After trying out for the Bartender Boxing Organization, Crosby fell in love with boxing and competed in his first amateur bout. Now he’s training every day at The Arena.
https://youtu.be/rT–7OPh3eM
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Crosby Roper:
My name is Crosby Roper. My started about eight months ago through an organization called Bartender Boxing, where basically they grabbed local bartenders to go into an amateur boxing bout. We worked with Coach Joe and Basheer three days a week to get us ready for our fights. It was a really good experience. I really like the people here. I really liked the coaches. They were strict, but I also could tell they cared a lot about their fighters.
Coach Joe Vargas:
Crosby caught my eye because of his size, his lankiness, and strength. So when we got to pick fighters, that was the guy I went with. We went right into training. Once we started sparring, Crosby was having a hard time. He didn’t know how to use this distance and range, and I can tell when he was contemplating about quitting. And I just said, “What’s up man?” He just kind of let me know that he was having a hard time with these guys, that he couldn’t figure it out. The running joke because he had a black eye for about a month.
Crosby Roper:
When I would get hit, I would just kind of freeze up, and I’d get really in my head and frustrated. So I had a lot of difficulty sparring, and it took a lot of time to get out of that mind frame. At one point, I was just like, nah man, I’m not going to do the fight. I got other stuff going on, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I came in and talked with Coach Joe and he kind of just laid it out for me.
Coach Joe Vargas:
I said, “Listen, man, you can go ahead and quit, bro. If you can sit with that and live the rest of your life knowing you quit on something, go for it, bro.” That’s just the motivation he needed I guess. He stuck to it. And watching him fight was one of the most satisfying things for me because he came out and he had fun.
Crosby Roper:
That was one of the best experiences of my life. At the end of the fight, I just had this huge smile on my face. So I talked to Joe shortly after that and was like, “I want to fight again.” Since then, I’ve been here every day. I spar every week.
Coach Joe Vargas:
He’s the most consistent guy. He’s been in here training, sparring, working out all the time. Sparring with amateurs. He will spar with some of the pro fighters, so it’s been a fun ride with Crosby.
