I don’t know what is more amazing, that Echols has at least 23 kids or that he isn’t sure that is the exact number. Echols is a journeyman boxer that no one beyond hardcore boxing fans know about.
He is 41 and has a professional record of 32-19-4. He has lost 12 of his last 13 fights, mostly by knock out. If not for this amazing quote to his hometown paper, he would be as anonymous as anyone walking the street right now, but then he said this.
Away from the ring, Echols has what could be described as a checkered past.
His life is strewn with brushes with the law. He was arrested twice on assault charges early in his pro career and has had numerous other encounters with police, who he felt targeted him at times.
He carries two bullets in his body from old gunshot wounds, one in his right leg, one in his left armpit.
He now lives in Dade City, Fla., with his fianceé, Alexis Smith, and four children, but Echols has had several girlfriends and lots of children. Asked how many kids he has fathered through the years, he ducks, weaves and gives the reporter one of those playful body shots.
“Touchy subject,” he says.
When pressed, he answers.
Echols, claims many of the 23 came in his youth when he was immature and there could be more than 23, but he can’t be sure. Immaturity is staying out past curfew, not fathering a football team including the kicker and punter.
Echols’ nickname is Kid Dynamite, it should be Maury Povich. Echols makes Antonio Cromartie look like Tim Tebow by comparison. I just wish they would have asked him to name all 23 kids. For some reason I get the feeling one is named LaCreatia Samone Jenkins.
Not surprisingly, Echols wants to keep boxing, I will give you one guess why.
You would think after the 14th kid or so, he might have started to wrap up. If I was Echols, I would sue boxing, because he obviously has some sort of head trauma that wouldn’t allow him to walk into a Walgreens and buy a box of Trojans.