JP’s Rives Lacing Up for Haymakers For Hope, Raising $ to Help 3-Year-Old Cancer Patient

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Sometimes you just got put boxing gloves to punch cancer in the face. That's what JP's Chip Rives is doing by participating in Haymakers for Hope.

Jamaica Plain's Chip Rives trains for Haymakers for Hope (Photo courtesy of Jamtron)  

Rives is fighting in the 8th Annual Haymakers for Hope Rock N’ Rumble charity boxing event on Thursday, May 17th at the House of Blues Boston. The money he raises will go to Family Reach, which provides assistance to families with a child or parent afflicted with cancer.

He is one of 32 people who will don boxing gloves to raise money to defeat cancer. For more information about Haymakers for Hope or to purchase tickets to the event please visit www.haymakersforhope.org.

Rives answered a few questions about why decided to participate:

Haymakers for Hope is all about fighting cancer and you can choose the charity that you support. A good friend of mine runs an amazing organization called Family Reach, that provides financial support to families whose children are battling cancer. The time and associated financial challenges are often overwhelming in these situations and Family Reach helps these families with financial support and resources. I was assigned a sponsor family and a little 3-year-old boy named Grant, who is going through his second round of chemo and preparing for a bone marrow transplant. He’s the sweetest, toughest kid – it makes it pretty easy to go to the gym when you think about what he is going through. So far, I’ve raised over $17,000 of my $20,000 goal.

Family Reach – Nicole Ackerman

Grant, 3, with Chip Rives, of Jamaica Plain, who is participating in Haymakers for Hope and raising money for Family Reach, which will help Grant, who is going through his second round of chemo and preparing for a bone marrow transplant.

The experience has been amazing. I’m training at Box Smith in West Roxbury with Jess Smith who is a great trainer. I’ve lost 32 pounds, had two “smokers” (unofficial fights in front of people) against two really big guys (I held my own!), and have learned so much about the sport and myself. They call it the “sweet science” because there are a lot of technical aspects on body positioning, weight distribution, hand positioning, et cetera. I like that aspect -- that it’s not just throwing “haymakers.” Although I’ve still been hit a lot!

I’m fighting a very talented southpaw (left hander) which is a little different given I have not trained against that much, so I’m a little nervous. And while I played football at Wake Forest in front of a lot of people, I’ve never been on my own in a ring in front of 2,000 people with someone across from me who wants to take my head off! So I’m hoping the butterflies are not overwhelming.

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