‘A tiger in the ring but a sweetheart outside it’

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — One local boxer can now call himself champion as of earlier this summer.

Deonte “Sleep” Walker won the UBO Continental Welterweight title back in July in his very first title fight. The 23-year-old from Yankton hopes his rise to a belt can spark the next generation of boxers.

“I feel like I’m able to inspire people,” Walker said. “If they have something that they want to chase, you can do it too. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

Walker first dedicated himself to boxing at age 20, searching for discipline and a way to bulk up. He has only been boxing competitively for two years and holds a 12-1 record with 11 knockouts, leading to his nickname “Sleep.”

“What I really love about Deonte is I could put the world champion in front of him and he’d eagerly want to fight him,” said Evangelos Giovanis, Deonte’s co-coach. “Then I could put whoever I put in front of me eagerly want to fight him. He just genuinely loves boxing and he loves the sport, so he loves his work.”

Deonte now trains in Sioux Falls and has found numerous lessons from boxing that transcend the sport.

“Just pushing past that procrastination feeling,” Walker said. “There’s a lot of life lessons in boxing that I’ve learned that I’m able to apply of outside of the gym.”

Deonte is a completely different person outside of the ring from who he is inside of it.

“He’s always been a calm guy,” Giovanis said. “He’s a tiger in the ring, but he’s a sweetheart outside in real life. People are like he’s a fighter? Because he’s got a good personality. He’s mild mannered and polite.”

Walker said as of now, his next planned fight will be on Nov. 2 in Sioux City.

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