The gym is the boxer's office. It's
the place where the boxer does most of the business, the difficult
business of a difficult sport. Like most offices, the gym is where
the boxer spends the vast majority of working time; hopefully,
productive working time. But like every worker in every business,
the time spent in a gym is only as productive as the boxer makes it.
From the gym the boxer departs on business trips to arenas and other
sporting venues, where the hours of work in the boxer's office pays
off, or it doesn't. For boxers, the corner office of the business of
boxing in New York is a gym located on the northern end of the
borough of Brooklyn, on, aptly named, Front Street, close by the
East River and within sight of the canyons of lower New York City.
It's one of those places that need only a single pronoun for instant
identity: Gleasons
"I wish I could take it home." This
is Mischa Merz, journalist, author, painter and amateur boxer from
Melbourne, Australia, who, when I sat down with her last week, was
coming near the end of a multi week sojourn in New York City. She
was talking about transporting Gleasons Gym "down under." "I really
didn't have a big desire to see many of the ' sights' in New York;
for me it was all in Gleasons. In Australia, I'm fortunate if I get
to spar with the same woman; here there's always a chance to step in
the ring with someone different. I've popped into a couple of other
gyms in New York, but, for me, there's only one gym in the city and
that's Gleasons, it's Utopia." And while Sir Thomas More probably
had a different type of society in mind, Merz's analogy to the
fourteenth century tome is apt; she notes, " It (Gleasons) is a
community, if you're serious about why you're there, you get
accepted fairly quickly."
In the decade before the turn of the last century, there was a
mercifully brief trend among eateries in New York; an attempt to
recreate the style of diners that existed in the 1950s. The results
were, at best, ludicrous; you can't turn back time when it comes to
something as sacrosanct as a New York diner. The new diners were
just that....new; they were too clean, they were too shiny and not
one possessed the "two over easy with home fries and sausage" smell
that wafted through the original diners, four decades earlier. There
are a number of boxing gyms in the New York area and for the most
part they are, all too often, equivalent of those recreated diners;
shiny equipment, spotless rings, and barely a foreign smell. The
equipment and the rings in Gleasons have that well-used look, simply
because they are well-used on an almost around-the-clock basis. As
Mischa Merz puts it, "Gleasons is like a pot on the boil, there's
always something going on." In other words, Gleasons, when it comes
to what a boxing gym should be, "gets it." If you desire any further
proof, you need only, upon walking into Gleasons, take a deep breath
and realize that you're inhaling what F. X. Toole captured in his
unmatched words: "that wonderful stink of boxing."
What's it like to climb up the stone
steps to Gleasons for the first time? I asked Melissa Hernandez, the
current WBAN Fighter of the Month and, not surprisingly, Hernandez
had a quick answer, in fact she had multiple answers: "I remember
three firsts: when I was still in the Gloves and I was used to
training in small, cramped PAL gyms, I came to Gleasons and my first
thought was, ' a real gym,' it was a wonderful change. I was a bit
intimidated by it all, but I was glad to be here, it was a step
forward for me as a fighter. The second time was when I was training
for my professional debut (against Zhang Mao Mao in October 2005). I
felt a little bit more comfortable that time around, but it wasn't
until the third time, when I was training for my bout with Kelsey
Jeffries (June 2006), which was a huge step up for me in my career,
that I started to settle in. I was overwhelmed by the amazing amount
of support I got from everyone in the gym. It was great and Gleasons
has been my home since then." Hernandez, like Merz, frequently uses
the term "community" when describing the prevailing "feel" of
Gleasons. "Sure there are individual rivalries in here, we're in a
sport where that's only natural. But no one should ever think they
can come in here, to our house, from the outside, and start pushing
around any of our fighters, because that's just asking for trouble.
This is an amazing place."
Anna Ingman, undefeated WBC International light middleweight
titleholder, trained at Gleasons prior to her US debut, a six round
unanimous decision over Cimberly Harris at the Blue Horizon in
Philadelphia on October 3. And, if it's true that an accurate view
is gained through the eyes of a stranger, then Ingman, newly arrived
from Sweden, provides a good snapshot of Gleasons through words on
her blog: "I have arrived in the true boxing mecca. This is an
amazing place; the tough but very warm boxing gym on Front Street in
the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. I have been here not more than
four days and I feel like a family member already." The common
thread for Mischa Merz, Melissa Hernandez and Anna Ingman is the
sense of togetherness, particularly for female fighters, that exists
within the walls of Gleasons.
Even for "civilians" their first taste of Gleasons is a lasting
memory, still recalled decades later. Listen to Jill Diamond, NABF
Women's Division Chairperson, talking about her first trek down the
hill toward Front Street: "The first time I entered Gleasons was in
1988. It was by the docks. It was cold, deserted and foreboding. I
went there at the insistence of a friend who pushed her baby
carriage from the F train and through the heavy doors, all for the
opportunity to beat me up. That was twenty years ago and I was in
top shape. When I perused the basic equipment and bored trainers, I
figured I'd be out of there quickly, laughing my head off and
wondering how to make up for lost exercise time. It was the toughest
workout I ever had. Three minutes felt like three hours. No one
coddled my yuppie behind and I would have rather hung from a rope
than spend endless rounds jumping one. And then, when we got in the
ring, my friend clipped me pretty good. It was fifteen years and
fifteen pounds before I returned to Front Street. Between Gleasons
and the New York Health and Racquet Club, viva la difference." While
it sounds like the sense of community, at least between Diamond and
her friend, was still a bit in the distance, today, when Diamond
arrives at Gleasons she is treated with a sense of celebrity,
beginning with the owner Bruce Silverglade, at the front desk and,
continuing, with the fighters, male and female, who take a break to
say hello. Ask her now and Jill Diamond will, likely, tell you about
the specialness that is Gleasons. But, listening to her talk about
her first trip to the gym two decades ago, one also gets the sense
that, probably, Diamond had the "special" part down pat even then,
despite getting "clipped" in the ring.
In reality, Gleasons is a special place whether you're a newly
arrived female fighter from Sweden; an Australian woman who
practices participatory journalism and does equally well turning a
phrase or throwing a jab; or one of the best female boxers, in the
sport, from the South Bronx. But at the risk of getting too squishy,
it should be stated, unequivocally, that Gleasons is, first and
foremost, a place where the business of boxing is conducted with
professionalism, camaraderie, and intensity in equal measures. It's
a place where the only judgment of someone coming through the door
is whether or not they're serious about the business being conducted
in this office, the business of boxing. If they're serious, they'll
find an office in which they can get a lot of work done. If not,
they should save themselves the trip up the stone steps from Front
Street; there's a Starbucks on the next corner.
Bernie McCoy
©Top Photograph:
gleasonsgym.blogspot.com