When my old friend Britt Turner returned to our hometown of Tuscaloosa after living in Colorado for a year, he immediately resumed his workouts at Northport’s Skyy Boxing (the home gym of Olympian heavyweight and Tuscaloosa native Deontay Wilder) to stay in shape and keep himself busy as he began to plan out his next adventure.

After Britt’s plans to join the Coast Guard in the winter of 2010 fell through, his coaches convinced him to make his boxing debut in January at a local event at Homewood, Alabama’s Lee Community Center.

Since I lived just a few minutes away at the time, I grabbed my company’s newly purchased HD video camera (with permission) and drove down to catch the fight. Little did I know that his family and I were just beginning to record his progress from his first fight to an eventual Alabama Golden Gloves Championship just a few weeks later.

Although he lost his first fight by a close decision, Britt dominated his opponent in his next bout at West Blocton High School in March.

Later that month, Britt entered the 165 pound division of the Alabama Golden Gloves Tournament at the Shades Valley YMCA in Homewood. In the first round of fights, he beat Cory Fowler of Dothan after getting knocked silly in the second round.

He clinched the championship with a unanimous decision over Abraham Cordova of Decatur.

Unfortunately, I missed this one, but Britt’s dad did a great job filming it with his Flip camcorder.

Although I never doubted Britt’s ability, it really was incredible seeing him develop in the ring and come out on top. I took equal enjoyment from filming and posting the fights on YouTube. As soon as I had them uploaded, friends from Tuscaloosa to St. Petersburg to Vail were able to check out his skills, cheer on his punches and celebrate his victories.

Britt has not fought since that championship bout, and in August he shipped off to boot camp to begin his training as a Navy rescue swimmer. He’ll be making his first visit home on Halloween weekend. Hopefully I’ll get some news of a comeback.

MORE:

Britt’s sister’s photos of his first fight

From The Tuscaloosa News: Skyy boxers win Golden Gloves titles