A Baseball Hall of Famer and a Super Bowl winner, but never a world fighting champion. What could be a comeback tale, one befitting of Tommy Turner's hometown.
(Photo courtesy: BYB Extreme)
Tommy Turner’s adult life has been a series of second chances that he’s been able to capitalize on. Perhaps coming from Weiser, Idaho, you have to believe in second chances, in rebuilding and rebirth. In 2016 and 2017, a winter storm brought a total of 56 inches of snow, a relentless series of weeks of downfall that levelled the bedrock of the community. The town’s only grocery store saw its roof cave in, the local church was snowed in, and over 18 onion storage facilities collapsed, taking a quarter of the town’s primary economic source away in an instant. Though the town declared a state of emergency, the help primarily came from within. Neighbours brought ladders to one another as they cleared snow from rooftops, and the high school wrestling team grabbed shovels and helped dig cars, businesses and people out.
Today, Weiser is back to being itself, a family-oriented rural community with two work-boots planted in tradition, as the home to annual Old-time Fiddlers Contest and an affinity for old timey sweets from Weiser Classic Candy.
It makes sense then, that the town produced Turner, he of a lifetime of perseverance who found salvation in bare knuckle boxing, a sport with its roots centuries deep.
Turner returns to action on May 10, headlining BYB 26: Mile High Brawl in a middleweight title bout against LT Nelson. It’s the second time Turner will vie for a title, after losing via KO to Barrie Jones—one of the best bare-fisted fighters alive—in June of 2023, for the Police Gazette World Diamond Middleweight strap.
"It was my second fight and I fought the pound for pound best bare knuckle fighter on the planet. I asked for it, I thought my boxing would get me through it, because him and I had a similar pedigree,” said Turner, who was 6-12 as a pro boxer. “I knew he was a powerful guy. His hands were like big sledgehammers. I've got small hands, so I know I can't catch all this stuff, so I tried to weave my way in and go side to side. I knew I could box with him, but then I kind of rushed in and set myself up.”
Turner and Jones have become friends since then, and now Turner will have an opportunity to scoop up the title Jones left vacant.
That kinship and opportunity is something Turner has been chasing his entire life, as a series of bad decisions and misfortune have taken previous dreams away. Initially, Turner’s dream was to run the football on Sundays, as a standout running back in the Idaho high school system. According to Turner, he had a scholarship to Washington State waiting for him, as the Cougars eyed up the tough, physical runner who also happened to be a state wrestling champion. At the same time however, he’d discovered partying, and began hanging with the wrong crowd that introduced him to “something that turned out to be methamphetamines.”
Turner was sentenced to twelve years in prison, but was fortunate to end up in a “boot camp” style program instituted in Idaho in 1993 meant to reform first-time offenders and set them up for an early release upon completion. Turner was indeed released from Cottonwood after one year, and two days later, entered a boxing gym and told the trainer he’d be fully committed, a promise he’s never strayed from.
Boxing didn’t make him a star at first. In fact, it was his job to help create stars, so to speak. As a fighter from Idaho with minimal amateur experience and without a major promoter, he found himself used as “the opponent.” He faced names like Jesse Hart, Antonio Tarver Jr. and more. In his 18 pro boxing bouts, he faced just two fighters with losing records.
“I was always the B-side. Those guys could box, they'd been boxing since they were kids and I started a little later,” said Turner. "They'd always told me, as soon as I felt your power, I knew I had to box you. That's how they beat me. I know I've got the power, and maybe that's because of my legs, the sprinting, the running back work I used to do."
With the assignments not getting any easier and him not getting any younger, Turner retired from pro boxing after a knockout win over Dowen Pugh in 2022. His focus turned to civilian life, running his KO Kutz barber shop in Payette, 14 miles outside of Weiser, and his wife Nina’s salon. He signed up to coach his son’s football team, scratching the gridiron itch that still lingered after all these years.
But the boxing itch was one that he couldn’t satiate. Bare knuckle boxing was picking up steam, and he’d heard that BYB was looking for a fighter for its February 3, 2023 card in Miramar, Florida. He told Nina that he wanted to try bare knuckle one time, just to say he did it.
(Photo courtesy: BYB Extreme)
In his bare-knuckle debut, he faced Henry Williams, who at the time was 2-1 sans gloves. Within 36 seconds, Turner had overwhelmed Williams with hooks, forcing the referee to stop the bout with Williams, head down, mouth bleeding, absorbing unprotected blows.
“I went back to my corner, and my boxing promoter who I just retired with said, I guess you found your new sport,” said Turner. “So, I guess I'm unretired then?”
The victory was so impressive that it netted him an immediate shot at Jones and his middleweight title four months later in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, he found himself on the wrong end of a first-round blitzing. A series of left hands sent him to the canvas three times in the opening minute of the fight, and produced some shocking structural damage. Turner suffered a broken orbital bone, one he tried to fight through following the second knockdown of the fight. He also sustained nerve damage in his face, and to this day can’t fully feel his teeth as a result.
Despite the horrifying results of that fight, Turner insists that the damage he took in gloved boxing felt even worse, namely, the headaches for days after the fight. Somehow, he stepped back into The Mighty Trigon six months later, scoring a sizzling first round knockout over Mitchel Seybold, a win that netted him not just another title shot, but the John L. Sullivan Comeback Award from the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame.
In bare knuckle boxing, Turner says he’s found a level of comradery with his fellow competitors, but also fidelity from the industry that he never found as a career B-side in pro boxing.
“Boxing, it's the hurt business. You're a number. They don't need you, they can find someone else. Bare knuckle, as far as the promotion guys, they find the right guys, they're gonna treat them right, because there's only so many guys that wanna take off the gloves,” said Turner.
The city of Weiser has produced a Baseball Hall of Famer in Walter Johnson and a Super Bowl champion in Tim Wrightman, but never a world fighting champion of any kind. If Turner is victorious on May 10, it would complete his comeback tale, one befitting his hometown.
“If I win this fight, I know I can retire and be happy and be comfortable. I just felt like I was always chasing something, I felt like I could beat these guys, I could be a world champion. That's all I really want right now, and then we'll figure out what's next. I might gain a belly and just be a family man.”
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