Presented by Private Jewels Boxing Club, the King of the Ring boxing tournament took place at the Boys and Girls Club this past week for the fifth year. 

Organized by USA Boxing, New England President Alex Sepulveda said the event was a success, with more than 300 kids registering.

“King of the Ring has been around for eight years in the City of Lynn,” he said. “It came for fighters to become one of the biggest ranking tournaments in the whole region of New England, to having foreign fighters come and box.”

Over the last few years, Sepulveda has teamed up with Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club Brian Therrien to take King of the Ring to the next level. 

“We have fighters from Ireland, Canada, and all over the country. They come in here to compete with each other and become King of the Ring,” Sepulveda said. “This is the first year kids got ranking points for the Olympic system. Now, each year, it gets bigger and bigger because these kids want to qualify for the Olympics. With the help of Brian, it has elevated the program where we are helping more kids and reaching more kids – and the main purpose of this program has always been about the kids. They’re the future of tomorrow.” 

Therrien said it started “as a one-day event and, now, has catapulted to a five-day.”

“Alex and I have been working on King of the Ring for the last five years at the Boys and Girls Club,” he said.

The event operates smoothly – like a crisp jab – because of people like Sepulveda and Therrien. In addition to them, Stephen Clark was the head of officials and matchmaker during the tournament. 

“I want to say thank you to Stephen Clark,” Sepulveda said. “He did an amazing [job] keeping everyone in order.” 

Other than the high-level talent displayed over the five days, Therrien spoke about sportsmanship and its importance.

“It’s incredible to see the young men and women when they get in and know that they trained really hard for this. They get one opportunity to come to our facility and showcase their skills in front of a big crowd and the energy level in that gym is different,” Therrien said. “The different gyms supporting one another and seeing the sportsmanship that each boxer has is incredible. There were over 100 bouts and there weren’t any issues at all.” 

There were a total of 47 champions – four of them hailing from Lynn. They were Alexandra Mencia at 154 pounds, Ariel Palmas at 147, Brayan Mendez at 106, and Derek Tavarez at both 176 and 186. 

King of the Ring isn’t for your average boxer. And for Sepulveda, it’s even better that it’s happening in Lynn. 

“Lynn is dear to me. I love this city. I boxed for the city in the past. I was part of the Boys and Girls Club, so I find the Boys and Girls Club dear to me,”  he said. “The boxing history that Lynn has, I like to carry that passion on and there are a lot of good kids that come out of this city. In a city like this, we foster a lot of good fighters because they have a purpose to fight for.” 

Sepulveda isn’t satisfied with staying put, however, and wants to continue to grow King of the Ring because he feels the kids deserve it.  

“It’s a 24-7 thing. We’re planning on making it better and executing it better. A lot of these kids, to compete, need to have a certain education level. Now, we’re targeting more and helping kids move to a whole different level to make them a champion inside and outside of the ring,” Sepulveda said. “We don’t stop. We go from one tournament to another. These kids are going 100 miles per hour and we need to go 120. The kids are giving you the hard work and commitment, and we need to give it right back.”