By James Stillerman
Gilbert “Tonka” Kabamba’s dominating year continues as he beat out Nnajai Wright, his fellow USA Boxing Men’s Elite High-Performance teammate, during a two-week selection camp at the United States Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to claim the lone spot in the 90+ kilogram division (super heavyweight) for the upcoming Pan-American Elite Continental Championships.
Kabamba is in Mexico with his USA teammates, participating in a multinational camp in Mexico City from October 6 through October 16. Afterward, he will travel with his team to Puebla, Mexico, to compete in the Pan-American Elite Continental Championships, which begin on October 17 and run through October 25. This is Kabamba’s last tournament of the year and the second international tournament of his amateur boxing career, following the Copa America in Girardot, Colombia, in late May, where he won a gold medal and earned his first international medal in the Elite Division.
“The Copa America was a bit nerve-racking, especially since this was my first international boxing tournament and there were so many talented fighters, but winning this tournament showed me that I belong on the big stage,” said Kabamba, a five-time national champion. “I had a great team and coaching staff that helped me prepare for this tournament and carried me to the gold medal.”
Kabamba went 7-0 at the Copa America over eight days, with three walkover victories, two unanimous decisions, and two split decisions. During the tournament, he defeated Wright and Cristian Salcedo, ranked 14th and 29th in the world, respectively, by unanimous decision.
He holds an impressive amateur record of 42-6 (8 KOs) and has won all 11 of his fights this year, as well as 16 of his last 17 bouts over the past year and a half. Kabamba is ranked No. 2 in the United States (Wright is ranked No. 1) and No. 16 in the world in the 90+ kilogram division. These rankings are impressive considering he has been boxing for only five years and competing as an amateur for just four years.
He was selected for the 2026 USA Boxing Men’s Elite High-Performance Squad after a month-long camp at the United States Training Center at the beginning of the year (January 11 to February 11), alongside super heavyweight Wright, with whom he has split a pair of fights. Kelvin Watts, whom Kabamba lost to at the 2024 USA Boxing National Championships, is on the USA Boxing Men’s Elite High-Performance Team, which is a higher tier than the USA Boxing Men’s Elite High-Performance Squad.
“It was a blessing to make the team. I put a lot of hours into boxing leading up to this moment. It was mentally tough and a grind to make the team, but I came through. It is rewarding that all my hard work paid off,” said the 25-year-old switch-hitter from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
In addition to winning the Copa America this year, Kabamba won the New England Golden Gloves for the fourth time, having previously won in 2022, 2024, and 2025, as well as the USA Boxing Junior Olympics & Summer Festival. Last year, he won a gold medal at the USA Boxing National Open. Kabamba finished runner-up at the USA Boxing National Championships, losing to Wright by split decision in the final. That was his last loss. He won the 2024 National Golden Gloves and came close to making the 2024 United States Olympic Boxing Team, but lost to Ali Feliz, with whom he has split a pair of bouts, by split decision in the semifinals of the Olympic Trials in December 2023.
Kabamba is aiming to become the first Massachusetts super heavyweight boxer to represent the United States at the Summer Olympics, which will take place in Los Angeles, California, from July 14 to July 30, 2028. Massachusetts heavyweight world champions John L. Sullivan (there were no amateur ranks in the 1880s and 1890s), Rocky Marciano, and John Ruiz did not compete in the Olympics. Massachusetts has not had a male Olympic boxer since Nathan “Nat” Boor won a bronze medal in the lightweight division at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. (Female boxer Rashida Ellis, from Lynn, Massachusetts, competed at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.) New England super heavyweight boxers Lawrence Clay-Bey, from Connecticut, represented the United States at the 1996 Olympics and was also the team captain, while Jason Estrada, from Rhode Island, competed for the United States at the 2004 Olympics. Neither medaled.
“It is an honor to be representing Massachusetts and the city of Dorchester on the world stage because Massachusetts was the state that welcomed me when we came to America,” said Kabamba, who became a United States citizen in 2023 after immigrating from Uganda, a landlocked country in East Africa, 10 years earlier. “I am confident that I will be the first Massachusetts boxer from the super heavyweight division to represent the United States at the Olympics and win a gold medal.”
Kabamba left the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he was born, at age seven with his family amid ongoing instability caused by fighting and famine. He lived in a refugee camp in neighboring Uganda until he was 14. He and his family moved to the United States in November 2013 and settled in Massachusetts.
“It was a great experience to move to the United States. Everyone wants to live the American dream. We were refugees who came here with nothing. My mom worked every day so my brothers and sisters could eat. She set a good example and motivated me to do well in boxing and life. My older brother Patrick got me involved in sports at a young age and always looked after my siblings and me,” Kabamba said.
Before taking up boxing, Kabamba was a standout football player at Everett High School, playing right tackle and defensive end. His team won the Massachusetts Division One Super Bowl in 2016 and 2017. He played one season as a freshman at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, competing as a defensive tackle/defensive lineman in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as an independent, but subsequently lost his football scholarship.
“I was working out at 6 a.m. on a beach in South Boston in the summer, trying to get back into shape for my upcoming season at junior college in Kansas, when Martin Grealish from the Grealish Boxing Club in Dorchester approached me. We started talking, and he said, ‘I should swing by the gym and see if I like boxing.’ So, I went to the gym that afternoon, and I immediately got hooked on the sport,” said Kabamba, who stopped playing football and switched to boxing in 2021 at age 20. He began his amateur career a year later, in January 2022.
Kabamba trains twice a day for most of the year at Waymaker Boxing gym in his hometown with former professional fighter and up-and-coming trainer Mark DeLuca (30-4, 18 KOs), who has worked with him since 2025. DeLuca is familiar with the amateur scene, having been a three-time Junior Olympic champion.
Kabamba has gained invaluable sparring experience with several heavyweight professionals, including undefeated prospect Pryce Taylor (13-0, 8 KOs), veteran Cassius Chaney (26-4, 19 KOs), and his USA Boxing Men’s Elite High-Performance teammates Watts and Wright.
For more information about Kabamba’s boxing career and to follow his upcoming fights, connect with him on Instagram and Facebook at @GilbertKabamba, or visit www.usaboxing.org.
“I have had many ups and downs throughout my amateur career. I did not do as well as I wanted in 2023 and 2024, and I did not make the 2024 United States Olympic Team,” Kabamba said. “However, my career is now on the upswing, with a lot of tournament victories over the last two years and my selection to the USA Boxing Men’s Elite High-Performance Squad. I appreciate everyone who has supported and believed in me over the years. Bigger accomplishments will happen in the future, like me winning a gold medal at the Olympics in 2028.”
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