LaTray wins by TKO in Deer Lodge

The Tri-County Showdown returned to the Tri-County Fair last Thursday night, Aug. 15 in Deer Lodge. The Showdown featured nine boxing matches with boxers from Butte, Anaconda, Deer Lodge, Dillon, Dillon, Bozeman and Helena. All bout were scheduled for three 2-minute rounds. This has been a yearly event the at the fair for the past five years. The show was promoted by Nxt Gen promotions. 

Several Anaconda boxers were scheduled to compete, but some bouts were cancelled due to injuries and illness. The scheduled Main Event was a 170 lb. 5-round bout between Andrew Huckeby, who trains in Anaconda, and Erik Lopez of Dillon, but Lopez withdrew due to injury. That moved the fight between Anaconda Heavyweight Chris LaTray and Mike Brow of Polson into the Main Event.

In that Main Event, Brow started fast and stunned LaTray with solid punches several times in the first round. Bleeding from the nose and mouth, LaTray fought back, but he was having trouble with Brow’s speed and boxing skill. Latray started to mount an attack by mid-way in the second round and hurt Brow with a hard right hand to the head after another solid combination referee Russ Hansen gave Brow a standing 8-count. Brow attempted to fight back, but was backed into the ropes by hard body and head punches where he was in trouble as the referee stepped in and stopped the bout late in the second round, giving LaTray a TKO victory.

In the Semi-Main Event, Bryton Hardesty scored a close decision over Owen West in a 125 lb. bout. 

LaTray was an All-State wrestler for the Copperheads and competed in boxing, mixed martial arts and submission grappling for several years before he was diagnosed with kidney disease. At that point it became clear he could no longer compete in these demanding activities.

LaTray was diagnosed with kidney disease late in 2019. At that time he had undergone extensive testing and was put on the list for a kidney transplant. After a long waiting period he underwent a kidney transplant operation in 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

It has been a long recovery since the transplant operation, but he gradually returned to training and became more and more physically active as his condition improved. One of his long-term goals was to return to hard training and box competitively one more time.

At this point LaTray said he doesn’t plan to fight again, but hopes to train in traditional martial arts like Judo or Jiu-Jitsu. 

LaTray said this was like a dream come true to box again and complete his dramatic recovery. “I want to thank everyone who supported me through this difficult time – the community, family and friends gave me great support and helped get through a life threatening ordeal and I really appreciate it,” LaTray said.

LaTray works at Montana State Prison and has been a state of Montana state employee for over 15 years.