From promoting inclusivity to adding new training regimes, Boxing Club at USF has grown into the most prominent martial arts club at USF.

As of this spring semester, the club became the first martial arts club to reach 1,000 members. The Boxing Club currently has 1,047 registered members on BullsConnect. 

Behind the club’s success are two of its founders, president Yeran Gamage and vice president Rohan Gajjar, who founded the club in July 2023.

For Gamage and Gajjar, the drive to become active on campus came naturally.

“We were very involved in extracurriculars in highschool,” Gamage said. “We wanted to put something out for USF students to have.” 

Through their time as founders, Gamage and Gajjar have worked through challenges as club leaders. The growth of Boxing Club at USF has been anything but easy for its leaders, with challenges expanding to promotion inclusion within the club. 

“In the beginning, it was just setting up all the infrastructure,” Gamage said. “We’ve definitely had hard obstacles.”

Before starting the club, the pair was self-taught, using videos on the internet to learn techniques while they practiced with each other. As they did this more often, they were inspired to start their own club for boxing. 

The drive to give back to USF through boxing was not as unique as the pair originally thought. 

When Gamage and Gajjar attempted to fill out the paperwork to start their club, they found out  two other students were already in the process of doing so.

Kade Kranjc and Aron Medyarov had beaten Gamage and Gajjar to the punch, so they decided to work together.

“The more the merrier in our opinion,” Gajjar said.

The four banded together to create training regiments and advertise their club.

Soon, the club’s members would grow quickly. By fall 2024, just one year after the club was founded, it would boast 500 members.

“We had to accommodate and adapt,” Gajjar said. “We kept building more and more.”

The club struggled to attract female participants in the male-dominated field of martial arts. 

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Still, as the club grew, so did its female membership, which has increased from an average of three female members per practice to 15 throughout the spring semester. 

Due to capacity rules, only 60 members can participate in each practice. 

“We’ve built a welcoming, inclusive space that encourages more women to train,” Gamage said.

Sophomore Sasha Novikov said she originally wasn’t sure if she would be welcomed into the club.

“I peeked my head in and saw that it was just guys,” Novikov said. “I thought maybe that’s not something for me and I wouldn’t fit in.”

When Novikov decided to attend the meetings, she went with friends to deal with the anxiety of being the only girl in the room.

In the U.S., the push to include women in martial arts has taken off in recent years. 

In 2011, Dana White, President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), said women would never fight in the promotion.

As of 2024, 152 of the 951 active fighters in the UFC are women. 

Novikov said the efforts of club officers went a long way in making her feel included.

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“All the officers talked to me and introduced themselves,” Novikov said. “They made me feel very comfortable.”

Now, the Boxing Club at USF is attempting to keep up with its expanding base of members in creative ways, such as watch parties, film sessions and general social events.

As the Boxing Club at USF grows, Gamage and Gajjar have been quick to remember the lessons starting the club taught them.

Both cited leadership and management as valuable skills they had gained throughout their time with the club.

“We built this club brick-by-brick,” Gajjar said. “We feel a lot of pride.”