Engineering Student Brad Chaiken

by Derrick Bean
COE Public Affairs Writer

Introducing, in this corner, from Detroit, Michigan, standing 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 141 pounds, the challenger, Wayne State University freshman, “Lightning” Brad Chaiken.

Chaiken, a mechanical engineering major, has to be light and fast. He has a wife and four children. He works part-time as a student assistant for the Dean’s Office at the college. He trains on his own and with other boxers. And he volunteers with the youth.

After fighting through life’s challenges, the orthodox right-hand boxer has found a way to remain positive in a world full of naysayers and those who think they know better.

Chaiken, 30, started boxing seriously at a relatively late age, but has always been intrigued by the sport since a young boy. “I started dipping and dabbling in boxing when I was in my early teens, but I didn’t start taking it serious until the end of 2004,” he says. “My grandfather took me down to the Kronk Boxing Gym once or twice when I was very young. Around the time that Tommy Hearns and Hilmer Kenty were coming up. I met Hearns there and I had a curiosity for the sport from then on.”

Chaiken may not look like your typical fighter. He’s tall for his weight class. “I’m the tallest light welterweight (132-141 lbs) in the Midwest,” he says. “Nobody on record in the Midwest has my measurements.”

He’s also a skinny white guy who came up in Detroit. “It’ll make you or break you,” says Chaiken. “I don’t train in suburban gyms. I’ve been in every gym south of Eight Mile — in places where there’s not a white kid for miles. I have nothing against the gyms in the suburbs. But if you want to be the king of the jungle, you have to fight with the lions.”

Chaiken says he has never faced any racial issues in any of the gyms across the city. However, “Getting accepted is another thing,” he says.

A significant event for Chaiken took place in 2005 as a contestant in the Metropolitan Detroit Golden Gloves Tournament. Let’s set the scene. The bell rings. The first round begins. The first exchange of punches are thrown. Bam. Chaiken takes a good shot to the nose. He’s shaken, but not stirred. The match continues. Round Two. A doctor stops the fight momentarily to check on Chaiken’s nose…says he’s clear to go. The fight continues. Chaiken dominates going into the third round without taking further damage. He’s well on his way to victory. Only 30 seconds left on the clock in this three-round bout. The referee calls the fight. The crowd erupts in boos. Later, one of the judges whispers, “the ref robbed you…you were winning on all three score cards.”

Although he won respect from others that night, Chaiken took an ‘L’ that hurt much worse than his nose (which was broken in two places). But he bounced back to win the 2005 Flint Tough Gloves title the following year. Then, he returned to the Detroit Golden Gloves with a vengeance in 2006. “I came back,” he says. “I knocked out everyone they put in front of me. I got a lot of good reviews after getting my nose broken and coming back to win championships.”

Chaiken won the 2007 state title in Michigan. He took home the bronze medal at a 2007 world championship tournament, and a silver medal at the 2008 James Toney National Championships in Ann Arbor. Overall, Chaiken has amassed an impressive 20-6 record.

A long time ago, Chaiken earned the nickname, “Lightning,” from his trainer because of his fast jab and right hand. “The jab is the key to my success in the ring,” he says. “I’ve beaten opponents literally with just my left hand (jabs and hooks). Right hands are used to ‘close the show.’”

His biggest boxing inspirations are Detroit staples Thomas “Hitman” Hearns and James “Lights Out” Toney. “My style is ‘smart’ boxing,” says Chaiken. “Boxing is about hitting and not getting hit. It’s a chess match. Everyone is essentially taught the same basics. Our styles differ, however, when we use what works for us individually. In my case, my brain is my weapon. I ‘think’ in the ring, not just fight. I am a defensive fighter. I model myself after James Toney and Thomas Hearns. James is one of the best defensive fighters in the history of the sport. And of course, Tommy was one of the best offensive ones.”

Chaiken was always competitive and never a fan of losing. “Growing up, I played a lot of different sports: football, hockey… but I got tired of losing because of other people,” he says. “I got tired of relying on other people to win… relying on the quarterback…relying on the goalie. To me, boxing is the ultimate form of competition. I don’t have to worry about a pitcher. It’s one-on-one. Either you win, or you lose. But you don’t have to rely on other people.”

Chaiken comes from a family of people who did not go to college, but managed to run their own business. At 16, he was doing demolition work. After high school, he went to a trade school to learn heating and cooling from 2003 to 2004. Chaiken says he ran his own heating and cooling business until the economy tanked. But he always thought about going back to school.

One day, he told a friend his master plan to attend Wayne State, become a mechanical engineer and return to the heating and cooling industry. “They told me I couldn’t do it,” Chaiken says of the pessimist. “He said, ‘You’re too old. You can’t do this.’ It really took those words to drive me here. You can’t tell a great fighter ‘no.’”

He’s on a roll. “The more that I hear ‘you can’t do this,’ and the more that I actually do, the more my kids pick up on it and they see what personal drive can do. They said I was too old to go to college, and now I’m here. They said I was too small-framed to box, and now I give people fits in the ring. I’ve won some titles that they said I wouldn’t. They said my marriage wouldn’t last six months. Today, we’ve been married almost 10 years.”

Chaiken says young people are not taking advantage of the opportunity to get an education. “It’s hard to go back to school after so much time off,” he says. “I’m 30 years old. I have a wife and four kids. If I can do it, there’s no reason you can’t.”

Chaiken trains other fighters, both amateur and professional. That’s not to say his glory days are behind him, but a detached retina from a fight in 2009 has slowed him down. He also volunteers his time with disadvantaged youth as a way of giving back to the community that raised him to become the strong fighter that he is.

“I had a hard life coming up,” he says. “Ninety percent of the time boxers come from not the best situations…gangs, correctional facilities. I grew up rough. Pops left early and mom could only do so much. I started working odd jobs before I could legally work to help (mostly in construction). I had a lot of negative influences in my life due to the areas where we lived, schools that I went to, etc. My cousin was murdered in a drive-by shooting when I was 14 (his cousin was 16). My mom caught wind that I could be wrapped up with that situation, so she sent me to live in Texas for a year. I was really on my own, and completely moved out when I was 17.”

Chaiken says he wasn’t the best kid back then. He adds that some of his actions were “reckless” as a youth and it took him a while to mature. “I really didn’t start appreciating life until I created it,” he says. “Until I had my son, I had no respect for myself or anyone else. I didn’t know how to live for anyone else except myself. That all changed with my children.”

Being a mentor also brings great satisfaction, says Chaiken. He managed to get some underprivileged kids hooked on boxing. “You really see them light up…and the enthusiasm in them when you put them in the ring,” he says.

Chaiken has several people in his corner, keeping him focused. Outside of his family, there is Gerald Thompkins, associate dean of student affairs, who helped him land his on-campus job. “He has gone out of his way to help me adjust to Wayne State,” says Chaiken.

Thompkins says his investment in Chaiken paid off. “He had some personal challenges in his life, and I really wanted to help him as much as I could,” says Thompkins. “Plus, he seemed like a very sincere and genuine person, and he has turned out to be that kind of individual in terms of his work ethic.”

Other supporters include: his coaching team, Ferdell Pitts and Keith Jackson; and his sparring partner, Darryl “The People’s Choice” Cunningham, a middleweight fighter who Chaiken says “opened up a whole new world to me and made me a better person for it.” He adds that they keep him humble by reminding him that “there is always someone better.”

Chaiken hopes to take his career to the next level this year. “If all goes well, I will be making my pro debut by the end of the summer,” he says. “At 30, my body is still young. And since starting college at Wayne State, my mind is sharper than ever.”

Thompkins wants Chaiken to recognize all the opportunities in front of him. “There is life after boxing,” he recalls saying to Chaiken. “At this point in your life and in your career, your direction should be focused on academics and finding a professional career that’s not as painful.”

For now, Chaiken is planning to become a member of the Formula SAE team at Wayne State. He also takes on heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) work on the side when the opportunity presents itself.