It’s one of the most unlikely fighters’ gyms in the world, and now it’s training the son of a boxing legend.
Fighter Nation, in Houston, Texas, in the US, was an empty building in the shadow of the Fellowship of the Nations church founded by Johnny Brady.
But Brady decided to turn it into boxing gym, asking former fighter Maurice “Termite” Watkins to run it.
The pair are lifelong friends whose lives took different turns after their nursery days, with Brady becoming a pastor and Watkins a boxer who also fought drug and alcohol problems.
The men are featured in a Discovery Plus docuseries, ‘Legacy: In the Shadow of Greatness’, which follows the fight career of Evan Holyfield, son of four-time heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield, pictured above.
Evander, a renowned born-again Christian, called to ask Fighter Nation pastor Watkins to train his 25-year-old son, who has nine wins in his ten-fight pro career.
The second episode of the docuseries captures Brady telling viewers: “I took him (Watkins) in the gym and I said, ‘I want you to look at something. What God wants to do is He wants to take your pain and turn it into a ministry’.”
Watkins agreed and, ten years after taking on the unusual pastor’s role, took the call from Holyfield Snr.
“For us, bringing in Evan, it was a joy because everybody’s heard of his father,” Brady said. “Not only was he coming in just to Fighter Nation, but he was really coming into a church, and kind of coming into a family.”
Soon after settling in Houston, Evan made the life-changing decision to be baptised, to symbolise his new life in Christ. Watkins performed the baptism, shown in the docuseries.
Evander has previously said that, through boxing, “God blessed me”. Evan echoes that, telling viewers: “Without God, I probably wouldn’t be boxing. God and boxing has definitely given me direction in my life.”
