One Hungry Little Fighter -- At 84 Pounds, Blanchet Student Is National Champ

Look upon Martin O'Malley's cherubic face. Look a little higher, and you see that he is fearless.

He lifts his hair to reveal two scars from his childhood. The sharp end of a skateboard gave him the scars.

"I did a lot of crazy stuff," he said. "I'd go off big ramps, do tricks like 360s. It was pretty dangerous, for me anyway."

Luckily O'Malley became enamored of a much safer sport.

Boxing?

That's what O'Malley's trainer, Bob Jarvis, says. True, O'Malley has no other scars from his first year as a boxer. But to anyone who has been knocked out of a fight by O'Malley, a barrel-roll over a concrete ramp might sound good.

"Martin just knows he can beat his opponent," said O'Malley's younger brother and regular sparring partner, Michael.

Martin O'Malley, 16, the second oldest of four brothers, is a size few 16-year-olds fit into.

O'Malley, from Edmonds and a sophomore at Seattle's Blanchet High School, grew up the smallest kid in his family, the smallest kid in his class, the smallest kid in the gym. He turned 16 last week, but still is only 5 feet tall and weighs just 85 pounds.

He is scrawny, divided by two. His size-8 shoes are the only harbingers of the height he will someday reach.

And his face. It bears the look of someone who runs a lemonade stand.

Two weeks ago, O'Malley won his first gold medal, in his first national competition, the U.S. Junior Olympics, in Marquette, Mich. O'Malley beat Pheotis Upshaw, of Augusta, Ga., by unanimous decision in the three-round championship match, to win the 85-pound title for 14- and 15-year-olds.

Upshaw came into the championship bout with a 57-9 record. O'Malley came into the bout with only five fights on his resume.

"He was a long shot," said Jarvis, owner and operator of the Hillman City Boxing Gym on Rainier Avenue South. "But he's very, very strong and a good listener. You show him something once and he's got it. I was showing him pro moves, and he was able to use that and make it work in competition."

Ten months ago, Martin O'Malley Sr. brought his four sons - Tom, 17, Martin Jr. and the twins, Dennis and Michael, 14 - to Jarvis' gym. He asked Jarvis to teach his boys how to box.

Martin seemed the most impassioned of the four boys. Almost immediately, Jarvis put him on a prescription of six rounds of sparring per day. It was three against one. Dennis and Michael, who both outweigh Martin by about 15 pounds, and a 12-year-old, 115-pounder named Botchie Frazier took turns on Martin.

"I made sure there were fresh guys going in against Martin," Jarvis said. "When you spar with your brothers, there's a grudge. They were going at it. I had to back them off many times."

By the time O'Malley left for Michigan, he had more than 300 rounds of sparring behind him.

O'Malley's first fight was in March. He won a unanimous decision over a boxer who had been in more than 20 fights. O'Malley got his first knockout in April, in the first round. In his third fight, he stopped his opponent in the second round.

"It's confidence and your attitude," Jarvis said. "Martin has a lot of confidence. If you hit him, he hits you right back, right now. You can't coach that. He's got those certain instincts."

O'Malley started the Junior Olympics with his third knockout. He employed "an old pro move" Jarvis taught him, which he calls the "in and out." In the second round, O'Malley's opponent walked straight into a right cross. His knees buckled and the referee stopped the fight.

O'Malley has won all six of his fights by either a knockout or a unanimous decision.

"I know I can get respect in the beginning if I hit them hard right away," O'Malley said. "From the opening bell, I want to take the fight away from them."

His brothers say he always was a boxing junkie. Before he ever put the gloves on, he read about the fights, watched them, taped them. He collects boxing cards and boxing posters, knows all the pros.

"When are you going to turn pro?" one of Hillman's regulars asked.

"I've got a fight lined up against (IBF junior flyweight champion Michael) Carbajal," O'Malley joked back.

O'Malley likes watching the heavyweights. He has tapes of Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson and George Foreman.

These are the athletes he emulates, which makes him difficult to deal with in the ring.

"He's a natural fighter," Jarvis said. "I'm trying to get him to use the jab more because he wants to just go in and take your head off."

No one in the gym makes more noise on the punching bag than O'Malley. Maybe it's because his fists are compact. The sound they make against the bag are an octave higher than anyone else's.

"Martin looks at boxing differently than we do," said Tom O'Malley, a head taller and half a body heavier than his younger brother. "It comes first. If there's a birthday party or something, and he has to miss his workout, he skips the party and goes to the gym."

When he's done with high school, O'Malley wants to go to the Olympics. After that, he hopes, he will be the next Michael Carbajal.

At the end of this month, O'Malley will compete in his final event in the 15-year-old division, a dual meet between the Junior Olympic champions of Canada and the United States, held in Nova Scotia.

After the dual meet, O'Malley has to "put manure in his shoes," as his father phrases it. In other words, O'Malley has to gain about 20 pounds so he can compete at 106 pounds, the lowest weight class for 16-year-olds.

"He already eats as much as I do," Tom said.

But don't be fooled. He's more than just another hungry boxer.