He was once a welterweight champion. But Kip Diggs doesn’t spend much time boxing anymore.
"I don’t miss it, because of course, I don’t want to get punched," he said.
But he’s happy to see a younger generation developing the necessary work ethic and discipline.
These days, the fight for Diggs plays out on Beacon Hill where he is a state representative from Cape Cod, representing his hometown of Barnstable. Diggs describes an upbringing filled with family, friends, school and especially sports.
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"I wanted to be that household name as an athlete."
But priorities changed his senior year of high school when he became a father.
Diggs knew he needed to provide. So he got a job with Delta Airlines in Washington, D.C. - but it only lasted about six months.
"The city life was just too much for me…the city was fast and ate me up," he said.
He returned to the Cape and got a job as a Department of Public Works worker for the town of Barnstable.
"Then a buddy of mine said we’re gonna start boxing. I started boxing. And I was good at it.”
His first big fight: Fall River - the Southeastern New England Golden Gloves. Diggs won.
"It was unbelievable. People were right over you. Then we said, let’s turn pro," he said.
Diggs left his job to train full-time. Throughout his 20s, he boxed all over the country and around the world.
He held North American Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organization welterweight titles.
By his early thirties, Diggs decided it was time to retire from boxing. Now a father of three, he started a trucking company.
"I worked on the Big Dig, had a couple of tractor trailers and a tri-axle," he said.
Then in 2016, the unthinkable happened. His 20-year-old son Kraig was driving back to college with three friends when a car driving the wrong way on 495 in Middleborough crashed head-on into their car, killing all four boys. Diggs said it was devastating. Especially tragic since, at the age of 12, Diggs had lost his older brother to a drunk driver.
"You know, life isn’t always, isn’t fair at times, but…My community picked me up. You know, they have, they fed us for three months, a meal a day. You know, I was just like, well what can I do to give back?”
That’s when Diggs decided to run for state representative.
These days, Diggs has traded in the gloves for golf clubs. But he said he still has the fight in him to make life better for his constituents.
"I’m trying to do the right thing for everybody. That’s really my goal."
