Most fighters’ stories are of someone they know or knew affected by cancer. My story is one of people I never knew: family I never had the chance to meet. My mom lost her mom when she was only 19. My dad, his dad when he was just 16. Cancer robbed my grandma and grandpa of their futures. Cancer robbed my parents of what remained of their childhood. And cancer robbed my brother and me of the privilege of ever meeting two of our grandparents. 

I've heard endless stories of both of them, but that will never do it justice. And for that reason, I have often wondered what it'd be like to have just an hour together, or even a dinner with the two of them. What would we discuss? Where would we even start? Who's got the check? But unfortunately I'll never have even that opportunity, not even that small window of time together.

And so, it is in their honor and in their memory that I am fighting and raising money for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. And in hopes that one day Haymakers for Hope will no longer have to exist, that boxing bouts will be the worst battles any of us will ever have to fight, and that never again will a child be robbed of the privilege of ever hugging their grandparent.