(bell dinging) (upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Coach Leo Talanca from Rocky Boxing Club.

I used to train kids at my house in my basement.

And a lot of wrestlers, football players, baseball players off and on through all the different seasons.

And then I introduced them into boxing and a lot of them liked it.

You know, I'm a Mason contractor by trade.

And my father introduced me to boxing when I was a little kid.

We used to always watch Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier.

All those fights were free back then, you got to watch 'em nice, you know, on the weekend.

I said to my wife, I said it would be much easier if we had a building in town, keep the kids off the street, help them develop their own self.

So we looked around, looked around, found a building.

I bought the building, I remodeled it, and we opened in November of 2016.

You know, it's funny when we were training at home, I'm telling my wife, what are we gonna call the place?

And she goes, call it Rocky Boxing Club.

And I'm like, oh, that's not, that's terrible.

I said everybody's gonna think Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa.

And she goes, nope.

Rocky stands for Rescue Our Community Kids Yesterday, just like that.

We're a nonprofit and the community is behind us.

So if you come to the gym and you're intimidated to come in because you think, oh I'm gonna go there and they're gonna beat me up and I don't know how to do anything.

That's not how it is.

You come to the gym.

We show you around, you join one of our classes.

We teach you how to stand, how to throw a proper punch, how to move around, Things that these kids should know how to do, they don't know how to do.

It's about exercise.

Then if they become very interested in it, three four months down the road, hey coach, can I go in the ring?

I'd like to learn how to spar.

Okay, that's fine.

But they go in the ring with a coach.

They don't go in the ring with somebody that's better than them or anything like that because there's a difference between hitting a heavy bag and hitting a person.

Besides all that there's rules you have to follow.

So we have a list of rules.

When you come in and you join the gym, you have to sign that you agree to the rules.

There's no drugs, no alcohol, no getting in trouble.

You know that's most important, no fighting outside the gym.

You fight, outta all those, you're kicked outta the gym.

And there's a few people that may watch this, or may not.

They know it's true because they were kicked out.

You come here and the boxing stays in the gym.

And when you become a good amateur fighter, then we take you to a show.

That's where you can release your energy.

Boxing is 90% here, 10% here, right?

You have to be in great shape.

There's nobody else going in that ring but you.

So when you walk in the ring, it's you against that other person.

If you lose a fight, it doesn't mean that you personally have to take it to heart.

You were in shape, you were ready, you ate right.

You did everything you're supposed to do and you lose a fight, okay, you lost a fight.

The police officers work out here.

I want the kids not to be afraid of the police.

I want them to say, oh, hey, how you doing?

Oh, good.

Oh, I saw you at the gym.

That's what you're supposed to see.

You're not supposed to run from them.

My ultimate goal and dream and my passion is right here.

I don't look to have another Rocky Boxing Club somewhere else.

I've met a lot of interesting people throughout the years.

If you're sitting at home and you've never been in a boxing gym before, you're missing out because the people in the gym is, you know, you can go to any gym but a boxing gym you're coming in here and you're gonna meet different types of people.

Not saying you're not gonna meet different types of people at other gyms, but you're really missing out because you'll see how hard people work out, what they do.

And you know, you might meet a new friend.

(upbeat music) And you don't have to be afraid of 'em.