Wednesday, August 8 2012
Yesterday afternoon, we met up with Ari Untracht (pictured left) at the famed Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. Ari has previously worked in the UK and South Africa as an investment banker, currently, working as President and CEO of an Ethical Mining Company based in Sierra Leone. Ari has been training at Gleason's for a couple of months now, and we can definitely tell it wasn't his first time in the gym.
Ari was a good little politician, introducing us to all his trainers, as one of them wrapped his hands. We met him warming up on the treadmill, and saw him do a few rounds of shadow boxing, followed by the mitts. Ari seemed really comfortable hitting things (as he should!) and is really pumped up for his big fight on November 8th at the Roseland Ballroom for Haymakers for Hope's first NYC event!
Later in the day, we headed over to the World Trade Center area, not to see sights, but to check in on Church Street Boxing Gym, where Mike Barbara and Reed Werbitt were sweating bullets. Mike and Reed are co-workers, and now, training partners (how cute!). Both of these guys have been playing sports their whole lives, but Reed has been training at Church Street for a few months now. Mike, on the other hand, was experiencing trainer Eric Kelly for the first time. I'm sure most of you have seen the now viral video of Kelly making fun of his "nerd" clients. Well, "nerd" wasn't exactly what he called Mike...
We saw both guys hitting the bag, and literally melting in that basement gym. Later, Eric had them running around heavy bags while he berated them to everyone else's amusement. Sorry, we totally should have recorded it (oops!). Anyway, both Reed and Mike are very excited at their chance to get in the ring on November 8th at the Roseland Ballroom for Haymakers for Hope's first NYC event!
To see more training photos of Ari: Click Here
To see more training photos of Mike: Click Here
To see more training photos of Reed: Click Here