Photo by Matt Fields-Johnson
Kiwon Toney, 10, practices on a heavy bag Thursday night at the Westside Boxing Club in Chattanooga. Kiwon has been boxing for three years and is ranked eighth in the country for his age group and will compete in the Silver Gloves competition this year.Driving past the old No. 7 firehouse on Central Avenue, few would guess it is home to world-champion boxers.
But inside the building, Westside Boxing Club trains them in the old engine bay-turned-boxing gym. For two hours a day, four days a week, the boxers work with nothing but the smell of sweat, the grunts of sparring fighters and the shouted advice of coaches motivating them.
The club has garnered 25 national championships, five world championships and even a bronze medal at last year’s Junior Olympics.
Head coach Andy Smith shies away from discussing the accolades. Smith, part of the training staff for the 2008 Olympic boxing team, said the club focuses on helping kids.
“The most important thing is they take the things they learn in this gym and use it in their everyday lives,” he said. “Very few of them will be national champions or world champions, and even a smaller few of them will ever be Olympic gold medalists, but all of them are gonna be citizens in our communities. All of them are gonna have jobs and families, so we want to teach them all the things they learn here to use in their life.”