|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Being a CEO and a promoter of a boxing league requires sacrifices…. sometimes even your own body. Back in 2022 a 200-pound amateur fighter who called himself Jay Money was scheduled to fight in a Hialeah gym. But his opponent didn’t show up. So Oscar Garcia Jr., who was outweighed by approximately 50 pounds, stepped in the ring.
It didn’t go well.
“He beat me,” says Garcia Jr., understating the obvious. “I’ll give it to him”
“He was going to fight some other guy, his guy pulled out,” Garcia Jr. remembers. “And I was like, ‘Bro, I can’t let this fight not happen.’ ”
Garcia Jr. is a unique personality. He started Dade Street Boxing, based in Hialeah as a 17-year-old. In the last five years, he has promoted 23 fights including the match-up in 2022 in which he was battered – but still lasted three rounds. The league has been featured in Voyage Mia Magazine and Miami Community Newspapers. The last fight, which was held October 25 in a backyard near Monkey Jungle in the Redland, drew 200 people.
Born and raised in Hialeah next to Slade Park, Garcia Jr. wasn’t much of a fighter as a kid. He loved playing guitar and was in a rock band with friends from Ernest R. Graham K-8 Academy. He also loved animals to the point his parents thought he might want to be a vet.
He even often said he wanted to own a fish store.
Krysthel Aleman, Garcia Jr.’s mom, says whatever path he chos, she always knew he would be some kind of entrepreneur.
“Since he was a middle schooler I 100% thought he’d be just like a business owner,” Aleman shares. “Because he always sold candy, fidget spinners I recall, all that stuff.”
Then in 2015, as a fifth grader, Garcia Jr. got in his first scuffle with another kid at his apartment complex in Hialeah. Garcia remembers it was the first time he got in a fight that wasn’t just for fun. The other kid, he says, would not leave his stuff alone, so he tried beating him up. He landed the first few punches, then got hit back, before neighbors broke it up.
Even then, boxing or owning a boxing league was still an afterthought. The next time he fought was in 2021 in high school, when a childhood friend got jumped and he had to help.
Later that year was the first fight in what would become Dade Street Boxing. Garcia Jr. made the two friends step into the homemade ring of laid out book bags and settle their problem. Right then and there, Garcia Jr., who loves his city, came up with the name and made their silhouette the logo for the league.
At first, it was just friends versus friends fighting each other every couple of weeks. Garcia Jr. even decided to start fighting in the league, sometimes refereeing, then warming up for his own. But he knew he wanted more.
He did not expect it to be so much easier said than done. He remembers finding fighters was difficult, so he and his partners would instigate fights between random people at school. Bit that was not a sustainable solution. Finally, a year later he saw the league’s first major turnout at a popup on South Beach.
“We did a senior skip day and shut the whole beach down, probably had like 200 or 300 people,” Garcia Jr. said. “Word of mouth, it just kept spreading.”
Jamare Barnes whose Dade Street Boxing debut was that day on the beach remembers how fun it was. They were picking up random people at the beach letting them put the gloves on and fight with a $100 reward. Barnes does not remember receiving his money for winning, but he continued to fight with D.S.B. after the experience with Garcia Jr.
“He’s just a good guy, a chill guy, just lets his emotions go,” Barnes says. “And now that I’m not fighting as much, he still keeps in touch.”
Garcia Jr. did not know what he wanted to do with life before that first fight. Just a typical high school kid not set on a career. He knew he planned to go to college as it was highly encouraged in the house, but he did not know what for.
In fall of 2022, he chose to attend FIU as a business marketing major. A big factor in that decision was the league. He wanted to learn how to be a more effective promoter and business owner.
What he did not see coming was how much harder it would be to manage the league and college compared to high school. The league was put on halt for almost a year. D.S.B. 10 was not until January 2023, eight months after the 9th event. Regrowing the league was going to be another struggle.
Managing school, his business, and fighting himself became stressful. In March of 2024, he was even fighting in the Florida Golden Gloves at Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood. He won his first round matchup by knockout. The second round was not as easy going as he lost by split decision after going the distance against his rival.
“In the first fight he caught me with a good one, I saw a little bit of green,” Garcia Jr. remembers. “I was like shoot, lock in”
After his appearance he focused less on his own boxing career and more on the league.
In May 2024, that focus helped D.S.B.15 to become the first event to draw over 50 attendees. It was the last outside event the league did before moving indoors. Garcia Jr. refereed all of the cards for this event and remembers it as the first sign that the hard work was paying off.
“In the final fight, everyone surrounded the ring, everyone had their cameras out, and I’m like, ‘Whoa, I’ve never seen this many people here,” Garcia Jr. shares. “And it was one of our first cards we had none of our friends fighting.”
Garcia Jr. fought for the last time in December 2024 and now only hosts personal training clinics and referees league events. He still promotes fighting and trains on the side because he loves it, but he knows he does not want to continue to try to be a professional.
He devotes his time to organizing events, and it is paying off. D.S.B. 23 was the last event of the year, and it had cars backed up on the street at the venue with nearly 200 people in attendance in the rain.
“It was crazy bro, it was awesome, being outside like it felt surreal again. It felt like I was in high school again,” Garcia Jr. says. “It ended up raining, it kind of killed my vibe, but the fighters are dogs, they fought in the rain.”
Garcia Jr. is planning more for Dade Street Boxing. He has an event coming up on campus at FIU and looks forward to next year’s schedule.
“I know I could do way better,” he says. “I just feel like I could take it to a whole other level.”
This story is part of a collaboration between Miami’s Community Newspapers and the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media at Florida International University.
