Olympic boxing hopeful Gilbert “Tonka” Kabamba has traveled a long, arduous journey on a mission to become the first super heavyweight representative of Massachusetts to go for Olympic gold.
The Bay State has had three world boxing heavyweight champions (no super heavyweight division in the pro ranks), but neither John L. Sullivan (Roxbury section of Boston), Rocky Marciano (Brockton) nor John Ruiz was a U. S. Olympian.
A native of the Democratic Republic of The Congo, Kabamba never boxed until he resettled in the Boston district of Dorchester, and he’s been making up for lost time in the Sweet Science ever since. He is eligible to become a member of the USA Boxing Olympic Team because he became a U.S. citizen in 2023.
“I’m home,” the 6’ 2”, 250-pound Kabamba said. “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
Kabamba left the Congo during the long running conflict there, his family living 7 years in a Uganda refugee camp before moving to Boston in November of 2013. He was a star football player on the 2-time Massachusetts, Division One Super Bowl championship Everett High team, and when football didn’t work out for him at Merrimack College (North Andover, MA), Kabamba found boxing.
“I went to a boxing gym and just started boxing,” the 25-year-old explained. “I didn’t have football anymore but I was an athlete. It’s been quite a ride with ups and downs, but I stayed with it. I’ll do anything to come back with an Olympic gold medal. I know who I am!”
The boxing world is gradually discovering who Kabamba is and his next goal is to earn a spot on the 2028 USA Boxing Olympic Team to compete in Los Angeles.
Massachusetts hasn’t had a male Olympic boxer in nearly a century, since New Bedford lightweight Nathan “Nat” Boor, who captured a bronze medal, ironically, at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. (Lynn’s Rashida Ellis competed in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.)
New England has had a pair of Olympic super heavyweights, Rhode Island’s Jason “Big Six’ Estrada in 2004, and Connecticut’s Lawrence Clay-Bey, who was Captain of the 1996 USA Boxing Olympic Team.
“I know that I have big shoes to fill and I’ll do my best to fight in the 2028 Olympics,” Kabamba noted. “It’s a big deal!”
USA Boxing’s prestigious elite teams are precursors in terms of featuring the most hopeful Olympic boxers. Kabamba is a member of the 2026 Men’s Elite High Performance Squad, one of two super heavyweights along with Nnajai Wright; Kelvin Watts is the super heavyweight on the 2026 Men’s Elite High Performance Team. The three aforementioned super heavyweight boxers are favorites to proudly wear the red, white and blue, but only one can qualify.
Because Kabamba started boxing at such a relatively older age, he has been catching up with the other two much more experienced super heavyweights, but he is rapidly closing any gap there may still be.
“It’s me against them but I’m the best, no questions about it,” Kabamba exclaimed. “They’ve all been boxing a lot longer than me, but I’m older and more matured. I also have a fresher body and I’m the most athletic. The key (to being selected as the 2028 USA Boxing Olympic Team’s super heavyweight) is winning matches and our sparring sessions.”
Kabamba reportedly has a 42-6 (8 KOs) amateur boxing record, according to boxrec.com, highlighted by his recent gold-medal winning performance this past May in Colombia at the 2026 Copa America, dominating the action by going 7-0 in his international debut.
A 3-time New England Golden Gloves Champion, Kabamba also won at the 2024 National Golden Gloves Tournament and 2025 International USA Open, to go with his runner-up finish at the 2025 USA Boxing National Championships.
Kabamba, naturally, isn’t the same boxer he was a few years ago when he started boxing. He has been trained in Boston for the past two years by another USA Boxing product, Mark DeLuca, a 3-time Junior Olympics Champion who turned pro after only one year competing in the open division, largely because he kept running into Demetrious Andrade and Edwin Rodriguez in national tournaments. Andrade became a 2008 Olympian and 3-time, 2-division world champion as a professional; Rodriguez was the 2005 USA Boxing Championships and 2006 National Golden Gloves champion, who had a 31-3 (20 KOs) pro record.
DeLuca, known as “The Bazooka”, was a solid pro, registering a 30-4 (18 KOs), and today he is one of the most promising, young trainers in the industry.
“I used to just come forward to take my opponents’ head off like (Mike) Tyson,” Kabamba described his style. “Mark changed my style; I learned how to box. Now, I’m a puncher-boxer. I always liked hitting from my football years and I’ve never been shy of contact. Some football players who tried boxing quit because they didn’t like getting hit. You’re going to get hit in boxing but it comes down to how you hit back. “
DeLuca has been training Kabamba for two years. Whenever Gilbert isn’t at training camp with his USA Boxing teammates in Colorado Springs, he returns home to Dorchester, religiously training twice a day with Deluca at Waymaker Boxing gym.
“Gilbert had raw talent when he first came into our gym,” DeLuca remembered. “He was very athletic and is an exceptional worker. I knew there was a lot to work with. He’s only at 50-percent of what he can become. His ceiling is very high. He’s only 25, a baby, especially because heavyweights don’t peak until their early thirties.
“He absolutely can be an Olympian. It’s good for him to train in Colorado Springs because it’s important that the coaches get to know him. It’s impossible not to love his enthusiasm. He’s a real student of boxing, too. The Olympics are still two years away, but calls (promoters and managers) are already coming. I compare him to Evander Holyfield. Gilbert’s not tall, 6’ 2”, and is a pocket fighter like Holyfield. He has fast hands and is bigger than Holyfield at a solid 250 pounds.”
The best is yet to come for Kabamba.
“My goal is to fight in the Olympics and then go pro,” Kabamba concluded. “I want to be world champion and leave a legacy like Ali and Tyson.”
Then, it’ll be “Tonka Time.”
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