He's working his way to the Olympics, and if he is successful he can stay home and be in the games. Destyne is a champion junior golden gloves boxer. If the Olympics come to Chicago, he'll be at the right age to compete.
"I'm trying to train harder so that I can get to the Olympics in 2012 or 2016," he said.
A seventh grader earning As and Bs at Beasley Academic Center, the teenager started winning almost from the time he started at age 6.
"Maybe the first month after he started training, he won some park district fights and won all of those basically and won three or four city, national, city fights," said Destyne Butler, Sr., dad.
Last week, Destyne traveled to Kansas City, Mo., for a competition.
Since he started boxing, the teenager has won seven major belts - five as a national junior golden gloves champion and two as a world champion.
His training sessions four times each week at the Robert Taylor park district gym are always preceded by his school work.
"When he gets out of school he goes straight to the house, does his homework, eats and then comes to the gym," said Destyne Butler, Sr.
So what does he remember of his very first fight?
"I was like 55 pounds in my first fight, and I fought a guy that was like 65 pounds. So he was 10 pounds heavier than me, but I still won though," said Destyne Jr.
And why does he like to box?
"First of all, it's a contact sport, and I like contact," Destyne Jr. said.
The youngster lost his last bout on a 3-2 decision of the judges. But he has a strategy to win next time.
