“I’m the greatest!” Darmani Rock loves being compared to Muhammad Ali. Source: Twitter
“GO ahead, mention him and me in the same sentence,” says Darmani Rock, the 18-year-old boxing prodigy being compared to the greatest of them all, Muhammad Ali.
While most athletes tend to shy away from comparisons with legends, the Philadelphia teenager embraces it.
Last month, Rock won gold at the 2014 Youth World Championships in Bulgaria with a decision victory against Germany’s Peter Kadiru.
His dancing feet and fast hands had onlookers dropping Ali’s name over and over again.
Rock’s trainer is used to it.
“That’s all we’ve heard,” Junior Walker told CBS Philly.
“He can be a superstar in this game, and the way he moves, his natural jab, all his tools, we hear it all the time people comparing him at this age to Muhammad Ali, and the way he moved and jabbed.
“Darmani has everything it takes. He has that will to win. He digs down and he comes out victorious.
“He already separates himself from his opponents because he can punch.”
Muhammad Ali - or Cassius Clay, as he was known then - at the age of 21. Source: News Corp Australia
The 1.93m, 113kg athlete’s first step towards following Ali’s path is with an Olympic gold, and he has one eye on representing the US at the 2016 Games in Rio.
Rock’s backstory is a familiar one for boxing champions.
Raised in the tough neighbourhood Germantown, in north-west Philadelphia, he first donned the gloves after being on the wrong end of a belting on the street.
Rock was 12 at the time, and his opponent 15.
“You lose a fight like that on the streets, kids make fun of you; it was embarrassing,” Rock said.
“I vowed that was never going to happen to me again. I started going to the gym; I started boxing.
“The teasing didn’t last very long after that.”
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