Walt Goins, aka "Pops" started boxing at the age of 9 in the basement of his parent's home. Imitating the punches of his favorite fighter Joe Frazier on the bag, he spent hours working on his punches and form. The neighborhood boys would organize regular fights to see who was the toughest amongst them. It was during these fights that he found he could take a punch as well as give one.

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Pops later began his formal training at Maxcy Greg Boxing Gym in Columbia, South Carolina under the tutelage of an old boxer called Rabbit. Rabbit, a man in his early 50's knew the game and devoted his life to making successful fighters. Rabbit mentored title contenders, golden gloves and Olympic hopefuls. At 18 Walt joined the University of South Carolina boxing club. He entered the Budweiser Cup and won the tournament with a 10-0-0 record. Retiring from competition early to start a family and began a career he continued his love of boxing with his first student, his son Justin Goins. He coached Justin from the age of 4 through his competition in boxing and MMA. He has coached boxing lessons at the YMCA, as well as private lessons for up and coming boxers and MMA fighters, also fine tuning the hands of the fighters coming up through SAGA Combat today.

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In 2023 as our boxing program at SAGA Combat exploded, Justin decided to bring in another boxing coach to help him. He couldn't think of anyone better than his own boxing coach and father, Walt "Pops" Goins. You can find the two of them fine tuning the hands of the boxers and MMA fighters at SAGA Combat on Wednesday nights and during fight camps!

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As a result of his unique ability to understand the entire game, he is able to tailor the boxing skills to an MMA fighter as well as continuing to further our pure boxer's skills in the sweet science as they should be.