TEANECK, N.J. — Few amateur boxers will ever have a year like Malachi Georges had in 2023.

The 20-year-old from Teaneck, N.J. made the leap from local prospect to national champion, becoming the only male boxer to win the National Golden Gloves and Olympic Trials last year. The trials championship he won in December has pushed his USA Boxing ranking to number two at 203 pounds, and has him knocking on the door to a trip to the Paris Olympics this summer.

Not bad for someone who had been a novice just a year earlier, and had to move up from his natural weight class of 189 pounds because it wasn’t an Olympic weight class.

“Honestly it’s still catching up with me. Everything happened so quick due to the fact that I never stopped,” said Georges during an interview at the gym where he does most of his training, Different Breed Sports Academy in Teaneck, N.J.

“This is like the necessities of brushing my teeth, it’s what I do all the time. I’m always watching film, I’m always training. I believe that’s why my training and my growth happened so fast, because I gave this my full attention.”

It’s hard to process that a fighter who looks as comfortable in the ring as he does would have just about 30 amateur fights. He’s a smooth operating southpaw who combines the rhythmic movements and timing of Jaron Ennis with the punching power and speed to end the fight at any moment. He stands an imposing 6’3” but appears even larger due to the largest afro a boxing ring has seen since Afro Thunder in the Ready to Rumble video games two decades ago.

To hear it from his father, there was nothing that seemed natural about him picking up boxing.

Ray Georges, who trains his son, was a boxer himself during the 1980s. Raised in the Harlem section of New York City, Georges had approximately 100 amateur fights while training out of the Times Square Boxing Club, which was owned and operated by the late Jimmy Glenn. He didn’t feel that his son, who grew up in a quiet suburban town in North Jersey, was cut out for the “savagery” of boxing.

Malachi Georges winning the Olympic Trials. Photo by Nathan Kubala/USA Boxing

Ray Georges recalls his son being a “nerd” who excelled at every subject in school, particularly math. Malachi had never been in an actual fight growing up, save for one occasion when he and a friend got roughed up by some bullies.

“I had accepted the fact that he’s a brainiac and he’s a social misfit and he’s gonna grow up to fit into society that way. I didn’t want to put him into anything he wasn’t ready for because he grew up in suburbia, he didn’t have any challenges that regular kids would have,” said Ray Georges.

There are certain athletic advantages to being the studious type, as it turns out.

When Malachi first got into football at age ten, he taught himself the game of football by arranging all the pillows in the house on the floor in different formations. His father was the town’s junior team football coach, and was convinced to let him on the field by another coach named Rodney Bennett when the team ran low on players. Though not as big or athletic as the other kids, Malachi soon became the team’s quarterback because of his ability to run the plays better than others.

As other kids went through growth spurts and dwarfed Malachi, his passes began getting knocked down at the line and wide receivers began outrunning his throws. More worrisome was that Malachi began shying away from contact. Bennett suggested that Malachi try out boxing to help overcome his aversion to physicality.

Ray Georges was firmly against the idea, but relented when Malachi’s high school guidance counselor brought up how badly the straight-A student wanted to pursue the sport. Malachi began boxing at the Bergen County Police Athletic League under their coaches, and then was guided by his father once Ray Georges’ furniture moving business slowed down during the pandemic.

Malachi Georges says he can understand why some might consider him a nerd. He says he approaches the sport much like he prepared for his school subjects.

“I gotta study for it, I gotta break things down. I treat everything like how I treat math, everything is connected, in my mind that’s how it works for me. That’s how I treat film study, shadowboxing, punch combinations, movements,” said Malachi Georges, who is an avid churchgoer and plays video games like Dragon Ball Z and Madden 2K in his free time.

Ray Georges said Malachi began getting the better of more seasoned professionals in sparring simply by mimicking boxing moves he had seen other boxers do, almost like he was performing a dance step he had seen on social media.

Whatever his method was, it was producing results. Malachi Georges won his first national tournament last March, winning the National Qualifier in Detroit. He cemented himself as one of the top boxers in the country with his performance at the National Golden Gloves in Chester, Pa. two months later, dominating a fearsome puncher named Danel Brown in the final, and knocking him down in the process. His command of the ring was on full display at the Olympic Trials as he barely incurred a scratch in four bouts, winning every single scorecard along the way.

His next step in his boxing journey begins on Monday, January 8, when the USA Boxing selection camp begins at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Col. Georges will be competing to be the heavyweight boxer that the United States sends to the World Olympic Boxing Qualifier events, which are set for February 29 to March 12 in Busto Arsizio, Italy, and Bangkok, Thailand from May 23 to June 3.

At camp, Georges will be competing against Jamar Talley, a fellow New Jersey resident who hails a couple hours drive south on the New Jersey Turnpike in the Philadelphia suburb of Camden. Talley has been part of USA Boxing’s High Performance team for the past few years, representing the country in international tournaments. Talley fell short of qualifying for the Paris Games when he was defeated by two-time Olympic gold medalist Julio Cesar La Cruz in his first match at the Pan American Games in October.

USA Boxing Executive Director Mike McAtee tells The Ring that the selection process will consider a number of factors, including how well the boxers fare against one another in test matches, plus their experience in international competition. The coaches will also factor in how well the boxers maintain their weight, as well as follow the team rules and report to activities on time.

Georges believes he can earn that selection by showing his discipline and commitment during the 5-week training camp.

“I’m more than confident going into this situation. It’s nothing different from what I’d normally be doing. The schedule doesn’t change, I’ll still be getting up early like I normally do, I’ll still be training, nothing’s gonna change besides the location,” said Malachi Georges, whose parents are of Dominican and Haitian descent.

“I won’t be number two.”

His dreams are to reach the highest possible heights in the sport of boxing, winning professional titles and eventually becoming a Hall of Famer. Like solving a math problem on a black board, Georges looks to add a trip to the Paris Games to that equation.

“I’ve wanted to go to the Olympics however that wasn’t the end all be all. That’s why I never spoke about it as much as I would have spoken about being the greatest of all time. The Olympics for me is a big stepping stone that I have to take,” said Georges.

“My main goals are to hit every level that there is to hit in boxing, both amateur and pro, and show people that God can give them the same favor that he gave me.”

Ryan Songalia has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler and The Guardian, and is part of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism Class of 2020. He can be reached at [email protected].

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