How former heavyweight boxer Ed Latimore found himself, sobriety and a new way of life as a writer
Boxing
  • The 35-year-old former pugilist recounts his time in the projects of Pittsburgh, the ring and beyond
  • Now an author, blogger, Twitter philosophiser and public speaker, Latimore is part of a wave reinventing the modern masculine male

Describing Edward Latimore Jnr feels like describing three, maybe four people. The 35-year-old American is a retired professional heavyweight boxer, a physics graduate, a former member of the US National Guard, an Amazon bestselling author and public speaker.

Oh, and he calls Porto in Portugal his home, is an avid chess player, has more than 100,000 Twitter followers and loves poetry.

But to know the current version of Latimore the man, also six years sober (December 23, 2013), you have to go back to his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a boy who thought he had the world figured out, when in fact he was as lost as anyone could get.

Latimore found himself sitting at the dinner table at his girlfriend’s mother’s home. It was 2007 and the 22-year-old had dropped out of the University of Rochester almost as quickly as he had enrolled, blown US$55,000 worth of insurance money given to him after his father’s passing, was working as a Starbucks barista and eating food cooked for him daily.

 

Full of youthful naivety, Latimore got into an argument with his girlfriend’s mother, who was a university professor, claiming higher learning was useless and unnecessary. Latimore, ranting away, got stopped in his tracks.

“She said to me, ‘Well what have you done in the past four years since you’ve graduated from high school except eat my food?’ And it just stopped me in my tracks. And I remember I went home and cried – because it was true.”

The sharp retort, exposing Latimore for being nothing more than a lazy, unproductive and mooching boyfriend, changed his path of existence drastically. The relationship with the girlfriend ended and Latimore said it ultimately became one of the most crucial moments he’s ever experienced, something he regularly talks about when doing public speaking about a range of topics around overcoming obstacles, self-improvement and helping men define their idea of masculinity.

“I’m a big fan of constructive criticism now,” he said with a laugh, “and I don’t know how much of a fan I was of it at that point in my life, but I needed to hear that.”

Into the ring

Growing up poor, raised in the public housing projects of Pittsburgh by a single mother, Latimore had made significant changes to his life to avoid falling victim to his environment. While in school, he landed the opportunity to travel across town to an affluent neighbourhood to study. But after flunking out of college, withdrawing days before being put on academic suspension, he needed a different route out of his habitat than academia at that moment of awakening.

Ed Latimore boxing as an amateur. Photo: Handout

Latimore found boxing after heading to the gym and trying a multitude of disciplines including kick-boxing, judo and mixed martial arts. In 2008 he fought in his first amateur bout, and three years later won the Pennsylvania State Golden Gloves. The win would vault Latimore to the National Golden Gloves tournament in 2011 where he would square off against California’s Dominic Breazeale, beating him on points.

Breazeale would go on to represent the US at the 2012 London Olympics, showcasing that Latimore’s talent was impossible to ignore. He said boxing came naturally to him, developing physically along with building a resolve that allowed for long hours of training, punishing workouts and sparring sessions.

“I had a little bit of my grit mentality at that point, and I think a lot of it is innate, but it can certainly be developed. And so I said, ‘If I’m going to stop boxing, I’m going to be beat out of the sport, I’m not going to quit.’”

Ed Latimore (right) said boxing helped him define a set of morals and ethics to live by. Photo: Handout

The win over Breazeale also landed Latimore a spot on the All-American Heavyweights training team in Carson, California. However, by 2012 he was cut from the programme and headed home to Pittsburgh, fighting one more amateur fight and then deciding to turn pro. It was 2013 and it became another crucial point in Latimore’s life. Luckily, by this time, he’d learned a few life lessons from being a pugilist, ones he could apply to various goals and dreams he had as a 20-something still looking for direction.

“That was really the first time I’d been around masculine vibes, so to say,” said Latimore of immersing himself in the boxing world. “So I learned things like honour and looking people in the eye, keeping your word, building a good reputation. I mean reputation is huge, they have to like you, everyone wants to fight on a card, and everyone wants to be featured. So you have to be liked and you have to be respected and people have to want to be around you, so it was a bit of a crash course.”

While turning pro as a boxer in 2013 could be his ticket to financial stability, at that moment Latimore said he was still back at square one when it came to his pocketbook.

Ed Latimore knocking out an opponent. Photo: Handout

“I realised that I was broke and not qualified to do anything,” he said.

With no money for school, in January he enrolled in the US Army’s National Guard. Set to leave for basic training in June in a bid to serve his country in return for tuition, he fought for the first time as a professional fighter and also enrolled at Beaver County Community College in hopes of obtaining a degree in physics.

But first, Latimore had to deal with his drinking, which had become problematic. Latimore said he had already realised he had an issue two years earlier, but working up the courage to finally quit wasn’t as easy as he thought and those around him were not only enablers, but partners in crime.

Ed Latimore says boxing never paid the bills and started to wear on him. Photo: Handout

“I remember thinking very clearly about AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] at that time,” he said. “But I think I made the biggest mistake any drinker can make when I asked my drinking buddy if he thought I had a problem with alcohol. So to admit and even acknowledge that they have a problem, they have to turn the mirror on themselves, and most people are not ready to do that.”

By December 23, 2013, Latimore was fed up and bit the bullet. He first got a taste of sobriety, rather forcefully, through basic training at an army base where there literally was no alcohol and now has a tattoo celebrating his sobriety on his arm. He said one thing has stayed with him since his days as a hard drinker, as he found people would make excuses for his bad choices and screw-ups, chalking it up to drinking and somehow absolving him of guilt.

“If people are going to dislike me, I want them to dislike me. It really bugs me the idea of blaming my behaviour on alcohol and being forgiven. Because I still made the decision to drink.”

Ed Latimore during his drinking days. Photo: Handout

Getting knocked down and getting back up again

Latimore, who accumulated 15 professional fights (13 of them wins) found boxing was weighing on him, and most definitely not paying the bills. He typically took home about US$2,000 a fight after paying taxes and his manager. Even though he was signed to rapper-turned-billionaire business mogul Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports boxing roster, by 2016 he was ready to move on, adding he actually made more money as an amateur than a professional.

“Anyone who enters boxing to get paid is going to be in for a very rude awakening. And it will make them leave, the energy you put in does not match the output for most boxers.”

However, he was also set to make his television debut against Trey Lippe on HBO in September 2016. Latimore said things didn’t go as planned, but, looking back on it now with some perspective, said he can see the writing was already on the wall. Lippe knocked him down three times in the first round, with the referee finally breaking up the two fighters as it was clear Latimore could not properly defend himself or return punches.

Latimore said it became another life lesson.

“I would have liked to arrive at that point without being knocked out on national television, but sometimes you have to take a bumpy road to the promised land, and that’s just how it is. And most things build character, people are ruthless, when you get your ass whooped on TV, my social media, it was just ruthless.”

He would fight one more time, a draw in December 2016, but by that point, other points in his life had started to show promise. He’d obtained electronics training through the military, an associate degree in engineering technology as well as a host of other skills in the realm of maths and computer programming.

Ed Latimore taking physics classes at university. Photo: Handout

Latimore started tutoring in physics, and in early 2017 published his second of four books, Not Caring What Other People Think is a Super Power: Insights from a Heavyweight Boxer. Despite being self-published, it became an Amazon bestseller. He’d also started amassing a Twitter following for his down-to-earth philosophising, getting kudos from Scott Adams, who is the creator of the Dilbert comic strips.

Dylan Madden, who works in marketing and product development for various major companies and is a friend of Latimore, said his Twitter following has blossomed because he offers something other than the standard self-improvement styled quotes that could be embroidered on a throw pillow.

“The way Ed writes is like an older brother telling you how the game of life works,” said Madden. “One of Ed’s most notable tweets was on how a crackhead will out hustle anyone. This may sound funny, but it makes you think. Do you want to be outworked by a crackhead? Of course the answer is no. What draws me to his content is it’s a mix of action based content, humour, and then all around self-improvement. To this day he’s the only account I read on a day-to-day basis.”

Ed Latimore says men should men should not be defined by one passion or character trait. Photo: Hong Ching Cheung

Latimore graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2018 from Duquesne University, and has now also carved out a role as a public speaker, blogger and life coach offering self-improvement through his website. He represents a wave of men helping redefine the idea of modern masculinity in the 21st century, led by people like Joe Rogan, a former actor most famous for his role on NewsRadio and Fear Factor who is also a comedian and UFC commentator.

Rogan, who hosts arguably the world’s most popular and powerful podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, has a wide variety of interests and hobbies reflected in the depth and breadth of his guests which have included Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk (who famously got high on his show), whistle-blower Edward Snowden and neuroscientist Sam Harris.

Latimore, a coffee aficionado who regularly hits the gym as much as he plays chess and reads and writes poetry, said redefining what it means to be a modern male is all about not being pigeonholed by one thing, characteristic or narrow, traditional masculine behavioural trait – but by the various aspects of life he is willing to explore.

“At a certain point a guy becomes defined by how different he is, not how alike he is.”

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