It's been more than two years in the making, but Top Glove Boxing Academy has finally moved into its new building.
The club's founder, Gordon Apolloni, first opened the doors to Top Glove back in 1991 in a small, unassuming building nestled into the corner of Regent and Elm. Fast forward to February, 2018, and Apolloni couldn't be happier with the upgrade to a bigger, cleaner, and more modern facility for his fighters.
The formal name for the building is the Kevin Houle Memorial Boxing Auditorium, named in honour of Kevin Houle, who tragically lost his life in a plane crash in 2009.
"Kevin was a big supporter of Amber Konikow who used to box with me at Top Glove," Apolloni said. "She was actually the first female to win the Canadian title and she also won a bronze medal at the World Championships. If it wasn't for Kevin supporting her financially and morally I don't think she would have reached the level she did."
Top Glove's new facility is located at 1855 Lasalle Blvd. (behind the plaza where Trevi Bar and Grill is located) and is more than triple the size of its former location on Regent Street. The Lasalle location is around 7,000 sq. ft. compared to the 2,000 sq. ft. space the club used to call home.
This will allow Apolloni to introduce more programs, on-site treatments like acupuncture and massage therapy, and also host their own events rather than looking for space to rent. When the club celebrated its 25th anniversary back in 2016, they hosted a fight night at the Caruso Club, but those days are gone now that they have a much larger space of their own.
"It's big enough for us to host our own events and we're already looking into bringing a new program this fall, called Rock Steady Boxing," said Apolloni. "It's specifically for people with Parkinson's, this program was developed because of Muhammad Ali, and the reason I'm pushing for this is for a good friend of mine, Chris Sheridan who is battling Parkinson's."
The doors have already opened at Top Glove's new location, and it's been a careful balancing act for Apolloni as he has designated some training space while construction is ongoing. Not only is the space bigger, but the programming at Top Glove is growing as well, as the gym will extend its operating hours and be open all day.
"We're going to have open gym, after school classes for kids 9-13, team training, dry-land training," said Apolloni. "I've cleared out an area for training and right now we're just working among the chaos."
The club will celebrate its grand opening on March 31 with an evening of live boxing, a dinner, silent auctions and more. There are six fights slated for the evening, with a mix of local and out-of-town boxing talent stepping into the ring.
Tickets for the event are $100 each or $800 for a table (seats eight). You can purchase tickets online here.
