By: Sean Crose

“I’m right here in Harlem,” Steven Galeano tells me.  “I’m probably going to Florida next week or so for camp.”  The 6-0 junior welterweight recently impressed again when he stopped Rynell Griffin in the second round of a scheduled six round fight. Yet Galeano wants that only to be the beginning of an eventful year. “I want to keep upping the competition,” he tells me, “(by) fighting guys with positive records.” The City College of New York grad (he studied Public Relations and Journalism) makes it clear that he’s willing to be put in challenging situations in order to reach the pinnacle of the sport. “I really just want to get guys in there that have at least 500 records,” he says. “They’re going to make me earn.”

That kind of dedication explains why Galeano wants to keep active. “Just training 24/7,” he says, “ready for anything that’s thrown my way.” Being a fighter on the rise, the New Yorker is on the lookout for worthwhile fights in 2021. “As many as possible,” Galeano tells me. “I’m definitely aiming for six, at least five.” Although he has that degree, there’s little doubt that boxing is a way of life for the 22 year old. “I’ve been boxing on and off since I was about eight years old,” he says. “Around 13 years old, I began to take the sport serious. That’s when I really began fighting at a furious pace.”

Yet, even though he’s been at it a large part of his young life, Galeano realizes that boxing is a sport that’s difficult to master, that one is always, in a sense, a student of. “I had knocked the guy out in the first minute and ten seconds,” he says of his first professional fight. “You get blinded and think you’re going to knock everybody out.” Galeano’s second fight, however, went the distance. Even though Galeano emerged from the match victorious, the experience taught the young fighter a valuable lesson. “It did bring me back to earth real quick,” he says. “Not everyone is going to go down. You’re going to have to earn it.”

Galeano plans on earning his way to big fights through steady progress. “I’m really just ready for anything to be honest,” he tells me. “It all starts in the gym.” Said from a man who knows that boxing isn’t a crash course, but a journey…. a tough as nails journey with some serious rewards at the end of it.

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