Monte Cox has been in the combat sports business for a long time, most notably as the manager of some of the best mixed martial artists to ever grace the Octagon or ring. As such, he’s seen the good, bad and the ugly of the fight game, something that gets amped up when he puts on his promoter’s hat. Subsequently, he’s not one to throw praise around lightly, so if he does, you listen.

On August 14, Cox promoted an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On the card was an unbeaten prospect and hometown favorite, Mitchell Leconte. His opponent was 39-year-old Louisiana native Devin Parker. It was the typical prospect versus veteran meeting, with the 4-0 Leconte expected to make it 5-0 at Parker’s expense. 

That assumption didn’t matter to Parker. 

It never has. And while his record entering the bout was 2-14, 14 of those opponents, including current junior lightweight contender O’Shaquie Foster, were undefeated when they faced him. So being the B-side is second nature to a fighter who never saw himself as being the B-side.

“Those fights I took, when I took them, some of those guys were undefeated, some of them were amateur champions and things like that, some of them were Olympic alternates, and I never looked at those guys that way when I fought them,” said Parker. “I looked at them like equal competition and even though guys were telling me, man, you're fighting above your grade, I never really looked at it like that. I went in there with that mindset that I'm going in there to compete. That's just how I felt about it. I always went up in there thinking I had a chance to win. Even now, I feel like I can compete with the best in the world, and I never looked at myself as being under that, not knowing that you need to be pushed to that level and take certain steps towards that level. I just came out the gate thinking I could compete on that level and went for it.”

More often than not, it didn’t work out well for Parker, who faced Foster in his second pro fight in 2014, went the distance with him, and continued battling it out with anyone and everyone put in his way. And though he didn’t win often, promoters could count on him because he always showed up in shape and ready to fight. He also showed up to win. That’s the difference between Parker and a lot of folks who share a similar won-loss slate, so when Cox called him for the fight with Leconte, Parker dusted off his gloves and mouthpiece and got ready to step into the ring for the first time since a September 2019 loss to Tommy Logan.

“I had enough notice,” said Parker. “It was at least three weeks. I had a good training camp, and I came out to box, but the trip just got extended in between.”

Parker expected to get a ride from Louisiana to Iowa, but when the person giving him the ride reneged, he decided to take a Greyhound bus to the fight site. It was no big deal for the construction worker, who had taken those bus trips to the Midwest before, but soon it turned into one.

“I thought it was gonna be pretty easy,” he said. “With the rest stops that they make, I'd be able to do a little light training in between and possibly get there a day before weigh-ins and have time to rest before the fight. That's what I thought.”

On August 12, Parker left New Orleans at 9am. There was a mistake on a connection and 12 hours later, he was in Houston. A new route was going to get him to Chicago…34 hours later. On Saturday, the day of the fight, Parker made it to Chicago at 10am. An hour after that, it was a six-and-a-half-hour bus ride to Cedar Rapids. At 4:30pm, Parker was picked up and brought to the venue. At 9:30pm he was in the ring.

“I ended up getting re-routed to these different places and it ended up being two-and-a-half days on the bus,” said Parker. “And even though I was training and doing stuff on the stops, I wasn't able to really stretch out and get acclimated into fight mode because as soon as I got off the bus, I went straight to the venue and fought. So I didn't have any time to recover.”

Normally, that trip would have taken Parker a day and a half. That’s still bad.

“It's still bad,” he laughs, “but I've done it before.”

At this point, the only question is why? Why not turn back, call it a loss, and try again for the next fight? Cox certainly would have understood, but Parker wasn’t having it. He was going to get to Cedar Rapids and fight. As Cox wrote in a Facebook post, he had the same question. 

Parker’s response?

“I said I would show up.”

“I already made the commitment to come out there,” Parker explains. “After I made the commitment, it just seemed like stuff started getting worse. But I continued. I just made a decision. I had prepared for this kid, I had a game plan, but when I got there, I just couldn't perform. I couldn't make my game plan happen.”

Parker got stopped by Leconte in the third round, falling to 2-15.

“I gassed out, but it was the best fight of the night,” he said. 

With a wife and kids to provide for, Parker can’t dwell on any setbacks in the ring, and he has to have a short memory. That doesn’t mean the lows of the fight game don’t affect him.

“It's an emotional rollercoaster,” he admits. “The last couple of days have been hard because you have all the expectations, and when they don't go how you want 'em to go, you get down on yourself a little bit. I got down on myself, but I get little motivations every day to make me continue. Boxing and martial arts is my passion. It's something I love to do, and the fact that I can go out and get paid to do it, it's a plus for me. But, at the end of the day, I train to win, and I want to win, and I compete to win. There have been a lot of fights outside the fights for me, so it hasn't been good, but I have no complaints because it's a blessing for me to be able to even do it how I'm doing it now.”

Parker will be back. He’s scheduled to fight on another Cox promotion in Iowa on September 25 against Mike Randolph. He’s even getting flown out to the bout, a welcome development after the Greyhound debacle. After that, who knows, but for now, Parker plans on continuing on this fistic journey, knowing that despite the odds stacked against him, all it takes is one punch against the right opponent, and then it’s the snowball effect: bigger paydays, bigger fights, more opportunities. That’s the beauty of the business, that for all the ugliness in boxing, when the bell rings, every fighter controls his own destiny. It’s what keeps Devin Parker going.

“You gotta believe in yourself, especially under the circumstances I'm doing it with,” he said. “Most cases, I'll have a team, sometimes I go into these fights by myself, so I always have the mentality that I'm going to go up in there and win. I'm competing with the best, so I gotta be my best and I gotta do the best that I could. So I'm always giving myself a chance. It seems like people look at me as a fool because of that. They say, ‘You're crazy.’ But I believe in myself, and I know that I'm one punch away. I feel that in my heart.”