COVER

A Bayonne boxer throws punches from a wheelchair

Gregory Anthony

FIGHTING CHANCE

By Tara Ryazansky

Photos by Max Ryazansky

Bayonne is well known as the hometown of one boxing legend, but this is also home to one in the making. Gregory Anthony trains himself, often working out with a punching bag hung behind his midtown apartment build ing. The thud of each powerful punch echoes off the surrounding buildings. Like any boxer, Anthony attacks the bag, working on his reach and his technique, but his stance is a bit dif ferent than the typical boxer. Anthony is a wheelchair boxer.

As the first American boxer to fight in an international wheelchair boxing match, he’s already made history. But that was just round one in Anthony’s fight to popularize wheelchair boxing here in the United States.

Anthony just got back from the U.K. where he fought against Chris topher Middleton who represented Great Britain. Anthony didn’t win the match, but he did put up a good fight getting in more punches than his op ponent. “The most he hit me through

out all three rounds was about five times,” Anthony says, explaining that the judges use a points system to de termine the winner. “The way I look at it is, it was a learning experience.” There are no hard feelings between the two boxers because Anthony and Middleton have the same goal. They even became friends. “We had a great time,” Anthony relates. “He showed me the town. He was a pretty cool dude. We’re not in it to hurt each other. I’m not trying to get in the ring and knock a person out of their wheelchair. We’re in there to show everybody out there that we’re able to do anything we want to do as long as we put our mind to it.”

Wheels of Fortune

Anthony has held fast to that positive outlook since he first lost his mobility in 2009 at age 18. “I’m a gunshot victim from Jersey City,” he says, but he’s also a father, and he couldn’t let his injury prevent him from being a role model to his young son. “I had to still be a father no matter what the situation was,” Anthony says. “I try to do a lot of things, and I don’t let this define me. The wheelchair doesn’t define me; how I live my life is how I define myself.”

Anthony also has a passion for music. His work as Young Gots has been featured on radio shows and on the soundtrack of the Netflix film Love Beats Rhymes starring Azealia Banks. But when he isn’t writing and recording songs he’s training hard as a boxer. “I always boxed even when I was young,” he says. “I was around 12 or 13 when my mom put me in boxing in Jersey City.” He got his early start at Duprees Boxing Gym, owned by Jersey City boxing champion Jimmy Dupree. “I was only in it for a little bit ‘cause my mom wanted me to focus on my schooling,” he says. “I fell away from it for awhile, but I always would watch boxing.”

American Dream

Anthony says he looks up to Bayonne boxer Chuck Wepner. “I admire the Bayonne Bleeder a lot ‘cause of how tough of a fighter he was,” Anthony says. “He’s Jersey.”

It wasn’t until after he started using a wheelchair that Anthony participated in the sport again. He found videos online to teach himself wheelchair boxing. Wheelchair boxers use the lighter, faster basketball wheelchairs. “A boxer runs, but I have to push,” Anthony says. “Normally, I’m pushing myself a few miles a day, but it’s more when I’m training.”

He also punches the bag outdoors in good weather. But he doesn’t often get the chance to spar with others because the sport isn’t very popular in this country. The closest wheelchair boxer he knows lives in Brooklyn. Wheelchair boxing is more prevalent in the U.K. Anthony wants to change that.

He will join wheelchair boxers from the tri-state area, Team USA, in Philadelphia in February for an intensive

training camp. The boxers will spar and practice together to build their skills. They will also discuss ways to promote the sport in the U.S.

“We’re trying to get to the Paralympics,” Anthony says.”This is a legitimate sport. Right now we have hockey, basketball, volleyball, there are a lot of sports out there for people in wheelchairs, but

we’re trying to make boxing an offi cial sport.”

After training camp, Anthony has a match in Belfast, Ireland, where he’s excited to again get in the ring and fi ght an opponent in an arena. Says Anthony, “This sport makes me feel like I’m able again, like I can do whatever I want to do.”—BLP