When Mike Tyson ended his 2003 bout against Clifford Etienne with a knockout just 49 seconds into the fight, a 12-year-old DaJuan Calloway watched with wide eyes from his home in Cleveland.
That moment stuck with him. Now 33, Calloway is well into his own professional boxing career. Fighting as “The Punisher,” he notched a win on pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York City earlier this year.
Calloway kept the streak going. In July, he came back home and landed a knockout in front of a sold-out crowd at the LaSalle Theater in Collinwood.
DaJaun “The Punisher” Calloway started boxing professionally four years ago. Before that, he fought in just five amateur fights beginning in 2012. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
Trophies and other awards line the walls of the Fight Factory. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
Sold-out boxing matches at a 100-year-old movie theater?
The LaSalle has become home for lifelong fighter-turned-coach Bryan Gedeon and the boxers at his gym, the Fight Factory, in Lakewood. Since 2020, Gedeon’s boxing promotion company has hosted 20 sold-out matches at the theater, recruiting fighters from across Northeast Ohio for both amateur and professional bouts.
The fights are called “War on the Shore,” and the next one is coming up on Sept. 27.
Gedeon started organizing these matches because his professional boxers were having a hard time getting the fighting experience they needed to climb the rankings, he said.
Nick Mahovlic (left) trains with Hamza Abedrabo (right) at the Fight Factory. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
Boxers run drills and practice striking at the Fight Factory. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
Boxers can compete in as many amateur fights as they want to, but if they choose to turn pro, booking fights gets more complicated, Gedeon said. Professionals often need a notable reputation if they want to lock in contracts with boxing promoters to book fights for them. Otherwise, pros in Cleveland might have to pay out-of-pocket and travel to tournaments in bigger markets.
Hamza “Hambone” Abedrabo, from North Olmstead, started boxing when he was a teenager because he wanted to get in shape, he said. He never saw himself as the professional boxer he’s become in the eight years since then.
Of Abedrabo’s 5-2 professional record, four wins have come at War on the Shore matches. The opportunity to consistently fight has been crucial for building up his career, he said, but competing in the sport has also uplifted his life outside the ring.
“You learn about yourself,” he said. “I’ve learned so much stuff in boxing you wouldn’t even know. Like, even biology … I study boxing inside out. If you break my head open, it’d be a big boxing glove.”
Hamza Abedrabo shadow boxes at the Fight Factory. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
On the amateur side of War on the Shore, Abedrabo is proud to see young fighters getting better with each match.
“They’re all building how I was building,” he said. “It’s always gonna be like a cycle. People just coming up, fighting on these promotions. As long as we have these promotions in Cleveland, it’s a really good, positive scene.”
Nick Rezek has been team captain at the Fight Factory for six years. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
Nickolas Mash practices striking on a body bag at the Fight Factory. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
Boxing matches and Star Wars burlesque shows
With Collinwood’s population growing after World War I, an investment company decided to put about $200,000 into a mixed-use building in the neighborhood. That building included the LaSalle theater. It opened in 1928, bringing a relatively new craze — movies — to Collinwood.
The LaSalle’s projector kept chugging until the ‘90s, but with larger movie theaters becoming more common, it went out of business. A car dealership owner briefly used the space as an antique auto museum, but, after that, it sat vacant for decades.
Northeast Shores Development Corp. bought the building and raised $4.7 million to renovate it from 2016 to 2018. Now, the LaSalle is mostly used for events.
Robert Gatewood, the venue manager at the LaSalle, called the theater an anchor for the neighborhoods around East 185th Street. It’s a draw for people all over the region, he said, and it’s part of the neighborhood’s identity.
With events like Gedeon’s boxing matches and other niche performances, the LaSalle is starting to shape a new identity for itself, Gatewood said.
“It’s not what you’d expect,” Gatewood said. “Like, you wouldn’t expect boxing, and then three nights after that, a Star Wars burlesque thing, and then four days after that, a wedding reception.”
Kristen Meadows practices striking with Coach Bryan Gedeon. Credit: Michael Indriolo / Signal Cleveland / CatchLight Local
The matches have yet to fill Gedeon’s pockets, he said. He doesn’t make much money off them, given how much it costs to move and set up a ring, get insurance in order, and handle all the other moving parts that come with boxing.
“After doing it, and all the stress and money and everything that goes into it, now I see why nobody else does it,” Gedeon said. “But you just keep doing it because you want to keep building these guys up.”