East Ridge's Avious Griffin, right, celebrates a touchdown in the 2010 jamboree game against Grace Academy at FInley Stadium.Three minutes.
As Chattanooga's Avious Griffin stood in the red corner of Ring No. 2 at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Monday night, the third and final round of his 152-pound bout with Javaune James about to begin, 180 seconds was all that was guaranteed him in the USA Boxing World Team Trials.
Win these three minutes and he likely would move on to the second round of the five-match tournament, which resumes at 6 tonight. Lose and the 21-year-old's future once more would become uncertain.
Had the former East Ridge High football star removed enough rust after three years out of the ring to continue his boxing dreams, win or lose this match? Would it be smarter to move on from the athletic arena and embrace the 9-to-5 life he'd recently begun at Amazon? Could he discover a happy medium?
"I wasn't thinking I could lose," Griffin said afterward. "I was just thinking of all those mornings I'd gotten up at 6 a.m. to run on the track or up the mountain. I was just thinking of sucking it up and getting through to the next night."
And in the final seconds of that third round, his family and friends providing the most noise heard inside the Convention Center all night, Griffin did just that. He pummeled James with a late barrage of body blows and head shots, then returned to his corner to await the decision.
When the announcer said the red corner had won, a big smile crossed his face as the judge raised his left arm in triumph.
"It was a little nerve-racking," Griffin said. "I hadn't fought in a tournament like this since 2011. I just wanted to get this first night over with and find my rhythm again. I think I'll do better tomorrow."
His life has taken a turn for the better, regardless of what happens the rest of this boxing tournament.
"Just to see Avious off the street and working for a living," said Chad Henley, a longtime volunteer with the Y-CAP boxing club who joined Griffin's coach, Andy Smith, in the red corner Monday.
"He could easily be in a penitentiary right now, maybe even dead. Before Judge (Christie) Sell gave him a second chance, he was looking at jail time. But now he's paying his dues, paying his (court) fines, really turning his life around."
No one's ever accused Griffin of being a bad kid. But he got caught with a firearm. And driving without a license. And several other somewhat minor violations of the law.
But Sell believed in him. Griffin moved into the Y-CAP home. He started cleaning the boxing gym and the house. After playing football for two years at Pikeville (Ky.) University, he gave up that sport for the ring, where he once had showed great promise.
"Avious is back to making all the right decisions," Henley said.
In some respects, there were 144 others just like him when the USA team trials began Monday. By tonight's close, 74 of those will have been eliminated. Quarterfinals for the 10 weight classes are scheduled for Wednesday, which is also supposed to be the day former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield arrives in town. Consolations begin at 2 p.m. Friday, with the championship bouts slated for Friday night.
"There's no question that some of these winners will end up in the 2016 Rio (Olympic) Games," said Joe Smith, who runs the Y-CAP program for the YMCA. "You make the national team and you only need to finish in the top four at the World Championships next year to make the U.S. Olympic team. That's it. Finish in the world top four and you're in the Olympics. People don't realize what a high level of boxing this is. When we had the Golden Gloves here in 2007, seven of those 11 weight champions went on to become world (pro) champions."
That's the ultimate goal for Griffin, as well as fellow Y-CAP fighter Roger Hilley, whose quest to claim the 132-pound title begins tonight. He had a bye.
As Griffin said following his fight, "I don't get paid for this right now. Not a dime. I'd like to be good enough one day to turn pro."
Not that Griffin's mother, Sabrina Bowerman, necessarily enjoys watching her son in the ring.
"I wouldn't say I like it," she noted a few minutes before his bout began. "But I enjoy watching him do what he wants to do. I'm proud of him. He's had some growing pains, made some mistakes. But Avious always gets back on track."
As he recounted Monday's bout, Griffin spoke of slowing James down with body blows, then landing a few head shots with his right.
"I just kept thinking about all the hard times I've been through, all I've had to overcome," he said.
Later, he added, "I really need to thank Judge Sell for giving me a second chance."
If he keeps winning, he may need a second chance with Amazon, since he'll probably be forced to miss his shift more than once this week if he keeps winning. And he needs a steady paycheck to wipe away the $1,900 in court fines he's still paying off.
But as he headed home to get some much-needed rest before tonight's bout, a reporter asked Griffin what he thought he might have been doing Monday night if not for the kindness of others.
"No telling," he said. "But probably in trouble somewhere, maybe in jail."
Instead, he's now four wins away from a spot on the U.S. national team and a realistic shot at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"Because of Y-CAP and Judge Sell," he said, "I've still got a chance to make all my dreams come true."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.