Daniel Moses holds his fists up and he’s wearing a pair of blue wraps. He’s the passenger in a car and headed to the gym.

“Every day, Monday thru Saturday, in the mornings [he’s in the gym], and in the afternoon I’ll go for a typical three-to-five mile run. When I started, my running game wasn’t as good, now it’s a lot better and I’m lasting better in the gym and the fights.”

So far, his story sounds like any other. 

When you add in the fact that he had an early-life diagnosis of being autistic, it takes a turn.

It was in boxing where he found solace and acceptance; more so than in society.

It was in boxing where he found a passion, a subject to devour, friends, and what he hopes is his future.

Of course, it’s never easy. Boxing is known as the hardest sport for good reason.

“Boxing is a sport that you can’t just do. You can’t just go in this sport and think you can pick it up like basketball or football,” Moses says. 

“I had pretty natural instincts because before I was training, me and my twin brother [Evan], we had boxing gloves and we’d swing wildly at each other, like there was no tomorrow.”

Asked whether he still trades blows with his sibling, their father Jared joked, Every day.”

Daniel’s first boxing experience was playing the remake of the Punch Out video game with his brother on a Nintendo Wii, and they soon found themselves at the gym.

“He went with me to the gym,” said Moses. “He’d fool around and throw double kicks on the bag and I’d do my training and he’d show up and mess with me while I was training. My first coach was a former kickboxing world champion who also had amateur boxing experience, he knew me and my twin brother were a little cooky and he’d say to us sometimes, ‘Hey, knock it off, you’ve gotta train.’”

Moses started to invest his time and energy into the sport and he started learning from the ground up. He began by studying current fighters.

“When I was starting out, Floyd was at the top of his game,” Daniel added. “And that was August 2010 before he fought Shane Mosley. I was 11 years old when I started boxing. My first experience in boxing was I was a swimmer before I was a boxer and one of the coaches brought over a boxing coach for the kids to do land-training and my swim coach’s boxing coach showed us the basics of boxing and he ended up becoming my first coach.”

Of course, it is one thing seeing Mayweather doing what he does, it is another thing entirely to successfully replicate. 

“I think, when I was younger, Floyd was the only guy I knew when it came to the shoulder roll, but I thought if he could do it, I could do it too,” Moses smiled. “But as I got older, I realized not everybody could be like Floyd Mayweather.”

That’s a fair realization, but as his passion grew, he delved into boxing’s rich archives. 

“So as I got older, I started watching guys like James Toney, Georgie Benton, Henry Hank, Jersey Joe Walcott, Archie Moore, Johnny Bratton, Joe Gans, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, Henry Armstrong, Jimmy Carter from New York, and these are great defensive fighters who knew how to fight behind the left shoulder, keep your right hand in front of your face as a baseball mitt, catch here, catch here, roll there, and I realized there was only one Floyd but the guys who think they can do it, typically get hit with the right and typically get hit. If you watch guys like Georgie Benton, Henry Hank and those guys, they weren’t the fastest guys but they knew how to time you in the ring and they knew how to stay low, stay in that shell, hunched over like a turtle because a turtle is a defensive animal. Any time a turtle sees danger, they tuck their heads in their shell and stay in behind that shell, and I think my style came from fighters before Floyd Mayweather. Even James Toney, those guys were sitting in behind that shoulder roll with those big old shoulder muscles used as armor.”

And while the likaable 26-year-old likes to talk about defense, he has become known for his power.

As a kid in the gym, they called him Mr. Power.

“I’ve got a wallop of a punch and I used to go in the gym sparring and I used to go in there and swing punches all the way from Mississippi,” he smiled.

With that, his father said of Daniel’s last fight, winning his weight class in the Police Athletic League tournament, “He hit that guy so hard the mouthpiece came flying out and the referee gave him three standing counts.”

Delilah Ponce-Rico, of USA Boxing, who said they are happy to give Daniel the platform to showcase his skills, added: “Some of these athletes look at Daniel like he’s going to be an easy target. As soon as the bell rings, they realize they are in with a skilled boxer.”

Seven fights into his amateur career, he knows all about pre-fight nerves and how they gnaw away at a fighter’s mind. Moses feels them, too, that’s for sure.

“For my first fight, my coach was wrapping my hands and I was shaking,” he admitted. “These hands were shaking, sweating, getting cold, it was like going on a first date with a girl you really like. You don’t know what to expect, but you know you want to do well.”

“He’s a great student,” said his coach, Deon. “I love working with Daniel. We call him ‘Boone.’ I like working with ‘Boone,’ he’s an encyclopedia of boxing in the gym, he knows everything about boxing, so it helps the guys in the gym. Every Saturday we have kids in the gym, it’s like a 12-and-under group, and he works with them and he will help train them and it’s always a pleasure to have him in the gym.”

But Coach Deon Elam, a former pro who trains fighters at the New Era gym, takes no credit for Daniel’s impressive fighter study.

“He found them on his own but we had an old coach in the gym, Stan Ward, that we both trained under years ago at different times and he just fell in love with boxing and looked back on it and got all that knowledge,” said the trainer.

Of course, Deon is one who welcomes Daniel with open arms, but that has been the vibe Moses has felt through his last 15 years in the sport. 

Boxing’s community remains one of sport’s and society’s most accommodating.

“I don’t think there are barriers in boxing,” said Moses. “I think, in society, there are a lot of barriers but in boxing, in my experience, nobody would even know I have autism. Boxing is a little bit more of an accepting community because society can be a bit unforgiving. I think boxing is more of a forgiving community, but as of the stigma of people with autism, I don’t think boxing… there’s never been a world champion in the history of boxing with autism – we’re talking about early diagnosed autism, and my goal is to become boxing’s first autistic world champion in the professional ranks. If nobody’s done it yet, I will. And I think it will erase the stigma for a lot of people with autism, saying that if I can go in there and become a world champion at a professional sport, people with autism can go in professional sports and win the World Series, win the Super Bowl, win the Rugby World Cup. For me, becoming world champion in the pro ranks, WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, that will change the stigma to show people with autism can come in there and be a champion in their respective sport.”

“Daniel is a great addition to our organization,” said Ponce-Rico. “Boxing is for everyone and Daniel has proven he belongs. It’s a joy to witness his journey.”

It’s about the journey, Daniel says, but if he can buy more Winning boxing equipment and Thai food along the way, so be it.

“And when I become world champion, I plan on giving some of my winning check to my mum to make sure she’s set for life,” he said.

Living with autism presents its challenges. Daniel acknowledges them, and he is self-aware, but also on a mission to do something for the greater good.

“I’m at peace with it,” he said. “A part of me is also constantly at war with myself because for me, in life, I always want to try and impress people. I don’t have time for drama. I don’t have time for bullshit. I do good in this world, I want to make positivity and I’m always at war with myself because I’m always apologizing to people because of my autism I struggle with social cues, they can be a bit difficult, so I apologise. I have trouble seeing between the lines. If someone gives me a certain look, I don’t know if they’re joking – even though I don’t give myself enough credit – when I’m out in the world there’s so much going on that it’s hard to track down what somebody is thinking or feeling, because as a person with autism, it can be difficult reading between the lines.”

In the gym, that goes away. He can focus on his drills. He can copy that Henry Hank right hand, that James Toney shoulder roll, Frazier’s left hook, Norton’s cross-armed defense, and work it all into him, and when the bell rings, he’s not autistic. He’s a fighter.   

“Absolutely, I’m at home in the ring,” he said. “All I have to do is read my opponent and his actions. I don’t need to read how he’s feeling. If I’m in the ring, I’m doing what I have to to win.”