Rivals in the Ring returns to downtown LA with USC, UCLA and a WBC belt on the line
· Yahoo Sports
LOS ANGELES — Before the Los Angeles Athletic Club became known for anything else, boxing was the first sport openly competed inside it, sharing the bill with billiards and the occasional party. On Saturday, Nov. 14, the fights come home. Rivals in the Ring, the club’s collegiate boxing invitational, returns to downtown for the first time since 2019, and LAAC board of advisors member Dan Shapiro believes it is exactly seven years to the day since the last edition.
The nine-bout card is headlined by a crosstown clash at 135 pounds, USC’s Gabriel Ponce against UCLA’s Alex Leon, with a WBC Collegiate Amateur Championship belt up for grabs. Ponce, a USC aeronautical engineering major, is the inaugural winner of that belt, according to the WBC. Fighters from the U.S. Air Force Academy, UC Riverside, El Camino College and Crandall University in Canada fill out the card, which will be staged on the John R. Wooden Award Court.
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Bringing it back took a while. Shapiro, an LAAC member for about 10 years, said the club, USC Trojan Boxing and UCLA boxing all went through turnover after COVID, and the people who cared about the event simply had not met. Club director Najeeb Shamsid-Deen, who has been in the job for about a year and a half, got the idea moving when he played a DVD of an old event. Shapiro later met USC Trojan Boxing head coach Omar Lopez at a USC event in February, and the two clubs went to work. “It really was very organic,” Shapiro said. Lopez, who also fights in the masters division, helped put the card together as a matchmaker. “Someone needs to know the boxers,” Shapiro said. “You can’t just have a venue.”
The talent level is real. USC has enough fighters to compete in both of collegiate boxing’s national bodies, the NCBA and USIBA, and Shapiro said the team recently sparred high-level Golden Gloves amateurs and “really hold their own.” One fighter on the card started as a walk-on for the football team before deciding he wanted to box. “For some of those fighters, this might be the biggest fight they ever compete on,” Shapiro said. “And then for some of them, it’s just another night at the office.”
The WBC belt adds a layer of buzz. Shapiro credited the WBC’s Nancy Rodriguez and Lopez for pushing for it, saying he “can take no credit.” The belt made an appearance at LAAC a couple of weeks ago for the kickoff of the John R. Wooden Award basketball season, and Shapiro said everyone was excited to see it. “The WBC belts are so iconic,” he said.
Having lived in Los Angeles for 13 years after moving from the East Coast, Shapiro doesn't claim to be an expert on the USC-UCLA rivalry. He acknowledges that boxing doesn't command the spotlight of football or basketball, but believes its value lies elsewhere: teaching fundamental life lessons. In that regard, he describes the USC squad as "a real team."
The plan is for this to become a tradition again. “We’re going into it with the intention of doing this every November,” Shapiro said. He wants it to grow into a true invitational while keeping the Battle of Los Angeles at the center. That is why the field reaches beyond the two local schools, including the Air Force Academy, which Shapiro called “the strongest program in America,” and Crandall University from New Brunswick.
In a release, USC Trojan Boxing Club head coach Omar Lopez said the night is about showcasing student-athletes who pursue excellence in the classroom and have the courage and discipline to test themselves in the ring. He called it a chance to elevate collegiate boxing and celebrate what he described as scholar-boxers.
Doors open at 4:30 p.m., with the first bout at 5 p.m. and the main card at 7 p.m. Formal attire is encouraged, but Shapiro said no one needs a tuxedo. “You can look good and not necessarily be in a tuxedo,” he said. A DJ will take over the gym floor afterward. Shapiro hopes at least one person leaves wanting to take a boxing or kickboxing class, “put on some gloves, hit a bag.” Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
“It’s not your standard arena boxing match,” Shapiro said. “But in the end, it’s about watching good fights and supporting fighters and athletics and the community in downtown Los Angeles.”