David Polanco didn’t always want to be a boxer. A weak and skinny teen by his own admission, his original motivation for stepping into a boxing gym was bullies. Polanco decided he needed to get tough. So, he turned up at a boxing gym near his home in the Bronx. It was intimidating at first.
“I was just scared ’cause I didn’t know what I was getting myself into” he reflected later, recalling the noise, the chaos of when he first walked into “John’s Gym.”
However, Polanco learned he had a knack for the sport. He was hooked. It became part of who he is, and who he wants to become. It offered him a dream.
“ I was really lost as a kid. I didn’t know what I was gonna do in my life. So boxing came, it took a lot of my time and it’s just been like that ever since,” he said in an interview with the Bronx Times.
Almost no sporting relationship is as important as that between a boxer and their coach. And when Polanco met Bronx coach Gene Garcia and decided to work exclusively with him, everything seemed to click into place.
John’s Gym became a second home and coach Garcia became something of an extra parent. There, Polanco learnt to box switch-stance, a skill Garcia makes all his boxers practice.
“From there I just skyrocketed. We have a good dynamic. I’m talented. I have all the gifts to make me a good boxer and then he kind of pulled it outta me,” Polanco said.
It didn’t take long for boxing to become far more than just a hobby for Polanco, who now aspires to box professionally in the future. Soon, the rest of his life was upended to fit around boxing.
When Polanco was just 14 years old, his mother Wanda decided to move to Pennsylvania, he refused to go, telling her he wasn’t going to move away from his boxing club. Instead, he opted to stay with his father in the Bronx.
After school, Polanco’s friends Badara Drame and Jeanpaul Medrano said they used to meet up and box each other in the street. Polanco was always better than either of them, they admitted, but soon, that difference in skill drastically widened.
“Just touching him would be a miracle right now,” Drame said. “ Like if we go ten rounds straight, I don’t think I’m connecting once.”
From after school sparring to winning championships
Polanco won his first ever fight. Then his second, and third. In the years following his debut, he continued to impress coaches and fellow boxers across New York’s five boroughs.
Fight after fight, Polanco kept winning. But in late 2025, after winning the USA Boxing Metropolitan Championships –also known as the Metros– Polanco faced the biggest challenge of his amateur career: he suffered his first loss.
It happened in Texas, at Nationals. Polanco remembers every detail of the fight, which took place just before Christmas. How he felt jittery stepping in the ring, excited to show the judges what he could do. And how it ended, time moving in slow motion like a warp-effect. Applause from the Texas crowd. The referee holding the other man’s hand aloft.
The fight had been Polanco’s first on a national stage, and he had lost. He felt everyone staring at him, as he stood in the center of the ring.
“ I just remember that horrible feeling in my heart” he later recalled.
Polanco managed to hold it together long enough for the obligatory hand-shaking with opponent coaches and for Garcia, his coach, to help him out of his gloves and head gear.
Freed of his mouthguard, Polanco started apologizing. Apologizing for losing, for letting his coach down. For disappointing him.
Outside of the ring, he paced toward the exit. Garcia followed close behind. There, in the early evening light, in the parking lot of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Centre, Polanco burst into tears. At just 19, he’d had 19 fights.
Now, he had his first loss.
Soon, Polanco would hear from friends that his loss had been eagerly dissected in group chats back in New York. He’d been ranked no.1 in New York, but everyone back in the city had watched his stoppage on livestream.
Boxers he’d defeated before started calling him trash, he recalled.
So, when the time came to fight in this year’s New York Metro Ringmasters tournament, a competition organized by USA Boxing Metro to showcase the best of New York’s amateur boxing talent, Polanco knew he needed to come out strong, and show that his loss in Texas was an exception, rather than the rule.
The road to Madison Square Garden
Polanco’s first fight of the tournament took place on a freezing January evening, at the Brooklyn gym Sweatbox. A crowd of fans, friends, coaches and family were bundled up inside. Polanco’s was the first of the night’s multiple bouts and he had something to prove.
“It’s like everybody’s your friend when you’re winning, but when you lose, you really have nobody,” he said.
That night Polanco wanted to make something clear to the boxers that doubted him.
“ I promised myself that I was gonna make a statement that I was gonna really beat that guy up and, and show him like, I’m still here.”
He won the bout. But he didn’t yell. He was calm in victory, relaxed even.
“I made that statement and I’ve been winning in dominant fashion ever since,” he said.
As the tournament progressed, Polanco won every one of his fights. He was confident he would make it to the final. The main question remained, who would make it there with him.
The answer emerged after the 10 week tournament whittled the contestants in his weight class down to just two, him and Lorenzo Diaz, an 18-year-old southpaw boxer from Long Island.
Diaz and Polanco faced off at Madison Square Garden on April 10th.
Both of Polanco’s parents and his little sister were in the crowd, watching nervously. His mother Wanda swayed between anxiety and excitement as she waited for her son to enter the ring. While just a few rows ahead, Diaz’s family were there to support him.
Some boxers, Coach Garcia said, fold under the bright lights.
“ But then there’s people like David, who loves the spotlight,” he said. Polanco looked calm as he entered the ring.
In the moments before the fight, the two teens stood face to face, Diaz towering over Polanco. The bell rang and the fight began. Nine minutes of boxing later, the judges were unanimous in their decision.
David Polanco was the winner.
“People don’t realize that boxers really sacrifice everything to be where they’re at, you know?” Polanco said. “So when they’re up there, they deserve it.”
This was his moment to enjoy. But only for a brief while.
On Saturday, May 9, Polanco boarded a plane to Tulsa, for a much bigger contest: the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions . Now entering its 103rd year, the National Golden Gloves is one of the most well-known amateur boxing tournaments in the world.
There, he’ll be matched up against the winners of every other state tournament. Past winners include boxing legends like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Frazier.
In the weeks leading up to The National Golden Gloves, which starts Monday, May 11 and runs until May 16, Polanco has been training at his new gym, Kings Boxing in West Farms.
As always Coach Garcia has been by his side. Garcia and his entire stable of boxers all made the move to Kings Boxing alongside Polanco.
Polanco’s last National tournament had taught him a lot. It was a learning curve.
This time, he’s excited to show what he’s got. And he won’t be doing it alone. Alongside him, will be his New York Metro teammates, 4 female boxers and 8 male boxers from across all five boroughs. No doubt hundreds of friends and family will be watching from home, on the Golden Gloves Livestream.
“I already know how to box,” Polanco said of his final preparations for the contest, “I’m not going to do anything new, I’m just going to get sharper.”
Eleonore Cattle is a Literary Reportage fellow at NYU. She can be reached at eleonorecattle@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
