every fighter is scared 
every fighter gets hurt it's how you
deal with adversity that counts
you either quit or you keep going
words of wisdom from lowell boxing legend
micky ward
micky was able to box his way out of a
troubled life but today with most
after-school programs being cut due to
the economy how do we keep high risk kids out
of trouble and out of jail
hello and welcome to the educational
forum I'm diane sullivan your host for
today's show
when you think of boxing all you might
see are two fighters beating at each
other
are guests see it quite differently
your left hand will
be number one on this side ok
so I say one you through that there you go
two will be this hand over
here so one two there you go
then when we do this as a focus mitt
workout it's the closest thing to sparring
it gets the kids used to throwing combinations so this
is where you start their training a lot of it
you know first we try to get them to do
three rounds on the speed bag heavy bag shadow boxing jump rope
then they'll come in for three or four rounds of this
so you're talking
fifteen rounds or so in a day you know four or five days a week
your nickname is irish is that for
obvious ethnic reasons
i guess but
i was named so many different nicknames
early in my career i had like three or
four of them and uh...
and finally irish and I kept that one
I had like the baby face assassin i didn't like that
I hated that
you know and a couple others ones
similar to that
irish uh it stuck
irish is a great name but of course my
name's sullivan so what would I say right
tell us
about your early career as a new
england champion boxer
well I started when i was seven years old
fighting my brother he took me down to the
gym when I was young and
you know it just progressed from there
I fought in the silver mittens I fought in
the junior olympics when I was a little kid
silver mittens then i went to the golden gloves
and
the new england aau
now called the abs
and uh...
all those different tournaments and then i
finally turned pro at nineteen
you know and the rest is
history
so it was your brother who actually got
you involved in the sport
yes he started me off
introduce us to your brother
my brother is dick ecklund if you have seen the movie
the fighter you know
the crazy one jumping out of windows 
there's one in every family it was him
after winning your first
fourteen fights
you take a hiatus from boxing why was
that
well I took a hiatus because
you know i i i fought a few fights after
that and
in boxing when you're winning you're on top
you know everything's great
but when you lose a few flights and uh... you
know
you're not the same they're not the same to the
promoters you're like a 
being at a meat counter
next next ticket next if you lose
there's always ten guys behind you that
uh... that's just as good you know so
i lost a few fights and uh i
felt I was just getting thrown in there
because you know just using me
as a stepping stone and things like that
so i said nah
I don't want that i'll go back to
work I'm not gonna you know
for short money get my head pounded in
and be used by these promoters so I said so
I'm done
and that's why I retired the first time
and you ultimately have to have some
surgery done on your your hand yeah
after
I fought zab judah in nineteen ninety
seven
my hand was really it's been bad
for my whole career but it was really to a
point where i had to get it done and uh...
i went and finally got my hand done
and they took a bone out of my pelvis put
it in here I got three screws and uh
0:03:56.039,0:03:56.850
you know it was like
a new hand
and then you make a big comeback
tell us about that
came back and I uh...
won a few fights locally
around here at the wonderland ballroom
and um...
different little venues you know for like short
money just to kind just to get back to
uh get 
my body back to get get some
wins under my belt and get my confidence up
'cause when you lose
so many fights in a row you lose a confidence
so I had to win like three
four fights to get my confidence you
know
get my feel of the ring you get all the
cobwebs out if you want to say that word you now
but uh then when i came back i came back great you
know
i came back and i come back the second
time in my career because i wanted it
not because someone else wanted me to
come back and all because I wanted to come
back
and do it on my terms and that that's
how i did it
and you travel over to london and
you take on a welter weight champion
over there how does that work out for you
great I fought a few fights
that i wasn't supposed to win and i won
that put me in position to fight for
that championship the WBU title
it was the kid was from liverpool too
and I fought him over in uh... london
so i had to go over there and fight him
and i had to knock him out over
there because
you had to it's awful tough
to you know uh
beat one of the guys over there in his
country you know you have to beat him
decisively really
every round or you gotta knock him 
out
that's what i did I ended up knocking him out in
the seventh round
good for you
what a wonderful memory that must be for you
yeah it is because
you know a lot of people never gave me a chance
of even
fighting for a title never mind going over there and beating him in his home country
what did the
crowd do
when he's laying there unconscious in
the ring and here you are the american
that's done it well it's funny because he
you know
i'm irish and I got a little english in me
so i mean they booed me when i walked out but
after the fight was over
they kinda you know it was fifty fifty
you know they didn't really boo me when i
was done
he was also irish to because he's from ireland
shea neary but he came over
from the potato famine years ago
from ireland to england
and that's why he was over in england but he's
really irish too he was the shamrock express
and I was irish
so well then it would've been a good result no matter what right
for the irish right character
tell us now
about your next three big fights
with gatti is that how you say it
yeah gatti arturo okay
I mean the first fight was really tough
grueling it was brutal
we got fight of the year round of the decade
you know things like that you know
we just
tried to kill each other for ten rounds and uh
I
ended up winning the decision in that fight and the
second fight
well stop right there for a moment are
you
really trying to kill each other well
I'm not literally trying to kill him but if it
if it happens it happens
I'm not in there trying to kill him by no
means but
if so be i mean if you hit him hard
it could happen yeah it's part of the sport
it might sound brutal but I mean that that's
the way it is
I'd rather hit him than him hit me yeah
you'd rather be the one that's not dead
right right wouldn't you want to be the one yeah I would
hitting instead of getting hit right right
right exactly alright sorry to interrupt you
ok so fight number two
so the second fight
you know was a
by biggest purse
the day I got there funny
story is
four years three years before i
fought gatti I was fighting at wonderland ballroom
for
six hundred dollars
four years after I fought gatti my second
fight for a million so
if i gave up back then when people said give
up
you can't do it you know your hands
this that and
you know you're not going to be nothing if I
listened to them
I wouldn't have made it but i knew
i could do it so that's why
go go with your mind go with what you want to do that's why i want
you here today i want you to tell those
kids never never never
give up
right exactly
but the second one
I was we fought and I made that money 
not because I made the money we fought
the second one and he caught me in
the third round with a right hand over
my jab hit me right in the side of the era here knocked me
down i was out
pretty much i went down and they gave me an
eight count
and the referee and this is a funny story this is
a true story too
and it's crazy but
the referee give me an eight count so now I'm
wobbly all over the place and the referee
you okay yeah of course I'm okay okay
I'm going like this 'cause I said he hit me behind the ear
but he didn't listen to me
so anyways
referee says ok fight so we he comes at me
like a mad man
and I'm going against the ropes I'm trying to like block 
I I'm like ready to fall over again right
luckily the ropes are there
I'm against the ropes
and and he lines me up with a
right hand he goes boom boom
he goes boom caught me with a right hand
whack i was out I was ready to fall
when he hit me with that right hand it woke
me up
I wasn't even hurt no more
0:08:48.290,0:08:51.649
I came at him after that
he ended up beating me that fight
he ended up beating me that fight than our third
fight
he uh...
he ended up beating me again the third fight
my uh... i got hurt in that last fight
you know people didn't want me to fight
I said no i'm gonna him the third time
and my brain ended up shifting in my skull
in the seventh round
and stuff like that so i you know
plus I suffer from post concussion
syndrome now
which i'm in the study with doctor
robert cantu  and chris nowinski
donate my brain when I pass
so they can study the affects of concussions
and how to
to you know monitor them or how to not
get 'em you know
just wonderful of you to do that yeah
now ring magazine which is the big
magazine or was the big magazine in your
day they tout your fights
as the fights of the year am I right about
that right yeah
I'm one of the only like six
people in the history of boxing
or seven people maybe that
was involved in fight of the year
three consecutive years i mean some guys have got it four
years some guys have got it five years
but nobody like
only six or seven of us got
three in a row
like I think Ali uh... maybe
carmen basilio or someone like that back in
the fifties
but only like three a seven guys got
three fights i got two thousand one
two and three
i kid from lowell
and if i gave up uh... when i was fighting at
wonderland
if I gave up and listened to the people that
said I couldn't do it
then I would've been probably
paving right now and uh...
not there's nothing wrong with paving but I porbably would
have been uh...
you know construction again
when did you hang up your professional
boxing gloves so to speak and why
before i fought my third gatti fight I said
i'm gonna fight this fight hard as I
can
give everything i have
you know and I'm done
I'm done that's when i walked away in two thousand and
three after my third fight wow
I said there ain't no money in the world to get me
back because I'd rather be
as it is I suffer from post concussion
syndrome
and if i ever got in the third fight
after my third fight that's when I got that
post concussion syndrome
but if i fought again
if I ever got hit and I'm not normal all the money
in the world doesn't i'd rather live
in the woods and have nothing and be normal
than have a big house and have money and be
not coherent be like uhhh
you know
so you knew when to get out yeah so i
mean
good for you it was a no brainer for me and
people say how can you do it
don't you still have that fire burning yeah it does but uh
I'm realistic
I know I can't be
the same I am at forty as i was at
thirty why not right yeah well you want to
think yeah right like forty is the new thirty
but not in boxing
that's for sure maybe in normal people's lives
but not in the ring
and you can take all that energy and do
other things which you are doing exactly
and we're going to talk about that your story your life
is now a major motion picture
known as the fighter
yes
0:11:50.830,0:11:55.050
how did you feel when you took your seat
opening night so to speak in the
audience and see your life up there on
the big screen
you know it was funny because when I first seen the
movie they flew me and my brother out to
l_a_
to uh
to watch it at paramount pictures at the
theater there
so i watched it with christian bale mark wahlberg
christian's wife and i uh me and dicky
and um... you know I'm looking I'm like
you know i i didn't mind it at all i
thought it was good you know it was obviously every
thing's not just like your life 
but i mean it's hollywoodized
a little bit and
not much but it was really good but
uh it was a funny story we were out there watching
it
and I'm looking at dicky and dicky's
you know the part where he's jumping out the
windows and all that stuff
so he's looking like he didn't do it
so I'm looking
I kept looking at him he's like
so when the movie finishes now i say dicky i
goes dicky
I goes why was it at that part where you were jumping out the windows
why was you looking like 
you didn't do it
he goes didn't do it he goes
he goes I went out the third floor not
the second 
he says and it was no bags under me I hit the ground
I know wow huh
is that great but I thought it was very good
0:13:01.590,0:13:03.600
you know obviously like I told you
it wasn't exactly like my life
like my sisters never went to the
into the gym with my mother and things
like that and
they never all come up to my house and
uh wanting to fight my wife like the griswolds
they all got in the car you know what I mean bang bang bang bang bang
I mean if they came to the house
that would have happened but they never did
yeah right I mean there's no love lost but
0:13:24.340,0:13:26.790
you know that's one of the things that didn't happen
did you ever in your wildest dreams
when you were a tike and you were boxing nine
years old you said seven seven okay
did you ever think
that you would be the success you are
and there would be a major movie about
you no i i was that was the furthest
thing from my mind
I never even thought i was gonna be a boxer
like as a professional
i did it because my brother brought me down there
and i ended up liking it
by I liked baseball and football better when i was
younger and I played baseball throughout like high school
when I was in high school to high school when I was
a high school freshmen but i stopped
playing
i liked football and baseball
a lot better than boxing and wrestling
but you were a great athlete right so i mean
but
did i ever think I'd be a fighter my whole life and like
that would be my profession and howI would make my
money
never in a million years
so tell us a little bit about what your life is
like today what you're doing what
motivates you what's your dreams and
inspiration now
well actually
i have a boxing gym and I train young kids
and
and things like that and grown-ups
use it also and stuff like that i have that
I'm part owner of an outdoor deck hockey
rink called
greater lowell dek hockey
you know it's the ball it's
it's like ice hockey but it's dek hockey
I know so much about it because my
nephew is over in czechoslovakia
playing on the national team playing
for a national championship so i have
that and i'm a teamster local twenty
five in charles town
wow good for you you're still involved
helping kids
exactly
tell me a little bit about what you believe the
benefits are to kids
that get involved in boxing well i think
honestly
0:15:09.110,0:15:12.970
people say oh why would you let your kid go in boxing
he's gonna get hurt blah blah blah it's not about
going into boxing to go in the ring
and fight and blah blah blah it's about
teaching respect
and kids learn a lot of respect from boxing
if you have a trainer doesn't
care about the kids what they
do
you know just lets them come in there and
kill each other that that's different
but if you monitor a kid you get a kid
comes in
and say
uh you know he's in trouble or whatever i
mean
it it teaches so much respect
boxing for other people
you know what i mean and especially in gyms
gyms are like uh
you know you have whites blacks spanish
you know whites are like oh
you know if you get a little white kid in the
gym
and he's like really timid and stuff and he comes
into the gym and he starts training with these kids
in my gym
he's one of them and they all shake
his hand and give him a high five and he feels like
one of them and
you know it gives him like belonging
it gives him a belonging to something team
and it also gets him involved with
ethnic groups where he never would
outside of boxing have exposure right
and you can bring that
into the schools and kids in
school there's my friend
he's a little kid but
you know where he'd be timid around these
people I mean so boxing teaches a lot of
respect you know and that's the way it
should be i don't mean like
if kids in my gym if they start
coming into the gym and they go into the school
and start using it
fighting with people then you get kicked out of the gym
good for you
0:16:26.070,0:16:29.450
you have to show respect show respect for elders
and like that show respect for each other
and uh...
that's what it's all about you know it's
not just about going in there and hitting someone
no
it's about learning the craft of boxing and
respecting people
and in return you get respect back and how
about self-discipline it must
well exactly self-discipline
you have to uh watch your weight
uh I mean
if your gonna fight you have to watch your weight
obviously for the normal person in there
basically a lot of people go in there just to lose
weight woman I better sign up woman
men um...
kids 
they go in there some kids go in there woman
go in to lose weight to get in condition
cuz they don't want to go in there and fight they just
want a boxing work out right
and there's nothing like it you know 'cause it
the whole body and i have heard that now
in gyms you have grandmothers in
there to quote get in shape
exactly yeah i mean
they're more they're more enthusiastic than
the kids
you know because yeah
they're in there they're like you know they're getting out of the 
house
finally all the kids are gone out of the kitchen
forget about the house they want out of that kitchen
right exactly so
it's a good outlet for them too
0:17:31.299,0:17:35.120
i want to talk about whether you see
you've talked about the concussion side
of things as boxing generally
being safe because people compare and
contrast it to things like hockey and
football which can be very physical very
you know dangerous but the differences
some would say is that boxing
specifically rewards a blow to the
head
so is it a violent sport is it a dangerous sport
how do you see that it can be
honestly I'm not going to sugar-coat it it can be
yep because if you caught like I fought
it can be
it is 
you know but if you fight like
not saying that I faught the wrong way but
if you uh... it's it's a craft and it's a
science like muhammad ali you watch him fight
he moves around box dance
but if there are fights that
you can you know you can get hurt
but that's a chance you take boxing like
there's no way around getting hit in the head you know
it's a
you know when they say the concussion when you
write about concussions
and what can you do to like um...
you know stop 'em or not have as many
in the
i think it's in the gyms
right
0:18:34.650,0:18:36.750
i think maybe the sparring
lesson the sparring
because all your injuries happen in the gym
pretty much obviously you get hurt out in the
fight
but most of your injuries happen in the gym
where you're sparring almost everyday getting ready for
a fight for two months sparring hard you
know getting  hit in the head
so maybe if you don't spar as much
or stuff like that that could probably
minimize the concussions but you're never
gonna get
rid of getting hit in the head
because that's the name of the game
what about those protective cages
you see well see the
head gear is I think the head gear doesn't
do nothing for for your head your brain
shifting if someone hits you
okay your brain's gonna still squish around
you know what i mean it doesn't take you know
getting hit in the chin it doesn't stop that
the thing what head gear does butts
i think like if you're gonna go in with a guy
and you get close and you hit each others head
you know you get an elbow in the head eye or whatever
hits the head gear so that's what it helps
it does not help
from your brain shifting
but then if most of the injuries do
occur in practice and sparring
that's no different than kids on high
school hockey teams
you know going into the boards right
exactly maybe minimize the sparring
cut it down or maybe if it gets worse and worse
cut it out but i don't really don't see that
we'll see
do you believe that certain classes of kids
that are
in trouble with the law or maybe i
might say are
hyperactive to the max
uh can really benefit and keep out of trouble
by engaging in boxing and why I'm asking
this is I'm aware of police 
departments that are really taking troubled
kids and getting them into boxing programs
i think it's great for hyper kids
for kids that get in trouble because uh
kids that are in trouble in school and things like
that when they come into the gym
they're not in their element no more so now they're
like they're a different person yeah
and they start respecting the
not just the sport but other people
and then when they go back to school and
stuff they realize that they ain't all
that bad because when they're in that gym they ain't
the same guy being a punk in school
so when they're in that gym
right they gotta watch you know watch what you say
around certain people you have to respect
people and i think when you when they
learn that they take it back into
school and
they're a better person for that and hyper
people
i mean you wanna be hyper go in the
gym three rounds right you won't be hyper no more
it will slow you right down
hehehehe
is it a stretch to say then that boxing
is a positive alternative to crime for
some kids
i think it really i think it is
being taught by the right person someone who cares
about kids
because anybody can put a towel on their shoulder
and say I'm a trainer
you know what i mean and there's enough of them
out there
mhm someone who cares about the kids knows the sport
and respect the sport
and shows respect to the kids and in turn 
they get it back you know uh... you
gotta respect the kids and
you know if you don't know what you're
doing you know you gotta work with kids you know
kids don't just pick up it up just like that
you know they're a sponge when they're young so
they take everything in but they don't
learn you know fast some times
and you gotta be patient with them and just
give 'em respect do you enjoy working with
kids
i do i really do because you see
the progress
you know when you got a polished
fighter you know you
he's at his peak and he's not gonna
really
he's gonna get in better shape and all that
but he's already learned everything he's going to
learn and all that
0:21:52.500,0:21:56.270
but seeing the kids you know like i said he's
they're like sponges
and you see 'em progress
as a fighter and as a person they just
keep getting better and better and
and it give them self-esteem
because
you know they lose weight they start
lookin better they feel better in school
they're not heav
you know what i mean right so it's good for their
self-esteem also
my final question to you micky
tell me about your new book your
autobiography
yeah a warrior's heart
written by love the title thank you
written by joe layden
it starts when i was seven years old going
through 
you know my young ages and stuff thirteen
twelve thirteen
up to when I retired
and after so uh
it's a good read so people out there
should get it
inspiration to the readers
it is really it is because you know like I said
uh...
don't anybody tell you you can't do it because
that
that should motivate you right there to
want to do better when someone
says you can't do it or you shouldn't do it
that's enough motivation right there you know so
listen to your heart don't listen to other people
one two now bring your hands back to your face
the big thing here is we like to have the kids
come back we work 'em out
big on defense so
i like that cut down on that
injuries
i'm ready one two one two four punches ones two
one two there we go excellent
the better you get at fighting the pros that we've had
here
are the most polite guys you want to meet they're not tough guys
they're not going out there to be a tough guy
they are fit most of them are family men they have children
they come in and
they put in a good workout and they help the kids when
they're here it's amazing to watch them work with kids
it's a sport that when you're like billy
he devotes his life to this
0:23:30.790,0:23:35.460
he's been doing this now for ten years we've been here
so uh it's just a great way to
give back to your community you know
kids love it it's a great work out
0:23:41.810,0:23:45.560
well I'm a thirty two-year-old mayor I've been
mayor for about four years
uh... somebody who's a big advocate of
uh... really
making sure a community
uh... is inclusive from from the ground
up making sure that places like this a
small business a boxing club
uh... survives uh... make sure that
uh... the youth of the city
are part of the political process so
for me places like this that we're sitting
in is is more than just a boxing club
it's really a place to
teach kids about uh
civic engagement
it's a part of your community
it is it's in the heart of the community
actually it's really rlght in the middle of the
community
how does a young woman
grow up to be mayor of a large city
oh boy well there there's not a lot
of examples but
in my case i actually grew up in a a
small restaurant
so growing up in a small restaurant in the heart
of an inner city
makes me really love the idea of being
able to help out other small businesses
my dad actually said you know do you
want to take over the family restaurant
business and I said dad
what if i was that
public official that helped
small businesses like a boxing gym or
like a chinese restaurant where I grew up in and
that's really how i ended up in the job
um…that i'm doing right now
so you would would you say that your parents
are
among the significant influences that
have really steered you in this
direction
uh no ok yes and no
I think explicitly
i think sometimes they they think that
that the idea of success is doctor engineer
lawyer
uh... but what they taught me uh
it's not what you said in terms of the
career it's what you taught me in terms
of being a part of the community giving
back working hard
so being mayor for me seemed to fit that
description
more than being a doctor and engineer or a
lawyer
tell us a little bit about the city of
fitchburg my father
came from an irish immigrant
family and he worked in the paper mills
here in fitchburg
my uncle french-canadian
same thing they were both mill
workers
those jobs have disappeared as i can see
it mostly from the fitchburg area
so tell us a little bit about the roots of
the city
and uh how you are handling the
transformation
absolutely so this is what
some people have said and old mill or old
manufacturing city
the great thing about growing up in a
chinese restaurant in inner cities is
i've seen
old mill or manufacturing cities come
back
when we opened up our restaurants in
downtown haverhill and downtown cambridge
there was factories all over and our
customer base was all the workers from
the factories
then they closed
we we suffered but we held on and then
the city really worked with the owners
uh the small businesses
uh... the mills developers
brought in new money converted the
condos into modern businesses
into incubator space in the condos
and that actually helped
small businesses like ourselves because
it's completely changed
uh... our base it brought in new
jobs and it helped us continue to thrive
even after decades in business so we're
doing the exact same thing here in
fitchburg we're saying if if we can help
that chinese restaurant in main street or in
downtown cleghorn
than we know that we've done our job in
terms of
taking these old mill buildings
and filling them up again with new uses
is it hard for kids that are born in
these old manufacturing cities in
urban settings to move ahead in
society
it certainly is a challenge i think that
there are
a number disadvantages that um...
especially in the downturn in the
economy might have in terms of lack of
jobs in terms of less money for social
programs or education but I think one of the
great things about fitchburg
is that we don't necessarily need money
and we actually don't necessarily need the
government to intervene
I mean we have people like bill we have
places like the wachusett boxing club
where
very few dollars are needed to make a
significant impact
on a child and I think what they're learning
is not that there is something that's
being served up on a plate to them
they're actually learning hard work
they're learning discipline they're
learning consequences very early on
so in many cases i think that what you
might see as disadvantages
are actually advantages that many many
people don't have
i have heard
through the grapevine that from time to
time you do rounds here at the gym tell
us about that
uh yes
i i have come here uh... i try
not to tell people when i do
uh... because sometimes people wanna see
me get beat up
I say I get beat up enough on
TV at city council meetings do you really
want to see me at the wachusett boxing club 
getting beat up physically
uh... I love it though this is a great
place I wish i could get here more
often
i come here and and and for me it's not
just a way for me to
to learn about the sport 'cause it's 
you know I'm not that great it's always 
arms up arms up keep those arms
up
uh but i get to see all the other
people that come here
and it's it's definitely a time for me to
get out of my office
to hear what people are saying
uh to talk with people and i think that
that's so valuable
are you any good
am I any good um... my boxing instructor is
not around here so
i mean he said i did pretty well i mean
i i was standing at the end
of you know a round
and i guess actually somebody said wow you
actually did some extra rounds I was like great
thank you for telling me
0:28:56.270,0:29:00.150
you're trying to torture me
uh... no it's wonderful though i mean it's
it's certainly taught me
a lot here
would it be a fair statement to say that
whether we're talking about boxing or
basketball or hockey
kids that engage in these sports they
learn as you mentioned discipline
and perhaps a way out if they don't
want to continue to live in an urban
setting
i agree with that uh... whole heartedly
i believe that this is
uh... really a way where kids can grow
in a number of ways i think it keeps them off
the street uh it provides them with
direct access to to mentors but it
also keeps themselves um... really
accountable
so for example
this isn't just an island this is really
connected to a lot of the programming
that we do throughout the city
uh this is actually uh... one of the
uh... grantees of a
uh... tri- city
anti-gang initiative
so this is really a way to keep kids off
the street
um have it be a positive group versus
the gangs on the street
uh but also if kids are acting out
in school well guess what if they want
to come to the gym after school
you know we don't allow them to soak
there's definitely discipline that they
learned that what they do here
is connected to what they do outside
of the
uh... this uh gym
so for some kids this is an alternative
to crime would that be a fair statement
i would say absolutely it's
an alternative to crime
but it's also something that they not
only work hard while they're here
but they have to work hard to be here
and i think that's an important point to
make
some people would argue that boxing is
crude an undesirable what do you say
to those naysayers I mean
this this country is all about
uh... football
uh... i think that what they what they
do you hear uh...
is is is not any different from that
uh... i think it's it's it's different
in the respect that there is uh...
just a different level of discipline
because you're not there necessarily as
a team
you're really there as an individual
and the focus is on you
uh... so i think that that
in in essence
whatever crude there is it's not
really any different from the other
sports i wouldn't call it crude I hope we
would change the terminology to
um... athleticism and discipline
uh... competition because that's really
where i see a sports like football and
sport like boxing
that's right
last question
is there anything that can be done to
help boxing gyms such as this one because
from where i sit tonight i see a
wonderful spot for kids to go
what's great about gyms like this is
that they don't look at just profit you know if
they were looking at profit
then they would look at people who can
pay and really
uh... up the membership fees but
a place like this does require donations
the city works with the boxing club
we help find grants but it isn't enough
so we do ask people to send in
donations
bill tell us about yourself and take us
back to those early years
my father was a fighter
he wanted my brother and i to be fighters
and I entered the YMCA tournament
and I were twelve twelve years old i was
bantum boxing champion
I just continued on from there
what were your boxing goals did you see
yourself as being the recipient of
golden gloves at that time
not right at that time but a couple years later
i was entering the gloves and I won the gloves
when I was seventeen
wow
what an achievement
two weeks later I won the new england amateur athletic union
championship
which qualified me to go fight in the nationals
and what happened there
I got uh
beat by bobby buford from cleveland ohio
he was really a good fighter
why did you get involved in boxing i
know your father wanted you to but you
stayed with it all those years
so certainly there was something
self-fulfilling about you being involved
with boxing well I played football
and there's ten other guys to help you
baseball there's eight other guys
in boxing you're doing it all on your own
it's strictly an individual sport and all the glory
is yours
or all the defeat is yours right it's up to you
tell us about your years in the marine
corps were you boxing then
yeah I boxed in the marine corps at parris island I
had two fights
then I went over seas and fought the all navy champion in
morocco
I beat him and I was transferred to
mass
camp lejeune
to fight for the marine corps boxing team
i made it to the semifinals of the all marine
corps championships before I got beat
wow good for you
alright well come post marines tell us
about your later boxing years 
I got out of the marine corps I fought for
three more years as an amateur
then I turned pro
and uh...
I did alright I
won my first five fights then I lost one
then I won a couple more
and then I lost two in  row
I lost two in  row they were both by split decision
I thought they don't want me
I just quit I was disgusted
and i shouldn't have quit because there were a lot of guys
that lost more than two in a row
folks around here are very lucky that
you have stayed with boxing
so tell me what your goals are here at this boxing
club and tell us about some
of the kids that you've been involved
with
well i like I like keeping them off the streets that's the main thing
when i was a young boy there was plenty of
trouble to get into
but john connolly from the sentinel used to
take all of us and take us to the gym
train us and he had guys there that would help him
it really worked wonderful and that's
what i want to do here
i've got a half a dozen helpers here
that donate their time
trying to keep these children off the street
the ones that don't have a mother or father at home
and that 
no
parental image
how does boxing help kids are you trying
to build
discipline self esteem or is there some
other objective it's a little of everything
there is definitely self esteem
you're proud of yourself and
it's discipline you have to be
tolerant to the rules
keeps you in great shape
and do you believe that you've helped a
lot of kids in the community oh yeah I know 
for a fact that we have
helped quite a few kids
so would you say that some kids by
getting involved with boxing
perhaps keep out of trouble keep out of
jail would that be an accurate statement
I know for a fact there's two or three that 
would've been in jail right now
if it wasn't for this gym
and getting in there and
learning how to box
and a couple of them went on to do very well boxing
and uh we had one child in here
he wasn't a child he was about nineteen
and he said uh I looked at his back and it said latin kings on it
and I called him aside and said hey I don't want any trouble up
here
that's dangerous stuff and he said
no no i'm trying to get out of the gang he
said he worked out here about three or four months then he
completely moved away from the
area
but he was up here every night faithfully
is boxing safe
yes it's just like anything else you can get hurt
playing football
you can get beaned in the head playing baseball
hit with a hockey stick in there
you're just boxing with another man now that's just
trying to
you know he's trying to knock you out
but uh it don't happen that often
and they stop the fights a lot quicker now
more protection for the fighters
some would say though that boxing unlike
football or hockey rewards specifically
blows to the head i don't think
there's that much damage being done
i had over a hundred and fifty fights
you still look pretty good I've never been
knocked down never been knocked out
I danced a lot I was a defensive fighter
and very few of them guys you ever see get hurt
do the kids that you're working with
do they dream of being a world champ
or are they some of them do they have thoughts
everybody does
I had them same thoughts when I was a young boy
do you think that some of those kids
work out their aggression in the ring
they probably do
probably mad at their mother or father
take it out on the kid or try to take it out on them
but they're using big gloves and they've got head gear on
fully protected
so they wear
adequate protective gear and that helps
prevent any injuries so
some in regards there's a lot of
concern but perhaps it isn't fully
merited
and even in the amateurs you have to wear head gear now
when I fought in the amateurs we didn't have head gears
so they've made it a lot safer
have you had any the world class
uh boxers here in the gym had the
middleweight champion of the world here
harry simon
one of the greatest fighters around
and he's still fighting now
wonderful
he was in an accident and he spent time in
america recuperating
he worked out here for two months
he's fought on TV he was the first one to beat
winky wright
who was a top five fighter in the world
what lessons have you learned from
boxing in life
not to sell anybody short
think that guy's a pushover over there
just like in in real life you don't go up
walk into a job and think I'm gonna get this
job I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do that
you have to respect everybody
to those who
would say that boxing is not a
positive sport
what would you say to them
they'd have to be more
focused on what they consider positive
I mean it's definitely a positive sport
your in there by yourself
doing this you're trying as hard as
you can you see to fighters at the end
fighting they're both exhausted give each
other a hug they know they've done their best
they're not mad at each other
it's great
are there other urban cities that
have boxing gyms similar to the one we
sit in
oh yes
lowell has two or three gyms down there micky ward's
got a gym down there
arthur rapello has a gym down there
he runs the golden gloves now down in lowell
every year which is coming up in january
so there there are quite a few worcester has
a boys club
how can our audience helps support you
here
or help support the local boxing gym
that helps kids well if anyone wants to send a few
donations here to help pay for the heat
wachusett boxing club 106
clelhorn street fitchburg mass here in the
heart of fitchburg that's right the capitol
of fitchburg well I'm
from west fitchburg originally
so i will never agree this is the
heart we used to say that the west is the
best bill
so I'm gonna close on that
excellent can you feel that in your body
i could feel it all over it does and you
do that for three minutes and
you're moving
around the ring you'll feel it you know three four five rounds of this
this is fun it is oh people love it you should
come up and try it out I'm gonna have to come back
mike how did you end up in a boxing ring
for getting self confidence
it teaches you you know i mean
just learn to relax in stressful
situations from it
did you ever dream of going professional
mm not really
I sparred with some pros and they
were tough they were
you know they come from that's
how they make their living and it's tough
to
to fight somebody that that's their way out of
the ghetto
or whatever you want to call it
hm
describe the training regimen
to be a boxer especially with billy he used to put us through
a lot um
you know you got the road work in the
morning and in the afternoon or early
evening you get to the gym
and you're gonna put a couple hours in of hard training
you know the shadow boxing the speed bag heavy bag
sparring
what is the hardest part of doing rounds
inside the ring
learning how to stay in there and breathe and not 
get nervous
you know what I mean and relax and
the hardest next sparring's he hardest 
second hardest is when billy or
one of the guys under him would have
us hitting the mitts
are you ever afraid you're gonna get
seriously hurt
it doesn't cross your mind while your in there
that's for sure not with the
amateur fighting so much you're only
talking three two minute rounds
but even the professionals i mean you
look at other sports
compared to you know football or hockey
you know fighters that's the way they
make a living they're there it's a choice they make
right do you work out your aggression in the
ring do you think more on the bags i think more of your
aggression comes out
hitting the bags and then when you're with
an opponent
you have a mutual respect for each other
tell me
about some of the kids now that you
train
you're giving back to the boxing uh
world so to speak it's just nice to
see them get them off the street get
them in here
and you see them change their lives
I've seen ids that were
so allegedly you know gang members
who came in and really changed their lives others
others have gone on to college
just an incredibly positive
opportunity for them
keith what brought you to the boxing
ring
uh... well i was always interested in
it in high school you know I
went and bought a heavy bag and stuff put it in my room
you know practiced on it then after i
graduate high school
I just decided i wanted to do it I had braces on
at the time so kinda pad out my timing
to get them off
but i found the number for this gem
online you know didn't have a website or anything
it was just the number
called them up you know walked through with
billy
and said yeah i wanna do it you know
and uh...
I've been here ever since I started
last year end of july
what role would you say that adding
boxing to your life has played in your
overall happiness or well-being
you know self-esteem confidence
physical health all 
that good stuff you know a lot of nice
people here everyone's always friendly you know wants to 
help out so
you know just positive impact definitely are you stronger than
you were when you started
physically yeah definitely
what's the hardest part though of doing
rounds in that ring
I love being in the ring so i i think the hardest part is
actually out of the ring you know just
balancing free time and you know working full
time coming here at night so other than that you know
the training
being in the ring sparring it's
amazing what lessons have you learned
from boxing
teamwork i mean i know it's everyone's saying
it's an individual sport but just the whole
sense of community in the gym itself you
help
the newer members the older members help you
you know everyone gets along for the most
part that i noticed
and if they don't you knock 'em out
right
settle your differences in various ways
I'm marvin garcia and I started fighting
like four or five years ago
i had a trainer named steve miller
he brought me to the silver mittens
i won two fights then I had another single fight
so that made me three and 0
now this year I'm doing the golden gloves
and the trainers named geno he's training me
and yeah I like boxing a lot
now there's also three and four for hooks five and six
for upper cuts
there's different styles for using the mitts one
of my trainers has a different uh
technique
billy taught me this this was handed
down from cus d'amato to mike tyson
to floyd patterson all the people that
cus d'amato trained
numbered system
so when his fighters were in the ring if he said
one they knew it was a jab
'cause you can see something from the corner the fighter don't see
joining me now is daisy martinez owner of the canal street
gym
daisy tell us about your gym new your mission
your goals here canal street gym is a
family-oriented place we welcome
everybody all walks of life we do not
judge anybody
our door's open to the whole community and
others outside of the community
our mission is to help keep troubled kids and 
others off the streets of lawrence to
avoid them from getting involvement with gang
activity and stuff like that
how did you get involved in boxing are
you a boxer yourself
not myself my daughter used to box
she started when she was twelve years years old up until she was
seventeen years old
she was a two time silver mittens champion
and new england golden gloves champ and
she is working and she has
graduated from nursing she's gone from a
boxer to a nurse
what an incredible story and i guess she
must have got you involved in this
gym experience so to speak
she told my husband she wanted to box
when she was twelve years old and we've been doing it ever since
you have all kinds of people you have kids
that are finding a positive activity to keep
off the street and you have women here
to get in shape and everybody else
in between yes we have all walks of life that
come in here including parents that come with their
kids to train
we have the regular kids that are training and
police officers we have uh... mothers
and
men on their own that must be a
wonderful thing to see police officers
coming in from the city of lawrence and the
kids interacting with them
and everybody having a very
positive experience as an alternative to
crime
right we're one big family here including the
officers that come everybody sits down
they talk at the end of the night
they just socialize like friends they
don't even look at him like a police
officer talking
out in the streets they look at them as another friend or
family member this is a beautiful gym
so
congratulations are you making money no
everything and everybody here volunteers
what we make for money
it goes right back into the gym to pay
the bills
and to buy any other equipment that we need
what do you say in response to the
concern that kids that are boxing may
get hurt they may take blows to their
head
everybody wears protective gear when
they're in the ring and aside from that
they're just hitting the bags and things 
like that they don't really get hurt
getting aggression out on the bags
they leave all that stuff there
tell us about your affinity or your love of
boxing
when i got into it
uh... it was a
at a young age
and i was from the projects and that felt
good being at the gym by getting some
aggression out
having a rough home
and uh I didn't get
too much into it I got into a little bit
of amateur not much
and i got out and uh... years years
later
i i got into it through my daughter
again
0:47:29.640,0:47:31.699
uh... she seen a fight
and she watched it and she told me she was
interested in
in boxing and i told her are you serious she said
yeah I'm serious
ever since then it's been twelve years i've
been in boxing so you trained your
daughter in part
yes when i when she was boxing I was training my 
daughter some time she comes in here and
i'll train her once in awhile
just to stay a little sharp and you're here
helping a lot of these kids develop
boxing skills as an alternative to
crime or to just simply enjoy life
yes they know they need a place to go
here in lawrence
it's a place that it's rough and uh...
not too much recreation for kids
like eighteen years old and up
after the boy's club you're like seventeen
eighteen years old you can't go there
no more right
so you need something after that you
have to have a place to go and engage 
in a positive activity yes and this is a
city that it really needs that a lot
I I
argued that that many years now and a
great thing is there's four gyms here now in lawrence
instead of uh... none
and it's a slow progress but
it's working
you know the the boxing keeps them
not only off the street it takes some
some stress out of them and it takes it gives
them somewhere to go they start to learn to socialize
and get along with
others
you know it's a it's a positive place
I'm really appreciating watching them in the
past days is uh... or weeks is
watching them work with each other help
each other
and if there's days that i'm not feeling too
strong that day to work with them
i could see them
team up with each other and socialize
and it's just
very nice it's very positive you know tell
us a little bit about your years on
the city of lawrence police force I've been a
police officer in lawrence for sixteen
years
currently assigned as a detective the
uh... safe and secure youth initiative which
is to work with
uh... at-risk youth
try to steer them away from the uh...
negative things that could occur in their lives
terrific now do you
have a relationship with the gym in which
you come in and check on or box with or
simply check up on these kids lately it's been
more more of a visiting checking out
saying hi
things of that nature
I was introduced uh... to boxing
through the canals street gym
do you interact
with the gym or what other officers are
involved with this project
uh... one of the other officers who is one of
the trainers here is radomes gonzales
he's here quite often
quite often
he works a lot with the kids in the gym
he works with our own police officers they do
private training sessions our officers are always
welcomed here something the the gym
encourages is interaction between the
police
and the youth in the city that do come
and train here to
kinda weed out any negative type
relationships that have
existed in the past
between the youth and the police and make
it positive
a lot of the uh... youth that come here
and box interact with the police
officers such as radames gonzalez
and they see a whole other side to us
that we're not just out there
arresting people or things of that
nature we're we're trying to build
relationships with the community the
city of lawrence like any big city you know
has certainly difficulties in managing
gangs or or problems or aggressive
uh children
it's an outlet it gives them something to
do
uh there's not a whole lot to do once they reach a
certain age and the street's
not a great place to be all the time
this place here is the right turn for
them you know there's a lot of wrong
turns they could take but we there's
a bunch of kids in here they're good kids
they're here all the time makes my job easier makes
police officer's job easier when you
have rather than the them hanging in the
streets late
once they get out of here they're exhausted
I bet they go home
they take a shower they watch some TV and they're done
and that's a positive for them
it's a positive for the city
and uh... you know it's uh...
it's something you have to support
how can you not support something like that
a place like this has to be supported and
how about the martinezes i mean they
do this for free they volunteer it's
incredible you don't hear much about
that anymore you know they're working
hard they're reaching out to people they're
trying to get people involved
you know there's all walks of life in here
you know you have young men
you have professionals that come here um... you know
lawyers doctors
a lot of police officers come here that
mainly come during the day there's a
small group
but again radames gonzales is one of
the main trainers he trains our guys uh... it's good
for us stress reliever
so it works it works for everybody
how did you get involved in boxing
well i've always wanted to be a boxer since I
was a kid uh... I was uh...
I lost sight of that dream for a while and then
as I you know I made some proper changes in my
life I restarted to seek that childhood dream and
then i just fell in love
with the sport
so you are presently doing rounds in the
ring i mean this is something you do on
a regular basis yeah i'm actually here
every day not only am I a boxer I'm a
professional MMA fighter
I've always wanted to do boxing but i got
started at a like at a 
i wouldn't say like an old age but a
for boxing it's a little too old
so MMA was right in the alley around that 
way uh so i tried it and i
fell in love with it and now I'm in love with two sports
so i heard a rumor and the rumor is that
you have a nice contract and you're
heading overseas tell us about that
um I was offered a contract to go fight
over in uh…the philippines it's actually
stationed in guam
uh... for MMA uh... but i was hurt
um
I'm coming back off of injury
I've been back for about two months 
and once i get better um
i will be going I'm actually waiting for them to
hear back from them now to go fight over seas
you you put in a lot of work into it
I train twenty twenty hours a week
uh…in between boxing and MMA
it's great because you have to learn all
the arts you have to learn muay thai
boxing 
karate you have to learn all these different types
of arts that combine into one
ask me i mean i love it it's it's a
rough sport don't get me wrong
it's good to be in love
0:53:19.159,0:53:20.259
with sports isn't it
yes it's the best keeps you off the streets keeps 
you out of trouble yes
keeps you focused keeps you in shape exactly
anything else discipline
yeah and it's uh...
not only just about you know uh...
coming in here and working out it's also uh...
for me it's self rewarding to help out
give back
and just working out it just
clears my mind clears it you know clears the air
whenever I have a
any anger or frustrations I just
come in here hit the bag and
I'm a new man when I leave now do you do you help
coach some of the younger kids do
you give 'em ideas or do you work with them
or visit with them
0:53:55.019,0:53:58.900
come in here and tend the kids is actually a good thing for me
it's actually a good thing 'cause I'm
mostly a youth counseler
and to the city and uh... a lot of the
kids that I do meet on the street i bring 'em
to the gym
and then um work with them
you know after a while we see if they're
proven see if they want to
pursue it in terms of
fighting doing golden gloves or
doing whatever it is they want to do
depending on their age or if they want to turn pro eventually
and it's it's great because um...
not only are they learning but again it's
rewarding because you know
uh... you know you're helping somebody out
you know
congratulations on that you are
literally pulling 'em off the street
and putting them in the ring yes good for you
um one of the things that i'm realizing
with myself is that you know
I'm from lawrence and
you know uh... we're from lawrence and
we're familiar with lawrence and you know
how poor is it and what not so we um
come over a lot of obstacles so just having
that alone
it's
we're tougher I like to say it's
we're tougher than most kids in surrounding towns
so we put that into use and we put that into
a you know we gain something it's it's
real powerful trying to make them believe
that as well
tell me do you ever
worry about injury to your brain or your
head as a result of boxing or for the
kids yeah of course we all I mean it's it's a
physical sport me me for instance
I just came off an injury
I just had shoulder surgery
heh heh um
but for the most part we're concerned
but that's why we always take
uh... super precaution always be safe
safety comes first before anything so you know
for the most part though uh...
we do focus on that a lot and you know so whatever
we're doing preparing each fighter
or you know each student we we
can say we we take extra precautions
so that they won't be hurt but it's a
physical sport though you know
things like that are you know bound to
happen hopefully we try to prevent it as much as we can
juan you're with the canal street gym
tell me what you do here
i'm one of the coaches
I'm also I volunteer here with some of the little
smaller
kids that come in
I show them the ropes I basically get them
involved
make them feel welcome and uh show to them the basics
just you know repetition repetition
repetition are you a boxer I started
out being a boxer yes in order for you to be a boxer
be a successful boxer you
have to dedicate a lot of time and time was
something I didn't have
at that moment so
i couldn't really you know put
all that effort into it if i was not gonna be
all
you know all dedicated to it so I did a 
step tback and i said you know
maybe i could help you out in another way maybe I could get
involved a little bit show them what that
what i know and take it to a next level
you did not have time for yourself but
you have time to help all these kids way
i see it
it was um
i saw other people give it back to me
you know when i was i i i uh... kid other
people that were involved in my
life that actually showed me a path took me
out of the street
you should do this you're very talented in
this you should do that you know you're very good with
other people you should take the leadership role
and just guide them and you know
show them a better path than
whatever they're doing
so um
i saw that and and you know i wish many
of my friends had the same
guide that i had soul so it's always good to
give back that's the way i see it
jeannie they tell me not only are you a
trainer here at the gym but you're also
a boxer is that true very true I dabble
a little with boxing I train
with radames as well
uh... I focus more on training the
women and
doing strength and conditioning with the
other boxes but
I throw a few punches here and there
what's it like to do rounds in the ring it's amazing
actually when you start off
you realize how much endurance you have I've 
been an athlete all my life and
i think about wow you know i thought i
was in shape
but then you get in the ring and you do rounds and
you really appreciate um
the time the effort and the
condition that it takes for boxers so how
did you get involved in this very
important and worthwhile project here
well my daughter's always been
interested in boxing
and um i've known bugsy i was a
project kid as well
known bugsy for a very long time heard about his gym
through one of the police officers
and went to the gym and had my
daughter train with bugsy
and i seen it was such a
family oriented environment that I was like
you know
I've never been to a gym but i think I might try this so
i started to get involved and then i
started doing women's class and then
we started getting the boys involved
and it was actually through my daughter
who trains with bugsy that i became a
part of this gym and what are her dreams
or boxing aspiration actually uh
giselle is actually one of her
inspirations uh
she would like to train well she's
going to start training with bugsy for golden gloves so
she's
she's trying to get in there she's
excited about it
now tell me about some of the women
that are in your classes typically
uh we have all age ranges
we we try to
create an environment for women who
have children have teenage kids so that it's a
bonding experience as well because they
bring their daughters I myself bring my daughter
do training with them
it's it's actually an an
amazing bonding experience with your kids
women who are
you know a little bit older a
little bit out of shape who are kind of
you know worried about their appearance 
we give them a very positive very good
environment to come in and say you know
what nobody's watching you just come everybody's
helpful we push
it's actually we have
an amazing variety of women who
leave hear extremely exhausted
and excited and i get texts all the time
oh we love the hits we love the mitts
so much aggression we released
some stress so they go home happy
big baggy t-shirt and a pair of shorts
they don't have to worry about how they
look
appearance is not an issue here you can come
in a t-shirt you can come in a tank
top however you feel comfortable
we would like to thank our guests for
giving their time help these kids
and for sharing their stories we'd like
to thank you for watching
so until next time you be well
