Vermont is known more for its maple syrup and cheddar cheese than for its boxers, but Thomas Blumenfeld is hoping to be the name that comes to mind when you think of Vermont and boxing.

The 27-year-old junior welterweight has a record of 9-0 (8 KOs), and admits people used to overlook him at first sight. Slowly, Blumenfeld is starting to earn people’s respect.

“In the beginning people would underestimate me, both for how I look and for where I’m from,” said the southpaw Blumenfeld. “I am the definition of ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’ They’d get very surprised once they saw my skill set,” 

Blumenfeld, the youngest of four children, was born in the small Quebec town of Fleurimont, just outside of Sherbrooke, to a father who worked as a logger and a mother who is a server. 

At age three, the family relocated to Springfield, Vermont. It was there that Blumenfeld discovered a pair of old boxing gloves that had belonged to his father, a former amateur who had eight bouts but had to retire due to a broken hand. The gloves quickly became his new favorite play toys. By age eight, his father brought him to the Springfield Boxing Club, and he’s been in love with the sport ever since. 

Blumenfeld, who holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, had the best of both worlds in the amateurs, competing about 150 times and getting to travel around the world as a member of the Canadian national team from 2016 to 2022. Among the places he competed are Russia, Australia, Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic. He won the Celtic Cup in Ireland in 2017, defeating future junior middleweight prospect Stephen McKenna in the final, and earned a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Blumenfeld had hoped to make the Olympics, following in the footsteps of some of his boxing role models like Sugar Ray Leonard and Pernell Whitaker, but his plans were dashed when the 2020 Americas qualifier was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Being that, I decided it wasn’t in the cards for me to go to the Olympics, that’s why I stayed amateur that long, and I figured it was time to go professional,” said Blumenfeld, who is known as “The Bullet” because he still has a .22 caliber bullet lodged in his right arm due to a hunting accident at age 12.

Since 2015, Blumenfeld has trained under Hector Bermudez, a New York-born, Springfield, Massachusetts-based guru whose other current clients include unbeaten junior welterweight prospect Rohan Polanco, plus Kurt Scoby and Antoine Vanackere. There, Blumenfeld says he works closely on mastering the basics with Bermudez, repeating the basics to mastery.

Manager Daniel Gonzalez says he was first drawn to Blumenfeld when witnessing him sparring in the gym and noticing that he was the best technical boxer in the gym.

“Thomas is a humble kid. He doesn’t seek the attention to be that. He seeks to be a master of boxing and doing it the right way,” said Gonzalez, who also manages Scoby.

“He’s a super slick lefty but he’s a natural righty. I said, if I was fighting Shakur Stevenson, I would want that guy to be my sparring partner because of his level of skill.”

So far, Blumenfeld has shown he’s a sturdy prospect in the pros. Since turning professional in June of 2022, Blumenfeld has gone the distance just once, and has stepped his game up since jumping to the eight-round level, scoring early stoppages of three straight opponents with a combined record of 24-1-3, including a third-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Christopher Rodriguez on April 27 in New Jersey. 

In that fight, which headlined a card on DAZN, Blumenfeld displayed the breadth of his technical abilities, outfighting his heavy-handed opponent at close-range and at distance, before a two-punch combo sent the Florida-based Rodriguez wobbling into the ropes for a referee’s stoppage in the third round.

Gonzalez says his next fight date is still in the works, but the vision for how to move him is coming together.

“I think TKO [Boxing] is an opportunity we would consider. We’re trying to figure out what the path is for him. Promoting is different nowadays so trying to find the right fit is tough. He’s the type of kid who is gonna have to work his way up and see who tries to pick him up,” said Gonzalez.

Outside of Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, New England has struggled to define itself in boxing in recent decades. That doesn’t mean there aren’t boxers who have found ways to break through, like former champion Joey Gamache in Maine, or Hall of Fame inductee Vinny Pazienza in Rhode Island.

When people think of boxing in the United States’ second least populous state, perhaps one day it’ll be Thomas Blumenfeld who comes to mind.

“I’d like to put Vermont on the map and show that through hard work, dedication and belief you can do anything you set your mind to,” said Blumenfeld.