Instead of being influenced by boxers like Roy Jones Jnr, Sugar Ray Leonard or Oscar De La Hoya, he related more to rappers like Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung and Too $hort. Though Youngstown has a rich boxing history, his experience growing up in the gritty Rust Belt city was more like the lyrics of the rappers whose voices boomed from his radio.

Boone only got into boxing in his 20s when he brought his younger brother, Boston, to the gym. When he found out there was money to be made in the ring, he turned pro in 2004 after just 10 amateur fights, putting his musical dreams on the backburner.

“It was a no-brainer,” said Boone, 24-28-6 (13 KOs). “It was either waste my time doing music or go where the money was at. I was going to use boxing to fund my music. But I started becoming bigger and bigger and bigger in boxing, so I was more focused on that and having fun, traveling and different camps and all that stuff. It took a lot of the time to start writing or keep writing that away from the table.

“Music was my first love. Music was my passion. When I started boxing, I basically was just doing boxing for the money, because I could fight and make money. I never really even took boxing serious, like where I was like, ‘I want to be the champ.’”

Now, after hanging up his gloves following a 58-bout pro career, Boone has been able to circle back to what he truly loves. Now the rapper-turned-boxer-turned-rapper is back with his fourth album, “Temple of Boone,” a 35-track venture that he is releasing in three parts – the first of which is already out on Apple Music and Spotify, with the next scheduled to drop on January 21.

Boone, who works as a direct support professional for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), says he hadn’t written any material since his 2022 album “Welcome to Deezolville.” Then, after the breakup of a long-term relationship, Boone finally had a burst of inspiration, penning the 35 songs that make up his latest album over a three-week span.

“Each one shows a different part of me, just like the mixed emotions that was going through me while I was writing it,” said Boone, who sometimes performs with his nine-year-old son, who goes by the stage name Laine Gram. “That's why I had to break it up into three parts, because it was so many songs.

“What I took on was Nas, Common, Redman, Method, Mans and stuff like that. If you mix that style into one, that's my style.”

*

Although Boone never fought for a world championship, his name immediately evokes respect in boxing circles. He fought anybody and everyone in the sport, with 24 of his pro fights coming against undefeated fighters, six of whom he gave their first defeat. Lumped in that group is Andre Ward, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist and future world champion, whom Boone dropped for the first time in his pro career with a right uppercut in the fourth round of Ward’s seventh pro fight. There was also future world champion Adonis Stevenson, then 13-0 when they met in 2010, whom Boone knocked out in two rounds. He also dropped future world champion Sergey Kovalev in a split decision loss.

His audacious matchmaking wasn’t due to any particular ambition but rather the harsh reality of the sport. He had children to take care of, and the checks only came in when the bell rang.

“It wasn't by choice,” he said. “It was force-fed to me, because if I didn't take that fight right then at that time when they put it in my face, I probably wouldn't fight for a year, six months, two years. So it's kind of like, ‘Well, you better take what we give you, or you ain't going to get nothing.’

“If I could do it all over again, I would do it all just the same. What I would do, though, is I would stay in the gym, because that's mainly how I was taking losses. Because either, one, I wasn't ready, or two, I wasn't trained enough to be able to fend for myself when I get in there. But I never took really too much punishment, even with the guys that they call elite.”

Boone’s main run as a pro boxer had come to an end with his 2019 decision loss to Artur Ziyatdinov in Montreal, but he returned to the ring in 2024. Since then, he has lost three straight, culminating in a fifth-round stoppage against Zachary Randolph this past May. Boone says he retired after that fight but hadn’t announced it publicly. He says he knew in the Randolph fight, during which he says he suffered an asthma attack, that the time had come to stop fighting. Still, he admits he struggles with shaking the boxing bug.

“I couldn't do nothing, like I didn't have no oxygen in me, like my hands just dropped to my side, like I couldn't breathe at all,” Boone said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I gotta let it go.’”

Boone says that he had been avoiding dropping by the gym where he worked out – Burnside Boxing in Struther, Ohio – hoping he could shake the desire to keep fighting, but he says he will slowly begin returning to share his knowledge with the young amateur boxers.

**

Although Boone had originally envisioned boxing being the means to get his music career started, it has worked the opposite way: Music has helped keep him occupied during the difficult transition to a life after boxing. 

But even if few in the boxing community knew about his rap aspirations, it hasn’t stopped Boone from finding success in the world of hip-hop. He has opened for mainstream artists like the Ying Yang Twins and YoungBloodZ, plus Young Dro during a performance at a birthday party for the rapper T.I. In support of his latest project, Boone will be hitting the road on a 15-city tour, beginning this Wednesday, when he performs a New Year’s Eve show at the End Zone Tavern in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He has other performances set for the famed South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, from March 13-15.

In addition to pursuing his musical interests, Boone has dabbled as well in acting, appearing in several independent movies that are available on streaming platforms. Boone played a bit role in the 2019 crime drama “BodyBag Ohio” (available on Tubi as “Once Upon a Time in Youngstown”), and will get more screen time in an upcoming project titled “Standing in Youngstown,” a boxing-themed drama that will also feature fellow Youngstown boxers Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Kelly Pavlik. Boone shared with BoxingScene his secret to getting cast so frequently.

“All my homeboys is the producers,” he said. “I don’t know why they think I would be a good actor, but they always call me and be like, ‘Hey bro, I got this role I need you to play.’

“I love a challenge, man. I love new things. And I love just expanding my horizons.”

Whether it has been in the ring, in the studio or on set, it can never be said that Boone ran from a tough assignment. And regardless of the outcome, he says, he never gave anything less than everything he could on that night.

“Whether it was a robbery, a loss, a draw or win, I went in there and did the best that I could do,” Boone said.

“I’m having fun. And anything that I want to do, I'm gonna make sure I do it. I don't want to leave no regrets and say, like, ‘Dang man, I wish I could have … I should have did … What if I …?’ I don't want to sing those songs, regardless of what it looks like. If I have a million dollars or $1 doing it, at least I could say, ‘Well, at least I did it.’”

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.