Up North: Team Combat League on the rise as Duluth boxing coach will make debut

Many boxers have come and gone from Jungle Boy Boxing Gym in Duluth – but maybe not like this.

Alissa Boltz is always around the gym, helping younger boxers with their skills. But when an opportunity she had been seeking out became available, she jumped on it, setting up her new future as a professional boxer.

“I was looking into the league last fall, and then kind of was not getting anything back when I reached out about tryouts,” said Boltz. “Ironically, I was going down to Atlanta for a marathon, because my goal is to run a marathon in every state. Team Atlanta attack had their team tryouts when I was down there, so I went to the tryouts on a Friday and then ran my marathon on a Sunday.”

“I didn’t even know about this,” said Zach Walters, the owner of Jungle Boy Boxing Gym. “So, we started looking into it more, and this combat league is like really a cool opportunity for boxers crossing over from the amateur boxing ranks to the professional ranks.”

The Team Combat League, now in its third year, is a revolutionary idea, and allows amateur fighters to experience the next level.

“There’s teams throughout the nation, about eight of them, I believe, and we travel and we’ll compete against other teams. Typically, each boxer has one or two rounds, and then all of the boxer scores kind of go into a team score, and that will depend on which team wins or not,” said Boltz.

Boxing takes a ton of mental fortitude, which is built up by the Jungle Boy Boxing Gym, regardless of if it’s fighting, or just being around other athletes.

“I remember running a marathon and kind of having Zach’s voice in my head just like mile by mile, just counting down the miles, because once you get up to 20, it kind of gets a little gruesome, and you’ve got to have that mentality to keep pushing,” said Boltz.

While many will cheer Alissa on, she’ll certainly be missed around the gym.

“She’s really valuable to the gym. We’re going to totally miss her when she’s gone, but she knows what she’s doing, and she’s jumping into this tournament, and I think she’s going to do really well,” concluded Walters.