[Smacking Sound] - There you go.

There's a nice jab right there.

Let me see.

[Smacking Pads] Two on two.

Nice!

I'm Bob Russo, president and head coach of the Portland Boxing Club.

Nice and tight right here.

My uncle was the chairman of the Maine Boxing Commission when the Muhammad Ali fight in 1965 happened.

And that became an iconic moment in sports.

I was nine years old at the time and because my uncle was a commissioner, all the family got tickets and we sat in the fifth row.

I've been involved in boxing ever since.

[Upbeat Music] I opened this gym 30 years ago and became the director of the New England Golden Gloves back about 12 years ago.

And now I'm the national president of Golden Gloves of America.

I just need the combos a little bit tighter because you're giving away defense.

I do this basically 24 seven.

I'm in the gym every night as well, training my boxers.

You know, it's a passion.

And as they say that a boxing is not a sport it's an obsession.

And it's been an obsession to me.

- Back up the jab, back up the step.

It's just something that's, you know, obviously in my blood, but it's also fun.

And it's rewarding in the sense that it's fun because we win a lot.

I mean, we've won 221 championships, nine national championships.

That's a lot from a small place like Portland, Maine.

[Smacking pads] You know, in most sports, in like football or baseball and high school sports, you know, the coach is with the kid for a couple years, and then he's gone.

You know, I have people that have been here 25 years.

So it's way more of a deep relationship than you would in other sports.

- [Wad Fariaa] I am originally from Angola.

I came here in 2013, with my mom and my sisters.

Bob is like a father to all of us.

He's there for us.

He always listened to us and always able to give us advice and always motivate us.

That's really one of the best persons I ever met.

- [Ilyas Bashir] Coach has always has open arms.

And a lot of like the stigma, when you first come into a country, it's to keep your head down.

You don't want to make the wrong friends or you don't want to get in trouble with law enforcement or anything.

It's kind of a cozy place because I mean, combat sports has been all over the world.

And especially in East Africa, it's pretty active over there.

So when East African's come in here, it's very cozy.

It reminds them of home sometimes.

- You gotta change your position.

So if your hands are coming up, just change over.

Yeah, right.

You know, it's a place to belong, you know, and everyone needs a place to belong and they have to be connected to something, especially teenagers.

The youth that this sport serves is just that.

It fills a need from those real critical ages of fourteen to twenty-one when you can go one way or the other.

They catch the bug when they come in here and they stay.

So we've had many people that have been here for years and years and years.

So they're like family and, in a lot of cases, it's changed the direction of their life.

So that's fun, too.

And that's rewarding because all of those things make you really dedicated to this sport.

- [Liz Leddy] Bob Russo has been encouraging me to build character and a presence that I recognize as my own.

So, I know I'm going somewhere that works.

And I hadn't had that, you could say, you know, I was going somewhere, but they weren't footsteps that had, that had worked really, you know.

I would like to celebrate, you know continuing those footsteps.

You know, this is quite a legacy I think he's built through myself and through numerous other dozens of other fighters, too.

- [Wad Fariaa] It gives me a lot of responsibilities.

And a ways just to be able to represent myself and discipline.

Big time.

The discipline was a big way coming into the gym every day.

I mean, I still go to school late every time.

And when I got into the gym and it was like five p.m. and be there on time and it just became a habit and hopefully helped me out just to being a better man, being a better father.

I'm just glad to be able to get in this program.

- Every kid needs good, a good mentor, a good role model in their life.

And the many, many people that have come through and not necessarily became a champion in boxing, but they become somewhat of a champion in life.

[Beeping sound] Upbeat music [Soft Piano music]