The brothers bring boxing back to Fenway after 70 years and hope to revitalize sport in Boston

For the first time in almost 70 years, boxing Return to the famous Boston Fenway Park.

The combat card at 11 is the culmination of years of effort by the twin brothers and longtime teachers who have grown up in Watertown and who wish to revitalize boxing in the city which housed some of the greatest athletes in the history of sport.

It is also symbolic of a setback to the roots of the oldest basic stage of the major baseball league, when it was not only used for Red Sox games But for other sporting and political events.

“The experience of most people there is only linked to baseball,” said Richard Johnson, Fenway Expert and Conservative at Boston Sports Museum. “But the fact is that this year, you can see an event that will be very similar to what your grandparents have seen.”

The promoters Mark and Matt Nolan want “Fight Night at Fenway”, scheduled for Saturday, to be both a time capsule and a time machine, bringing spectators back to the Boxing Glory Days and what sport can be for the city in the future.

The Nolans obtained their license to organize fights last year in order to bring boxing back to Boston. After Fenway, “it's the mission accomplished,” said Matt Nolan.

“It's not just like our dream, it's everyone's dream-each boxer on planet Earth,” he said. “Just the idea that a child can make his way to Fenway Park. It's like hitting the lottery. You can't help it. There is nothing comparable.”

Boston played a long and impressive role in the history of American boxing and the development of sport itself, said Johnson, author of “Field of Our Fathers, an illustrated story of Fenway Park”.

The city housed “Boston's Strong Boy”, John L. Sullivan, born in 1858 from Irish immigrant parents and widely considered as the first American sports superstar. The first world heavyweight champion, it was as famous as Muhammad Ali was in his time.

Sam Langford, a boxer born in Canada, moved to Boston in adolescence, but was prevented from participating in the world championships by racist policies and is considered one of the greatest non-champions of boxing.

The other boxing stars with Boston Connections include Marvin Hagler and Rocky Marciano de Brockton nearby. “The Boston bomber” Tony DeMarco, whose statue increases its fists to passers -by in the north of Boston, was the last fighter to win in the Fenway ring in 1956.

For a time after its construction, Fenway Park was the only outside place with a significant seat capacity in Boston, which made it a destination for all kinds of events, including boxing from 1920.

After the new owners took over in 2002, the park became a place to a variety of activities, including concerts and sporting events like hockey, Snowboard, Irish football and curling.

“At the time, it was in a way the Swiss knife of army sports facilities in Boston. And he returned to that – a bit of everything. So turning boxing in the park is only a wink to the past,” said Johnson.

Other places may feel “more business and sterile”, but Fenway is a living story, said Johnson, who calls him the “biggest outdoor museum in New England”.

Mark Nolan said it was not for lack of trying that no one organized a boxing fight in Fenway in almost 70 years. But many promoters were unable to land that landed with stadium management.

The Nolans, who teach full time and have a boxing gymnasium in Waltham where people can train whatever their ability to pay, were different. After having managed to organize events in other places, Mark Nolan said that Fenway Sports Group was connected to their call “Everyman” and decided to give them a shot.

The brothers fell in love with boxing while accompanying their father, a boat captain, at the gymnasium as children.

When they extended from the training of amateur boxers to professionals five years ago, they were dismayed by what they found: shows full of uneven battles put in place to make promoters as much money as possible, with established amateurs fighting people who “are not right to put gloves in any title” in places like the gymnasiums of the high school. The fighters were not paid fairly and the contracts were not transparent.

They offered a simple business plan: choose good places, paid fighters and reception matches in Boston proper. They said that many promoters sold fighters, but that they focus on the sale of fights that fans want to see.

“They make sure that each fight is well matched,” said Thomas “The Kid” O'Toole, a fighter from Rural Galway, Ireland, who has lived in Boston for two years, “nobody wants to see someone to enter and simply knock out their opponent and beat them for four, six, eight laps. They want to see a fight of competition.”

O'Toole became professional in 2021 and was invainly with 13 fights. He said that his fight against Vaughn “Da Animal”, born in Saint-Louis, Alexandre in Fenway will be “the biggest test of his career”.

Bolduc, born Massachusetts, “Lil Savage”, will competition his fourth professional fight. She faces Sarah Couillard in a revenge match after getting out of the end loses a majority draw in the Royale.

“Fighting in Fenway, I think it adds a little pressure because I am local, I grew up en masse and idolized a lot of players when I grew up. … But at the same time, I try to use it as a huge opportunity and soak up,” she said. “The pressure makes diamonds.

“To be able to stand on this same field of some of the most accomplished athletes, it's really remarkable,” she said.