O n October 1, a 31-year- old heavyweight named Josh Popper made his pro debut at The Texas Troubadour Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee, and knocked out an overmatched opponent in the first round. But the fight raises issues that go beyond the “W” and “L” on the combatants’ ring records. Popper was born and raised in New Jersey and now lives in New York. He played college football as a defensive lineman for Rowan University and was invited to minicamps for the Arizona Cardinals (in 2016) and Indianapolis Colts (2017) but in each instance was cut before the season started. He’s 6-feet-3-inches tall and weighs in the neighborhood of 225 pounds. Had he played in the NFL, he would have been a linebacker. He’s articulate and personable. Josh’s early years were a mix of privilege and hardship. “My parents got an ugly divorce when I was young,” he recalls, “and I went from living in a million-dollar home to being homeless.” Then the dark side got darker. “I was sexually abused, repeatedly, when I was young,” Josh remembers. “I have demons. The abuse is in the past now. It was dealt with by the legal system. Later, I confronted the abuser directly. He admitted what he’d done and apologized. I think the apology was sincere and I’m confident, given all the circumstances, that he won’t do it to anyone else again. But I bottled all the pain and anger inside me and it drives me now.” Popper has worked as a model, sold insurance, and appeared on a reality- TV show ( Summer House ). He has a large equity interest in a boxing gym called Bredwinners, located at 1 East 28th Street in Manhattan, that he counterintuitively opened at the height of the pandemic. “I’m very competitive in everything I do,” he says. “I’ve always been that way. I’ve always wanted to stand out and be better, not just blend it. I’ll never let someone else put their limits on me.”
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