Junior welterweight DeAngelo Evans is trying to defy the odds in boxing. He is looking to have a successful professional career without having an official amateur fight. 

Evans earned a fifth-round technical knockout last Friday over Helton Lara at Frank and Florence Williams Event Center, Greensboro, North Carolina. The time of the stoppage was 2:48.

Evans, 14-0 (13 KOs), 26, is a former student-athlete who has found himself competing in the squared circle. Originally a wrestler, Evans tried academia, but admits it wasn’t for him. Boxing was, though. 

“I went around. I did like a couple of smokers, but it does not count as a record,” Evans told BoxingScene. “I started boxing in 2017. I went to school, but didn’t like it. As the saying goes, I didn’t choose boxing, it chose me.”

Evans, of Kernersville, North Carolina, also noted that he “is a student of the game”, while explaining that just a year before becoming a boxer he worked at FedEx. Evans trains with Marcus Luck, a former professional fighter best known for fighting Keith Thurman. Evans’ dedication to his craft soon turned a hobby into a career. He met Mark Habibi, who is now his co-manager, along with Lamont Roseborough. He is now a full-time fighter. Evans defines this as the process. Coming to the sport late, he knows he can’t skip steps.

“The process is the good part,” Evans said. “I went from working at FedEx. I went from working a nine-to-five, second shift, and third shift, to being a full-time boxer. I did that. I am not going to trade it for the world, because it made me who I am today.”

Evans has sparred with the likes of Brandon Adams and Egidijus Klavaliauskas and also Jaron “Boots” Ennis. He remembers one sparring session with Klavaliauskas which was pivotal.

“I didn't know he was that strong. I gave him some great work,” Evans said of sparring Klavaliauskas. “He gave me a dope review after we sparred. We went six rounds, and I went out there by myself. I felt a little uncomfortable as it was my first time in California. After we did the six, he came over to talk to my manager. Of course, I couldn't hear what he was saying.”

Habibi didn’t tell Evans what he had said until they got in the car.

“I feel like North Carolina is overlooked,” Evans said. “I say people who keep it real with the students. So, whenever they get into the sport, they train one way and then they fight another way."

For Evans, who comes from a place hardly synonymous with top-level boxing, it is important to take a business-like approach to his career.

“I'm not friends with anybody because, at the end of the day, this is a business,” Evans said. “I’m not your friend. I only know you because of boxing. I don't talk to people outside. I don't hang out. I don’t party; no clubbing. I don’t ask for phone numbers, none of that, because one day I might fight you.”