WORCESTER—As a professional boxer, Demek Edmonds is 8-0 with seven knockouts, in the role of teacher at the Worcester Alternative School for high school students who need more attention, he doesn’t consider himself to be undefeated.
“No, I can tell you that for sure,” Edmonds said before a training session at the Guaranteed Fitness Center in Spencer. “There have definitely been some challenges that I have faced this year that kind of knocked me down.”
Edmonds, 29, of Worcester, teaches business, including banking, saving, budgeting, expenses and using credit cards. He also teaches his students about life and instructs them to set reachable goals.
The classroom can present a far greater challenge than the boxing ring, especially for a first-year teacher like him.
“In the ring, I kind of go at my own pace,” he said, “and adjust however I feel I need to and there’s a certain level of confidence you have.”
Edmonds said he has all the necessary skills to prevail as a boxer.
“It solely relies on me,” he said, “but in the classroom, especially with these kids who are a little bit more challenged and need a little more attention, a little more focus, you never know what’s coming.”
Edmonds may feel at times as though he’s been knocked down in the classroom, but mentally he gets back up. Being a boxer helps him as a teacher.
“As a boxer, you face challenges too,” he said. “You have to adjust. It’s a constant battle in your mind, like I’ve got to do better than this person. I’ve got to be stronger, faster, whatever it is. In the classroom, I have to be the best role model for these students. I have to show them that there’s better out there for you.”
The school has 38 students now, but has had as many as 50. Enrollment is fluid.
“We’re trying to give the students an alternative setting to get through high school,” Worcester Alternative School coordinator Ann Ortiz said. “For whatever reason, the traditional setting didn’t work. So we’re trying to make it a little more hands-on, a little smaller group setting and a lot of individual instruction. Whatever they need to be successful, we’re going to set it up.”
Edmonds feels like he’s making a difference. Helping a student succeed feels as satisfying as a victory in the ring.
“Every day realistically is a victory,” he said, “because you get those kids who couldn’t do well in other schools. They’re here because of that reason. When they show up and you teach them something, it’s a good feeling.”
Edmonds didn’t have it easy while growing up either. At times, he wasn’t sure about his next meal or place to stay. He’d often wear the same clothes to school for several days in a row. So he understands what his students could be going through.
“It seemed like every direction I was heading,” he said, “there was always like a block. Something was in the way. Especially being a kid, you don’t really have any options, you don’t have any choices, it’s not in your hands.”
Edmonds’ mother battled alcoholism and substance abuse and when he was 14 his older sister called the police after she hit her.
“The next morning we all wake up,” Edmonds said, “and the DCF (Department of Children and Families) people are banging on the door and they see all this stuff that shouldn’t be there, the bottles, the open bottles, all that stuff.”
His mother was sent to prison and Edmonds went to live with boxer Edwin Rodriguez. Edmonds’ younger brother, Tyrone, joined them after a while. Eventually, the brothers moved in with their grandmother with the rest of their siblings.
His mother died in 2019, shortly after he graduated from Worcester State University with a business degree, and his father wasn’t ever in the picture for him. So he can relate to his students.
“I feel their pain,” Edmonds said. “I know their pain. I tell them my story all the time. Most of them know.”
Edmonds told his story on a podcast and some of his students have heard it. He tells his students that life can be hard at times, but that it will get better. They must make the right decisions even if people around them don’t. He urges them to rely on him and all of their teachers.
“A lot of them, especially the seniors, the older ones, they listen,” he said.
That’s important because the younger students look up to the seniors.
Senior Jayden Gonzalez, 18, transferred in from Burncoat in November and he is one of Edmonds’ students.
“He’s motivational,” Gonzalez said. “He keeps your head in it, he keeps you on track. He’s understanding. When a student is not having the best day, he’ll take his time and help him out or pull him aside and talk to him.”
Edmonds credits one of his English teachers at Doherty High, Catherine Doyle, for motivating him to become a better student. After he received a C on a paper, she told him he could have done much better if he had tried harder. He realized that she was right and he improved his grade in English and every other subject. Now, he does his best to motivate his own students.
Edmonds worked for a year as a behavioral specialist at Glow Elementary School in Southbridge. The following year, he served as an instructional assistant at South High and he met a half-brother and a half-sister from his father for the first time. The half-brother was a student in his class for autistic students and his half-sister was a school nurse.
Last year, he was a permanent building sub at Vernon Hill Elementary School.
Edmonds’ boxing trainer, Rocky Gonzalez, works with him at Worcester Alternative School as an instructional assistant.
“I’m so proud seeing him in there doing his thing,” Gonzalez said. “It’s the same feeling I get when I see him fight pro.”
Gonzalez had a tough upbringing as well. When he was 12, he began living at times with boxers Bobby Harris and Jose Antonio Rivera. At 14, he moved in with them full time until he was 17. He has worked at the alternative school for a long time.
“They’re amazing,” Ortiz said of Edmonds and Gonzalez. “The kids can relate to them. They come from the same neighborhoods, they look like them and they have seen them be successful so they see that they can be successful too. And they’re also great role male models for a lot of our kids and that’s what they need. I just love them both.”
Jayden Gonzalez attended Edmonds’ first-round knockout of Aquilla Prote at the Palladium in July of 2022.
“It definitely makes it cool to have a boxer as a teacher,” he said.
Ortiz said Edmonds and Gonzalez don’t act like boxers in the classroom.
“These guys are the softest people I’ve ever met,” Ortiz said. “They try to pretend that they’re so big and tough, but they’re not. They can really have great conversations with these kids, some heartfelt conversations and they relate to them.”
“At the end of the day, they know it’s all love and we want them to be successful,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez convinced one of his former students, Freddy Sanchez, to take up boxing years ago. Sanchez went on to finish second in the Junior Olympic nationals and he won the New England Golden Gloves Open Division at age 16. He posted a 6-1 record as a professional before stepping away from the sport.
Gonzalez and Edmonds have known each other since Edmonds was a young boxer at the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester. As an amateur, he won national championships in the Silver Gloves and Junior Olympics when he was 16 and he later captured several New England Golden Gloves titles.
Edmonds, a 6-foot-2 cruiserweight (175-200 pounds), is scheduled to fight on April 6 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn. Ortiz and her staff plan to attend.
Edmonds’ last bout was more than a year ago, on Feb. 10, 2023, when Samuel Miller retired after three rounds at the Palladium.
“There will be a bit of ring rust,” he said, “but I’m always training, always in the gym sparring and stuff.”
He was scheduled to fight in October and January, but those bouts were canceled when his opponents pulled out.
Edmonds plans to take the Civil Service exam on Thursday to become a Worcester Police Officer. He’s known many police officers since he boxed at the boys club when he was young and several of them urged him to take the exam.
His former roommate, Abdul Sebdai, is a Worcester Police Officer who used to box at 125 pounds as an amateur out of the boys club. Rodriguez, with whom Edmonds used to live, is retired from pro boxing and is now a state trooper.
Edmonds believes he could influence more people as a police officer than he is as a teacher.
“Me being a young black African American,” he said, “I could make a great impact, especially in Worcester because there are a lot of minorities who are not going down the right path. I feel I can get more involved and more engaged with a lot more people.”
Edmonds, who is managed by Nate Torres, said he feels like an animal in the ring. Although he’s a cruiserweight, he moves like a much lighter boxer.
“Everybody says to me all the time,” he said, “that you’re really fast, you’ve got really quick hands, that you have really quick feet, that you’re explosive. I love showcasing that. Being in the ring is the best. I want people to see my ability that I can be great.”
Edmonds is motivated to win his April 6 fight for himself and also for his students.
“Because if not, they’ll be joking, ‘Mr. E, I heard you got whipped,’” he said.
Winning in the ring can motivate his students.
“I want to show them that hard work can create success,” he said. “It’s not always easy, but you just have to keep pushing and work hard.”
