NEW YORK – If boxing wasn’t in his life, Malachi Thomas says he would probably want to be a coffee shop owner. It’s something he had always dreamed about, just the way a coffee shop establishes a community. Thomas enjoys cooking, too, so he figures he would also be in the kitchen serving up meals.
“I really love coffee. I feel a coffee shop is a good way to bring people together,” said Thomas, an unbeaten lightweight with a 2-0 record from the Marble Hill section of The Bronx.
Instead of cappuccinos, though, Thomas – a 26-year-old southpaw – will be serving up knuckle sandwiches on July 25, when he will make his hometown debut at Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York. Thomas will face an opponent to be named in a four-round bout on the PrimeTime Promotions card.
For Thomas, the opportunity to fight in front of his hometown fans is one he has been waiting for since last September, when he made his professional debut in Ecuador on a card promoted by Arnold Gonzalez, his gym mate at Harlem’s Mendez Boxing. Thomas returned to the South American nation in November for his second fight, and he was scheduled to fight in New York on April 11 before his opponent withdrew from the bout.
“Since then, I’ve been staying in the gym, staying prepared, ready for this moment,” said Thomas, whose favorite boxers include Terence Crawford, Sugar Ray Leonard and Pernell Whitaker. “When they called me for July 25, I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ I don’t really care who it is, where it’s at, and it’s in my hometown, which is even better, so I’m ready to put on a show and show that I’m the best in the city.”
Thomas grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about an hour northwest of Washington, D.C. His father, who is Puerto Rican, introduced him to boxing at a young age, but Thomas gravitated towards football instead. He played running back and strong safety, but he found it harder to pursue the sport when his family moved to New York, when he was 13.
Thomas earned a scholarship to play football at Poly Prep – a private school in Brooklyn that produced NFL players such as P. J. Hill and Rich Kotite – but he found his grades weren’t up to par. After high school, he studied for a year at Erie Community College in Buffalo. Unsure of what he wanted to do with his life, it wasn’t until his older brother Donte passed away in 2019 that he locked in and picked a direction. That’s when he returned to the boxing gym for good.
Thomas had about 20 amateur fights, give or take, beginning in the summer of 2021, when he walked into the New York Tournament and won the 141lbs novice title. After adding the 147lbs novice title at the Metropolitan Championships that fall, Thomas moved into the open class division, winning the 2023 New York Ring Masters Championships and competing at the National Golden Gloves in May 2023.
Since 2020, Thomas has been trained by John Skerret, a 60-year-old from Jamaica, Queens, who has three professional fights to his credit. Skerret has a wealth of experience to draw from, having boxed as an amateur under head trainer Ralph Correa at the Times Square Gym during the early ‘80s before breaking off on his own due to a disagreement over whether or not he was ready to turn pro. Skerret turned pro in 1985, defeating Ronnie Rentz on the undercard of the Hector Camacho-Louis Burke fight, but he lost his next two fights and retired.
Skerret says he intends to protect Thomas from making the same mistakes he made four decades earlier.
“It’s as high as he can reach. I like his chances; he’s just gotta be guided right, like anything else. You can have all the talent in the world in this game, but if you’re not guided right …” said Skerret, who added that Thomas is “a very good kid – he’s very mature.”
The July 25 fight will be Thomas’ first pro bout with his head trainer in his corner, as Skerret didn’t make the trip to Ecuador. Thomas says the experience of fighting two motivated opponents without his primary voice in the corner will embolden him for future tests.
Even while focusing on his immediate goals, Thomas is already planning for the future. He says he is about to begin plumbing school so that he has a backup plan for after his boxing days are over.
“Boxing is a dangerous sport, where anything can happen, so I want to prepare myself for life after boxing or life if boxing comes to an early end,” said Thomas. “Whatever is part of God’s plan, I just want to be prepared.”
Until then, Thomas says he plans to go full throttle ahead as a fighter.
“I want to be world champion – it’s as simple as that. I want to hold that green WBC belt. I don’t really care for the fame. I just know I could be a champion. That’s what keeps me pushing,” said Thomas.
“With the money, I could change my life, my family’s life, people around the world’s life. That’s a part of my plan. I want to go around the world helping people with the money I make from boxing. Those things keep me motivated – but the main goal is to become a world champion.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
