Teaching Boxing Lessons: Jimmy Holmes Plans to Bring Jimmy Lange to School

MA: This is the first time in your pro career that you will be fighting outside of Indiana, where you are the fan favorite. How do you feel going to enemy territory?
I am excited to go… I am excited to travel. In the amateurs, I fought in the national tournament which was in Denver, so I got to travel a little bit back then. But, I don’t mind being the underdog. I kind of like being the underdog. I am excited about it all and looking forward to it. It will be a good experience.

MA: Thoughts on your opponent Jimmy Lange?
I watched him back when he was in the “Contender” show. I sent my tapes in but I didn’t get on the show (laughter), but I watched him back then and he has always had a nice aggressive style. He likes to come forward …he throws a lot of punches. I went on YouTube and watched him a little bit too to refresh my memory. I think we have a few things we can look at.
MA: Still a teacher at Lincoln Elementary in Demotte, Indiana?
It’s in Roselawn but it’s still considered “Demotte.” It’s only a few minutes from Demotte. I teach P.E here… kindergarten to sixth grade. I was a classroom teacher but when they started to cut classes, I offered to take P.E. I have been here about ten years now.

MA: When you head into training camp, does the school allow you to take time off?
Well, I have a gym here in Demotte. I actually own and run the Demotte Boxing Club. So my training camp stays here in Demotte just because I have so much going on around here. We bring in sparring partners … we bring in my trainers. Everything comes here, and luckily, my trainers live five to ten minutes from the gym. We try to keep distractions at a minimal though.


MA: You are also a coach? How do you get kids motivated to do sports in the age of computer games?
Well, I think with boxing, you get a lot of the kids that don’t fit well with teams. It’s more of an individual type of sport. One thing that we do at our gym is we focus a lot on the fitness aspect of it. Just to try to get the kids in to do something. Our gym isn’t funded by our town, but we keep our prices extremely low just so kids have a place to go. At our gym we lose money (laughter). We don’t make any money but it’s for the kids. We have some adults that come in here too but basically we try to spread the word any way we can and let them know it’s good for your body and if you don’t want to get in there and fight, you don’t have to. It gives the kids something positive to focus their attention on.




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