ON EL RITMO DE LA COMUNIDAD
Tune in for an interview with
Boxer JEREMY CUEVAS
LIVE ONLY ON ELZOLPHILLY
8:00 am – 9:00am Saturday Morning
Inside a small, unassuming building in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia, greatness is emerging.
“I’m on my way to becoming a professional,” said boxer Jeremy Cuevas, but the road there wasn’t always so clear. “Still messing around in the street, fighting, a lot of violence and getting in trouble in school and when I came here a lot of positive role models were shown to me and inspired me to do something greater — to be something greater.”
He credits a lot of that to Mike Rafferty, a Philadelphia Police Sergeant who launched the Grays Ferry boxing club 15 year ago.
“It’s a tough neighborhood,” Rafferty said. “Our neighborhood always had a lot of wasted talent.” But with each jab, and every disciplined day, champions are built here.
“It’s ok to get beat up or knocked down,” said Rafferty. “You get back up.” It’s a message of resilience that has stuck with Vincent Floyd who met Rafferty for the first time while in the back of a patrol car.
“On the route I was going, I probably would have been locked up for a couple assaults,” Floyd said. “Once I come in here, it’s like everything goes away. I come in here, I train and I leave. It’s like I’m a new me.” But for the many ways this gym shapes its athletes, the building itself needs work too.
Now with a GoFund Me Page and fundraising events, they hope the community will pull together to fight for the small, unassuming building.
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