Renowned Baltimore boxing guru Mack Allison appears to have another champion on his hands.
Charm City native Destiny “Lady Tyson” Day-Owens outpointed Virginia’s Michaele Nogue at the Waldorf Cultural Center to win her professional debut.
The 23-year-old mother of two and three-time Golden Gloves champ said her first pro bout allowed her to adjust from being an amateur.
“Not having the headgear was different, you could see a lot more things clearer,” Day-Owens said. “I’m usually aggressive and throw power punches, but I just outboxed my opponent this time.”
Day-Owens started boxing at 19, but she said she’s been training and “fighting my heart out for the last four to five years to catch up and make it to where I am today.”
She also did a lot of fighting with her three brothers and two sisters growing up.
“I fought my brothers a lot,” she said. “I didn’t back down.”
Much of that was due to anger issues that could have derailed any hope of her enjoying a ring career, she said.
“Boxing is a sport where you need discipline and I had a bad temper,” Day-Owens said.
Under the tutelage of Allison at his Time 2 Grind Boxing gym, Day-Owens has learned to tunnel her anger and take out on the heavy bag and her opponents.
“Mack Allison has been like a father to me,” she said. “He’s intense and we train hard all the time. He said he knew I had it in me, that I’m a diamond in the rough, even though people counted me out and said I wouldn’t be able to control my temper.”
While her next fight isn’t expected to take place until sometime next month, Day-Owens said she’s ready today.
“If I get a call today and they said I’m fighting this weekend, I’m ready,” Day-Owens said.
Allison backed up that notion.
“In boxing, it takes time to put all those skills together to be successful,” he said. “She’s definitely going to be a world champion because she has that desire and love for boxing and it’s rare to find a female who loves the sport of boxing like she does.”
Boxing at Time 2 Grind has changed Day-Owens and she’s now more disciplined and she said her life is better because of that change.
“I’ve dealt with all kinds of trauma and abuse growing up,” she said. “I lost a lot of friends to gun violence … so, every day I try to encourage others so that they will not give up on their personal battles and [Allison] helps me a lot with teachings inside and outside of the ring.”
While she looks up to the late Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson like many others in the sport, Day-Owens said she’s particularly inspired by another Baltimore female fighter, Tyrieshia Darinetta Douglas, the world’s super flyweight champion.
“They call her ‘Lady Tyson,’” Day-Owens said. “She’s helped me in the amateurs and she works so hard, I can’t help but to look up to her.”
While her siblings weren’t boxers, Day-Owens insists fighting is in her DNA. In just three years of boxing as an amateur, she won three Golden Gloves, as well as the acclaimed Baltimore 2017 Mayor’s Cup and Queen of the Ring.
“I’m on a mission to be the best female boxer of all time, and to show the young children all over the world that you can truly accomplish anything if you put your mind to it,” Day-Owens said. “I will never stop grinding until I achieve my goals. Winning my professional debut, was just the beginning. It makes me want to push even harder and represent for my people, for my city.”