If you get lost looking for the Lawtown Boxing Gym in Lawrence, just listen for loud thuds. It’s hard to miss the sound of fists hitting bodies and punching bags.
The gym is tucked away in the basement of a building that was once a mill. But this old factory now produces punches. And it’s where Haverhill fighter Harry Gigliotti puts in his work as he gets ready for his big night Saturday at Fenway Park. That’s where he’ll appear as one of the headliners for the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship’s first-ever event in Massachusetts.
Inside the gym, title belts are wrapped around a pipe hanging over the small ring. A “Rocky” poster overlooks the ropes.
This is where Gigliotti holds court in a pair of green Celtics shorts and a dark Led Zeppelin T-shirt in early August.
Here, the 31-year-old has a warm greeting or friendly jab for just about everyone. But in the ring, he goes by “The Hitman.”
It’s The Hitman who was speaking when Gigliotti verbally sparred with his opponent in the main event, reigning BKFC featherweight champion “King” Kai Stewart, at a pre-fight press conference last month.
“I’mma out jab you. I’mma outwork you. I’mma hit you with every angle. You’ve never seen anything at this pedigree. You’re not even on my level,” Gigliotti said in one of the cleaner moments of the exchange.
That’s the kind of showmanship that’s part of modern combat sports. And even though Gigliotti is a modern fighter, competition is in his blood. He feels fighting bare-knuckle is a way to move that legacy forward.
“All my family ... prior to this was just boxers. I’ve kind of created my own name, my own path,” he said. “So, it’s cool to be able to have the torch passed down to me, but also create my own thing.”
“This is everything to me, this fight. This means the most to me.”Harry Gigliotti, bare-knuckle fighter
Massachusetts is no stranger to the art of producing great fighters — gloved or not.
Way back in the 1800s, John L. Sullivan, nicknamed “the Boston Strong Boy,” was regarded as the last bare-knuckle heavyweight boxing champion of his day. But before the BKFC came around in 2018, there hadn’t been a sanctioned bare-knuckle fight in the United States since the late 1800s.
Currently, bare-knuckle fighting is legal in just over 30 states. Massachusetts’ Athletic Commission approved fights hosted by BKFC at a meeting in June.
Gigliotti got his start in gloved boxing but moved to bare-knuckle. He comes into the fight after six other BKFC bouts, and an undefeated record in bare-knuckle.
Like the name implies, there are no gloves. Fighters aren’t allowed to wrap their hands within one inch of the knuckle. They square off in BKFC’s round ring, called the “Squared Circle.”
And there’s a strategy to throwing punches — including how tightly a fighter squeezes their hands.
“Pretty much anything bone to bone where there’s a lot of — cheek bone, forehead, stuff like that up there. You squeeze down, you break your hands quick,” Gigliotti explained. “Especially when people duck their heads down, you punch the top of their head, you’re in for a long night after that.”
Tony Pelletier is a trainer at Lawtown Boxing. He says having someone from the gym who will be fighting at Fenway gives younger boxers someone to look up to. Even if it’s a bit of a different sport.
“Harry, he’s like a beacon showing the kids: ‘Look, there’s no limit to how high you can go if you have the work ethic, and you have the talent, and you’re willing to put in the work,’” Pelletier said.
One of the young boxers here is Victor Sanchez, who squares up with Gigliotti as his sparring partner on the day GBH News visited the gym. He gets advice in English and Spanish as he trades punches with the pro.
“In him, I see new things that if I stay working enough, I can be like him in the future,” he said.
Gigliotti comes from a long line of fighters. His cousin, Jeff Fraza, was featured on “The Contender” TV series and was hugely influential on Gigliotti’s path into the ring.
“I looked at him as like a superhero,” he said.
But Fraza never got to Gigliotti blossom into the fighter he is today. Jeff Fraza died in 2012 at 34.
Gigliotti’s grandfather, Norman Fraza, was a fighter back in the day, too. Now in his 90s, he’s excited for his grandson to carry on a family legacy.
“I always talk to Harry right before every fight,” Fraza said. “We talk over things. ... He’s my boy.”
In the lead-up to a fight, there’s always some nerves for Gigliotti.
“You have the ‘what ifs,’ you know what I mean? Like, you don’t want to get hurt. You don’t want to kill your opponent,” he said. “But, when that bell rings, you’ll do anything for the win, I mean there’s no doubt about it. And I know that he has the same mindset.”
The fight comes as more research shows a link between repeated blows to the head and serious disease in the brain. At 31, the clock is ticking on Gigliotti’s time as a fighter. He estimates he can keep fighting to maybe 40, with good health.
And having this fight against the current BKFC featherweight champion at Fenway makes for an opportunity Gigliotti might not have again.
“This is everything to me, this fight. This means the most to me,” he said. “So, this is the big one — and Kai Stewart’s in front of me, and he’s the guy I have to take out to get that belt.”
