How boxing found New York heavyweight Pryce Taylor after hoop dreams faded

Growing up, Pryce Taylor seemed destined to make his legacy on the basketball court, not the professional boxing ring. The 6’4” big man from the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, N.Y. had been dunking since middle school and had the kind of long range shooting skills that make him a natural fit for modern basketball. A shooting guard who seemed just as at home playing the center position, Taylor admits that only his scholastic shortcomings hindered his dream of playing at an NCAA Division I team.

Had all gone to plan, perhaps Taylor might have eventually transferred out of the unknown Upstate New York’s Corning Community College to a larger school, and eventually found his way to the NBA or one of the many other leagues around the globe looking for serviceable swing men.

The road to the boxing ring is rarely a straight one, and Taylor would never have stepped between those ropes had it not been for a missing laptop that put him $3,000 in debt to his school.

“There was a situation with a computer where they let you take out the computer from the library and bring it back. I was finishing an essay up, I took too late to bring the computer back because I didn’t realize on Friday that they close early. I had given my computer to the head RA (Resident Advisor) to hand it in for me but he never handed it in. When school came around and the summer time was over, they called me in and told me that they had to replace the computer for me and I can’t attend any classes until I pay that computer off because they thought I stole it,” explained the 27-year-old Taylor.

“So that’s when I just said, f—k school.”

Unsure of what to do next, Taylor returned home to Brooklyn, where he found the non-profit boxing gym Cops and Kids, which fit his budget with a $0 monthly rate to work out. He figured boxing would keep him away from a desk job and the rest is history.

Taylor (3-0, 2 knockouts) will take the next step in his professional career this Friday at Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. when he faces Lawrence King Jr. (2-1, 1 KO) in a four-round heavyweight fight. Taylor, a big man who routinely weighs in north of 260 pounds, is facing a 30-year-old from Rochester, N.Y. with a deep amateur background, but had turned pro in 2019 as a light heavyweight and weighed in inexplicably at 227 pounds for his last fight less than a year ago, which was also his first defeat.

“It’s gonna be black on black crime this Saturday,” said Taylor of his fight, which will be part of Boxing Insider Promotions’ first show in Atlantic City after becoming the most active club promoter in New York City over the past year.

Taylor compiled an amateur record of about 60 wins and 11 losses, winning two New York Golden Gloves titles and finishing runner-up four times in national tournaments. He didn’t realize it when he first started boxing that New York had a rich history with heavyweight boxing, with greats like Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, Floyd Patterson and many others being the city’s big man standard bearer. Taylor, whose whole focus growing up was basketball, didn’t even know who the heavyweight champions were until he had already been to nationals and looked up who he would eventually have to beat in order to become heavyweight champion.

“I didn’t even know anything about boxing. The only thing I knew about boxing was the gloves I had in my closet. I just knew that you had to put them on and punch,” said Taylor, who is trained by Benny Roman.

So what happened when he looked up the fighters he would have to beat?

“I was 100% scared, once I started watching Deontay Wilder’s clips knocking people out, I was scared. But that’s what motivates me. I get motivated by fear, that’s what makes me realize I have to work,” said Taylor.

Since then he has put in the work, sparring with heavyweights like Filip Hrgović, Jarrell Miller and Adam Kownacki. After getting a taste of the professional style as part of the Team Combat League, Taylor turned pro last December with a pair of back-to-back first round stoppages. He went the distance in his most recent fight in March, using his ring intelligence to outbox southpaw Antonio Torres on a card at Sony Hall in New York City.

“Pryce is great, he is what you want. He is a young heavyweight, he’s got the look, he’s got the talent, him and his manager Keith Sullivan are great to deal with,” said Boxing Insider Promotions’ Larry Goldberg, who promoted the March fight as well.

Now, after getting a solid amateur background behind him, and nearly a handful of fights, Taylor says it’s ambition and not fear that he feels when looking at the top heavyweights in the division.

“I’m definitely gonna be there soon. All those guys there now I could beat all of them. Tyson Fury, I’d knock him out because he relaxes too much. Once he gets hit, it better not be hard. With Oleksandr Usyk, he just moves a lot and you gotta go to the body. That one with Daniel Dubois, he hit him with that body shot, it was definitely not low. The ref cheated him out of that win. DuBois got exposed too, the only reason he beat Jarrell Miller is because he talks too much,” said Taylor.

With a bit of momentum behind him, perhaps Taylor could end up as the next notable heavyweight boxer from New York City.

“I’m just here to fight. I’m not here to save the day. I just like to fight,” said Taylor.

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 ryansongalia@gmail.com.

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