Boxer brings all-or-nothing attitude to the ring

Taylor Reed swayed back against the ropes as his coach Jesse Uhde leaned into him, delivering a fierce staccato of punches to his side. Reed pushed off and returned the favor, hooking into Uhde with a powerful blow. The two men, drenched in sweat, paced around the ring looking for an opportunity to strike the other when a sharp bell rang out, signaling the end of their eighth three-minute round.

Reed shed his head gear and flopped onto the floor, his chest heaving with exhaustion. Blood still ebbed from his nose, courtesy of a sharp right uppercut in an earlier round.

He was spent, but the pain was necessary. It made him tough, resilient and ready.

Reed wanted the win at Fight Night 6, then just six days away — and he wanted it badly. He was one of two amateur matches on the card and he’d be facing Great Falls fighter Marshall Sutherland in the 180-pound weight class.

After a few moments of respite, Uhde stood and slung his arms over the ropes, rehashing what his young protégé did well during their sparring session, and what he needed to work on.

“Putting in the work” is what they called it — this pattern of fight, analyze and repeat.

The boxing duo has been training together since January after Reed took Uhde’s introduction to boxing class at Access Fitness in Kalispell. Since then, Reed, a 20-year-old taekwondo champ who’s competed internationally with Team USA and earned two national titles, has made a name for himself in the amateur boxing ring.

After three weeks under Uhde’s wing, he took on a boxer with at least seven fights under his belt, and lost by split decision. In February, Reed stepped through the ropes again, and hasn’t lost since.

Uhde, 39, a professional fighter with a regional boxing title to his name, took a chance on Reed when he realized the extent of the young fighter’s dedication.

When Reed first decided to get serious about boxing, he approached Uhde. At the time, he worked construction during the day and Uhde had a 6 a.m. class to teach. He told Reed that if they were going to get any work done, he’d have to come in early.

Reed showed up at 5 a.m.

“This kid is legit,” Uhde remembered thinking. “At that time I think he was 18 or 19 — that’s what caught my attention.”

It’s a testament to how Reed is wired — he simply doesn’t have an off switch.

Average, Reed said, is easy.

And he’s anything but.

Training starts with a dose of positivity.

“I’ll get up and I’ll just say it to myself: I’m going to win on the 28th,” Reed said. “Mentally, getting into a place where you’re set to go is really important. As silly as it sounds, I’m watching motivational videos [and] blocking a lot of social media just to get into a really positive mindset.”

He puts in a minimum of four hours a day of physical activity when preparing for a specific match-up. His daily exercise regimen usually consists of a long run — sometimes with an altitude mask — plyometric exercises, sparring, weight-lifting and up to two hours of “homework” where he’ll pore over fight videos, jotting down questions or techniques he’d like to hone.

When Reed’s not preparing for his fight, he splits his time between work as a personal trainer, teaching martial arts lessons or hanging cabinets.

A sign hangs in Reed’s bedroom that reads: “If you didn’t do something to achieve your goals, get back up, you can sleep once you’re done.”

He takes the mantra seriously.

Sometimes that means going for a run in the wee hours, or rolling in late after a sparring session.

“That’s hard,” he said. “People, even in your own family, sometimes don’t understand.”

Nutritionally he follows a macros-based diet, where each meal is portioned into a specific combination of fats, proteins and carbs. He’ll take in between 4,500 and 5,000 calories a day in fist-sized meals that might feature eggs, rice, lentils or vegetables. Reed preps meals over weekends — cooking batches of food en masse.

The sacrifices he’s made aren’t limited to diet.

“I haven’t had a social life, it’s almost nonexistent. I have like two or three close friends and that’s it. … Socially I made sacrifices. I didn’t go out, I never partied. I’ve never had alcohol, never done drugs,” he said. “The way I look at it is you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so if those people aren’t pushing me toward my goal, as selfish as it is, I just cut those people out because I know where I’m going and I don’t let anybody distract me.”

Uhde has, without a doubt, earned a place among Reed’s few close contacts.

And while he is first and foremost Reed’s coach, Uhde has learned a few lessons himself from the fighter half his age.

“I’ve never seen anybody train the way he does. He works harder than most pro boxers,” Uhde said. “Seeing his love for it, how excited he got about things, his eagerness to learn … this kid wants it.”

Uhde has been fighting for the better part of two decades, while also organizing events through his company Hard Knocks Fight Promotions. Reed’s enthusiasm for the sport rubbed off on him, inspiring Uhde to start researching fights and learning more about the sport, too.

“I feed off him and he feeds off me,” Reed said. “We’re helping produce the best versions of ourselves.”

That best version, the version that the crowd will see, is a far cry from where Reed started.

When Reed first started practicing martial arts at 5 years old, he described himself as “the fat kid.” The kid who struggled with athletics, the kid who’d take two months to master a roundhouse kick, while others got it down in one. But he kept after it and when he turned 12, Reed was beating everyone in his taekwondo division in the state. So his coach threw him in with the men — fighters ages 18 to 32.

At first, it wasn’t pretty. He had some “bad beatings” and at times he thought about throwing in the towel.

But he didn’t, and out of those struggles came a strong work ethic that has put Reed where he is today — chasing down greatness one victory at a time — this time, in the boxing ring.

“Athletic talent only gets you so far. Skills come from hours and hours of beating on your craft,” he said. “A lot of times when people are looking at success, they just see the peak of success, kind of like the iceberg. They don’t see the 16 years of effort I put in, the failures — the times I lost, the time I got beat up, the time you’re so sore you’re in an ice bath just to walk the next morning.”

The true test of his efforts came at Fight Night 6 on Oct. 28 in Kalispell.

Before taking the ring, Reed wrapped his hands, headphones on, allowing him to shift his focus to his upcoming match against Sutherland.

To win, he needed to stay calm under pressure and stick to the game plan Uhde had given him.

After pulling his gloves on, he and Uhde warmed up on a small concrete patch near a line of bucking chutes at the Majestic Valley Arena, which had been transformed from a rodeo hall to a boxing arena for the evening. Reed’s gloves smacked against mitts wielded by Uhde, who issued advice and encouragement between punches.

When Reed’s name was announced over the loudspeaker, the duo made their way to the arena.

It was go time.

Sutherland and Reed battled around the ring as soon as the opening bell sounded, but it was in the third round that Reed really dominated. He landed a series of hooks and an overhand right into Sutherland’s face, forcing the referee to step in for an eight-count.

“His chin was incredible,” Reed said, “I never hit somebody that hard that kept standing.”

The victory was unanimous.

When the ref raised Reed’s hand to signal the win, he let out a thundering “Yeah!”

It was over. He had done it.

His record now stood at 7-1, rounding out a seven-fight winning streak.

“It felt good,” Reed said. “I knew I did everything I needed to do to win, so there was no doubt in my mind.”

With his match over, Reed turned his attention to Uhde’s fight against Spokane’s Jacob Ruffin.

This time, Reed was in Uhde’s corner, offering advice and reapplying Vaseline during breaks. After six hard-fought rounds, the judges were unanimous in their decision once more — Uhde took the win.

As he exchanged his boxing uniform for street clothes, Reed said he’s already anticipating his next fight — a Dec. 9 bout against Tim Dick at the Outlaw Inn.

So was it all worth it? All those hours in the gym and outside of it, all the social and nutritional sacrifices?

“Absolutely,” Reed said with conviction. ”I love it. I guess it’s one of those things where you ask the mountain climber, ‘Why do you climb the mountain?’ and he says, ‘Because it’s there.’”

For Reed, that mountain is the boxing ring.

Once he crosses the ropes everything else stops. There is no crowd. There are no outside responsibilities. There are just two men and a fight.

And only one can come out on top.

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss may be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.