Blogging the News

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/concealedwithboxinggloves/

El Barrio Gym on East 115^th street, which is located on the 3^rd floor of a 3 story building on top of a corner store, is the gym Malik Rodriguez, the Marine and boxer profiled in an earlier post, usually trains at. However, the gym is in a fight of its own to keep its doors open after a West African man by the name of Souleimane Konate, purchased the two floors above the deli from the landlord for almost $14,000. The marine still trains there but the question is for how long will he be able to before owner of the gym Jose Sanchez is forced to move out.

Rodriguez has found other ways to train as well, being resourceful and using what’s around him. On this rainy and windy day, he chose to train in a place he has trained before, on a dimly lit terrace in the Polo Grounds, a New York City housing project located across the street from the legendary street basketball court, Rucker Park. The location was originally Polo Grounds baseball stadium before it’s demolition in 1964. The fighter doesn’t train alone however, his uncle, a former boxer himself, Edwin “Bad Boy” Rodriguez, trains him.

This day, there are no weights, no heavy bags, no speed bag, and his sparring partner was unable to make it. However, he had hand wraps, gloves, and pads to do pad work, which is where someone else holds up their hands strapped in these boxing pads in different angles to work on jabs, defensive maneuvers, body shots, right and left hooks, and many other techniques, more than enough to work on your craft. Rodriguez also shadow boxed, which is typically with no gloves or equipment and is done alone. This is a way to maintain rhythm, work on footwork, jabs, stamina, and figure out what needs to be fixed with your technique among other things.

His uncle held the pads low and told him to use both his left and right hand to uppercut quickly, but he stopped Rodriguez when he noticed he was not stepping into the punches, a common mistake among inexperienced fighters. Because the terrace is open, with the top half covered with gates, the wind was blowing loudly enough to make it difficult to hear some of the instructions he gave his nephew. He was simply tiring himself out as opposed to stepping into each uppercut. Another mistake Rodriguez made on a few occasions was dropping his left hand after throwing a right hook, a mistake in boxing. Edwin instructed him to keep the left hand close to his chin to avoid taking an unnecessary shot.

Rodriguez is still a raw fighter; he tired himself out trying to throw hard punches as opposed to throwing them the right way which his uncle attempted to correct. Power comes from your legs and he began to improve by doing things like “sitting down” on his hooks, which produce more power than trying to swing your arm hard. Despite some weaknesses, his uncle believes in him, “He has what it takes, if he didn’t have what it takes I would tell him, I would say look you don’t got it, don’t waste your time you’re going to get hurt.”

El Barrio Gym on East 115^th street, which is located on the 3^rd floor of a 3 story building on top of a corner store, is the gym Malik Rodriguez, the Marine and boxer profiled in an earlier post, usually trains at. However, the gym is in a fight of its own to keep its doors open after a West African man by the name of Souleimane Konate, purchased the two floors above the deli from the landlord for almost $14,000. The marine still trains there but the question is for how long will he be able to before owner of the gym Jose Sanchez is forced to move out.

Rodriguez has found other ways to train as well, being resourceful and using what’s around him. On this rainy and windy day, he chose to train in a place he has trained before, on a dimly lit terrace in the Polo Grounds, a New York City housing project located across the street from the legendary street basketball court, Rucker Park. The location was originally Polo Grounds baseball stadium before it’s demolition in 1964. The fighter doesn’t train alone however, his uncle, a former boxer himself, Edwin “Bad Boy” Rodriguez, trains him.

This day, there are no weights, no heavy bags, no speed bag, and his sparring partner was unable to make it. However, he had hand wraps, gloves, and pads to do pad work, which is where someone else holds up their hands strapped in these boxing pads in different angles to work on jabs, defensive maneuvers, body shots, right and left hooks, and many other techniques, more than enough to work on your craft. Rodriguez also shadow boxed, which is typically with no gloves or equipment and is done alone. This is a way to maintain rhythm, work on footwork, jabs, stamina, and figure out what needs to be fixed with your technique among other things.

His uncle held the pads low and told him to use both his left and right hand to uppercut quickly, but he stopped Rodriguez when he noticed he was not stepping into the punches, a common mistake among inexperienced fighters. Because the terrace is open, with the top half covered with gates, the wind was blowing loudly enough to make it difficult to hear some of the instructions he gave his nephew. He was simply tiring himself out as opposed to stepping into each uppercut. Another mistake Rodriguez made on a few occasions was dropping his left hand after throwing a right hook, a mistake in boxing. Edwin instructed him to keep the left hand close to his chin to avoid taking an unnecessary shot.

Rodriguez is still a raw fighter; he tired himself out trying to throw hard punches as opposed to throwing them the right way which his uncle attempted to correct. Power comes from your legs and he began to improve by doing things like “sitting down” on his hooks, which produce more power than trying to swing your arm hard. Despite some weaknesses, his uncle believes in him, “He has what it takes, if he didn’t have what it takes I would tell him, I would say look you don’t got it, don’t waste your time you’re going to get hurt.”

Malik Rodriguez, an ambitious 23 year old Marine with big expectations for himself when he steps into the ring, but these aren’t the bright lights in an area, more like the street lights in a neighborhood. “I got started by literally just walking in and asking to fight,” referring to his first appearance at BX Fight Club, a new underground set of boxing matches, where the location is not disclosed publicly, attending one of these events are not based on what you know, but who you know.  Sometimes it may be held in a park, maybe in a parking lot, locations vary, but the police have the discovered the unsanctioned event before and shut it down. ‘You have to know somebody to get the address” Rodriguez said, “My friend invited me and he only knew about it through his friend.”

He was not paid for any of his matches at the Bronx fights but admitted that some fighters were compensated for winning tournaments whether it be in prizes or cash. However, these underground matches in the Bronx league were not the first time he laced up some leather gloves. Rodriguez got his first real start at “Friday Night Throwdown,” another underground league, slightly better known and more established than the BX fight club. “ I was drunk and got into a lot of fights, then one day I got invited to FNT, found out I can drink and fight and get paid, I loved it,” he recalls while laughing,” then eventually I got serious with it.”

He remembers his first fight with the leagues prized possession, an undefeated fighter in both amateur and underground, his name was Rockstar Charlie. ‘Charlie was beating everybody, then I came in, I was a little drunk, but I came the closest to beating him, so they were telling me I had to come back.” After being invited back, he was told to bring some people, “So I brought guys from my neighborhood, and that was when a magazine company came to the event, they found out Charlie was a model, and that’s how it eventually became Models VS Fighters.”

He has usually trained almost every day at El Barrio Gym on East 115^th street. Although he considers FNT fun and more of a party, he trains seriously with aspirations of becoming a profession boxer, ‘I’m actually going to try and go to the next Golden Gloves, then try and go pro.”

Malik Rodriguez, an ambitious 23 year old Marine with big expectations for himself when he steps into the ring, but these aren’t the bright lights in an area, more like the street lights in a neighborhood. “I got started by literally just walking in and asking to fight,” referring to his first appearance at BX Fight Club, a new underground set of boxing matches, where the location is not disclosed publicly, attending one of these events are not based on what you know, but who you know.  Sometimes it may be held in a park, maybe in a parking lot, locations vary, but the police have the discovered the unsanctioned event before and shut it down. ‘You have to know somebody to get the address” Rodriguez said, “My friend invited me and he only knew about it through his friend.”

He was not paid for any of his matches at the Bronx fights but admitted that some fighters were compensated for winning tournaments whether it be in prizes or cash. However, these underground matches in the Bronx league were not the first time he laced up some leather gloves. Rodriguez got his first real start at “Friday Night Throwdown,” another underground league, slightly better known and more established than the BX fight club. “ I was drunk and got into a lot of fights, then one day I got invited to FNT, found out I can drink and fight and get paid, I loved it,” he recalls while laughing,” then eventually I got serious with it.”

He remembers his first fight with the leagues prized possession, an undefeated fighter in both amateur and underground, his name was Rockstar Charlie. ‘Charlie was beating everybody, then I came in, I was a little drunk, but I came the closest to beating him, so they were telling me I had to come back.” After being invited back, he was told to bring some people, “So I brought guys from my neighborhood, and that was when a magazine company came to the event, they found out Charlie was a model, and that’s how it eventually became Models VS Fighters.”

He has usually trained almost every day at El Barrio Gym on East 115^th street. Although he considers FNT fun and more of a party, he trains seriously with aspirations of becoming a profession boxer, ‘I’m actually going to try and go to the next Golden Gloves, then try and go pro.”

Mission Statement:

Boxing is a sport that is more than what it appears to be on the surface, which is just glorified fighting. The sport is actually more about technique, discipline, footwork, IQ, and testing an athlete’s ability to out-box his opponent. Many fans of professional boxing have criticized the sport for not delivering match ups between big-name fighters such as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Egos and disagreements over money and steroid testing have halted that fight for years. Local boxing and smaller fights can be considered a pure form of the sport. There is no large network coverage, no large amounts of cash, and this is where you can find men and women doing it because they enjoy the sport. This blog will essentially dive into the local boxers and gyms around NYC such as Church Street Boxing Gym in Manhattan, Trinity Boxing Gym, Mendez Boxing, and maybe a few lesser known gyms. These locals may not garner much coverage from mainstream media but may very well be just as talented, have adopted the same training regimens, and face competition levels that are entertaining for fans of these amateur events.

I do not want to limit myself to one boxing league or gym, I would like to travel around the five boroughs and try to find as many gyms and leagues as possible to see the differences in approaches, promotions, event structures, training regiments, as well as the similarities. The audience for this kind of blog would be local gym trainers, local fighters looking to gain recognition, leagues looking to attract larger audiences, and of course, the local communities who enjoy boxing and witnessing people they may know go toe to toe with others. However, this may not be for boxing purists who may see this form of fighting as degradation to their sport and “the sweet science.”

A Bronx league, called BX Fight Club, that I recently discovered, has potential to be interesting enough to include in the blog. It holds events every Friday and anybody is allowed to enter. In addition, the events are free to the public and most of their promotion occurs from their Instagram page. They hashtag #GlovesUp #GunsDown which I assume is a way of the fight club saying it wants people to come together and box and not resort to violence. The page contains a link to their YouTube page which contains uploaded fights in their entirety. The event has garnered some interest from a few public figures such as Bronx rapper and current MTV personality on “off the bat”, Fat Joe, and Queens rapper 50 Cent. There is no official ring, instead, there are barricades set up in a square outside a secluded area which appears to be a lot for cars but I am unsure. There is plenty of space for the boxers to fight with a “referee” keeping things under control.

“Friday Night Throwdown” is another unlicensed league in Chinatown in New York City and it pits male boxers, against “pretty boy” male models in a boxing ring with proper head equipment. This league is almost like a party, containing DJ’s and the boxers are apparently allowed to drink booze, not your traditional boxing match. In this league, the models are paid around $150 or more to get in the ring in front of a crowd of nearly 1,000 people.

What differentiates this blog from others is that this one would cover the local, more underground aspect, while blogs like “Bad Left Hook”, are more focused on discussing the professional aspect. I have not discovered many blogs containing content locally based so mine has the potential to be unique. However, I did find a website called Mishka NYC, which covers sports, style, and TV and film, but does not exclusively cover underground boxing. They did have a promotion of a Friday Night Throwdown event that teamed up with Transmission, an up and coming magazine, for its magazine release party back in June. It is unclear what Transmission Magazine covers since you need to buy an issue to view any content. Also, the Huffington Post did a brief blog entry on Friday Night Throwdown in 2011, and another blog called “Oddity Central’ did an entry on the league in 2012, but it’s not the primary focus of those blogs.

The coverage by those blogs as well as the New York Times Magazine, and a video by a local cinematographer by the name of Scott Cramer, all seem to hone in on the event held by Friday Night Throwdown in June 2011 which pitted NYC amateurs vs. Texas amateurs, different from its traditional models vs. “street fighters,” mention of other events or leagues were rare. The posts were also very short and rarely offered anything in depth aside from Oddity Central which mentioned how much the models get paid, and a model who is a regular at the event called Rockstar Charlie, the only model to win a fight against the boxers. This is an event a friend of mine, who is a member of the military, participated in and it apparently had enough buzz to garner the coverage from a few major publications, but other than that, any mentions or updates on the league have been quiet. All other leagues, local boxers, and local gyms have been overlooked by these blogs and publications, opening the door for my blog to fill that void.

Editorial Plan:

Types of Content:

My blog is primarily based on the “underground” aspect of boxing so the majority of the content will focus on boxing events around New York City. Although I only know a few leagues in Manhattan in the Bronx, the hope is to find others around the 5 boroughs to keep the content from becoming repetitive. Aside from these events, there will be information on these boxers, where they train, their background, gyms around NYC, and the promoters and hosts of boxing events. Each of these ideas provides its own unique aspect while all still falling under and contributing to the larger picture of this underground world.

-Q&A’s with the boxers, as well as fans and anyone else involved with events, and/or training is going to be essential to keeping the blog full of content. But they also have potential to lead me to at least one or two people who have a story which really highlights this culture, similar to a profile, maybe even “a day in the life” blog post.

Reoccurring Content:

“Touch Gloves” or “Pound for Pound” – This section of the blog can give viewers a more in depth look into the men and women who step into these rings around New York City. It will be a one on one Q&A with boxers who are willing to share information about the league or themselves. You can find out why they began participating and how often, how they got involved, where they train, are they amateurs in more mainstream leagues who may not be allowed to participate but still do, are they looking for mainstream recognition, their upbringing, and other information. (500 words max unless I decide to do something similar to a profile on a specific boxer)

“Can we make this mainstream?” – Aside from the boxers, somebody has to promote and host these events and that’s where each league comes into to the picture. The event makers play a big role in this culture. The people responsible for administering these fights will be interviewed to try and provide people with information on how these events are ran. Questions such as who secures the location, if they host outside do they move inside during colder months, if  the league is profitable and why, is their referee legit or just some guy with no experience in the field, and is the goal to be more widely recognized among other things. (300-500 words)

“Hot? Grab a fan” or “Public Opinion” – These will essentially be simple questions after events about their thoughts on the fights, why they come to these events, and maybe a comparison to professional boxing. (Around 100-200 words)

“In The Gym” or “Shadow Boxer” – This section can be a way to find out about the gyms in New York City and how each one operates differently or the same from one another. They will give the trainers of these boxers a chance to describe their preferred training regimens among other things. It can also give them a chance to promote how they can help someone who do not want to be boxers but want to learn self defense and would like to be able to defend themselves if a problem arises. (250-350 words)

Post Frequency/Time needed:

-At least twice a week would be ideal. That gives enough time to gather enough information to post a decent amount of coverage and content due to interviews and wanting to gather more information for a post such as a mini profile. It will also allow enough time for me to get footage or audio if multimedia is going to be included in a post. The amount of time needed to complete one post should take no more than an hour or two leaving a few minutes to proofread.

Potential Interviews:

-Malik – Boxer and current member of the Military

-Baby Tyson – Boxer at Bx Fight Club

-Rockstar Charlie – Model Boxer for Friday Night Throwdown

-Event Coordinators and promoters, Fans, Trainers, and other boxers.

Multimedia Options:

-Photos to include with interviews of the Boxers as well as each event

-My own video of the events. Leagues have their own video content, but it’s better to have my own to avoid any issues regarding footage

-Footage of boxers training, going through their routines etc.

Although I am not entirely sure as to what I want my blog to be about, you, Professor Haller, mentioned an idea in class that I found very interesting. The idea was about New York City basketball courts. I believe this topic for a blog would be interesting and needed because NYC has hundreds of outdoor basketball courts spread throughout the 5 boroughs but most of them are always empty. The void it may fill is the lack of coverage of local recreational activities for free that nobody uses, while more time is spent on promoted activities for kids like the NFL’s “Play 60.” When I was growing up playing basketball in the Bronx and Harlem, you could always find kids in the courts, but now that is simply not the case. I can try to find out why kids are playing less, if kids are more obese than before, is there a relation to crime? This seems a bit ambitious and my idea isn’t set in stone, however, I am open to other ideas within the basketball court idea on which angle to go with it.

Another option would be to do a blog on underground boxing. I have a friend who either shares links to YouTube videos, or short clips of these events, even participating himself. From what I have seen from the outside looking in is that these are clearly not your typical sporting events. From some footage I have seen, a few Boxers drink alcohol in-between rounds, and just dance or act silly with the crowd instead of really preparing for the next round. To me it’s almost like a “fight club” that is not necessarily widely known. Some of the fights do look competitive and the events draw at least a couple hundred people. The problem with this topic is that I am unsure as to how often these fighting events actually occur. However, I think it has potential to give insight on an underground world I’m not sure many people know much about, myself included.