Zordan Holman, left, trades punches with sparring partner Jordan Lindsay during a workout last week at the Portland Boxing Club. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

After absorbing several strong blows and landing a few of his own in a lengthy sparring session, Zordan Holman climbed out of the ring at the Portland Boxing Club and pondered the question.

Why, at the age of 26, did the 6-foot-6, 230-pounder with an economics degree decide to become a boxer?

“Because I’m a fighter. I’ve been fighting all my life,” said the grinning Holman, a football standout at Cheverus High who went on to play at the University of Connecticut.

As he speaks, a pink-red mixture of blood, sweat and mucus trickles from his nostril.

He doesn’t wipe it away. He doesn’t even appear to notice that sparring partner Jordan Lindsay, a more-experienced and nearly-as-big super heavyweight, had done damage to him at all.

“I grew up in Munjoy Hill. It wasn’t the Munjoy Hill of today with 2 million dollar homes on the water. I’d go outside and get in fights. I’d go to Kennedy Park and, you know, things happen. Guys being guys,” Holman said.

“But now I just leave it all in the ring.”

Holman says this with passion, his heart and his mind still racing from the workout. He played college football in front of 70,000 fans against future NFL first-round picks. A  junior world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu at age 17, he resumed his training after college and placed third at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation world championships in 2019.

When the coronavirus pandemic put combat sports competition on pause, Holman says he “was looking for something to do and I started coming here, to Portland Boxing Club and I just fell in love with the sport.”

Zordan Holman on making the transition to boxing: “I’ve played in collegiate Division I athletics. I’ve done jiu-jitsu. I’ve sparred against professional MMA fighters. You can’t replicate what you experience in that ring. It’s the longest three minutes of your life.” Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Holman now lives in Westbrook and works as an ed tech at South Portland High School, mostly in the English Language Learning department. For over 18 months, he has trained intently at the Portland Boxing Club under the direction of owner/director/head coach Bob Russo.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Holman said. “I’ve played in collegiate Division I athletics. I’ve done jiu-jitsu. I’ve sparred against professional MMA fighters. You can’t replicate what you experience in that ring. It’s the longest three minutes of your life. You can literally see the fight leave people’s eyes in there. It’s a humbling experience, an incredibly humbling sport.

“I like that aspect. Everybody thinks they’re tough, but in there you really get to find out what you’re worth. Get to prove your manhood in a way.”

Holman didn’t get his first fights until last month, fighting twice in three days. He won both to become the Northern New England Golden Gloves super heavyweight novice amateur champion. The Novice division is for fighters with 10 or fewer bouts.

That qualifies him to participate in the semifinals of the New England Golden Gloves tournament on either Feb. 17 or Feb. 24 against one of the novice champions from the South, Central or Western New England regions.

BORN IN WAR-TORN CROATIA

To understand Zordan Holman, you need to know a bit of his family history.

“His backstory is very important,” said John Wolfgram, Holman’s football coach at Cheverus High.

Holman was born on Christmas Eve in 1995 in Croatia, the second of Mladen and Snjezana Holman’s three children. Mladen Holman was a military leader during the Croatian War after the republic declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Croatia was established as a sovereign state, but the war left the region devastated, with a broken economy and little opportunity.

“My dad, he was a general, he lost men. He talks about it, how he can remember their faces and remembers talking to their mothers,” said Holman, who speaks primarily Croatian with his parents.

The family moved to Portland in 2000. Holman said he doesn’t have many memories of his native land but knows his parents came to America so he and his sisters could have a better life. And, for as long as he can remember, a part of that life has been accompanying his father to various martial arts gyms. Now it’s the other way around. Mladen Holman at times will come to the Portland Boxing Club for his son’s workout.

Striving for improvement and being tough enough to keep fighting are Holman family traits.

Zordan Holman, right, and Jordan Lindsay hug after a few rounds of sparring last week at the Portland Boxing Club. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

“To me, work ethic is everything,” Holman said. “There’s always someone bigger, stronger, faster. That’s just how it is. But I’m never going to let anyone outwork me. That’s a choice.”

At Cheverus, Holman quickly made an impression, both as a three-sport athlete and as a charismatic student. He was a class president and a youth champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a form of grappling where the goal is getting an opponent in a hold to make them submit. On the football field, he could dominate physically as a tight end and a defensive end. He also kicked. Using a straight-on approach that harkened to the days of crewcuts and high-top cleats, Holman routinely booted kickoffs into the end zone.

A two-time Maine Sunday Telegram All-State selection, Holman was honored after his 2014 senior season as the Frank J. Gaziano Defensive Lineman Award winner.

“He was one of the most coachable boys that I think we’ve had at Cheverus,” Wolfgram said. “Affable. A hard worker. Someone who really enjoys working at the details.

“And, he’s an extremely tough kid. Kind of paradoxically, he’s also really nice. Real good at working with little kids. He’s a good teacher and he cares about people. But there is a toughness that he has.”

At UConn, Holman broke his fibula at the end of his freshman season, but he recovered in time to play in every game as a redshirt freshman on special teams. Listed as a tight end, Holman continued to be a regular on special teams the next two seasons, graduating in four years while continuing to train in jiu-jitsu, with occasional forays into boxing gyms.

Zordan Holman warms up at the Portland Boxing Club on Wednesday. “I grew up in Munjoy Hill,” Holman says. “It wasn’t the Munjoy Hill of today with 2 million dollar homes on the water. I’d go outside and get in fights. I’d go to Kennedy Park and, you know, things happen. Guys being guys. But now I just leave it all in the ring.” Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Tyler Davis, another UConn tight end, told the Hartford Courant that Holman was “the most interesting man in the world. … This guy is a legend.”

Based on press conference comments, Huskies football coach Randy Edsell was equal parts perplexed by Holman’s preoccupation with martial arts and appreciative of his spirit and personality.

Considering he never caught a pass and rarely played on offense, one could think Holman might have been disappointed or unfulfilled by his college football career.

Not the case.

Holman knew exactly why he was at UConn – to take advantage of his full athletic scholarship.

“Ultimately, the value of a four-year scholarship at the University of Connecticut was $300,000. I walked out of college with zero debt. How many people can say that nowadays?” Holman asked. “I graduated with a degree in economics from a top-20 public university.

“And honestly, my family and I are from Croatia. I have a sister who is 11 months younger than I am and it was obvious that my family wasn’t going to be able to send both of us to college at the same time.”

‘I WANT TO TAKE THIS AS FAR AS I CAN’

Russo, the Portland Boxing Club owner and trainer, is notoriously cautious about putting untested boxers into the ring too soon.

As Russo put it, there’s a big difference between a two-fight novice like Holman and someone with nine fights. And Holman’s experience is even more limited because he won both fights with first-round technical knockouts.

Holman beat 330-pound Tom Curtis of Spruce Head in 48 seconds on Jan. 13 at the Lowell Auditorium in Massachusetts, the mecca of New England amateur boxing. Two nights later at Tri-City Christian Academy in Somersworth, New Hampshire, he stopped 6-foot-8, 316-pound Abdul Sumah of Bangor in 1:20.

“Obviously he’s a big guy in great shape. So that’s a plus, there. He’s dedicated. He’s an athlete,” said Russo, ticking off Holman’s foundational assets. “He’s got all of the physical attributes that you need. It’s just learning the skill set.

“He’s getting there. He’s doing well. I mean, we haven’t seen too much of him because he scored two quick knockouts,” Russo continued. “He’ll be tested in the New Englands.”

Former Cheverus High star Zordan Holman has shifted his martial arts interest from Brazilian jiu-jitsu to boxing as a novice fighter at the Portland Boxing Club. “I want to take this as far as I can. I want to be the best that I can be,” he says. “When it’s all said and done, we’ll see where that is.” Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Holman is one of four Portland Boxing Club fighters participating in this year’s New England Golden Gloves. Veterans Wade Faria, a middleweight from Gorham, and Kate Zehr of South Portland are competing in the Open division. Zehr earned the 125-pound silver medal this past summer at the national Golden Gloves tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Ilyas Bashir, 18, of Auburn is in the Novice 139-pound division. A freshman at Bates College, Bashir ran his record to 7-1 with two impressive wins in the Northern New England tourney, earning outstanding fighter honors with his championship.

Keith Derrig, a PBC member, can relate to Holman’s path. Derrig was the quarterback on Portland High’s undefeated 2002 Class A championship football team. Like Holman, he started dabbling with boxing while in college, then fought competitively under Russo’s tutelage and became a New England amateur light heavyweight champion.

“He’s athletic. He can move side-to-side. Most guys his size are just bulling forward,” Derrig said.

Holman isn’t sure where boxing will take him, just that he’s at the beginning of the journey.

“I want to take this as far as I can. I want to be the best that I can be,” Holman said.

“When it’s all said and done, we’ll see where that is.”