PATERSON, N.J. — Dwyke Flemmings Jnr can see the fight poster and where he is positioned on it. His billing is second to Yan Marcos, the undefeated Cuban fighter whom Flemmings will meet in a 10-round junior middleweight fight this Saturday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
While boxing fans may be conditioned to seeing the fighter whose name comes second be referred to as a “B-side,” or “the opponent,” that’s far from the way Flemmings views himself heading into his highest profile fight yet, which will be the co-featured bout on a card televised by ProBox TV. He views this as a necessary hurdle, an opportunity to prove he’s not just another boxer with a hollow “0” at the end of his record.
“Every fighter has to go through this moment. This is the step where you’re at the door, now you just gotta kick it down,” said Flemmings, 11-0 (10 KOs), of Paterson, N.J.
“I don't even like to say ‘B-side’; it's only because it’s his promotion, but it's my hometown. He’s signed with [event promoter Sampson Lewkowicz], but you’re at my house. I just look at it as, you got to knock him off in order to get to the next level.”
The matchup came about when Flemmings, a pro of four years at age 22, was seeking to get a spot on the undercard but was only offered a six-rounder. A 10-rounder would mean having to face a more dangerous opponent higher up on the card. When the name of Marcos, 14-0 (10 KOs), was presented to them, Flemmings and his father, Dwyke Snr, looked at it as an opportunity to break into the world rankings.
“I didn't hesitate when he gave his name. I looked him up, southpaw, Cuban, watched a couple of his fights, and I couldn't come up with a reason why not to take it,” said Flemmings Snr.
Like his father, Flemmings Jnr is similarly not overawed by the assignment ahead of him. He argues that, despite the reputation of Cuban boxers being superior amateurs, he has more experience than Marcos.
“He's decent. Nothing I've never seen before, but I'm not sleeping on him. I don't take nobody lightly. I train for him like he's the top guy, so right now he's the top guy, he's in front of me, and that's how I prepare for him. But I feel like he matches up pretty well with my style,” said Flemmings, whose fight will have a minor WBA belt at stake.
“In some of the fights that I've watched with some average guys that he's been in the ring with, it looked kind of even. He’s getting touched, and I'm paying attention to how he's getting touched by guys that's nowhere near my level.”
If it seems that Flemmings’ audacity and confidence belie his age, it’s because these were traits cultivated in him from a young age. His father, Dwyke Snr, had been an amateur boxer in his younger years, competing in about 60 bouts and traveling the country for national tournaments. Dwyke Snr had dreams of following in the footsteps of his great uncle, Rufus “The Hawk” Miller, a lightweight in the 1970s who accrued a pro record of 13-5-1 (4 KOs) and fought world title challenger Juan Jose Gimenez and Dicky Eklund. But life got in the way of those plans, and he took a job instead at AT&T as a network engineer.
The boxing dream would instead fall to Dwyke Jnr, the youngest of four who first began learning the sport as a 3-year-old, punching walls with boxing gloves on and sparring with his sisters in the living room. His father took note of how the 5-year-old had already caught up with his older sisters and was now getting the better of them. He brought a gym bag with gloves, hand wraps and boxing shoes and told Dwyke Jnr it was time to start his boxing journey for real.
“He was the youngest, so he had to rely on his skillset more so than physicality because I had him in the ring at 6 years old and he was sparring 9- and 10-year olds that were not pulling no punches on him,” remembers Dwyke Snr. “He's a very aggressive fighter, but he also has a very high IQ and skillset, and that was due to me throwing him in the fire early when he was physically outdone.”
Flemmings Jnr had approximately 80 amateur fights, earning silver at the 2018 Junior Olympics and competing in Hungary and Spain. Though he wrestled and played football as an elementary school child, neither sport was ever aggressive enough for him. “I was always fighting on the field,” he admits.
Flemmings Jnr turned professional as a high school senior on Christmas Day in 2021 and signed with manager Nirobi Al Pasha. He has so far fought mostly on smaller cards off-television, the result of Flemmings eschewing signing with a promoter in favor of building up his equity in the ring.
“We do the dirty work, and then we're able to sit at the table with a big promotional company, and they're able to offer us a real deal. They have to talk to us nicely because we did it,” said Flemmings Jnr.
While Flemmings doesn’t have any attention-grabbing names on his pro boxing resume yet, he has gained a wealth of experience in the gym, sparring with world-class fighters like Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Julian Williams, plus former champions Zab Judah and Kendall Holt when he was a teenager.
“The Boots work is always great,” said Flemmings Jnr. “That definitely tells me where I am. Boots is a dangerous guy to be in the ring with at any time when you’re sparring him. It makes you feel like you're in a fight when you're in the ring with Boots.”
Last year, he flew out to Los Angeles along with gym mate Ian Green to spar with then IBF/WBO middleweight titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly. It was work that Flemmings Snr says his son did well with. “They got sent home in a week,” he said.
While Flemmings Jnr may be the “B-side” on the fight posters this week, he expects that a win will make it so he won’t have to take second billing in a matchup for a while.
“I feel once we get this win and we get these belts, I feel like we’ll definitely have a nice offering on the table from whoever,” he said.
