The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for Jeremiah Milton. The undefeated heavyweight has had to adjust several times to new opponents ahead of his first fight in a year and a half. It’s a situation that could leave some feeling off-balance and unsure of the future. Then again, Milton has always been comfortable with uncertainty.
A 30-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma, “Dreamland” Milton, 11-0 (7 KOs), is set to make his debut on ProBox TV on Friday against fellow unbeaten heavyweight Stanley Wright, 13-0 (11 KOs), at ProBox TV Events Center in Plant City, Florida.
Before he could put on a pair of gloves, Milton first had to first take off his pads and cleats. After two years of playing defensive lineman at NCAA Division II Northeastern State University, Milton walked away from his full scholarship because of a dream he had as a kid. Those dreams began to feel more real as the 2016 Olympics came around and he watched boxers like Tony Yoka and Joe Joyce, thinking to himself, “I could beat them.”
Milton would return to the small town of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, near the Arkansas border, to see some of his friends walk the stage as college graduates. Many felt he should have been up there with them, but he had his own path to walk.
“I felt the pressure of being out there, whether or not anybody really cared that I wasn’t in school,” said Milton, who now lives and trains in Las Vegas. “Life comes with certain pressures, and I wanted to feel the pressure from doing what I wanted to do in life and not fulfilling what was told for me to fulfill.
“When I get something stuck in my head, I’m stubborn about it. I got real stubborn about this boxing.”
Leaving the security of school meant having to make sacrifices in his personal life. Milton supported himself with a string of jobs, from working in a factory to taking up employment as a P.E. teacher at a charter school.
Milton sought out boxing knowledge wherever it could be found. He started learning at a local boxing gym, and even sought out the most accomplished Oklahoma boxer of recent times – fellow Tulsa native Allan Green – to pick his brain.
After six months of training, Milton had his first amateur fight in 2017. He researched how to sign himself up for national tournaments, flying himself out to places like Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Salt Lake City, Utah, to compete with the best heavyweights in the country. His amateur career culminated in a second-place finish at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2019, where he lost a decision to eventual Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez Jnr in a box-off.
Instead of accepting the Olympic alternate spot, Milton elected to turn professional, taking fights wherever he could to stay busy.
His career began to take off when Top Rank, which had been making regular visits to Oklahoma, began featuring Milton on its undercards. In just his third fight, Milton knocked out Jayvone Dafney in the first round. The exposure gave his career the momentum it needed.
“They just so happened to be coming to my town, Tulsa, Oklahoma, or fighting in Oklahoma,” Milton said. “It made sense for them to feature me on there, and also I was giving them great performances at the time. They were building a pathway for me.”
The relationship began to slow down once Top Rank stopped coming back to the state as often. Milton’s last fight – a unanimous decision win over Craig Lewis in August of 2023 – came on a Top Rank card headlined by Jared Anderson-Andrii Rudenko. Since then, Milton has been trying to work out deals that would always seem to fall through, leaving his career in limbo.
“I was searching for fights, I was putting my name in on the B-side for different fights that didn’t materialize,” he said. “I’m always in the gym, training at Top Rank Gym in Vegas. Certain things didn’t happen in the time that I wanted them to happen, but that’s why we trust God’s timing for things.”
His career remained stagnant until he began having conversations with ProBox TV. Now with a new promoter, Milton saw his career shift back on track.
“He’s charismatic, he’s talented, he deserves an opportunity and he’s shown he’s exciting,” said ProBox matchmaker Chris Glover.
“Away from that, he’s a class act and a good example of how boxers should carry themselves, as seen when he knocked a guy out unconscious whilst still standing up on ESPN and asked the referee to jump in. He deserves an opportunity to bounce back and show what he’s got, and that’s what ProBox TV does.”
It was stubbornness and ambition that first got Milton to chase his dreams. Now he hopes his unquestioning self-belief and dedication to his dreams get him across the goal line.
“I’m starting late, but I don’t want you to see that when I fight,” he said. “I want you to see that skill – not just the power, but how I carry myself in there.
“I think this is the home that I need to focus at, and to see what me and ProBox can build together.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
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