Not even a stabbing could keep Mike Figueroa out of the ring
NEW YORK — Mike Figueroa may have fought his last amateur bout, but his last one ended up being the most meaningful. It wasn’t so much the belt he earned as what he had to survive before making it into the ring.
The Bronx based southpaw had been scheduled to compete in the Blue Dog International Masters Championship in the 156-pound division on May 18 in Brooklyn, Conn. He was just seven weeks out from competition when he went to visit his father in The Bronx. He stopped by a Blink Fitness gym for a quick workout, doing an hour on the stair master, 100 pushups and 10 chin-ups before leaving.
Less than 15 minutes later, as he walked down East 143rd Street and Alexander Avenue, a masked attacker stabbed him four times in his chest. The random, unprovoked attack in broad daylight during the afternoon of April 5 left him bewildered. First he felt this burning in his chest, and then he realized this man whom he didn’t know was trying to kill him. He began to fight back, and the attacker fled but the damage was done.
“I looked at my coat and all the filling was out. I was like what the hell, I looked down again and my whole coat was filled with red blood. Blood was spewing out of my mouth, out of my lungs. I started to black out and that’s when I said I have to run to the fire department,” remembers Figueroa, 36.
After staggering three blocks to the fire station, Figueroa was placed on an oxygen tank and bandaged up until an ambulance could bring him to the hospital. In the ICU, he received mixed news. While one of the stabs missed his heart by a milimeter, another one went through his lung, filling his lung with two liters of blood. He was stapled up and sent home to recover, with a follow-up appointment scheduled to determine what would be the next step in his recovery.
Inside his mind, the attack replayed over and over.
“The real disheartening thing was that I had to go to the precinct and look at the video. That was gut wrenching to watch the video of me being attacked because I had to identify the suspect but obviously he was masked up and he’s on the loose now,” said Figueroa, who also works as a trainer at The Sweet Science Lab in Hoboken, N.J.
“I was home that first week feeling like crap, confused, trying to rationalize what happened to me. Fighting was the furthest thing from my mind, forget about fighting, I was fighting for my life. Honestly, true story, it was God, I kept hearing God every day, he would talk to me with scripture, it gave me the strength that I needed to persevere.”
Two weeks later when he returned to the hospital for his follow-up, his doctors were stunned to see that his lung had already healed. He was cleared to resume exercising the next day and went for a four mile run. The day after that, he did seven rounds of pad work. Then the next day he did a yoga class. Two days after that, he called his coach and told him that he wanted to take the fight. His coach didn’t hesitate and the fight was on.
“I needed to take that fight for my mental, for my spirit and just for people, there’s testimony to help people,” said Figueroa, who first started competing at age 17 and has about a dozen amateur bouts.
“I’m hoping that this story can really motivate people who feel like a similar situation like this and give them hope. I was nervous to go outside for a few days after, the fact that he knows how I look and I don’t know how he looks. That messes me up every day but I can’t live in fear. That’s why I took this fight.”
Figueroa was matched with Grant Hatchimonji, a 35-year-old from Dorchester Center, Mass. Figueroa’s skill and experience shined through, earning him a unanimous decision victory and his third amateur title.
With the amateurs in his rearview mirror, Figueroa is turning his attention to the professional ranks. He hopes to set up a one and done professional fight, just to put the final stamp on his boxing career.
Still, even with his amateur career behind him, he will never forget the feeling of that one last victory.
“I get goosebumps just thinking about it because I wasn’t supposed to be there. I look back and I think, I did that. I came out of this and actually fought? It was the first time my son saw me fight in person, it was amazing. I hope that this serves as a testament to inspire people that the most horrific things that happen to us, they can overcome it,” said Figueroa.