Tenth Round Boxing Becomes A Fairless Hills Staple

One Fairless Hills business, that already has a name among local professional athletes, is making its mission to combat childhood obesity.

Pedro Rivera opened Tenth Round Boxing in 2007. In three and a half years, the gym has already gained immense popularity. Local pro boxers train there, but for Rivera the scope of service extends beyond the professional athlete to children.

Rivera explained why he first opened the gym.

"I wanted to do something to help the community, but also stay within something that I loved to do," Rivera said.

The program is tailored to fight obesity in children, create health and to promote anti-gang initiatives.

"Seeing from myself growing up, we were more active, everyone was outside," Rivera said. "Nowadays, with all of the game systems and Internet, the kids are becoming homebodies. They don’t go out as much."

Although boxing is an individual sport, Rivera preaches a team environment.

"Even though they’re competing individually, we try to teach them that we work as a team as a community. We help each other get ahead. That’s the purpose behind the program, keep them fit physically and mentally. And by becoming physically fit, it helps them mentally to stay more active so it helps them educationally. They’re more active in class," Rivera said.

With the ailing US economy, Rivera sees the gym being a second home for local children who may otherwise take a turn in the wrong direction. He doesn’t even charge some kids.

"What we’re trying to do is to give back to the community in another way to help the kids to have somewhere to go. To still have a second home, make friends and still know how to be positive with themselves," Rivera said.

Rivera grew up in North Philadelphia. He started boxing when he was 14.

"We used to play these games, our block against another block and we would box with gloves in the middle of the street. There’s always a part of me that wished that I could continue to box. Opening the gym has helped me a lot," Rivera said.

He dreamt of boxing professionally, but becoming a young father took precedence over his passion. 

"I didn’t want to take my family through too much heartache financially and make them suffer, so that was the decision that I made," Rivera said. "Since I didn’t feel that I could fight the way I wanted to because of my age I started out so much later. I missed out on 10 years of competing because of responsibilities of being a young father. I stopped boxing because the money was tight when you first start out. You only get paid like $400 a fight for four rounds. Until you start building a name, you’ll start getting paid more."

Tenth Round Boxing doesn’t exactly do much advertising, but it’s become one of the most respected gyms in the tri-state area.

"It’s crazy. We don’t really advertise, it’s been more word-of-mouth. A lot of people have found out about us. My goal was to show that Tenth Round is a true real boxing gym, and that we can compete with the top of the top gyms in the world," Rivera said.

Check out Tenth Round Boxing's website at thetenthround.com.