Delonte West steps into a boxing ring tonight in Miami against Michael Beasley, and the former NBA guard is treating it like the latest round of a comeback that has been building all year.
Asked how he trained at the pre-fight press conference, West said his real training camp was the last 10 years he spent living on the street, broke and addicted, fighting over pocket change. Beasley cracked up laughing, then kept it simple: he got in shape for this and he feels confident.
“I have been training for the last 10 years.”
Delonte West, at the Brand Risk 16 press conference
That answer is why people are pulling for him. West played eight NBA seasons next to LeBron James in Cleveland, then spent years homeless. Mark Cuban helped him into rehab in 2020. This fall he showed off new teeth, got surprised with a paid-off Maserati on a livestream, and by his own posts he is around 11 months sober.
Beasley is no soft touch. He is 37, six years younger than West, and he has done the crossover fight thing before, losing to Lance Stephenson by submission at Brand Risk 14. Dwight Howard picked a side this week too, riding with West and joking that Beasley better not mess up his new smile.
The card took a hit Thursday. The original main event, Wendy Ortiz against Yera, was called off after Ortiz did not clear the Florida commission’s medical requirements, so Deshae Frost and YK Osiris headline instead. West and Beasley fight underneath at the Brand Risk Warehouse, streaming free at 8 p.m. ET on Kick, Twitch, YouTube, X and TikTok.
A year ago, West was a cautionary tale. Tonight he is a heavyweight on a live card in Miami, sober and smiling, talking like a man who has already survived worse than Michael Beasley.
See also: Delonte West Shows Off His Brand New Teeth and N3on Bought Delonte West a Brand New Maserati and He Nearly Fainted