Anyone who has ever tried to accomplish something in life has been forced to face and overcome adversity. One of the reasons fight fans find boxers so inspirational is that their adversity in the ring is concentrated into tangible moments happening right before our eyes. On top of that, most fighters also have moving backstories that highlight their fighting mentality from a young age.
Tyler "Golden Child" McCreary (13-0, 6 KOs) is no exception. The featherweight prospect grew up in poverty in Toledo, Ohio. Being born into poverty provides plenty of hardship on its own, but the deck was further stacked against Tyler--a natural athlete who participated in several sports as a youth--in the form of childhood asthma.
"As a kid, I was very asthmatic," he said. "I was in and out of the hospital, maybe at least once a month. But I was allergic to a lot of things like grass and dust--I played outside a lot as a kid so those were the reasons I'd get sick, because they'd trigger my asthma. There was a time I almost died. I spent a long time in the hospital and had some type of lung infection."
McCreary showed his strength and determination at an early age by working to overcome his health issue on his own, by utilizing perhaps the most important tool of any fighter: his mind.
"It was very tough getting through it and trying to play football and basketball, and then spend a week or two in the hospital. But I'd tell myself I was gonna start working out and trying to control it without any medicine or steroids. As I got into boxing, I started training and working out, and I started to deal with it and cope with it better.
"When I was young, my parents, my aunt, and my coaches were worried about me, so they would try not to let me work out as much. But as I got older, around 17 or 18, I started dealing with it and training, running, and opening up my lungs."
One might wonder why an athlete who played several different sports would choose to pursue one as difficult and dangerous as boxing. "It was just love at first sight," Tyler said. "I walked into the gym and just instantly got attached to the boxing gym and the atmosphere. And training with other young fighters, we got into like a brotherhood, and the coaches treated us well. I was poor coming up [so] I enjoyed traveling and seeing new places. I never got to do that as a kid. So that attracted me too."
Now a professional fighter promoted by Jay-Z's Roc Nation, McCreary has an athletic fighting style and occasionally displays some real showmanship. When asked how his style developed, McCreary said, "I would say it's an Ohio thingÂ…I wouldn't say my style is flashy or nothing like that-it's just the way I fight.
"I like to hit and humiliate without getting hit. But if it comes down to it, I know how to sit down and I know I can fight and brawl. In the beginning of my career, that's how I got a lot of my knockouts. Just bringing the dog out in me, you know. But as a career, I want to be in this for a long time, so I fight smart. But the things I do in a fight come natural, I don't really think about it. It's just naturally there."
The undefeated fighter is adept at switching stances during a fight, which is rare enough to see in modern boxing, but even more rare to see a young fighter who does it so fluidly. "I actually worked on [switching] in the boxing gym. Sometimes in a fight, a fighter forces you to fight a different way and I'd have to switch a different way or use one hand a certain way. But I worked on those things in the gym and I'm actually stronger with my left hand than I am with my right, so that's why I like to switch southpaw to try to get the straight left hand off. I think that's one of my best punches, the straight left hand. And my left hook. I'm right-handed, but for some reason, my left is stronger. It's the most powerful weapon I've got."
Preparation is different for every fighter and their teams, and Tyler gave a bit of insight into what his camp is like. "We don't train for everyone the same way. But my trainer (Lamar Wright), he watches the tape and sometimes he tells me to watch a tape, and we watch it together and we work on things. But we don't go into training camp specifically focusing on one fighter and what he does, or one fight that we seen, because we've had a lot of opponents back out before after we'd done that. So we try to focus on what I do best, and not worry so much about what my opponent can do. One fight doesn't make a fighter."
Once fight night arrives, McCreary described how he likes things to be in the dressing room as he prepares. "Backstage I like to stay calm and have people around me that help motivate me, people I'm close with. I like listening sometimes to R&B music to keep me focused and not to have me too amped up. It depends how I feel that day-I mean before my last fight, I listened to a lot of Jay-Z. It doesn't really matter what music I listen to because I'm always calm, I'm always composed. That's one of my best attributes as a fighter-I'm always cool, always calm."
When asked what goes through his mind as he makes his way to the ring, Tyler said, "I'm a little nervous. As I'm walking to the ring I'm praying, I'm getting myself there and ready mentally. Once I get into the ring and the bell rings, and I look into my opponent's eyes, I know I've already got the fight because I prepared for it well during training. The confidence is sky-high because training camp is always tough, always good, so my confidence is always high. I can never go into a fight thinking of defeat, or what if, or if I would've did this in training camp-I'm always confident."
McCreary's biggest career moment so far, in terms of getting the most eyes on his performances, was perhaps when he fought Vincent Jennings (5-2-1) on the undercard of Kovalev-Ward pay-per-view in Las Vegas in November 2016. "To be honest, it was a lot of nerves-a lot of first times for a lot of things," Tyler said openly about that experience. "It was my first time fighting in Vegas, first time in front of that huge crowd, so I was nervous. That's part of the game. We're gonna have a lot more of those moments, but I'm prepared for that now because I already got through it."
And which of Tyler's fights would he recommend someone watch who hasn't seen him fight before? After some thought, he said, "I'm growing and growing with each fight, and getting better with each fight. What I would recommend for someone who'd never seen me fight is to wait until my next fight, and see me fight then, live, in person. 'Cause I get better with each fight."
Tyler has come a long way, and landing a promotional contract with Roc Nation was certainly a major step in the right direction for the young hopeful. But he's far from satisfied.
"What keeps me going is my hunger and the struggle that I come from," said Tyler. "That's what makes me want to go harder in the gym. Still living where I'm at now, in Ohio, and not being able to do the things that I want to do [for me] or for my family-that's what gives me that drive."
Tyler's last bout versus veteran Jonathan Perez (36-16) in February was his first eight-round fight. Roc Nation is working on building up him up as a fighter over the coming months, with the intention of having him ready to fight in 12-round title fights before long. As with all prospects, Tyler and his team are putting in hours upon hours of grueling work to get him ready for the limelight so that, once there, he'll hopefully remain as long as possible. In what little down time he does have, McCreary enjoys playing video games including Call of Duty, FIFA Soccer, and NBA games.
Follow Tyler on Twitter: @TylerMcCreary , Facebook: @TylerMcCreary , & Instagram: TylerMcCreary_
[ Follow Caryn A. Tate on Twitter @carynatate ]