Adaptive Boxing Event Brings Families, Fans To Providence Park
FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Boxing has been a part of Jonathan De La Cruz’s life for a very long time. Not only was his father a professional fighter, the Adelphi, Maryland resident was 11-years-old when he first donned a pair of boxing gloves.
“I got injured in 2009,” he said. “I used to box before my injury, but in a boxing in wheelchair, it’s not been long, really, just making the transition and bringing this all out from the wheelchair.”
De La Cruz came to Providence Park on Sunday to fight in an adaptive boxing event that was hosted by the Adaptive Fitness Legion.
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AFL is a nonprofit associated with DPI Adaptive Fitness, a Fairfax City training center that helps people recovering from injuries or living with physical disabilities. The fighters competing on Sunday had come from as faraway as Utah and included members of DPI’s Adaptive Boxing Club.
Currently, adaptive boxing is not recognized as a Paralympic sport, according to DPI owner Devon Palermo. Sunday’s event was a way to bring attention to the sport, at least locally.
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“No one has fully developed this to the point that it needs to be at in order to make that happen,” he said. “We have help from some other boxing clubs and it’s been growing, and this is probably the biggest that it’s been.”
While that may seem like a boast, DPI’s first adaptive boxing event, which featured two matches, was also the first event of its kind in the U.S., according to Palermo.
With his experience in adaptive therapy and history of working with the neurological and spinal cord injury community, Palermo has been able to create classifications similar to those used in wheelchair fencing. The different classifications ensure that each of the fighters are evenly matched.
” Category A would be someone with limited trunk and arm impairment,” he said. “Category B would be someone with impairment in their trunk and maybe one of their arms, and Category C would be someone who has impairment in trunk, maybe one or both upper extremities and timing and speed.”
Following USA standards for amateur boxing, Sunday’s event included five matches featuring a total of 10 adaptive athletes.
“The biggest fights — or the more skilled fights — are going to be three, two-minute rounds, and all beginner level fights would be in the range of three, one-minute rounds or three, 90-second rounds,” Palermo said, before the first match on Sunday.
Orlando Perez is a Paralympian, who competed as a speed skier in the Beijing games in 2022. at A full-time athlete during the winter, he trains from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day.
At first, Perez started boxing as a way to strengthen his core muscles, but he soon realized there was an even greater benefit.
“I noticed that through boxing, the community, they care about each other,” he said. ” They are not there to hurt each other. They’re here to spar and to get each other better. That was what glued me into it. I saw a community that I could get in there, work out with them, be healthy with them, and then just show them that I’m a person with disabilities, but I’m able to do things.”
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