DANTE KIRKMAN.
Dante Kirkman is a boxing coach in Palo Alto and the first Stanford undergraduate to turn professional. He started at ten, copying his father, who boxed as an amateur, and gave the sport the next fifteen years.
He made his pro debut during his senior year at Stanford and finished undefeated at 7-0 with 3 KOs. Among middleweights with fewer than ten bouts, he was ranked #4 in the United States and #60 in the world. As an amateur he was one of a dozen fighters selected for the 2024 USA Boxing Olympic Trials, where he placed at the bronze level — the only Stanford student ever to compete for a spot on the U.S. Olympic boxing team.
Boxing has taken him around the world, and he has spent as much time behind the scenes as in front of them — interning with Mayweather Promotions and working with USA Boxing at national events.
WHY I STOPPED COMPETING.
Dante retired from professional boxing undefeated and in good health, after fifteen years and fifty-six amateur and pro fights. As a Catholic, he came to believe he could not keep putting his own brain — or his opponent's — on the line for sport, and he walked away while he still had the choice.
What he didn't walk away from is the training. Boxing built his conditioning, his discipline, and the way he handles pressure, and none of that requires taking a punch in competition. He volunteers with Rock Steady Boxing in the SF Bay Area, which uses boxing training to slow the progression of Parkinson's, and he mentors the Stanford Boxing Team.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. — 1 Corinthians 6:19
He now trains clients one-on-one in Palo Alto and Belmont — beginners, athletes from other sports, and anyone who wants to learn to box properly for fitness and self-defense.