Meet the Columbus teenager who recently won a national boxing championship
A Columbus teenager is a national boxing champion.
Naseia Richardson-Moore won the 132-pound age 15-16 division at the 2022 National Silver Gloves tournament Feb. 2-5 in Independence, Missouri.
“I’m incredibly happy to have won a national championship,” Naseia told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “and I’d like to win more big tournaments.”
He already has won a bunch in eight years of boxing.
Naseia, 16, is a five-time Junior/Youth Golden Gloves regional champ, a four-time Silver Gloves regional champ and a Regional Boxer of the Year, his aunt Chiara Richardson told the L-E.
He won all three of his bouts at this year’s national tournament as the Region 3 representative (one of eight in Silver Gloves) through state and regional qualifying,
After attending Clubview Elementary School in grades K-5, Naseia now is an 11th-grader at Georgia Connections Academy Charter School, an online program that gives him flexibility to train and travel for boxing while still doing his schoolwork.
Naseia is coached by Rick Carrillo and trains at Wright Way Fitness.
“He can do it all,” said Carrillo, who also directs the Columbus Boxing Gym in the Haygood Recreation Center. “He’s got power. He’s got speed. … He’s a great guy.”
This was Naseia’s fourth time qualifying for the national tournament. The difference this time, Carrillo said, is that he is “more mature and just better.”
Growing up while watching his parents, Queenetta Richardson and Remerson Moore, train in a boxing gym, Naseia said, “I knew I wanted to try it. I also love boxing because it improves your stamina, agility and power, among other things.”
Naseia hopes to become a professional boxer. After his boxing career, he said, he would like to be an illustrator.
“I love drawing and creating art,” he said.
Regardless of his career path, his mother figures the lessons he learns from boxing will benefit him outside the ring as well — even though watching her son box “makes me beyond nervous.”
“Not only is he dedicated and hardworking in the gym, he puts forth the same effort towards his education,” Queenetta told the L-E in an email. “He is a role model for his brothers and sisters.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 12:00 AM.
