161 Boxing Club

COMING TO OCTOBER WITH A BANG

A collection of photos during our last week.

Rest easy, George Chuvalo. 1937 to 2026.

Before 161 Boxing Club opened its doors, Mattias put three fighters on our walls. Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and the toughest man either of them could have named, Toronto’s own George Chuvalo.

Ninety-three professional fights and he never touched the canvas. Five-time Canadian heavyweight champion. He took the Ali fight on seventeen days’ notice, went all fifteen rounds at Maple Leaf Gardens, and came back six years later to go the distance with him again. Frazier couldn’t drop him. Foreman couldn’t drop him. Ali himself called George the toughest guy he ever fought.

That mural isn’t decoration. It’s a standard. Every fighter who trains under it, from their first wrapped hands to their first bout, trains beneath a Canadian who proved you don’t need to be from Detroit or Vegas or Mexico City to stand with the greatest of all time. He was from here. He stayed on his feet against every legend the sport could send at him.

George passed on September 12, his 89th birthday, in the city he never left. His face stays on our wall and his standard stays in our gym. Canadian fighters, this is your inheritance. Stay up.

161 SPADINA AVE.

WHY FIGHTERS WIN AT EVERYTHING, NOT JUST FIGHTING.

It has nothing to do with talent.

Most people spend their lives making deals with themselves and breaking them by Thursday. Fighters train the opposite. Every session in here is a rep of doing the hard thing when the easy thing is right there. Do that enough times and it stops being effort and starts being who you are.

That’s why the discipline follows you out the door. Into your work, your mornings, your whole life.

161 SPADINA AVE.

Just another day.

BOXERS DON’T HAVE FASTER REFLEXES THAN YOU. THEY HAVE BETTER PREDICTIONS

Your brain needs about 500 milliseconds to process what it sees while elite boxers land punches in 310, which means reacting was never an option in the first place. Fighters learn to read shoulder twitches and weight shifts before the strike even starts, and that same skill of seeing what’s coming instead of scrambling after it is exactly what carries over into the rest of your life. Swipe through for the science.

161 SPADINA AVE.

OUR SATURDAY MORNINGS.

Our runs start at 11:30 every Saturday

BOXERS KNOW THAT FEELING

Psychology gave it a name. 🥊

Boxing shifts your brain’s attention away from the loop of negative thought and into immediate physical sensation, which is why the worst weeks somehow produce the best sessions.

Swipe through to see what’s actually happening in your head, and why this sport feels less like a workout and more like a moving meditation.

161 SPADINA AVE.