Sarasota Boxing Club knocking out bad habits for local youths

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Harold Wilan first picked up boxing gloves as a youth in New York City while competing in Golden Gloves. Wilan later moved to Florida where he has operated Sarasota Boxing Club since the 1980s.

Local boxers tell ABC7′s James Hill how Mr. Wilen and his boxing programs from the Rosemary District to the current site in Sarasota off of US. 301 have been good at keeping fighters on the straight and narrow.

“To be good at this it takes up a lot of my time...and I really don’t have any time to be doing anything else in my free time, and that’s what it takes to be good and actually win real fights,” said local boxer Jessin Williams. “You have to work hard and you have to be here every day.”

Wilen says boxing teaches people how to use their energy in a positive way and he’s proud of the generations of his Suncoast-based boxers.

“This is boxing and this is what people need to get out of the negative lifestyle that they are in where there is no discipline and where they go about aimlessly,” said Wilen.

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