Michael Olajide Jr.
Michael Olajide Jr.
Class Of 2019
Michael Olajide Jr. (born December 8, 1963 Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom) is a former professional boxer in the middleweight and super middleweight divisions that works as a boxing fitness trainer. He is a 2019 inductee into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame.[16] Olajide coauthored of the book, Sleekify!The Supercharged No-Weights Workout to Sculpt and Tighten Your Body in 28 Days. It is a paperback book available on Amazon.com and was published in 2013.[20][21]
Early Life
1988
Michael was born in England and his family moved to Vancouver in 1970. At age 18, he began his career as a professional boxer. He was trained by his father Michael Olajide Sr. and renowned boxing coaches Hector Rocca and Angelo Dundee.
He had his contract purchased by Madison Square Garden because arena executives and promoters were fond of his boxing style and flash after seeing him fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Olajide's father was a boxing champion in Nigeria. He is the brother of former professional boxer Tokunbo Olajide.
Boxing Career
2019 NeW York Boxing Hall Of Fame Inductee
Olajide won his first thirteen.pro boxing matches occurred in Canada.
He won the Canadian middleweight title in 1985 with a win over Wayne Caplette.
He unsuccessfully challenged for the International Boxing Federation middleweight world title in 1987 and the World Boxing Organization super middleweight world title in 1990.
He was on the cover of the September 1987 issue of The Ring (magazine) after beginning his career with a record for this of 23-0. Olajide was rated as high as number one in the world at middleweight.
Olajide boxed professionally from 1981 to 1991 and finished with a record of 27-5 (19 ko's).
He holds wins over Al Ford, Elio Diaz and Curtis Parker.
He went the distance in losing efforts to Thomas Hearns and Dennis Milton and was stopped in the fifth round by Iran Barkley in 1988. The match with Milton was controversial and appealed in New York Supreme Court. His nickname was "Silk" throughout his boxing career.
Eye Injury
Olajide Scores TKO
When Michael Olajide Jr stepped into the ring at the famed Gleason’s Gym in New York City for what was supposed to be a routine sparring session he was hit with two uppercuts by a bigger opponent and he was left with a busted lip and an eye injury that would change his life irreversibly.
Olajide has explained the 1986 incident:
That’s usually the kiss of death for a fighter because your eyes are everything, If you don’t see punches coming,then how can you fight?
Boxing & Fitness Trainer
Manhattan Based Trainer
Former professional ballerina Leila Fazel began taking Olajide's classes after tendonitis forced her to retire from the Dance Theater of Harlem.
Olajide and Fandel teamed up to expand boxing as fitness and in March 2005, opened Aerospace High Performance Center, a 7,000-square-foot facility in New York City. A second location opened in Los Angeles, California in 2017. [1] Michael Olajide, Jr. is the Co-Founder, Director of Programs and Chief Instructor at Aerospace.
“I have people training with me who have trained with me for 25 years and it’s incredible,”Olajide Jr has stated.
The former middleweight boxer trains Victoria's Secret stalwarts Adriana Lima, Constance Jablonski as well as Romee Strijd and Kelly Gale. He gets people in peak form with professional athlete–grade routines of combination punches,bodyweight-resistance moves, and strength-training exercises. His career was covered by Vogue (magazine) in 2015. He listed in IMDb for his work on The Black Dahlia (2006), Ali (film)) and Five Minarets in New York (2010).
Olajide's Words
1978
Everipedia's top ranked editor Matthew E. O'Neil contacted Olajide on Facebook in November 2020. O'Neil is the host of the Everipedia Boxing Show on Spotify. Olajide explained his beginning in boxing:
I was born in '63, but it felt like life really began late 79 in Vancouver, Canada.
I wasn’t born to be a fighter.
What I mean is that fighting wasn’t in my nature.
Aggression isn’t my natural instinct and I didn’t understand it when it was directed at me.
My brothers and sisters did.In
fact so did my mom and father. But
I got short-changed on that gene. At
the same time I also knew every living organism, from single cell amoeba to human, has a Darwinian desire to survive and defend itself. There
had to be some fight in me.I just
didn’t know what my “offense/defense system” was yet. I wasn’t
fighting my way out of abject poverty,nor was I fighting some of life’s more painful experiences,such as the abuse many children go through. Being young
I was buoyant in the middle of an expansive ocean.I had no
particular ambition but also no limitations. Emotional or external.I
had no fears.
My mom provided me
with a safe and beautiful childhood in a relatively diverse neighborhood that seemed very open and accepting. So there I was
15 years old. 5’9” 94lbs.A skinny skiff
adrift in
deep but still waters, with no wind blowing my sails. But one thing life has
taught me is that you can fight fueled by an energy other than rage. And that fuel is a
fuel that won’t burn out. That’s where I needed to
be. It took me a long
time to learn that mental and intellectual strength is much more purposeful and sustainable than emotional energy. Once emotional energy is exhausted
it can turn and destroy itself. and it’s host. It was
a couple weeks
into learning how to box.I remember“gloving up”. I was floating
with confidence.In my
mind I was about to
begin the same journey as my hero Muhammad Ali (and as with all heroes),I knew nothing of his pain ,just his victories. thought to myself, 'This is gonna be so great'.