first introduced to boxing by his father, who used to be a fighter. The elder McElroy was 14-4 as an amateur Muay Thai fighter. He got offers to turn pro, but being between the age of 38-42-years-old, he believed it was best to move on.
“I already had three kids and a wife to take care of,” the elder McElroy said. “I had different priorities at that particular time. I always had good hands and stamina, so I boxed with a lot of guys in various gyms getting ready for the Golden Gloves and other Amateur events in the Bay area. I’d always do well.”
In fact, McElroy’s father was once asked to be a sparring partner for Andre Ward in the lead-up to Ward’s 2004 gold medal winning Olympic bid. After doing some research, he politely declined that invitation.
Up until this point, McElroy wasn’t thought of as a national level fighter in USA Boxing.
“I was always in the gym, but the thing is that I was always playing other sports,” McElroy, 18, said.
“I always knew he had the talent; I just didn’t know if he wanted to commit himself fully to sport to get the results at a national level,” Lopez said. “To see him achieve this and the confidence it has given him is huge.”
When McElroy went to the Junior Golden Gloves, roughly three years ago, that gave him a boast of confidence.
“I fought this one kid from New York,” McElroy recalled. “He was really crafty. He was really good.”
He won that fight and his reaction was simple. “It just motivated me to keep trying to get better,” McElroy said. “I knew I could beat somebody like that again, or I could be somebody that’s even better than him.”
Armed with two coaches in collaboration, Lopez and his father, he has stayed in the gym over the past few years working hard. He credits Lopez with helping make sure he is eating right and not getting burnt out in training camp, whereas his father is his father. He knows him well and when Lopez couldn’t make it to the tournament, his father was there in a heartbeat.
“I knew that this tournament was going to be a little different,” McElroy said as he hadn’t been to a national tournament in a long time. Previously, McElroy fought at a 147lbs. Now he fights at 143lbs.
“I’m not going to say my dad was doubting me, but I don’t know if he thought I could make 143,” McElroy said. “I didn’t have any fights prior to the tournament.”
His father told BoxingScene he always believed he could make the weight, but noted, “We made 147 without taking out water, so after thinking about it, I knew it was possible.”
His third fight, he fought the No.3 ranked fighter, Umah Musah, and in the semi-finals he defeated the No.1 seed Roy Fields. In total McElroy won five fights before losing his sixth bout in the final to the eventual national champion, No.2 ranked fighter. Making it to the finals, McElroy now is headed to selection camp for USA Boxing.
“If you do good in the selection camp, you get to fight internationally,” McElroy said. “So that would be cool.”
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