HOPEWELL, Va. — Tucked away in a corner of an otherwise nondescript Hopewell strip mall sits a home of champions that you might easily miss — like a sneaky left hook.
Oman Aleem has operated Ninth Dimension Boxing Gym for nearly 20 years, where he transforms young people searching for direction in life. Aleem grew up in the sport and has witnessed firsthand its power to change lives.
"Parents came to me, 'My son is rude to me. Can you talk to him for me? Talk to the kid,' And I said, I'll make a champion," Aleem said.
The proof of his success is literally around the waists of his students, who wear championship belts from competitions across the region and beyond.
Each boxer found something in the sport that spoke to them. Even Moore, whose quick, million-watt smile belies the emotional struggles she faced as a youth, discovered boxing's transformative power.
"I had anger issues, like before I got into it I was or before I got into boxing, I was at an alternative school because I had got in trouble. So I think that also helped me with my anger issues, and it helped me control my anger," Moore said.
For Wright, boxing taught lessons that extend far beyond the ring.
"I feel like a lot of people nowadays don't have a lot of discipline, because just for your diet, just being consistent every day, and I think just not in boxing, And just in life, you have to be a consistent every day if you want to thrive, to be some or do something better," Wright said.
But why choose a sport that involves the very real possibility of taking a punch to the face? The three fighters explained what it's actually like to absorb a hard hit.
"It makes you want to not get hit again. It makes you train hard to avoid getting hit. Basically, that's what I can say," Immanuel said.
"When you really get hit with a hard shot and you're shocked, it's really like, you're just stunned. So your immediate instinct is just to put your hands up and shell up because you're like shocked from the impact," Moore said.
"It's not that bad. It's like, it's honestly, like, just a shock, like it just happened, like it was just fast. You may not even remember the shot, but you just won't be out and you come back," Wright said.
Each fighter showed their coach something special from the beginning — even if it was simply the willingness to keep showing up at the gym.
"I learned to observe I understand the attitudes, so I know the attitude and the skill level, what can I do? How can I work with your attitude? And that's what I do. I try to balance that," Aleem said.
The veteran coach emphasizes that boxing is as much mental as it is physical.
"The mind control the body, and that's why they gotta understand, not the body control the mind, see, and when you get caught up with that, then you have a problem, because you can't think so. You got to learn how to figure out stuff. Figure this out. Yes, it's smart. So it's all science, too. Geometry in the ring, we use all of that," Aleem said.
The gym maintains high standards, demanding complete commitment from its fighters.
"You can't be lazy here. If you're lazy, they don't want to work with you, because it's, I mean, what's the point of working with you if you're not going to put in the work to get where you want to be," Moore said.
For Wright, the dedication runs deep, even in the face of potential setbacks.
"I just been in this game so long that how can I, like, I can get dropped next week or next month, and I still want to chase that goal, so I'm wanting to die trying," Wright said.
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