On April 20, Anthony Sims Jr., a professional super middleweight American boxer, hosted a community-known event, “Naptown Rumble,” at Arsenal Technical High School. During this event, four boxing matches began back-to-back, featuring boxers hailing worldwide, with a sizable number coming from Indianapolis. Throughout the entire event, the only sounds that could be heard were the cheers and applause of the audience
“Youth inspired me to start up this event,” Sims said. “If I don’t create a platform, expose kids to boxing, and show it to be a healthy outlet to anger and frustration, I don't know who else will.”
He stated that during this dark era in the world with so much violence, he wanted to reimburse the community in the ways of old-school boxing, to serve as a reminder of other alternative routes when it comes to violence.
“I’m a firm believer in ‘never use a permanent solution to a temporary problem,’” he said. “In boxing, you can always get away from that after a match, but once you kill somebody, that will only bring you down a path where all you want to do is kill someone.”
Even though the entire event went off without a hitch, that’s not to say that there were a few difficulties before the event was finalized. Sims stated that the biggest problem for this event was a “lack of professionalism” as he called it, with some boxers canceling their debut in the ring at the last minute, important sponsors and organizers not showing up on time or one of the staff that works backstage needing a sudden change in the venue.
“Unfortunately, it’s a thing in Indianapolis,” Sims said. “People don’t want to operate their vibration on certain frequencies, so they sadly have to adjust and organize things with what they have on hand.”
Regardless, many attendees of the Naptown Rumble event found that it was a great way to spend some time out of the house and return to a time when violence was not solved with guns but with fists. On this, Sims stated that he believes this boxing event could inspire the resolution of other conflicts beyond simply ruling out another living being’s life on Earth.
“So let’s see some boxing moves instead, shall we?” he said.