Joseph Salvatore Gilbert (born June 5, 1976) is an American retired professional boxer, attorney, and sports agent.

Biography

Gilbert was born in Chicago and raised in Sparks, Nevada. Gilbert attended Our Lady of the Snows Parochial School in Reno, Nevada and graduated from Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in 1994https://joeygilbertlaw.com/meet-my-corner/team/joey-gilbert/. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and political science from the University of Nevada where he also minored in Italian. Gilbert spent six months living, training and traveling in northern Europe during the summer and fall of 1998 through a study abroad program based in Turin.

Gilbert was a collegiate fighter at the University of Nevada, National Champion from 1998 through 2000 (named outstanding boxer all 3 years), a four-time Regional Champion, a four-time All American, and was the Nevada State Golden Gloves Super Middleweight Champion in 2000.

Gilbert earned a Juris Doctor from Thomas Jefferson Law School in San Diego, California, and passed the Nevada bar exam in 2004. He has practiced law since that time.

Gilbert participated in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol to overturn the 2020 election results and has denied that President Joe Biden won the election.

Gilbert is the Director of Strategy for America's Frontline Doctors. Gilbert's actions have spread misinformation that has driven distrust in the efficacy of personal protective equipment and vaccines.

Boxing career

Gilbert began boxing as an amateur at the University of Nevada, Reno. During his time at the University of Nevada, Gilbert was a three-time National Champion, a four-time Regional Champion, a four-time All American, and was the Nevada State Golden Gloves Super Middleweight Champion in 2000. He finished his amateur career with a record of 27–1.

In 2004, Gilbert was cast on NBC's reality TV show The Contender. He was placed on the West Coast Team and beat Jimmy Lange in the first round of this competition. He then had his friend turned rival Jesse Brinkley place him in a fight against Peter Manfredo Jr. in the quarter finals, which he lost in a divided decision. The fight was stopped in the fifth round due to an accidental head-butt from his opponent.

After The Contender, Gilbert won a six-round unanimous decision in the super middleweight division against James North on the undercard of the Jeff Lacy vs. Scott Pemberton card. Gilbert won the rematch with Jimmy Lange at the EagleBank Arena for the vacant middleweight NABO title on February 18 and won the WBC-USNBC middleweight title shortly after.

On September 21, 2007, Gilbert scored a first-round knockout over Charles Howe, however, the ruling was later changed to a no-decision. Gilbert was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission after testing positive for a number of illegal substances including a steroid, methamphetamine and amphetamine resulting from testing conducted before and after the fight. Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer told Channel 2 Sports Director J.K. Metzker that Gilbert tested positive for illegal substances in urine tests taken before and after Gilbert's September 21 middleweight title fight against Charles Howe at the Grand Sierra Resort.

On August 12, 2008, Gilbert agreed to pay a $10,000 (~$ in ) fine for a positive steroid test as part of a settlement with the Nevada Athletic Commission which included dropping the charges for amphetamine, methamphetamine, oxazepam, diazepam and nordiazepam in exchange for the fine and a one-year retroactive suspension.

On February 14, 2009, Gilbert challenged former rival Jesse Brinkley for the WBC USNBC super middleweight title, but was defeated by unanimous decision.

After suffering a six-round technical knockout loss to former IBF light middleweight champion Kassim Ouma, Gilbert retired from professional boxing in 2010 and now practices criminal defense and personal injury law in Reno, Nevada.

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes24Loss Kassim OumaTKO6 (10), 2010-09-25 23Win20–2 (1) Billy BaileyUD82010-07-03 22Win19–2 (1) Anthony BartinelliTKO7 (8), 2010-05-22 21Win18–2 (1) Ivan StovallKO5 (8), 2009-08-29 20Loss17–2 (1) Jesse BrinkleyUD122009-02-14 19Win17–1 (1) William JohnsonKO2 (6), 2008-11-20 18Win16–1 (1) Dan WallaceTKO2 (6), 2008-10-30 17ND15–1 (1) Charles Howe1 (10), 2007-09-21 16Win15–1 Juan AstorgaTKO10 (12), 2007-05-12 15Win14–1 Michi MunozUD122007-03-02 14Win13–1 Keith SimsTKO6 (12), 2006-10-11 13Win12–1 Jason AakerKO1 (8), 2006-08-05 12Win11–1 Jimmy LangeTKO3 (12), 2006-02-18 11Win10–1 James NorthUD62005-11-05 10Loss9–1 Peter Manfredo Jr.5 (5), 2004-09-07 9Win9–0 Jimmy LangeUD52004-09-07 8Win8–0 Farid Shahid62004-07-10 7Win7–0 Kirk DouglasTKO4 (6), 2004-04-24 6Win6–0 Thomas HainesTKO1 (4), 2004-03-27 5Win5–0 Tony SanzaTKO1 (4), 2003-11-22 4Win4–0 Travis BiechlerTKO1 (4), 2002-07-26 3Win3–0 Timothy RobinsonTKO2 (4), 2002-06-07 2Win2–0 Tony Sanza1 (4), 2001-07-20 1Win1–0 Miguel Angel Lopez2 (4), 2000-06-16

Political campaigns

In June 2021, Gilbert announced he was running for Governor of Nevada in the 2022 election. Gilbert placed second and lost in the Republican primary to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo who won handily; despite this, he made baseless claims of election fraud and challenged the results.

In November 2022, Gilbert applied to fill a vacancy in the District E seat on the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees created when trustee Angie Taylor was elected to the Nevada Assembly. He was one of seven applicants. The board declined to advance him to the interview stage because he had submitted a cover letter without the required résumé.

Transgender and LGBTQ views During the 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Gilbert told The Nevada Independent by email that competitive sports "have always been – to me – rightfully separated into men's and women's categories" defined by "physiological make-up – and not by their psychological feelings", and that while he respected the rights of transgender people he also respected "the rights of the majority of people." In the same statement he said he supported "basic civil rights and constitutional protection of homosexuals" but described the LGBTQ movement as political advocates seeking "to pressure our society to accept their sense of homosexual values" and promoting "the medically unproven belief that homosexuality is a biological fact rather than a psychological choice", adding, "I disagree with all of those beliefs and goals."

In July 2023, when the Douglas County School District board hired his firm after its prior counsel advised that a proposed policy restricting transgender students' use of bathrooms and locker rooms and participation in girls' sports could violate the Nevada Constitution's equal rights amendment, Gilbert told the board he supported the positions trustee David Burns had advocated on those issues and said he would "research such a policy thoroughly and work with the board to craft something that it believes is in the best interest of the board and the county." The policy was never adopted, and the district's superintendent later said he was "not aware of any such issue in our schools."

Business ventures Gilbert has described himself as "a businessman at heart." Early in his boxing career he founded two Las Vegas-based companies, a political consulting and communications firm and a sports management company. He has held a Nevada boxing promoter's license since 2007 and is the sole owner of Joey Gilbert Promotions, which promoted his own bouts and those of other fighters. In 2019, Joey Gilbert Promotions partnered with Roy Jones Jr. Boxing Promotions and the Reno-based Eldorado group to co-promote boxing cards at the Silver Legacy Reno streamed on UFC Fight Pass; the first card, on October 25, 2019, drew about 1,600 spectators.

In 2016, Gilbert became a founding partner of Mynt Cannabis, a Reno cannabis dispensary that was later sold to a Canadian company; he and other Mynt founders subsequently formed Parliament Group, a hemp-processing company that in 2019 was building a facility in Sparks. In August 2019 he founded Champion Real Estate Advisors and began working toward a Nevada real-estate broker's license. By that year his ventures also included mining interests and nonprofits for children and veterans.

Gilbert also leads To Know Oneself Optimized Wellness LLC, which provides non-clinical administrative support to a Reno hormone-optimization clinic operating under the names To Know Oneself and TKO Vitality; the clinic offers testosterone replacement therapy, GLP-1 weight-loss medication, peptide and NAD+ therapies, and his father, Warren Gilbert, is its clinical director.

References

External links Joey's Personal Website Joey's Law Firm

Gubernatorial Website