What is this idiot doing now? Who decides to take up boxing approaching middle age and actually think they have any business fighting in a real boxing match? 

Maybe I’m crazy or stupid or both, but I learned about Haymakers for Hope a few years ago and have a couple of friends who have fought in the event which I attended. I always left impressed, and I was envious of the fighters’ willingness to be so vulnerable in front of their friends and family for such a great cause. I also walked away impressed that a lot of the fighters looked like they knew what they were doing in the ring having only boxed for a few months. 

I never thought I’d actually fight in Haymakers myself and didn’t really ask my buddies who did it about their experiences. I guess I’ve always been the type of person who does better when I have something to work towards, and I kind of seek out unique experiences. Training for 5 months to eventually have a 3 round boxing fight at a sold out House of Blues, in front of all my friends and family, having never boxed before, while raising money for cancer research along the way certainly qualifies as unique. Count me in.

I’ve always been intrigued by the sport of boxing but didn’t know much about it. I think it’s one of those sports that has a tougher or more intimidating barrier to entry than other sports. There aren’t boxing gyms on every corner and walking into one and deciding to try it is intimidating to a lot of people. You really wouldn’t know where to start just walking in on your own. It’s also a very difficult sport to learn and takes a lot of time to get decent at. It would be similar to never touching a golf club in your life and trying to play 18 holes, which would obviously be frustrating. Believe it or not it’s very similar to golf in a lot of ways. Your toughest opponent is yourself and training for it is a lot like going to the driving range. You start doing one thing well, but forget to do another, then your swing goes to shit and you start shanking the ball. Both are tremendously difficult sports. The big difference though is that you play golf, you don’t play boxing. Another analogy to the difficulty of boxing is if say you’re a hockey player and you have to actually think about every single stride you take skating. That would be mentally exhausting. Boxing is like that at first.

So how did I get into boxing and decide to try my hand at it in the Haymakers for Hope event? Long story but here it goes with a little about my background... I was born in London, Ontario, Canada and lived in Montreal until my family moved to Hingham, MA when I was 12. I played hockey at Hingham High and went onto play college hockey at Suffolk University in Boston. I also coached the Suffolk University hockey team as an assistant coach from 2011 to 2014 until moving to Philadelphia, PA in 2014 for a great opportunity with my company at the time as a medical device rep. 

I lived in Philly for 3 interesting years. I really liked that city and was doing really well in both my career and in my personal life. Things were going great, I was killing my numbers at work, I met a girl, got married, was doing really well until everything kind of fell apart. My company got bought, the nice girl I married didn’t turn out to be so nice and I got divorced. Then the company that purchased us decided that they didn’t want to be in the animal health business and decided to chop my whole team, myself included. This all happened within a few months of each other so to say that the rug got pulled out from under me would be fair. 

That said, there are so many worse things a person can go through and the only reason I’m sharing is to explain how I ended up back home, coaching again, and subsequently stumbling into boxing as a result. That’s it. I’m good, everyone hits a bump in the road at some point in their life and I hit mine at 33. Quite frankly, I wasn’t handling it very well. I was going out all the time to ignore everything and really not living a very healthy lifestyle. I packed my stuff up in Philly, and moved back to Boston where all my friends and some of my family are. 

I got a call that summer from one of the assistant hockey coaches at Hingham High who said he had to leave after coaching there for 10 or so years as he now had 4 young kids. So he couldn’t put the time into it like he had and asked me if I’d be interested in filling his spot. Hell yeah I was interested. I was hesitant to even move to Philly when I did because I had enjoyed coaching at Suffolk and staying involved with hockey so much. I really missed coaching. I was also figuring out my job situation as I had taken a job that I absolutely hated with a start-up to pay the bills. I had never covered Massachusetts as an outside rep before, when I lived here I was an inside rep covering other states. I was having a tough time landing a job I really wanted in the Boston area because I didn’t have existing relationships with anyone at the hospitals here. The fact that my confidence was down to zero at that point also probably didn’t make me the most appealing job candidate. 

The timing was perfect and the Hingham High hockey program is considered one of the top high school hockey programs in the state. The reason for this is the amazing people that run it. They aren’t just great coaches and former players, they’re top-notch people and mentors to the kids within the program. I think surrounding yourself with good people is crucial in life so getting to be around guys like Tony Messina, Bobby Allen, and Rick Schuhwerk on a daily basis was a no brainer. It would also be nice to pick their brains about hockey and be able to be part of a program that wins so many games every year. The laughs alone make it worth it.

The season started and Tony mentioned this new boxing gym that had just opened up next to the rink that would be running our players off-ice workouts a few days a week during the season called Boxygen. I watched a few of the workouts and they looked grueling. The trainer, James McCarthy seemed like a cool guy and my players were into it. It was also interesting to see that we were outscoring our opponents by a significantly bigger margin in the 3rd period more than we were in any other period. The Boxygen training was paying dividends for my players and I told myself that I was going to join up once our season ended and I had a little more time to go hard at getting back into shape. I had quit the start-up job before the season started and I was in the beginning process of trying to start my own business in medical device and figuring all of that stuff out mostly by trial and error. 

After a successful season and our team coming 1 game away from playing for the Division 1A Super 8 championship at the Garden, I walked into Boxygen the Monday after St Patrick’s Day last year to take one of the Boxygen classes James was running. The classes are heavy bag classes where combos are shouted out and different exercises are mixed in between the bag work. Holy smokes was I tired and did I ever suck at boxing, but it was fun and I felt really good after class.

I did the classes throughout the spring and summer and got into pretty good shape. I still sucked at boxing though as all I was doing was hitting the bag in classes to stay in shape. I wasn’t working on technique, hitting mitts or sparring and all of the stuff you need to work on to actually improve, but I had started watching fights and different boxing training stuff online towards the end of summer/fall. 

Like everything else for me when I like something I get really into it. It’s a good thing sometimes but not so much other times, but it’s who I am. Being ambivalent towards anything I spend a lot of time with makes me cringe. 

I think James saw I was into it and mentioned “you should do Haymakers for Hope” one day after class. I kind of laughed at it at first, but the idea grew on me the more I thought about it, as I was intrigued by all this boxing stuff and wanted to get good at it. More importantly, I knew the amazing things they do raising money for cancer research. I thought about how awesome it would be to do what I can to raise money and be involved with something like that. If I could hopefully make a difference and help a few people. I’m not sure where I heard the phrase “cancer is universal” recently, but it’s such a true statement as it effects everyone either directly or indirectly at some point in their life.

With this Haymakers idea in my head I talked to my friend Brian Gargan who did Haymakers a few years earlier and won his fight. I asked him his thoughts on it and he said “It was amazing, the whole process was one of the best experiences of my adult life”. Brian is as solid a person there is and done some pretty cool shit in his life so hearing him say that sold me on it. I would apply for the Boston 2019 event when application time opened up. It’s really hard to get picked for the event as I think over 350 people applied for only 32 spots. I got the email that I was picked in late December. LFG!!!!

I told my dad who was worried at first but thinks it’s kind of cool now. I didn’t tell my mom at first, she has been my rock throughout my life and amazingly supportive in anything I do but I knew she wouldn’t be thrilled about it. I don’t think any mother would be happy about the idea so I understand. I’m so fortunate to have such an amazing, strong mother. Brian was also one of the first people I told I had been accepted and we planned on my first time in the ring later on that week...

First time in the ring: 

I met Brian at Boxygen early one Friday morning in late December or early January to take class and spar after. All I knew was that I had been accepted to fight in Haymakers but hadn’t done the orientation yet or sit down with my trainer James McCarthy to go over training. I think I had only hit mitts with someone maybe 2 or 3 times at this point. Everyone I know with any boxing experience just told me that getting ring experience sparring is the most important thing, so I figured I’d get a head start. We put the headgear and gloves on, and our mouthpieces in. The bell rang and we had a go for 2 or 3 rounds while James supervised. Brian beat the shit out of me. He was going easy on me too. I didn’t even land a punch. I thought I was in pretty good shape going into it but my legs felt like noodles and I couldn’t breathe. I dry heaved into the trash next to the ring as I had a feeling I might feel that way with a mouthpiece in so I knew not to eat beforehand. What a humbling, lonely, mentally draining feeling trying to defend yourself while being as exhausted as I’ve ever been. My initial thoughts after were: 1.) What the hell did I get myself into? 2.) This is going to be embarrassing. 3.) I wanna try that again. Later on that day I felt better about it and thought that it was awesome. I knew I would get better if I put the work in. 

2nd time in the ring:

Brian and I met up at Boxygen to do class and spar and James was working with one of his buddies who was getting ready to go to the State Police Academy where you have to box. This kid was 240 lbs of muscle. A monster former football player who had spent time in NFL training camps with the Rams I believe. I’m only 5’8 165 lbs at that point. We both did jabbing drills with this beast and I kind of danced around and looked ok for about 30 seconds jabbing until I got tired and then he went to work on me. This kid punched like a James Bond villain. I don’t know why but OddJob came to mind for some reason. He was a really nice guy aside, but I felt like I was in an early 90’s Nintendo game fighting a final boss. Brian faired much better than me but agreed that getting hit by that guy felt like getting hit by a truck. I feel bad for whoever has the misfortune of getting paired up to fight him at the Police Academy.

I’ve now been in the ring sparring a little less than 10 times and improving each time. Don’t get me wrong I still suck at boxing but I’m a lot more comfortable in there and starting to actually land some punches which has been cool. I’m also not so gassed that I puke after which is a plus. James McCarthy and Matt Giles from Boxygen have been awesome to work with and I’ve learned a lot and improved quite a bit in a short period of time. I’m in really good hands being trained by these guys. I have no doubt that they’ll have me ready to put on a show come fight night. If you live in the South Shore and looking to get in shape or change your workout up, you should definitely consider taking a class with them at Boxygen. 

I’m honored and humbled to have been chosen by Haymakers to be a part of their amazing organization. I hope I can raise a ton of money. I’m taking that very seriously. With work, hockey, and training it has been tough to find the time to sit down and write this, so apologies that my bio has taken a little while. I also wanted to make sure it was alright with the family members of the people who came to mind that I’ll be fighting for to mention their names here out of respect. To the people I don’t mention now, I just haven’t had the chance to ask if it’s alright at an appropriate time and I wanted to get this out there. To those of you who have already donated to my page- Thank you so much!!! You’re generosity and support has been amazing!!!

Who I’m fighting for:

I lost my grandfather, “Snips” as we called him in 2005 to leukemia. He was an amazing person and had a pretty remarkable life. He was a pilot in World War ll in the Royal Air Force and his bomber was shot down over Holland during a mission. He spent his 18th to 21st Birthdays in a German POW camp. He survived horrendous conditions against pretty tough odds. He was an amazing father and husband raising a mentally handicapped son. His passion in life was his family and he enjoyed the simple things in life like his tomato garden, or watching golf every Sunday. My mom told me that when she was a kid he would take her and her brother and sister out for the day every Sunday, and he would buy his wife flowers. That’s the type of guy he was. Surviving all that adversity at a young age, it was cancer that got him at 83 years old. While he was fortunate enough to live into his 80’s, I couldn’t help being pissed off that cancer took him from us because he was still so sharp and with it and I think he had a few good years left in him to spend with his family, and for my Gram to bust his balls.

I’ll also be fighting for Lauren Devine and the Devine family. Lauren passed away this past summer after battling brain cancer for 15 years.

The Cook Family.

The Aiello/Collins Family.

My friend Garrett Daigler and his family who lost his father Doug Daigler to cancer a few years ago. 

My friend Kevin Snow and his family who lost his father “The Captain” Roy Snow to cancer recently.

Brian Curtis and my friends Tommy & Lauren Curtis as well as the rest of the Curtis family who lost Brian a few years ago.

The Duggan family who lost Jim Duggan to cancer in 2013.

My friend Bernie Sandford who I coached with at Suffolk is a cancer survivor himself and his girlfriend Monica Francesca Vinasco, who lost her son Jose Alejandro Vasques-Vinasco to cancer when he was just in high school. 

I’m also fighting for the nurses and clinicians who work long hours, often giving up spending holidays with their own families to help ours battle cancer and get better. I think it’s important to recognize the amazing things these people do and sacrifice on a daily basis. 

Anyways I appreciate the interest everyone has shown in me doing this event and I really appreciate any donation of any amount. I can’t thank you enough. I’ll keep you updated on my training on here as well as social media. My fight is on May 15th. Tickets go on sale March 12th so I hope to see you there. I plan on putting on a show.

 

-Bolesy