Boxing! Fisticuffs, the Sweet Science, Coming to Southampton
“There will be a real, legit boxing ring set up. There will also be mats set up for Jujitsu, mixed martial arts and pretty much any other martial art. There is also going to be a little gymnastics set up as well,” Avery Crocker, the personal trainer for Fight Circuit at the Hampton Gym Corp. in Southampton, tells me.
Avery is well known in Southampton thanks to his bright red hair and his pure passion for using boxing and circuit training as the ideal form of exercise. “There really is nothing like it in terms of fitness. Everybody knows that boxers are among the elite in terms of both strength and stamina, so I’m a believer in it. It’s also a lot of fun.”
The Hampton Gym Corp., which operates gyms in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Southampton, has for a long time had a large space in the Southampton Gym that was dedicated to nothing but an empty pool. It was never used very much because it was not really large enough for a significant number of people to do any swim training in. As such, the room was closed. The Southampton b, which is quite large without the pool, was doing just fine without it.
But this is going to change very soon. [expand]
The space is being renovated currently for a full-fledged boxing studio, with sparring, personal boxing lessons and other forms of martial arts workout classes to be held there.
The space is currently being painted, and just recently had the entire pool covered up to make way for what is surely to be something that does not exist on the East End.
I walked through the former pool and realized that it had been covered up with wood that was reinforced with beams, and workers were diligently painting the studio. “The pool is definitely going to be a thing of the past. Boxing is the future,” Avery tells me.
But who is going to teach it? That’s the real question on everybody’s minds, even Avery himself. “There are a couple of boxing instructors out here. Myself, Jay Duncan from Sag Harbor and there are a few other guys that we are looking to get involved. Kristian Vasquez won’t be doing it though unfortunately because he’s focusing on his gym in Shirley.”
While boxing seems to be the big draw to the new addition, it’s not going to be just boxing, “They are going to make it useful for not just boxing, but that will be the main thing…There will be a lot of other activities going on here. Once the official ring gets here though, we’re expecting that a lot of people will get interested.”
And just the talk of a new boxing ring and studio is getting people excited, this writer included. However, it is not expected to be up and running until early spring. And if you are expecting to be able to waltz into the studio and start hitting people in the face with a pair of gloves on, then you aren’t going to be at the right place. “We’re not going to have random people showing up and knocking each others heads off. We’re going to have a lot of supervision and a lot of instruction, it’s going to be really first rate and professional. But I can also assure you that fists will be flying. I’m really looking forward to it,” Avery says with a smile.