Shane Wheaton spent his whole life working on cars, and when he decided to open his own boxing gym, it just so happened to be at a former auto body shop.
Wheaton started Ground-Up Boxing in Antioch, California, in 2023 with the goal of giving young people in the area something to do.
By trade, Wheaton was a dealership mechanic for 34 years. Now he only does that part-time. The gym sits on the corner of West 4th Ave. in Antioch, which is in California’s Bay Area, about 30 miles east of Oakland.
It looks more like a gas station than your traditional boxing gym. Wheaton, who raised his family in the Antioch and Pittsburg area, has been familiar with the site since he was young.
“This is a funny story,” Wheaton said. “I worked on cars my whole life. I have always driven by this place. I used to drive by this place going to the marina, thinking I want to open up a shop there one day. One day, I met a guy who knew the owner of this place. I was looking at getting my own spot together then – boom – here we are.”
Wheaton started the gym with nothing. Almost literally.
“When I opened the gym, all I had was a pair of boxing mitts,” he said.
Now the gym is fully furnished with heavy bags and weights, and the floors have tape demonstrating footwork drills.
“I love it,” Wheaton said of his gym, the mission of which is to work with and develop young fighters at a grassroots level.
Wheaton, a former kickboxer, fell in love with the sport when he got hurt sparring a younger fighter. The kid hurt him to the body. The soreness lasted for weeks. Wheaton immediately went to study under the fighter’s coach, Karl Sharrock, a legend in East Bay boxing circles. He spent two years working with Sharrock before going out on his own to work with his own fighter, Noe Lopez.
Wheaton spent the last decade at a gym in Martinez, California, FightKore International, working with dozens of fighters and often taking on young fighters who had no experience in boxing at all. Now, he is doing the same thing from 5:30 to 8:30 every evening. The only difference is he does it somewhere he can call his own.
“That is what is the weirdest thing,” Wheaton said. “I never planned for it to happen, for my boxing gym to be in an old auto body shop – it just happened that way.”
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