The idea of professional boxing as a “team sport” might be a novel one, but a group of area pugilists is fighting to rewrite that script.
On Sunday, Aug. 20, fighting in the first-ever Team Combat League “Mega Brawl”, the NYC Attitude squad edged the Atlanta Attack 172-165 to capture the inaugural TCL championship. But the story behind the journey to the crown may be just as much about one team’s success as it is about the viability of a sustainable team boxing league set to rise in popularity.
Attitude Head Coach Ryan O’Leary—who operates the New Rochelle-based Champs Boxing Club—said he first head rumblings about the TCL in October of 2022. And although some in the boxing world were skeptical about the viability of a team-based professional boxing league, O’Leary admitted the idea was intriguing.
“A few of the bigger-named boxing gyms in the city sort of brushed this off because historically in these boxing gyms, we always get people wanting to do reality shows and mostly they never come to fruition,” said O’Leary. “But one of the coaches asked me to get a few pros together, and said they want to do a little sparring video and talk about the concept.”
O’Leary, a 30-year veteran trainer, obliged, putting pro fighters together in matched sparring sessions that adhered to the TCL format. Impressed, representatives of the league contacted him a month later, looking to move forward with the plan.
The concept was remarkably simple; each of the league’s six clubs—there were also squads located in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas and Washington DC—would field a roster of 18 fighters across five male weight classes and one women’s division. Opposing teams would square off in a series of 18 three-minute rounds, with each fighter participating in one round of action.
O’Leary went about enlisting a co-head coach in Benny Roman, filling out a roster filled with a mix of seasoned veterans and younger fighters and set out to ready the squad for its first TCL bout, which was held at Mohegan Sun on March 29.
It didn’t take long to see that this new venture had legs, recalled O’Leary.
“That first event was so much fun, the camaraderie between teammates was there, which you don’t always get because boxing is an individual sport. But when they were all together, pumping each other up, it was amazing” said O’Leary. “The Commissioner loved it, the crowd loved it, everybody loved it, so it just kept progressing and we got a full season out of it.”
From March to August, the champion Attitude would post a 7-2 record, and O’Leary marveled at how the one-round fights served as a great equalizer.
“There were guys with 30 pro fights, fighting for world titles, who were in this league, but it was a lot of the younger guys, the ones who came right out of the amateurs who had some of the most success,” said O’Leary. “I think the reason is that these guys were used to going 10 rounds, taking their time, setting up their punches, whereas the kids were fighting at such a rapid pace, they were winning all their fights.”
Now, with a title in the trophy case and plans for league expansion—both nationally and internationally—on the horizon, O’Leary believes that the Team Combat League may be here to stay.
“Especially for this generation, a quick swipe generation, kids don’t want to sit and watch a 12-round fight, but if every round there’s a different face and someone’s going for a knockout, they’re going to watch,” said O’Leary. “I’ll never get away from what I do with training, but this is a really cool addition and I think it’s going to work.”
