Houston boxer balanced nursing school and Olympic dreams

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The coronavirus may have derailed the Olympics for amateur boxer, Darius Fulghum, but it didn't stop his work ethic.

In the last year, he has finished nursing school and made the U.S. Boxing Olympic team.

He was supposed to be in the Olympics this summer representing the United States, but COVID-19 is delaying those games.

Regardless, he is thrilled to represent his country, eventually.

"When I won, it was too much joy," says Fulghum. "I had my family there too. I have been talking about this for a long time. Even when I was going through school, I was saying, 'this is what I am going to do.'"

Fulghum did this while finishing nursing school at Prairie View A&M's College of Nursing, something he promised his family.

"Main thing was I would train in the morning and go to school. Got my studies out of the way, maybe sparred during the night, or train again later that night. Then back to two-a-days and studying, a repeat cycle," he said.

Darius is pretty successful, but those close to him rank nursing a little higher than boxing.

"They were probably more excited about me getting my degree than the Olympics," he said. "Education is huge."