205 Boxing Club members fight this Saturday

HACKLEBURG — 205 Boxing Club has three fighters competing at Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Miss., this Saturday, May 16.
Gage Cook, Ceejay Long and Felipe Alay will be boxing in Hollywood Hits 5, put on by TCB Fights.
The three of them are coached by Cody Harris, who has many years of experience in fighting and coaching, and now volunteers to coach at 205.
“I started boxing whenever I was 15 years old, training with a guy who was training with a professional boxer,” Harris said. “I started training with Daniel Lucas, then I started kickboxing whenever I was around 21. That’s when I really started competing.
“I competed for several years, then work got in the way, so I started to help coach other people, and I’ve been doing that for probably 17-18 years now. I’ve had several fighters come through. I was at Ideal Fitness for about 15 years but took a break from it and started volunteering at 205 and working with these guys up there.”
Each of the fighters got their start in boxing for their own reasons. For Ceejay Long, the boxing ring is an outlet.
“I got into it because honestly I had a little bit of a rougher childhood, and I never really had a place to displace the anger whenever I got older, and so I started going to a gym that had a boxing gym,” Long said.
Long is from Hamilton and is 24 years old. He’s been training since April, and fought in the Toughman Contest in Mississippi earlier in April. He won his first match, but lost the second by decision.
Long said stepping into the ring for the first time “was like I’d never thrown a punch before!”
“It was very nerve-wracking. There was a lot of people, and I’d never experienced anything like that,” Long said.
Long said he’s been training on technique, as well as conditioning.
“I work on technique and conditioning both simultaneously,” he said. “They’re both, in my opinion, just as important. I’ve mainly been working on conditioning myself because I haven’t done much cardio before.”
Long said he’s been working to represent Hamilton and 205 Boxing well in the ring this Saturday.
For Gage Cook, boxing was always something he wanted to get into.
“I’ve been wanting to do it my whole life, and I just decided it was time to get into it,” Cook said. “I found a gym in Hackleburg and started coming and really got into the scene with everybody and fell in love with it. It keeps my head straight and keeps me out of trouble.”
Cook said he started training around Thanksgiving last year. He also competed at the Toughman Contest, and won.
Cook also described how wild a boxer’s first real fight can be.
“I wasn’t real nervous, until I got in there,” he recounted. “Then I saw everybody, and I guess the nerves set in. It wasn’t so much the fighting. It was just knowing all the eyes are on you. I felt like I weighed a million pounds!
“I got punched in the face the first fight, and it was just like ‘Ok, now I’m fighting!’ Then it went away, and the other fights went well.”
For 15-year-old Felipe Alay, boxing wasn’t originally where his heart was set, but life, his parents and his doctor had other plans.
“My parents actually got me into this because I had broken my leg,” Alay said. “I loved playing football, but the doctor said that playing football probably wasn’t the best idea, so my parents got me into boxing.
“At first, I actually didn’t want to do it because I thought I was going to get beat up, but when I started getting into it and getting to know everyone, it was cool, and it was something I really fell in love with.”
Alay, who has been training for about a year, said he is both excited and somewhat anxious about his first fight this weekend.
“I’m very excited for this,” he said. “I’m a little nervous, but with everybody’s support here, I feel like I can do this!”
Harris said the guys have been putting in the work to continually improve in preparation for Saturday.
“The guys have really been working and getting better,” Harris said. “The whole gym helps push. They have great teamwork, and it’s just a great community.
“Gage is a real strong competitor. He’s technical, and his speed is improving. I think he’ll put it together in this fight. He did great in the Tough Man.
“Ceejay, he fought hard in the Tough Man. It was a brawl-type fight. We’ve been working on getting things a lot more technical and a lot more put-together, so I’m really expecting to see a lot better performance out of him.
“Felipe has been training several months. He’s come a long ways. He’s starting to put his combinations and his punches together real well.
“All of the guys have been going to UFM in Tupelo and doing some cross-training. But Felipe has really put his head movement and his combinations together the last few weeks, and I’ll think he’ll go out and do a great debut fight.”
Harris said he wanted to encourage everyone in the community to come out and support these fighters who have put in so much work and training.
“I know it’s a long way away, but I hope everybody can come out and support the fighters,” he said.
The fights are scheduled for this Saturday at Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Miss. Doors open at 5 p.m., and fights begin at 5:30.