Damarion Ingram was born and raised in Springfield, Oregon, a suburb just outside of Eugene.
When Ingram was just 5 years old, he had an incident that would change his life.
Ingram went to Baltimore, Maryland to visit some of his family members. One day, Ingram and his cousins went to the playground and got into an altercation with some other kids from the area.
When Ingram went back home and his stepfather, Jacob Williams, found out what happened, he decided to sign Ingram up for boxing classes.
Williams started boxing in Oregon in 1996 at HardKnox Boxing, which was owned by Kip Triplet.
Once Ingram started boxing regularly, Williams became his boxing coach.
“When I was 5, I didn’t even know boxing was a sport,” Ingram said. “I just found it really fun. The other guys that were in the gym, I would always just run around and be like, ‘Oh, I could do this better.’ I have the mindset of ‘I have to be better than everyone.’”
As most boxers do, Ingram has a nickname – Dangerous.
Because of his size, Ingram has always fought kids who are older and bigger than he is. After talking with him and his stepdad, they informed me that he is currently about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs about 185 pounds – at 14 years old.
When Ingram was just 9 years old, he received the “Dangerous” nickname after a fight against an 11-year-old kid in his weight class. At the time, Ingram was boxing in the 95-pound weight class.
In the third round, Ingram was losing the fight with about 30 seconds left. He was able to bounce back and get his first knockout of his boxing career.
“I was actually a little bit confused when it first happened,” Ingram said of the knockout. “I just stood there for a second and was like, ‘Uh, what am I supposed to do?’”
After growing up in Oregon for the first 13 years of his life, Ingram and his family moved to the Pahrump area in September 2021.
Williams’ training tactic is to have his boxers train outside, as opposed to training in a gym. He says this is useful for many reasons, but it also helps him be able to go anywhere with his boxing brand, Silverback Boxing Club.
Due to the calm winters, Williams said that living in Pahrump makes it easier for him and Ingram to train year-round without having to find a gym during the cold months.
For cardio, Ingram runs hiking paths and hills throughout the Pahrump and Las Vegas areas with his cardio trainer Tim McKenzie, who is an ultra marathon runner located in Las Vegas.
Ingram hasn’t noticed too much of a difference between training in Oregon versus training in Nevada. He did mention that with the air being a little thicker in Nevada compared to Oregon, he feels like it has helped his stamina and he’s able to last longer during his training sessions.
Because of his age, Ingram should be fighting in the intermediate age group, which is 13-14 year-olds, at 175 pounds. Unfortunately, because there is only one other kid in that division, Ingram moved up to the juniors age group of 15-16 year-olds and is fighting at the 176-plus pound division.
In December 2021, Ingram participated in the USA Boxing National Championships. He finished in third place for his division, losing to a 16-year-old who had a four-inch height advantage and weighed nearly 50 pounds more than Ingram.
Because of always boxing kids older than him, Ingram was phased by having to go up against someone of his opponent’s size.
“It makes me know that at least I can hang there,” Ingram said of his third-place finish. “Ultimately, the goal is to be No. 1. I don’t feel satisfied with being No. 3. I’ve been working to get a national title since 2018.”
From his national fight, Ingram learned to not be intimidated by his opponent during boxing matches. He acknowledged that his opponent did things that got into his head, which caused Ingram to overthink things during the fight.
Ingram currently has a record of 11-5 with just the one knockout.
Up to this point in Ingram’s career, he has had a few big accomplishments that he’s proud of. In addition to his knockout and his third-place finish at the 2021 National Championships, Ingram is also proud of his third-place finish in the 2018 National Silver Gloves tournament.
For that tournament, Ingram fought in the 95-pound weight class as a 10-year-old.
Ingram is hoping to one day become a professional boxer, with hopes of being able to fight in Madison Square Garden.
“For me, there’s been so many events in general, outside of boxing too, in Madison Square Garden,” Ingram said. “That’s where I would want to fight to defend a title.”
Within the next 10 years, by the time he’s 25, Ingram is hoping to have opened a gym in Las Vegas to carry on the Silverback Boxing name. He’s also hoping to have won the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title belt.
Outside of boxing, Ingram enjoys carpentry and hopes to be able to do that on the side while he’s a professional boxer. His dream is to one day be able to buy his mom a plot of land and personally build her a house.
Ingram already has his eyes set on his next big tournament. He’s hoping to participate in the 2022 Junior Olympics, which are set to take place July 9-16 in Wichita, Kansas.