This weekend, boxers from along the east coast will meet up in the ring for the Heart of the City Championship Fight Night, a USA Boxing-sanctioned amateur showcase taking place on Saturday, May 24 at the vacated AutoZone building on H Street NE.
The event, featuring 20 boxers, is sponsored by Heart of the City Candles and Build Our City DC, in partnership with 2 Fly Boxing Gym, and will also include a live DJ, concession stands and merchandise booths.
“This [event] that we’re doing is to raise funds for a couple of our fighters to attend the Junior Olympics in Las Vegas,” said Shadeed Ali, head coach at 2 Fly Boxing Gym.
More than a fundraiser, the event also seeks to highlight local boxing talent and showcase what can happen with an empty building and a lot of ingenuity.
“This is bigger than boxing,” said Henry “Discombobulating” Jones, Hall of Fame boxing announcer. “It’s about creating lanes of opportunity and hope for D.C.’s youth—and breathing new life into H Street by transforming a vacant space into a celebration of possibility.”
Preparing for the Fight Night
The coaches have put the fighters through intense training to prepare for the showcase.
“We’re going to push,” said Trevon Wells, an assistant coach with 2 Fly Boxing. “We’re going to outwork the opponent.”
For Christopher Hart, a boxer competing in the fight night, it’s been a great deal of hard work leading up to the competition, but there have also been some major positives.
“[Training is] very hard,” he told The Informer, “but I still love it because I get to workout every day with my friends.”
As many local boxers are preparing for Saturday’s matches, their hope is to defeat the competition, particularly those athletes coming from outside of the DMV.
“This is a hometown fight right here, I know it’s a man coming trying to beat me,” said boxer Delmar Jeter. “I’m not about to let you come into my gym and beat me…that’s never going to happen.”
For tickets and more information, go to washingtoninformerevents.com.