Tribal citizen Rob “the Warrior” DeGaetano, a junior middleweight fighter, won his second professional boxing match in December to a packed house including many tribal friends and family at the Worcester Palladium II.

After a prayer to the ancestors in the locker room, the 21-year-old fighter was escorted out to the ring by his entourage including a tribal drum and traditional dancers to thunderous applause.

“The ring walk is very sacred to me,” said Rob whose goal is to be the first male Native American world champion. “Going into the ring, we are Wampanoag and this is how we do business.”

Rob dominated his opponent Devon Grant and won the fight easily in the first round.

The young fighter who has been sparing since he was a young child is already looking forward to bigger and better venues.

“It’s a dream for me to fight in any Native casino and would be a dream to me to fight on Don King’s show.”

Trainer and tribal citizen Stan Hiacoombs has no doubt Rob will bring his skills to the next level. He has watched Rob fight since he was a 5-year-old at the first Rumble on the Rez in Mashpee. By the time he was 15 Rob was in the top 5 fighters in his weight class for the whole country.

Stan has been with the fighter for more than 40 armature fights seeing him fight in Rocky Marciano and Silver Gloves tournaments.

“He’s pretty easy to train,” said Stan. “Like Angelo Dundee said about Ali, He would have been great without me.”

Stan said Rob takes his training very seriously and works hard in and out of the gym where he works in his father’s masonry business lifting and packing stones developing his strength.

Rob, whos form is defined by his speed and power, likes the solitary nature of the sport.

“It’s a spiritual and physical connection with yourself,” he said. “My goal is to become a world champion, and to bring that championship back to my community. My whole tribe has my back and I have to put out that positive motivation for our tribal youth.”

Presently Rob is still in negotiations to sign his next fight and is looking for business sponsors who would like to support him. He is also accepting individual donations on his GoFundMe page to help with expenses to train and be outfitted for each fight.