Despite coming into the 2025 National Golden Gloves as the defending champion, Tyric Trapp still felt he had something to prove.
Trapp, a 25-year-old southpaw from Red Bank, New Jersey, appeared on the verge of breaking out as one of the top 176lbs fighters in the country at the end of 2024, having won the National Golden Gloves and USA Boxing National Open earlier in the year. Then, a freak incident in his first fight at the USA Boxing National Championships in December threw a wrench in his plans.
After giving Delbert Taylor three standing-eight counts – a fourth would have forced a mandatory stoppage – Trapp himself was stopped in the third round after one of his teeth was chipped. Trapp says he doesn’t understand why the fight was stopped, as there was no blood coming from his mouth and he was still in control.
“The doctor pulled me aside, and he claims that he saw a tooth fly out onto the table when my tooth came out in the second round, and he stopped it in the third. Unless that tooth had some amazing hang time, that wasn’t my tooth,” Trapp said.
The setback hurt his career, as he didn’t get to collect the national ranking points that come with a podium finish in the country’s biggest national tournament.
Instead, Trapp watched as the champions claimed spots on USA Boxing’s High Performance team, while he was ranked at No. 6 – several spots below boxers he had beaten multiple times.
With a chip on his shoulder to go along with the one on his tooth, Trapp had the most dominant tournament of his career, winning five straight bouts – four unanimous decisions and one RSC – to claim his second straight 176lbs championship. Trapp wrapped up the title on Saturday night, outpointing Wisconsin’s Knowledge Johnson at Arvest Convention Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
After a tentative first round in which both men spent more time jockeying for lead hand position than punching, Johnson came out more aggressively in the second round, knowing he needed a big statement after losing the first round 4-1. That aggression is just what the sharp-shooting Trapp needed as he took advantage of the openings to land straight lefts and right hooks, never losing another round on any cards afterwards and coasting to the unanimous decision win.
Trapp says this championship meant more to him because of the circumstances of last December’s National Championship.
“After what happened in Virginia with my tooth getting chipped, I think it added extra motivation. That was extra motivation for me showing that I belong and that I’m actually No. 1,” said Trapp, who now becomes the first boxer from New Jersey to win back-to-back titles (Jeremy Bryan, who won in 2004 and 2005, is mostly associated with New Jersey but was representing Knoxville at the time).
What makes Trapp’s success even more impressive is that he only started boxing just over three years ago. Prior to picking up the sport, Trapp excelled in basketball, playing for the Ocean County College Vikings in the NJCAA Division III, averaging 12.8 points and 5.5 rebounds a game. Trapp, who stands 6-foot-3, says he had offers from three NCAA Division I schools, including St. Peter’s, Quinnipiac and Tennessee at Martin, but he chose to pursue boxing instead.
He first began training in February 2022 as a way to feel closer to his father, Denard Trapp, whom he felt had been incarcerated unjustly on a resisting arrest charge.
Denard Trapp, who was in his son’s corner on Saturday night, was an outstanding amateur boxer in his own right, having competed in about 300 amateur bouts during the 1980s and 1990s, becoming four-time All-Army and three-time Inter-Service champion. He also made it to the finals of the 1991 U.S. National Championships and fought against future pro champions John Ruiz and Dariusz Michalczewski.
Trapp says his father’s guidance, plus his growing confidence as he racks up victories, have helped him mature quickly in boxing.
“I’m just so confident when I get in the ring and the trust with my dad telling me everything. I just feel like I’m unstoppable now,” said Trapp, who was invited to train with the national team even after the tooth incident in December, and will be heading back to Colorado Springs, Colorado, from May 18 until June 7.
Trapp says the plan is to eventually turn pro, but he isn’t looking past his amateur goals just yet.
“I’m just looking to finish this year out and keep my eye on the year,” he said. “I like to go month by month, don’t try to look too long term. Obviously, if you keep one foot out the door and one foot in, that’s where you start not having your best performances. Right now, my head is just in the amateur game and then we’re not sure what’s going on next.”
Other results:
Trapp wasn’t the only repeat champion on Saturday night.
Sardius Simmons, of Michigan, avenged his loss from last year’s final, unseating champion Gilbert Kabamba to win the 198+ pounds title by a 3-2 split decision. The championship was his second at the National Golden Gloves, after he won the 201lbs title in 2016. A 31-year-old from Flint, Simmons also won the 2014 National PAL Championships.
Glyenann Harper, of Lakewood, Ohio, shook off two years of ring rust to outslug Iowa’s Sophia Haroutunian and win a 4-1 decision in the women’s 176-plus pound final. It wasn’t easy, as the 39-year-old Harper appeared to be gassed in the second round and was given a count for not being ready to fight after the referee resumed the action following a caution. Still, Harper found an extra reserve in the third, giving Haroutunian two eight counts – and surviving another one of her own – to eke out the decision.
Harper, who also won that title at the 2023 National Golden Gloves, hadn’t boxed since July of that year.
Full results:
110lbs men: Lorenzo Juanito Patricio W-UD Oscar Josue Membreno Hernandez
106lbs women: Emely Sandoval (California) W-3-2 Margarita Mendoza
112lbs women: Irene Diaz W-SD Mabel Ornelas
121lbs men: Moises Rodriguez W-UD Angel Sandoval
119lbs women: Jayshannet Zapata W-UD Shavon Furrow
125lbs women: Ilene Herrera W 4-1 Brooklin Schoen
132lbs men: Izaiah Darden W 4-1 Yahsin Arrington
132lbs women: Alisha Crocket W-WO Madeline Days
143lbs women: Suzeth Ramirez W 4-1 Brianna Gulia
143lbs men: Marcus Luther W-UD Kentrell Rouser
154lbs men: Naseia Richardson W 4-1 Jonathan Ramos
165lbs women: Naomi Graham W-RSC Chelsie Davis
165lbs men: Frank Espinoza W-UD William Phillips
176lbs men: Tyric Trapp W-UD Knowledge Johnson
187lbs men: Isaac Parker W 4-1 Adonis Alcime
176+lbs women: Glyenann Harper W 4-1 Sophia Haroutunian
198lbs men: Dan Brown W 3-2 Xavier Wilcher
198+lbs men: Sardius Simmons W 3-2 Gilbert Kabamba
Golden Girl Award: Suzeth Ramirez
Golden Boy Award: Marcus Luther
National Golden Gloves team standings: California wins first place, New York Metro is second place, Texas is third place.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for jeetwin360.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at .