It’s a Tuesday night. An amateur boxer, an MMA fighter, a marathon runner and tens of Ithaca College students full of stories fill the fitness center. This is Ithaca College Club Boxé.

Ithaca College Club Boxé, an homage to the founder of the group’s Dominica heritage, is an unofficially recognized club of Ithaca students formed in 2021 by now-senior sports media major Damani Madir. Madir himself is not what would be considered a normal student; he’s an amateur boxer.

Madir’s journey into boxing started at age 12 when his parents thrust him into the sport. At first, Madir felt the sport was more of a chore, but he said that his parents’ insistence came from a good spot. 

“After moving from Atlanta back up to Brooklyn, [my parents] were a little uncomfortable. They had no idea whether or not I’d be able to readjust quickly or not,” Madir said. “They wanted me to be able to walk around with my head up high and not be scared or intimidated by other people from Brooklyn or just the city in general. So they put me into boxing.”

Madir has made a name for himself on campus with his deep boxing background. With fighting sanctioned matches under the Georgia Amateur Boxing Association and several tournaments, including the Gloves Up, Guns Down tournament in Texas, Madir has started his amateur career 9–0 and comes from a deep bloodline of professional boxers. Madir’s uncle, Riddick Bowe, was a sensational boxer in the 1990s and early 2000s, beating Evander Holyfield for the WBO World Heavyweight championship in 1992. 

Madir said his training began under Bowe’s tutelage, and Bowe was the first person to eagerly tell Madir he had something valuable.

“Long story short, I ended up meeting him one day in the gym and he told me that I had natural talent,” Madir said. “He wanted me to at least give it a shot at taking it to the next level as an amateur. So I decided to listen to him because I hadn’t had someone sit down and really tell me that to my face.”

Fast forward seven years and Madir arrived at Ithaca College as a sports media major, unsure if anyone on the campus had the same love of boxing as he did. Soon enough, Madir said he found those people.

After coming out of a Zoom-filled first-year at the college, Madir met a fellow sophomore named Giovanni Cioffi. 

“He told me that there was a defunct boxing club already on campus that was called the Ithaca College Defenders and he said, ‘Look, I know you’re a boxer, I’m sure people would love to train with you or even other people who are fighters on campus would love to train with you. Why not give it a shot?’” Madir said. “But I felt like I could do it my way. I did not want to take a group that had already existed prior on campus and just revive it. I wanted to have something that I could say I made on my own.” 

Jesus “Chucho” Noriega came into college battling self-esteem issues and was searching for something to help improve himself as a person. Noriega said he found himself through a variety of things, but the final step was boxing.

“I started this weight loss journey thanks to my roommate [junior] Oliver Alva,” Noriega said. “He put me onto a bunch of cardio stuff. He’d already been in amateur boxing and I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been on this. I’ve been wanting to do stuff, show me.’ He started training me. … It went along with my marathon journey that I also initiated. Cardio went up, lost a lot of weight, went to weight lifting, and honestly the initiation of boxing in my life … it was such a confidence boost.”

After Noriega began his journey into boxing through the guidance and encouragement of his roommate, he met Madir and they immediately bonded over their love of the sport. Noriega said that Madir began to teach him the sport and was one of the first to encourage him about his skill.

Once Madir and Noriega had begun sparring with each other often, others began to join and Noriega said a brotherhood had formed that he did not know was possible on campus.

Noriega recounted the time he saw over 20 people show up to one of the group’s meetings and that’s when he said he and Madir thought of making the group official. 

“I never saw such a prominent boxing community until that happened and then it just kept on growing and growing,” Noriega said. “I’m like, ‘We kind of found a community,’ and we didn’t create a community, we found a community that we weren’t aware of that Ithaca had. It’s like a bromance thing — you punch me in the face. I love you for that.”

Madir said he not only wanted people to feel the sport, but grow a care for themselves through the sport. 

 “I wanted people to not just love boxing, but love themselves through boxing,” Madir said. “Whether or not you’re sparring or taking the hits, it really makes you understand, ‘I’m a stronger individual than I thought I was when I first started this,’ and I really wanted people to pick that part out of it. …. See how much you can love yourself through this.”

The club is very informal in the way it operates, but it began with a tentative schedule of every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Ithaca College fitness center. During these meets, Madir and Noriega, at times, will teach the members skills that were taught to them by their trainers. Occasionally, Madir will host watch parties where the club can come watch professional boxing pay-per-view for free.

Senior Sal Pinciotti does not often go to the group boxing sessions, but instead usually opts for individual sessions with Madir as his trainer. Pinciotti said Madir has a way about him that can get anyone to train their best and help the boxing group on campus grow.

“[Madir’s] really good at getting you hype and getting you moving,” Pinciotti said. “That’s especially useful when we’re doing an hour-long session and I’m at 45 minutes, I’m dripping in sweat. I‘m like, gosh, I want to do almost anything else right now than hit this bag with my left shoulder pain. … A lot of people know Damani [Madir] as a professional boxer and I think that really helps get this club and him a lot of traction because he’s the only professional boxer I know.”

Madir has become engulfed in both the sports media and fighting sides of boxing. Madir currently hosts his own podcast, “DQ w/ Damani,” where Madir talks about his own experiences in boxing as well as events happening in the boxing world. Madir was inspired to begin the podcast by Ellen Staurowsky, professor in the Department of Sports Media.

Staurowsky said Madir’s podcast shows what Madir is all about and is a valuable reflection of how Madir conducts himself in the circle of boxing.

“You hear it in his sign-offs in his podcast,” Staurowsky said. “There’s a lovely moment at the end where he signs off with, ‘Be safe and God bless,’ and in his overall conduct day in and day out it’s very consistent with who he is.” 

Staurowsky commented on Madir’s impact on campus and said that while the sport of boxing can be a very lonely one, it’s great that a community has formed through that. Staurowsky said she has only had three professional boxers in her time at the college and sees Madir’s influence as something unique.

“I think there’s also something isolating about that,” Staurowsky said. “If you’re the only one, then the fact that [Madir’s] building a community, I think that really says a lot about him. The fact that he’s got a passion that he’s sharing with other students, that other students are responding and that it’s a meaningful experience for them, I think all of that’s tremendous.”

Madir does not know who will take over Ithaca Club Boxé once he graduates, but while under Madir’s control, the group has blossomed into a truly welcoming community on campus. Madir said he wanted to help others, something he has already done for many in the campus community and he hopes the group will continue to do so.

“My goal is to be in a place where I can help kids who were at that crossroads like I was,” Madir said. “Everybody wants notoriety, but for me, I just want to be in a position where my coach was, to take in a kid and say, ‘You know what? You got talent.’ Why not take that talent and apply it here? Use it. To build somebody from the ground up and say that’s my fighter or that’s a guy who I’ve helped out from day one. I made sure that his hand wraps were clean, I made sure his gloves were clean, or even bigger things. I made sure that his contract got something, I made sure that he got TV time, all of that. For me, I want to have the influence to do great things inside of the sport, even outside of just fighting.”