Vershaun Lee and Ramsey Vesey Jnr, are up-and-comers building their careers on the regional scene, looking to make names for themselves, while representing Rock Island, Illinois.
The two will fight in separate bouts on Saturday at Mississippi Hall-River Center in Davenport, Iowa. Lee, 5-0 (4 KOs) will face Argentina’s Gonzalo Carlos Dallera in a six-round junior lightweight contest. Vesey, 3-0 (3 KOs), collides with Aaron Jamel Hollis in a scheduled six-round battle above the lightweight limit.
The show is promoted by Ramsey Vesey Snr, who is Ramsey Jnr’s father and Lee’s uncle and who trains both boxers.
Lee, a multiple-time national champion, emerged as one of the best amateurs after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team instills a Midwest grit based on hard training sessions. When they started 20 years ago, Lee and Ramsey Jnr, would spar for 30 minutes straight. These grueling sessions defined the fighters from an early age.
“When we were coming up, we didn’t know anything about Floyd Mayweather and the big names in boxing, and that was something my father had us doing in training camp,” Ramsey Jnr told BoxingScene. “It instilled something different in us, that real dog mentality. We didn’t even realize he had turned the clock off; we were just going at it.”
Lee remembers it a bit differently.
“Big Ramsey was on the outside of the ring playing both sides, talking to both of us,” Lee told BoxingScene. “I remember Ramsey throwing a punch, and he’d say that hurt him, and I knew it didn’t hurt me. I would look at Big Ramsey and just go harder.
“That sparring helped me become advanced at an early age,” Lee said. “After school, we went to the gym and did our homework afterward. They had us on a very strict schedule.”
The journey to that point is interesting.
Ramsey Jnr’s great-grandfather was a boxer in Mississippi. He stopped boxing to raise his 13 children in Rock Island, Illinois.
When Ramsey Snr would visit his grandfather, he would recall his passion for the sport. He’d slap-box with him. His stepfather didn’t want him to box, but he wrestled, played football, and ran track.
“Boxing was my first love,” Ramsey Snr told BoxingScene.
Ramsey Snr’s love of the sport was renewed when his father signed up Lee along with Vernon Lee, his older brother, to box.
“When I heard that a light bulb went off in my head,” Ramsey Snr said. “I would love to get my son into boxing.”
So, he took his son Ramsey Jnr to a gym in a neighboring city of East Moline, Illinois, as the three would train Monday to Thursday. When he felt his fighters weren’t challenged enough, he’d go online and do research. He even took them to Chicago to work with Nathan Jones, as he wanted to know what the 10-year-old fighters needed to work on. The gym where they started boxing closed down a few years later. Ramsey, with no boxing experience, took over to guide the fighters.
“I just tried to learn as much as I could,” Ramsey Snr said. “I just took things I learned from wrestling, what I learned in other sports, and applied it to boxing.”
Lee and Ramsey Jnr were winning national tournaments without having a gym. Sometimes they’d train in a park, sometimes a laundry room, or even the backyard or basement of their grandfather’s store, but always they got their reps in. Now, they are back to familiar roots. Ramsey Snr is learning how to promote the young fighters regionally, while Lee and Ramsey Jnr are being underestimated.
“I love it that way,” Ramsey Snr said.
Still, Lee was on track to be an Olympian in 2024. He was unable to qualify due to the qualification process.
It was an otherwise magical run, capped off by his 2021 National Golden Gloves title in the junior welterweight division. Lee competed internationally against Andy Cruz in the 2021 AIBA World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. Despite losing, he put up a valiant effort even with a lack of international amateur experience.
“I am an under-the-radar fighter,” Lee said. “I am one of the top guys, but I am just under-the-radar, which is similar to how it was in the amateurs. I came out of nowhere and made a lot of people start watching me.
Ramsey Jnr won three or four national titles, according to his memory. None came at the elite level, however.
“I didn’t have the best amateur career, because I didn’t go into national tournaments looking to throw 100 punches,” Ramsey Jnr said. “I was picking my shots; it was an uphill battle. I never felt like I fit in with the amateurs.”
Ramsey’s moniker was “Sweet Pea,” though he joked that he didn’t know about Pernell Whitaker at the time. Whitaker is now his favorite fighter.
“I am just working my way up the ladder,” said Ramsey Jnr, 25. “I am trying to get my name recognized and established in the boxing world.”
Their vocal coach carries a strong opinion on the dangers of the industry underestimating them based on hailing from a small Midwestern town
“That would be sad if people believed that,” Ramsey Snr said. “Look at Michael Nunn and Antwun Echols. Michael Nunn is Vershaun’s older cousin, and he’d tell you that Vershaun is a better fighter than me, because of Vershaun’s discipline.
“He was in the streets, and Vershaun isn’t in the streets.”
Lee knows the path he needs to lead.
“I see my future and I know what I can do against the best fighters,” Lee said. “Put me in the ring with any of the top fighters at any weight, I feel I will dominate or destroy them, if not put up a good fight.”
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
