Meet Lee “The Silverback” Campbell, a nationally ranked boxer who works in the Duke Energy Building

Meet Lee Junior Campbell.

Lee and I have worked together at Katten, a law firm in the Duke Energy Center for a little over a year, and in addition to becoming a friend, Lee is all of the things that make someone a great coworker – resourceful, positive, and can be counted on, without fail, to do whatever’s necessary to get a job done and done right.

Lee’s also a family man and has been together with his lovely wife, Sabrina, since they met in junior high back in 1995. They are the proud parents of two boys ages 7 and 12.

Sounds like a lot of people you know, right? Yes, but there’s one big thing that makes Lee different. He’s also a professional boxer who goes by “The Silverback” (a nickname given to him by his boxing coach to reflect that Lee is an alpha male (as silverbacks are the alpha males of the gorilla world)).

Meet the Silverback.

The Silverback got into his first fight on a street corner in Philadelphia around the age of 10.

Back then, his mom would take their family to the neighborhood park and ask Lee’s siblings to point out the kids who had been bullying them. Once the bullies had been identified, she would send Lee over to teach them a lesson, using his fists if necessary.

As you can imagine, this didn’t end well for the bullies. As Lee puts it, “I was afraid of my mama, so I was kicking ass!” The Silverback took the boxing lessons he learned back then and applies them these days as a super middleweight boxer currently ranked in the top 40 in the U.S. in his weight class. He’s only lost two fights, both of which were to boxers who went on to fight for world titles. The Silverback won the North Carolina Golden Gloves tournament in both 2009 and 2010. 

Muhammad Ali once said, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” Lee takes this to heart, something I witnessed firsthand when I watched him train at Dyme Boxing on South Boulevard with his coach James Pressley.

A day after a training session spent running up 50 floors of the Duke Energy Center during lunch (like a boss), Lee was in the ring sparring with a few of the other patrons of Dyme Boxing, and damn was he impressive. I’m not just talking about the absurd number of muscles bulging out of all areas of his body, although those are obviously impressive too.

Lee glides around the ring effortlessly, stalking his opponent, and when he sees an opportunity, he pounces, landing punch after punch, and sending him staggering backward before he even knows what hit him. He’s simultaneously powerful and fast – feet quick as lightning, and hands even quicker, with these hands also bringing the thunder.

Frankly, I’m not sure why anyone would ever want to spar with him. It looked absolutely terrifying. 

While Lee’s story is undoubtedly an awesome story worthy of being told (and one that I couldn’t possibly do justice to in one article), Lee’s significance to the city of Charlotte is greater than just our ability to call him one of our own. He would never agree, but it’s true.

Lee’s a man on a mission, and for a number of reasons, including the positive impact the sport of boxing has had on his life, his primary motivation in striving for boxing success is to bring attention to the sport here in Charlotte in hopes that with increased exposure will come growth and increased opportunities for the sport to impact other lives in the way it’s impacted his.

That’s not to say he doesn’t enjoy his individual successes – ask him about past matches, and with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face, he’ll tell you about various fighters he has knocked out, and how quickly he knocked them to the mat. But in response to a question about what his boxing goals are, Lee is quick to respond with, “I don’t need a title belt. My prime objective is to set a marker here in Charlotte and put us on the boxing map as a boxing city, and I want to do my part to make that happen. When people look back at my career, that’s what I want them to remember about me.”

From watching the way Lee trains and interacts with other boxers at Dyme Boxing, to listening to him talk about boxing around the office over the last year, to seeing the efforts he makes to participate in and promote local matches, it’s easy to see that he isn’t just talking when he says things like this. He means every word, and his actions make that crystal clear. 

Who is this guy? Superman? Rocky? Nah, just The Silverback, a true alpha in every sense of the word and without a doubt one of Charlotte’s finest. 

Told you my coworker was more badass than yours.

Editor’s Note:

Want to watch Lee “the Silverback” Campbell in action? Join the Agenda team (we’re buying tickets and will be there) for Lee’s next fight – Saturday, May 21 right here in Charlotte at the Carole Hoefener Center in Uptown. Go to tommyhillboxing.com, enter “Campbell” in the promo code box, and buy your tickets (starting at $25 a piece). See you there.