Ex-boxer looks to bring free boxing lessons to Sunset youth
A neighborhood wants to get ready to rumble again.
Eight years after the city shuttered a popular boxing program held at the Sunset Park Recreational Center to create more space for an afterschool program, Sunset Park resident and ex-professional boxer Aureliano Sosa — who is currently teaching a free boxing program in Flatbush, where he trains many talented young fighters — is looking to bring the program back to the neighborhood that first offered it.
“Sunset was one of my first gyms. It was always great to go in there,” recalls Sosa, who once was on the Mexican Olympic boxing team, and who teaches the youngsters through the non-profit organization Atlas Cops and Kids Boxing club founded by Pat Russo, a retired cop from the 72nd Precinct. “It took the kids off the street, stopping them from doing negative things, and turned it into a positive experience.”