Frank Galarza faces crafty veteran and former world champion Ishe Smith this Friday on a Premier Boxing Champions card in Las Vegas, Nevada (9:00 p.m. ET/PT, Bounce TV). Looking to rebound from his first career loss, Galarza draws strength from a tempestuous past that he now uses to help inspire others — both in and out of the ring.
When Frank Galarza lived in the Coney Island neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, he would sometimes take solitary, contemplative walks along the beach. But make no mistake, these weren’t leisurely, carefree strolls. To hear Galarza describe it, these were some of his darkest moments — desperate attempts to comprehend the magnitude of all the suffering he’d experienced and commune with some higher, then-unknown power.
“I used to walk on the beach, and I used to – almost like a prayer: ‘Is this it for me?’ I didn’t know who I was talking to, where I was talking,” Galarza said. “But I was like, ‘Is this it for me?’ And, you know, if this is it for me, then I don’t want this anymore. You know, ‘Take me now.’ It was one of those things – I wasn’t suicidal, but I didn’t want to live anymore.”
The specific instance of utter hopelessness Frank Galarza is describing happened approximately two weeks before before he found himself in Rikers Island penitentiary facing charges that could have kept him incarcerated for up to five years. Teetering on the proverbial brink, Galarza’s life was about to change — although not in a way he could have predicted as he stood on that Coney Island beach, staring out at the ocean.
A tempestuous upbringing
Frank Galarza is an explosive fighter in his athletic prime and very much a young man in the grander scheme of life. And yet, in so short a span, Galarza (17-1-2, 11 KOs) has experienced multiple lifetimes worth of suffering. What’s remarkable, though, is that this stretch could have been so easily defined solely by loss, destitution and a complete descent into hopelessness.
The facts of Galarza’s childhood and teenage years have been documented and are harrowing: At seven, Galarza lost his father — who also boxed — “to complications from a gunshot wound;” at nine, his mother overdosed on drugs. Taken in by his aunt, uncle and their two children, Galarza, despite having somewhat of a support network in place, was consumed by anger and drawn to the streets.
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When it comes to opening up about his past, Frank Galarza is generous, contemplative and candid. He views sharing his story as a sort of testimony, and it was through his church that he first became comfortable laying bare the details of his upbringing to arrive at a more profound understanding of himself and the impact his experiences could have on others.
Galarza has undergone a gradual, gruelling shift from being consumed by his own rage and confusion to an outward focus grounded in altruism, which is particularly evident in his philanthropic work with his foundation Youth Fighting Forward. In fact, working with troubled youth became a natural element of Galarza’s spiritual maturation due to his profound understanding of how easy it is to isolate oneself after wading through trauma — like losing one’s parents — at a young age.
“Trying to cope with it, I think, was a difficult thing,” Galarza said. “I struggled for years with immaturity; I struggled with years of not being wanted. I felt like an outcast. I felt like, you know, I didn’t have my parents there – watching everyone who has their mother there, their father there. You know, my aunt and my uncle took care of me. It was also — I felt almost as if I didn’t belong, like it wasn’t my family. At a young age, you don’t know how to deal with it.”
As he got older and put some distance between himself and the shock of his parents’ deaths, Frank Galarza found himself faced with the ultimate, and unanswerable, existential question: “Why me?” Unable to see that the events and factors feeding his anguish were larger than himself, Galarza turned inward. His cousins, who he views as brothers, were at times a source of resentment because they still had their parents, and Galarza felt that he never completely belonged in his aunt and uncle’s household.
“I just felt alone – that I didn’t have anyone,” Galarza said. “I was desperate to see my parents. You know, I wanted to be around my parents. Because you want to grow old, and you want to have your father there, or your mother there – you want to have that.”
Galarza admits that he didn’t truly care about anything or anyone, and that he was profoundly selfish. And yet, the anger, resentment and jealousy he describes are so utterly human that one cannot help but sympathize with his plight. The compassion of others, however, was unable to penetrate the wall — a veritable fortress of nihilism — that Galarza had constructed around himself.
“We live and we die,” Galarza thought at the time. “So you know what? It is what it is. When my time is going to come, my time is going to come.”
Image credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME
The turning point
When Frank Galarza was only 21, his cousin, whom he had grown up with and considered a sibling, was shot and killed after being robbed. And it was during this nightmare stretch that Galarza found himself in Rikers Island penitentiary facing up to half a decade behind bars. The revolving prison door Galarza had passed through so often in the years prior seemed about to close for a long, unforgiving period.
It was in Rikers Island that Galarza had a chance encounter with a fellow inmate, one that carries almost cosmic undertones.
“I was in Rikers Island and I met a man there. I don’t remember the guy’s name – I think it was Paul or Peter, or something of that nature. And the guy, he was kind of reading people in prison. It was one of those things where he was doing these things and I’d seen the shock in people’s faces. And I told him, I said, ‘Read me.’
“And there were things that he was telling me that I don’t think anybody could have known. One of those things, like, ‘How do you know that?’ And I just met the guy. It wasn’t even 20 minutes into the conversation when I was like, ‘Wow.’ Literally, he told me, ‘You have a choice. You love the streets so much, but unfortunately, if you love the streets you’re going to die. You have people who love you; I see a following of people behind you, supporting you, and you have to choose what it is that you want to do. Because if you stay here, in this moment, you’re going to die.'”
The man spoke of God and spirituality, and it was because of this encounter that Frank Galarza discovered his own faith, which serves as the foundation upon which everything he’s accomplished since scraping rock bottom is built. Galarza has said in the past that boxing saved him (which is true to an extent), but he’s come to realize that it’s his faith that is most responsible for pulling him back from the brink.
For years Galarza had been unable to accept help or compassion from others because he blamed himself for what had happened to his parents. His transformative encounter at Rikers Island altered his perspective and reoriented his thinking. For the first time, Galarza was able to cope with not being able to understand the process that had gotten him to where he was — because he finally had an end goal in mind.
Galarza believes that one must start with the ending. By this he means that one has to have a concrete vision of the place one desires to arrive at in life. Being recognized as a top contender and having the platform to disseminate his message can relate to a higher purpose, as long as it has to do with helping others believe in something. Galarza has most certainly stumbled, and he’s even fallen. But in picking himself back up, he’s learned to embody a saying that his pastor helped instil in him: “It’s better that you trip on a stone than be crushed by it.”
Image credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME
Giving back
Through 20 professional fights, Frank Galarza’s defining moment came when he stopped John Thompson in two explosive rounds on January 17, 2014. It was the victory that announced Galarza as a prospect to monitor, and it proved to be the moment that made him realize he could have an impact that extended beyond boxing.
The fight was broadcast on Showtime, and it gave Galarza a significant platform to display his skills and connect with a large audience. It would have been easy, at that point, to focus exclusively on a fighting career that was on the precipice of truly taking off. Galarza, though, wasn’t content to be so narrowly focused.
Frank Galarza started his non-profit organization, Youth Fighting Forward, with a mission to engage youth affected by violence and crime through boxing and mixed martial arts — combined with education — to help them develop broader life skills. The organization works in partnership with boxing and MMA gyms, with current chapters at Starrett City Boxing Club in Brooklyn, New York, and Champs Boxing Club & Fitness in Danbury, Connecticut.
Youth Fighting Forward advocates a five pillar methodology that includes boxing and MMA, youth support services, youth leadership, education and job training/work access. Just as boxing became a tool for Galarza to better himself in myriad ways, combat sports are used as a vehicle through which trouble youths are able to acquire skills and learn life lessons that extend beyond the ring or octagon.
Some parents are understandably reticent to allow their children to box because of the sport’s obvious physical risks. But Galarza points to the discipline and respect for authority boxing can foster in young people who are otherwise exposed to even greater dangers in their day-to-day lives. From a purely boxing standpoint, Galarza witnesses the kids he works with develop confidence and maturity, largely because Youth Fighting Forward treats the sport as tool for overcoming obstacles instead of simply as a means to prove who is superior during a given sparring session.
“A lot of these kids, some of them don’t have dads around,” Galarza said. “So they kind of need motivation – they need a place. Some of them struggle with anger issues; some of them struggle with a lack of confidence. And you start to see them grow and they’re able to talk more where they’re able to communicate with you one-on-one on a personal level. You get things out them where it’s like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know this.’ And you kind of want to help them and build them up. It’s just very rewarding to see what they can become and the potential they have.”
Everyone involved in Youth Fighting Forward participates in a process of shared growth, which makes the organization a desperately needed support network as opposed to a world champion-producing factory. It’s about developing transferable skills that are as valuable to those who continue in boxing as they are to those who never step inside the ring for a sanctioned bout.
Recovering from an in-ring loss
On November 14, 2015, Frank Galarza tasted defeat for the first time as a professional prizefighter. Galarza was stopped in the sixth round by rising contender Jarrett Hurd, a fact that imbues his upcoming fight against Ishe Smith with even higher stakes. Still, as far as setbacks go, Galarza has been through far worse.
Nevertheless, Galarza admits to hitting a psychological wall after the Hurd loss. Going into that fight, he was hoping to position himself for an eventual title shot and had been riding an impressive streak of besting undefeated, often favored, foes. Galarza, despite winning the New York Golden Gloves in 2010, only had 11 amateur fights, and he feared that a loss would send him back to obscurity.
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Galarza questioned why he lost the Hurd fight, but it wasn’t a “Why me?” chorus. Instead, he took stock of his career and the people he had surrounded himself with. Admitting he wasn’t at his best against Hurd, Galarza said that he was facing a slew of distractions, that he was dehydrated and that he deviated from his normal routine. However, he doesn’t mention these variables as straightforward excuses; rather, these realizations precipitated a necessary evolution.
Cutting out distractions and negativity was paramount for Frank Galarza, especially after a firsthand experience of how starkly and painfully boxing can hold you accountable. He’s now at the point where he sees value in a loss, which he refuses to let define him as a fighter.
“I needed to realign myself to where I needed to be,” Galarza said. “It just put things in perspective for me. In general, there’s always going to be somebody better. But then I started to realize, you know, it’s just a number. Why am I worried about a number? I’ve lost so much more in life itself. So, it’s like, why am I concerned about this number? I took a loss.”
Ishe Smith can be a nightmare to fight. The former IBF junior middleweight champion has a high boxing IQ and enviable defensive acumen. He’s supremely difficult to hit clean, let alone impress against. As far as comeback fights go, Smith (28-8, 12 KOs) would hardly top anyone’s list of potential opponents. But Frank Galarza isn’t a typical fighter.
Galarza expects Smith to come out and box with confidence — to fight him. In certain respects, the matchup reminds Galarza of the John Thompson fight in that Smith could be overlooking him. The bout will be held in Smith’s home city of Las Vegas, and the former champion is the promotion’s A-side. Knowing he needs to make a statement, Galarza acknowledges that he has to rob Smith of the ingrained confidence that comes with implied expectation of winning. “I can’t allow him to think he has control over the fight.”
To do that, Frank Galarza will rely on the strength derived from understanding and overcoming his past. It has helped him cope with losing to Jarrett Hurd but, more importantly, it has allowed him to thrive as an individual. And although the result of his fight against Ishe Smith most certainly matters, there’s something larger at play — something that captures the serenity Galarza has finally found.
“I’m living a dream,” Galarza said. “Most people can’t even get up and pursue what they want to do. I’m actually doing what I love. And I think that’s the beauty of it. Whether win or lose, I’m still doing what I love, and you can’t take that from me.”
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