Few people are willing to enter a boxing ring.

Fransisco Chavarin, a student fighter at El Camino College is one of them. However, even he couldn’t shake the nervousness he had hours before his match.

“I feel really accomplished right now because we’re filling up the house with people,” Chavarin said. “I’m not going to lie, I threw up a little bit. Once you get those nerves out of the way, you feel perfect right after.”

While El Camino provides boxing classes for students, a boxing club did not exist until the start of the spring semester.

The club’s efforts paid off on Saturday, May 20, when fighters were able to host a fight night at Sweet Science Gym in Hawthorne.

Chavarin was one of those fighters.

The event was not sanctioned, so there were no winners or losers. While many questioned whether the fight night event was even possible, everyone involved felt a feeling of satisfaction, following an astounding attendance.

Coach Rachel Pittock saw Fight Night as a chance for club members to show off their talents and hard work in anticipation to compete in future tournaments.

“Fight Night was an opportunity for our club members to show their skill and all their hard work. We hope to do something like this at the end of every semester,” Pittock said. “We also hope to grow into a fight team that will compete against other colleges.”

Boxing club co-President Christian Garcia took part in Fight Night: Season One, but originally planned to get involved with a weightlifting group until the opportunity to form a combat sports team emerged.

Garcia said Pittock and Thanos Sarreas, who is part of the organization as a fighter, pitched the idea of formulating the boxing club.

“Thanos and coach Rachel came up with the idea. It wasn’t my idea, so when they mentioned it, I was like, oh my god, why didn’t I think of this,” Garcia said. “And at the time, I liked weightlifting more.”

Six fights were held during the event.

There was nervousness and excitement among the fighters who worked hard all semester, but there was also a sense of calm because the hard work had paid off.

Inter-Club Council weightlifting and boxing club representative Ace Reyes faced obstacles in organizing the event and demonstrating the club’s capabilities to the Inter-Club Council cabinet.

“The ICC cabinet did not believe in us; they did not believe in our aspirations that we could build this and make it successful, they were wrong,” Reyes said. “Because we fundraise over $2,000 for the club, and fight night was a huge success.”

With such accomplishment comes satisfaction for Reyes, as the club demonstrated how the naysayers were wrong.

Fight Night does not end with season one for Pittock and the club; there is more to come and ambitions to expand.

“We hope this continues to grow and more people learn that we have boxing classes on campus and they might join the club,” Pittock said.

“It feels great because now we can shove it in their face a little bit,” Reyes said. “Now they know this is a legit club. We’re willing to do anything possible to make the club more recognizable.”

Editor’s Note:

• Added featured photo on June 1.
• Added video on June 8.
• Added photo on June 8.