Daniel Cuadra-Meza, who owns and is the head trainer of the DMC Boxing Academy in Centerville, made quite a claim the other day: “Although I have no way of proving it, I think our gym might be the most diverse in the world.”
While that may well be a heartfelt, but overzealous claim, his fight club certainly does have a United Nations feel to it.
“I counted 67 different nationalities for all our students,” he said. “Think of that! In just a small place like here!”
A few of those boxers were on the card at the amateur fight show last Saturday at The Lift, the multi-level events center on S. June Street. And while some of their fistic skills were notable, what was more impressive is what occurred outside the ring, both during their bouts and right after.
“Our gym is like a big family,” said Fatma Hanafy, a 25-year-old manufacturing engineer in Moraine, who was born in Egypt, moved to the United States at six months old and graduated from Centerville High School. She trains at the gym nearly every day.
“Everybody in our gym is so loving, so caring, so encouraging.”
That’s not just some rose-colored vision, it was reality Saturday as Emanuel Bacon, 21-year-old Wright State student, fought his junior lightweight bout with his stablemates enthusiastically urging him on just beyond the ring ropes.
Javarre Huffman, a senior at Liberty High on N. Keowee Street, sent Bacon to the canvas early in the first round.
Bacon thought he went down from more of a shove.
Huffman said he landed a short right hand.
Either way, referee Lonnie Scott gave Bacon a standing eight count.
It served as wake-up call and by the end of the round he was starting to take control of the fight. Huffman, who was tiring, was given two standing eight counts in the second round before the bout was stopped.
As he left the ring with his TKO victory and a medal around his neck, Bacon — who was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan to parents who came from Guatemala — was embraced by one teammate after another.
Stas Burylenko, a promising 16-year-old middleweight from Odessa, Ukraine, who recently escaped the war there and had scored a TKO victory in the preceding bout, gave Bacon a heart handshake, then a hug.
“With us, it doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Bacon said. “We have similar interests. We’re all people.
“So why do we have to treat others differently now? We’re all made in the image of God and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
That’s the immigrant story that too often gets lost now. It needs to be heard over that paint-everybody-with the-same-brush negative narrative some politicians now promote for political gain.
“Our gym has people with different religions, different cultures, different countries and we all come together and encourage each other to do better and to be better,” Hanafy said.
Her thoughts were echoed by Mia Miller, a 16-year-old Miamisburg High School sophomore who has trained at the gym for a couple of years:
“Being a woman in a male-dominated sport is something I’m proud of and it happens because of the way our gym is. Everyone is so welcoming. Everybody cares.”
That care fostered a cause for concern Saturday with Hanafy, who wasn’t on the card:
“I love all the guys on the team and am so proud of them, but when I’m watching them in the ring, I get so nervous. There’s no reason to. Our coach has trained the guys to do their very best, but you worry when you look at them as family.”
‘Very inspiring, very empowering’
They came to the gym for various reasons.
Middleweight Andrew Zammitt — whose fights as Jrue King and is the star of DMC — had gone to Hamilton, Dixie and Miamisburg high schools and then attempted to make the Wayne State basketball team.
He was searching for a sport and some direction and found that and a whole lot more at DMC. He has gained national recognition as an amateur — he won again Saturday with a decision over Milton Bennett from Louisville — and plans to turn pro in March.
Harbi Hamdan is 18. He came from Palestine and now lives in Cincinnati where he works as a host at Roosters. He’s had three fights.
“I just wanted to learn to protect myself and thought I’d try boxing,” he said. “I like all the friends you make, the relationships you build.”
Fatma Hanafy said she initially came to the gym for fitness, but like Zammitt, has gotten so much more:
“It changed my life. I lost over 50 pounds just with training and my diet.
“’It’s made me healthier and stronger and more confident. And that’s not just in the physical sense, but mentally, too. I can stand up for myself now.
“This has all been very inspiring, very empowering.”
‘Teaches you about life’
One of the most poignant scenes Saturday involved Huffman, who’s from Dayton, but is not a DMC boxer. He was the 18-year-old opponent of Bacon.
It was his Huffman’s first fight and when his loss was announced as he stood in the middle of the ring, he slumped forward in dejection as Bacon’s hand was raised.
Afterward, I found him all by himself, in a secluded area on the next level of The Lift. He was quietly weeping.
I didn’t want to impose, but 30 minutes later, when I saw him up near the ring, waiting to watch a teammate box, I asked him about the flood of emotions afterward.
“I know it’s all part of it,” he said quietly. “Boxing teaches you that and a lot more. It teaches you about life.
“You’ve got to learn to roll with the punches. Sometimes you have to fight back. And you can never give up.
“Today in the ring I felt it was me versus me. It was me stopping me, more than it was the other guy doing it.
“I could have put more work in in the gym. I could have done more to make my gas tank better. I’m going to come back stronger. I learned some lessons today.”
So did a couple of the DMC boxers who, unbeknownst to Cuadra-Meza, had stopped to eat a substantial meal at a Mexican restaurant just before coming to the fight show.
Hamdan was saved by his faith: “When my chicken sandwich came, it had bacon on it. I can’t eat bacon, so I ended up fighting on an empty stomach.”
His teammate Murodjon Eshnazarov wishes he could say the same.
The earnest 19-year-old junior middleweight moved to Ohio from Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He graduated from Kings High School and now attends the University of Cincinnati, where he’s studying computer science, while also working as a dispatcher at a transportation company.
He was starting to take control of his fight against Chrystian Stewart from the All or Nothing Boxing Academy in Louisville when, in the second round, you noticed he seemed to be puffing out his cheeks and backing up toward the ropes not far from his corner.
Then all of a sudden he began throwing up on the ring canvas.
Stewart jumped backwards and Scott, the referee, soon waved the action to a halt.
After having the ring doctor examine the embarrassed Eshnazarov, Scott conferred with the head official at ringside and it was decided the winner would be determined by a tally of the ringside judges’ scorecards.
Stewart got the victory.
“I wasn’t hit, it was just the food,” Eshnazarov said softly as he stood to one side in the dressing room and watched a pair of his jubilant teammates celebrate nearby. “I was trying to hold it in all fight.
“I won’t do that again.”
Another lesson learned — this one by an Uzbek boxer with a stomach full of Mexican food.
Sometimes cultures don’t mix.
About the Author