by George Hassett

A local boxing club credited with training the first ever Puerto Rican heavyweight titleholder was evicted from the Masonic Temple on Highland Avenue May 22 for failure to pay rent.

“We had been more than generous and fair over the past 11 months to the Somerville Boxing Club. We have dipped into our own pockets to pay their bills,” said Donald F. Norton, president of the Highland Masonic Temple Association, an independent corporation that owns the Highland Avenue Masonic Temple.

Officials at the Somerville Boxing Club maintained they signed the lease agnicholas pinto-nicholas pinto-reement with the Masonic Temple in good faith, but have faced several unexpected barriers in raising the $2,750 in rent due each month.

The club was awarded a $200,000 congressional grant to use boxing as a means to attract at-risk youth to the club, where they would be taught various employment skills in addition to the boxing program. But that money has still not been given to the club.

“We still have not received the actual grant money from Washington. Even though we were approved, there are still some technical adjustments we have to make to our budget and our proposal. It hurts because we were counting on that money to put us on steady financial ground,” said club founder John Curran.

Without the grant money, club officials said, they have no other means of support because they rarely charge the members—mainly Somerville youths—the $50 monthly membership fee.

“Most of these kids come from homes where they can’t afford the essentials, never mind the membership fee to some boxing club. But we never turn a child away so we end up having no dues coming in as support. So our hands are basically tied when it comes to money. We can’t pull money out of our ass,” said Gene McCarthy, another club founder.

After six months of not receiving rent, Norton had tired of hearing promises from the boxing club.

“We could not go on any further with just promises or statements from them. It had been six months and they had not paid anything. We needed immediate results and we did not get them, so we moved forward with the eviction process,” said Norton.

While club officials acknowledge the Masonic Temples’ need to protect their finances, they are worried the club’s services will be missed in a city racked by drug addiction and gang violence.

“It’s unfortunate that we have been evicted, because this club really has been a valuable resource to the city for the past 25 years. Whether the kids who came in here were black, white, El Salvadorian or Haitian, they were staying out of trouble and avoiding gangs and drugs. We have had thousands of kids come through here and go on to college and successful careers. They come back as men and tell us they could not have done it if they hadn’t come to the club and learned about respect, community, and physical and mental health. We don’t teach these kids how to fight, we teach them how to be successful, productive members of society,” said McCarthy.

The boxing club, run entirely by volunteers and maintained with dues paid by members, has recently gained national attention for producing John Ruiz, the current WBA heavyweight champion of the world, and his manager and trainer Norman “Stoney” Stone.

But McCarthy said the successful duo of Stone and Ruiz are no longer associated with the club.

“Johnny and Stoney are not involved any more. They are always thought of as being associated with us but they made it—they’re out in Vegas enjoying their success. Guys like me and John Curran are still here trying to help these kids in the ring and outside of it,” said McCarthy.

Although all of the gym’s equipment is in storage and they are not accepting new members, the Somerville Boxing Club is far from gone, said McCarthy.

“Right now we’re at World Gym in Assembly Square working with our fighters who have bouts coming up. We’re not going to accept new members until we have a new gym somewhere in Medford or Somerville. But we’ll be back stronger than ever with more business sense this time,” said McCarthy.

“We already know how to help the kids in the ring and in life; now we just have to work on the business side of it and make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”