Battling back

If Mical "Mike" Elden Weisberg becomes the champion boxer he wants to be, he will remember his struggle this year as the turning point -- the time when he fought and defeated a potentially career-ending injury just after he cracked through to win his first professional bout.

If he doesn't make it, he will rue the setback and wonder what might have been had he not injured his knee and taken a pass on his second fight. What if he had won under the bright lights of the Mohegan Sun on April 6 by knocking out his opponent, as he did so impressively in his first fight on Feb. 9?

There's no telling how far the 23-year-old Stoughton native, who sports a tattoo on his right shoulder of a pair of boxing gloves inside a Star of David, might have gone with his gritty determination and powerful left hook.

For now he is left to count the days. He had been balancing his fledgling pro career while attending Bridgewater State College full time -- not an easy feat. Now he faces perhaps his toughest challenge: For the next several weeks, his battles will take place on a trainer's table in his physical therapist's office in Waltham, where he will try to rehab his scarred right knee to the point where he can climb back into the ring.

"The doctor won't give me clearance to fight until August," he said during a recent session at Pro Sports Therapy. "I can't wait until I'm training again." Boxers rely on their knees to move around the ring. They're constantly shifting and shuffling, bobbing and weaving, because if they're caught flat-footed -- BAM! Counterpunches can hurt.

Weisberg's knee gave out last month when he fell while jogging, and a quick twist of his crucial joint dislocated his kneecap. It's not the first time he has dealt with an injury; he has had surgery on his other knee, too, and on his shoulder. Despite those setbacks, he has never given up on his dream -- and he's not about to do so now.

On April 6, he drove to Connecticut and took a seat in the sixth row from the raised square ring of the glitzy Mohegan Sun gaming complex. He watched the boxers in action, including locals Manuel Antonio Lopes of Brockton and Quincy's Chris Traietti, an Iraq War veteran who is also a college student.

Weisberg said later that he enjoyed watching the fights but wished he had been on the card.

"It was a good time," he said. "Depressing. But a good time."

He said he expects to return to fighting this summer and face his second pro opponent in early fall.

A light heavyweight, Weisberg has been training for the past eight years at the Box A Round Boxing Club, an unheated gym housed inside an ancient-looking brick warehouse in Stoughton. Here, heavy bags hang from the ceiling, suspended by long metal chains. The walls are covered with hundreds of faded photographs of pro boxers, old programs, promotional posters, and articles from magazines and newspapers, all affixed to the walls with Scotch tape. Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Peter McNeely. The space is anchored by an elevated boxing ring.

For Weisberg, a physical education major, Box A Round is his second home.

If not for his rehab sessions, this is where he tapes his wrists, slips on boxing gloves, and spars with others. It's where he skips rope and pounds the bags. Where he punches mitts worn by his trainer, Gardner "Bud" Lakin, who, in turn, delivers advice and pointers in a gruff, deep, voice: "Make sure you use your jab!" "Stick and move!"

In the gym, Weisberg is always reminded of the pugilistic glory he is chasing by the former greats on the walls. He is not the biggest fighter by any means: He stands 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches tall and weighs just 173 pounds.

Lakin, 69, a former heavyweight fighter, has been teaching at Box A Round since 1995. He is a formidable figure: 6-4, barrel-chested, big hands. His silvery white hair is meticulously styled. His gym is known as "home of UBL -- University of Bud Lakin." Nicknamed the local "Professor of Pugilism" because of his knowledge, he has more than a half-century of boxing experience, including boxing professionally from 1954 to 1961 and retiring with a 12-1 record with seven knockouts.

His motto is simple: "Losing is not an option," he said. "My guys train hard, work hard, and skills prevail."

He thinks Weisberg has what it takes, eight years after showing up in his gym and asking to be his pupil: "He just walked into the gym with his mother and said, 'I want to learn how to box,' " Lakin said.

The young boxer remembers, too.

He was a pudgy youngster back then, only 14, and a lot shorter -- about 5-6 -- and he wanted to get into better shape. He had been practicing martial arts and became interested in boxing. That led him to Box A Round, and Lakin has been helping him perfect his jabs, hooks, and upper cuts, and techniques like blocking and cuffing ever since, repeating certain lines during each session hundreds of times: "Don't bang!" "Don't get into a street fight."

"It's up here," Lakin told a visitor recently, touching his thick fingers to his temples. "It's mental. It's psychology. It's adjusting and adapting to your opponent."

Under Lakin's tutelage, Weisberg has grown 4 1/2 inches, shed 70 pounds of baby fat, and packed more muscle onto his frame. He got good enough to win the 2003 Rocky Marciano Tournament of Champions and 2004 Southern New England Golden Gloves, both prestigious amateur titles in these parts.

It was around this time that Weisberg met his agent, Nicolas A. Gordon of North Attleborough, a lawyer at Lewis & Leeper.

Gordon was training at Box A Round himself. He jumped into the ring and sparred with Weisberg and was immediately impressed by Weisberg's speed and strength. He told Weisberg, "When you turn pro, I want to represent you."

As Weisberg racked up wins on the amateur circuit, he was also pursuing his education. After high school, he enrolled at Curry College in Milton to study criminology, but after a couple of years he decided he wanted to study physical education instead. So he transferred to Bridgewater State.

This is his third year at Bridgewater, and he is on track to graduate next year. He takes a full load of courses: This semester's lineup includes exercise metabolism; theory and practice of metabolic training; physiology and techniques of strength fitness; planning, implementing, and evaluating fitness programs; and basketball I.

Before he injured his knee, Weisberg trained at Box A Round almost every day. On most weekday evenings, after a full day of classes, he would drive his 2005 Chevy Impala home, drop off his backpack of textbooks, grab his boxing gear, and head to the gym. Asked about his schedule, he said: "Is it hard juggling a million things at once? Yes."

But, just as he has done in the ring, he fights hard to stay on top of everything.

He turned pro in December, signing a three-year contract with Classic Entertainment & Sports, a boxing promotion company in Providence, and made his pro debut at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, in front of thousands of paying spectators. He said he was nervous only in the weeks leading up to the fight. On the night itself, he was entirely focused: "I just wanted to fight and get it over with," he recalls.

He fought, all right. His was the opening bout of the night, squaring off against Travis Toler of Wilson, N.C., and it ended 1 minute and 53 seconds into the round, when Weisberg was awarded a technical knockout. The Providence Journal described the win as "electrifying," and reported that Weisberg had knocked down his opponent "in the first minute of the first round with a powerful left hook."

"He was like a man possessed," said Gordon. "We're all pleased with the results."

News of Weisberg's victory spread around the Bridgewater State campus, slowly at first. A few security guards and professors congratulated him. The school newspaper soon published a feature about the student-boxer.

Weisberg's heritage, along with the fact that he is still a full-time student, makes him stand out from other boxers. There have been a number of great Jewish boxers -- more than a dozen have been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame -- but there aren't as many as there were in the years between the two world wars. And that makes Weisberg more marketable.

He has already drawn comparisons to Max Baer, a heavyweight champ in the 1930s who fought with the Star of David embroidered on his boxing trunks. He has been profiled in Jewish newspapers and dubbed "Boxing's rising star (of David)" by the Providence-based Jewish Voice and Herald. And he hasn't even fought his second pro bout.

He doesn't know who his next opponent will be. No matter. For now, he is stretching and exercising, working on getting his knee back in shape so he can get back to sparring again.

"I take it day by day," he said.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.