Boyd Melson, American boxer
Boyd "Rainmaker" Melson (born October 16, 1981) is a retired American light middleweight boxer.As an amateur, Melson won the 48th World Military Boxing Championship gold medal in the 69 kg (152 lb) weight class, and was a three-time United States Army champion, a three-time NCBA All-American boxer, a four-time West Point Brigade Open Boxing Champion, and received the Colonel Marcus Award. He also won gold medals at the All Army Boxing Championships four times and at the Armed Forces Boxing Championships three times. He made it to the quarterfinals in the welterweight 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships placing 5th in the world, won a bronze medal at the 2005 US Amateur Boxing Championships, won a silver medal at the 2006 US Amateur Boxing Championships, and was an Alternate for the 2008 US Olympic Boxing Team.
As a professional, Melson retired with a record of 15–2–1, with 4 of his wins coming by knockout. He is 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, and competed professionally at 154 lb (70 kg). Melson donates all of the money that he earns in his boxing matches to spinal cord injury research and his efforts have been profiled on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, and Yahoo!, the Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
In 2005, he received the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame "Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award." In 2013, he received the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame "Good Guy" Award. Melson was recently selected to be inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in the 2018 class of inductees.