‘Mr. Providence’ Represents Home City in Boxing Matches

Vladine Biosse wanted to be ‘Bad Boy Biosse.’

It’s the kind of bad-ass nickname that most boxers seem to sport. Locally, boxers have stepped into the ring under names like ‘The Beast’ and ‘The Viking.’ World champ Vinny Paz was known as ‘The Pazmanian Devil.’

But Biosse instead became ‘Mr. Providence.’

Last summer, after boxing in the featured match at Twin River, hosted by CES Boxing, Biosse spoke with Motif about what it’s like to take punches for 30 minutes, why he loves boxing and how he became ‘Mr. Providence.’ Biosse ultimately lost his match against New Jersey-based opponent Chris Chatman that night of July 17, but his passion for boxing and the city he represents remains undaunted. Our interview has been edited and condensed for space and readability.

Stephen Beale: You took punches for 10 rounds spanning 30 minutes. How do you feel right now?

Vladine Biosse: Feel great. I feel awesome.

SB: How is that possible?

VB: It’s just something I’m used to. Man, I do this all day every day. I mean I’m in the gym every day. And I spar every day. There’s days of the week that I spar three times. You know what I’m saying? So my body’s used to giving punches and getting punches.

SB: When you’re in ring are you focusing on a variety of things or is it just one thing—‘I’m going to beat the crap out of this guy’?

VB: One thing. My focus is the command of my coaches: what they call, what they don’t call, what they ask me to do.

SB: So they’re really directing you in there?

VB: Exactly. They say boxing is not a team sport. It is a team sport.

SB: How many hours a day do you work out?

VB: An hour in the morning, about three hours midday, and then going to another two hours later on at night.

SB: What drives you to do this? Is it the athleticism of it? Being on stage?

VB: I just love doing this. My father was a professional soccer player. So the athleticism has been in my life from since when I can remember. When I was a young boy I remember I had to go to practice with my dad. It was just a thing that was embedded in me coming up. I don’t think I’ll ever be doing anything in life correctly if I’m not involved in some sort of sports — whether I’m playing or whether I’m involved in some ways. It’s just me. It’s part of me.

SB: What is your ambition? Where are you hoping to take it?

VB: I want to continue doing this. My goal has always been a world title — world championship. Wins, losses or draws, that’s my mentality: to take it to the top of the game.

SB: Tell my about the origins of your name.

Biosse tells me the name was suggested to him after the enthusiastic reception he received at the Cape Verdean festival in Providence. (Biosse is Cape Verdean.)

VB: To carry the name of a city as rich as ‘Providence’ is a big burden so I tried to shy away from it a little bit and I tried to go with the name ‘Bad Boy Biosse.’

SB: So how did you end up becoming ‘Mr. Providence’ instead?

VB: My coach Orlondo Valles said, ‘Listen we don’t want to be bad boys. You’re college educated. You are a mentor to those kids. You do great work in the community. Why would you want to be a bad boy? We don’t want you to be bad boy. We want you to be the good guy. We come in here. We do what we do. We handle business. But at the same time we do this for the good of the city.’ So therefore we went with the name ‘Mr. Providence,’ which has been great, tremendous. I carry the name everywhere I box. And now understanding the responsibility and understanding how good that name is, I try to follow it and I try to embrace that name as much as I can because I understand the responsibility that comes with that name.

SB: Is there anything in particular that inspires or motivates you?

VB: My kids. I have two kids: a daughter, 9 years old and a son, 6. My drive ain’t anything. It’s for them. When I speak to some of my friends sometimes we speak about, ‘Oh man. This situation is great. Oh you know if we get involved in this, this is so fun and this and that.’ My response to them a lot of times is ‘Man, listen I’ve had a lot of fun in my lifetime. I was a college football player. It was crazy — the partying and all that stuff. It was crazy. I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been everywhere — Europe, Africa, you know everywhere.’ So I say ‘I’ve had enough, I’ve had enough fun in my lifetime so any fun I have from now on has to be about them. So anything else doesn’t matter. It’s all about them. Anything else has to come after.’