Madison’s newest boxing gym looks to promote health, revitalize interest in the sport and give back to the community.
Alexander Fitness & Boxing Gym, 4520 Verona Rd., was started in July by amateur boxer Dan Alexander. After a health scare, he took a step back from competitive boxing but still wanted to focus on the sport. However, his mission changed to focus on preparing other fighters, getting the community interested in the sport and promoting health.
Alexander’s journey started in 2017 after a visit to the doctor for issues he had with high blood pressure. He knew he had to make a change, so he sought out a previous interest of his in boxing to take back his health.
“I was told if I didn’t want to take pills for the rest of my life, I’d better start working out and doing something about it,” Alexander said. “I reverted to what I knew best as a younger child. My grandfather used to coach me a little bit, trained me boxing-wise, so I wanted to jump back into boxing.”
He started at JJ’s Boxing in Sun Prairie, 1323 W. Main St. The owner of the gym, Jerome “JJ” Jansen, happened to be a childhood friend of his. Alexander started taking JJ’s classes, trained in mixed martial arts and sparred. Before too long, he was encouraged to jump into the ring for an amateur fight.
Despite the encouragement, Alexander had his mind on coaching instead. He was able to start teaching a few classes and grow his roster of boxers he trained under his tutelage. He later moved over to Ford’s Gym, 2114 Winnebago St., to continue coaching, but also train to enter the ring for an amateur fight.
“Pro fighters were telling me I was good enough to start competing. A lot of amateur fighters were telling me to start competing,” Alexander said. “At this time, I’m also in my mid-30s, so that was the only drawback.”
Age didn’t stop him. Afterwards, Bob Lynch, former coach, manager and promoter at Ford’s Gym before his death in 2023, encouraged him to keep going. He trained under Ford’s head coach, and Wisconsin’s most outstanding female fighter in the state’s history, Andrea Nelson.
Alexander went on to fight 10 matches with a record of 8-2. While he was preparing for nationals on May 30, 2024, he suffered a heart attack. Alexander actually died from the heart attack but managed to be revived; however, his boxing career came to an end.
“I died for about 12 minutes, came back, and I guess that was my spiritual awakening,“ Alexander said. “I just knew right away what I had to do. At the same time, when I was at the hospital, my second day coming back conscious, Andrea came to me and asked me to be an assistant coach under her if I made it back 100%.”
A fire lit under him. Boxing was his calling — and if he couldn’t fight in the ring anymore, he would coach fighters. He already had around 15 boxers under his belt as he was fighting in the ring himself. Getting back to coaching motivated him to recover as quickly as he could.
Alexander jumped back into coaching with Nelson’s blessing. He was also able to start running his own classes at Ford’s, where he saw his roster of boxers continuously jump to around 30. Alexander decided it was time to open up his own gym.
He wanted to do more than just be a new boxing gym. Alexander wanted to give back to the community and revitalize children’s interest in boxing.
“Instead of building just a pure USA Boxing gym, I did also build a USA Boxing gym for my amateur fights [and] pro fighters, I wanted something for the community to come to as just regular people who maybe don’t want to get punched, maybe don’t want to take a punch,” Alexander said. “They can come in here, gain motivation, confidence in life and just lose weight because that was the reason I got back into boxing myself.”
Alexander’s Fitness & Boxing Gym believes in “empowering individuals through fitness and the art of boxing,” according to its mission statement. The gym is meant for all people. Alexander doesn’t want anyone to feel intimidated when they come in. All levels of skill, from none to pro boxer, are welcome. Even if they aren’t interested in boxing per se, anyone interested in just the fitness aspect is encouraged to come.
And it’s pretty affordable compared to the typical prices for boxing gyms. Memberships are $55 for its basic membership to use the gym and $15 per class. Its premium membership is $165 and comes with unlimited classes.
To meet the wide spectrum of interest and ability, Alexander Fitness & Boxing has different tiers of boxing and fitness classes.
Alexander Boxing & Fitness is open Monday-Friday from 7:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and closed Sunday. A full list of classes can be found on its website.
