Hailing from a family of boxers, 11-year old Milton resident Mike Hudson has been around a boxing ring for as long as he can remember.

So it should come as no surprise that when he became eligible to compete in junior events, Hudson took to the sweet-science like a duck on water.

“Officially he has been boxing since he was eight, but he’s been in the sport since he was two or three,” said Mike’s father Jack Hudson, a former boxer that now coaches, trains and judges in the sport. “He’s really turned into a good fighter too and it’s exciting for me to watch him out there because he [boxes] with a lot of power and goes into the ring looking to wipe the other guy out.”

Training daily with his father, and with his brother Mitch Foley — an accomplished boxer in his own right — in his corner, Mike is one of three juniors that train and spar out of the small K-8 private school Chandler Academy in Milton.

In three years of competition, and 33 total fights, he’s garnered a reputation as a fearsome power-puncher while routinely fighting kids much older and even bigger than him.

“I just like to get in there and throw punches,” said Mike, who also plays basketball, football, baseball and is a distance runner when not sporting his red, white and blue boxer’s shorts. “Sometimes sparring, or just hitting the bags in our basement, I like releasing all that energy with my hands.”

“My overhand-right is my best punch, it has the most power and I use it whenever I can.”

When Hudson has squared off against junior boxers in his class, his overhand-right and compliments of jabs, hooks and quick feet have produced tremendous results.

He has won seven different Georgia State Championships, recently won his second straight Georgia Silver Gloves and second straight Southeast Silver Gloves Championships, and will head to the National Silver Gloves Championships in Independence, Mo. next week.

“This is the hardest tournament to win,” said Jack Hudson. “It could be as many as five fights and against the best of the best.”

The Silver Gloves tournaments, put on by USA Boxing, are organized nationwide for junior boxers ages 10 to 15. Mike’s 11-year old age group will compete in bouts that encompass three, one-minute rounds.

The tournament will run from Jan. 30 through Feb. 2