Hand signed by Riddick "Big Daddy" Bowe
 
While most boxing careers begin at the gym, mine started in the middle of the living room at my mother’s house. You see, I was one of thirteen children. I had five brothers and seven sisters. Being that I was one of the youngest in my family, it gave my older siblings the opportunity to mess with me every chance they could. Most of the kids I knew went to the park or hung outside to play, but our playground was inside of our house. My mother, who worked the night shift at a factory called Admiral Plastics, never allowed me to go outside in fear of the many things that could have happened to any of us. Looking back, I now understand why. We lived in one of the most dangerous places in the entire country. Being raised in Brooklyn, New York, you would hear about all of the crazy stories that occurred out there, but to me, they were all normal because I really had nothing to compare it to. I always thought life was the same everywhere else.