They Fight

Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.

Sparring people like Mo Wilson, Melvin Foster.

Couldn't nobody knock me out.

The only thing knocked me out was selling drugs...

living my crazy world.

And I regret it to this day, and that's why it's my job

to keep the little guys in this gym

so they won't end up like me.

If it wasn't for this gym right here,

it'd be more -- more young men dead out there.

- You ugly! - Hey, hey, hey. Wop Wop.

Wop Wop. Wop Wop.

Take you to McDonald's, get you a Big Mac, okay?

You better act like it, then.

- Hello. - How you doing?

- Hey, babe. - Give me a kiss.

- Hey, I'm gonna keep him with me.

I'll bring him back when I go to work.

I'll drop him off.

- Oh, you're gonna bring him to me? Okay.

- If you leave before I get out of the gym, just come get him.

- Okay. Give me a kiss. I love you.

All right.

- How was school? - Good.

- It's time to go underground, y'all.

It's time to get ready for these qualifiers, all right?

I don't want to hear nothing.

We about to get dead-ass serious around here, man.

Peanut, your first time losing. How does it feel?

You don't want to experience that feeling no more, do you?

Me, I don't like losing.

I don't like losing, all right?

This is the first time we went to the nationals

and we came back empty-handed.

This has never happened to us.

I'm feeling a certain way right now.

That's why we back in here Monday morning.

I don't want to hear no crying, no complaining.

We got that understanding? All right. Let's get to work.

All right. Y'all ready? Come on, y'all. Let's spread out.

I don't want no loafing. - Y'all got to come out.

- Less than a month to the J.O.s, y'all.

It's work time, baby.

- Lyfe Style! - Yeah!

Good work, y'all!

- My name is Ragahleak "Peanut" Bartee,

and I got "Peanut" by my coach.

He said I had a peanut head, so that's why my name is Peanut.

Coach Walt is a father figure,

but also as a father figure, he's strict.

He want everything to be on top.

Coach Walt and Quincey, they're like family.

The whole Lyfe Style Gym, they're like family, basically.

- My name is Quincey Williams, and I'm 13 years old,

and they call me "Body Snatcher."

We was fighting in the ring, and so...

I had got punished by both of them,

so I started crying,

and Coach Walt put me out the gym.

Two, three days later, I came back and I told him

that I wasn't gonna cry or nothing no more.

And after that, it's been successful with me.

- This gym, Ferebee Hope Recreation Center,

it's not the best gym.

We use what we can use.

The neighborhood, it's not very good.

There's a lot of drama outside,

so the gym, for us, is our safe haven.

One time I was at the pool.

I was just swimming, and out of nowhere,

there was a shootout, and I had to get out the pool

and run inside of the recreation center.

- I see the whole Lyfe Style team --

me, Peanut, Quincey, everybody --

fighting one day on the MGM Grand, all of us headlining.

All of us -- Well, I'm gonna be headlining,

but all of them gonna be on undercard,

all of us fighting that night, matching uniform,

matching sweatsuits.

We'll be undefeated.

All of us gonna be world champions

in different weight classes.

Our future's bright.

- I see myself in, like, the next five, four years,

you know, having my first professional fight.

Then after that, I'll get my mom out of these little apartments

and houses and take her somewhere better.

And then -- No, after all, all, all, all that,

probably have my first child.

Then... I think that's it, 'cause I ain't having too much kids.

No, that not nice.

- I fight to get my mom and my sister and my siblings

out of where we at now.

And, you know, that's why I push so hard.

That's so sweet. That's sweet.

I told you that before, when you said that before.

I told you that was sweet. - That's so sweet.

- It makes me feel like a proud mother, him saying

that he want to look out for me as much as I look out for him.

That's so sweet.

- Yeah. - Okay.

- I'm proud that he's doing so well in it

and he loves it, the sport.

But as a mom, I'm also like, "My baby might get hurt."

So that's the only mixed emotions I have about it.

- It's a really tough neighborhood to grow up in.

We just had a homicide this morning.

Right here in Ward 8, we have 82% single-parent households,

ran predominantly by African-American women

and grandmothers and aunts.

So we pretty much have been missing the presence

of a black man.

So I think that the coaches is pivotal to what we need.

They've been through the challenges,

the incarceration, coming back through getting in trouble,

coming back, and I think the kids need to see, you know,

that you don't have to go down that same path,

and that's what we provide.

You know, we got a new president, Donald Trump,

and we don't know what's gonna happen down the line

with this new administration.

They sit right across the street.

So I think we have to incentivize those

by paying them, you know?

People get paid to do all types of stuff in D.C.

Why not pay people to be mentors,

to be activists for young people

and for the community to do the work they love to do?

We have a lot of money we're just giving out to big business

and developers -- billions of dollars.

So we have to incentivize those who are really doing

the sweat equity and the human-capital development.

- I'd love to be coaching full time, man.

If I keep on doing this construction,

I ain't gonna be no good to the kids.

'Cause eventually, my back gonna go all the way out.

It's crazy.

I'd rather be working at nighttime.

'Cause the daytime, they be killing me,

and I got that slipped disc in my back.

I be on the machines. The machines get to rocking.

Hi. This is Walter Manigan calling again

for the D.C. Department of Recs

to check on the status of my application

to go from youth volunteer to full-time employee.

I'm hoping to one day...

...build this empire

when it come to the Lyfe Style program.

I want to make a difference

in not just Peanut and Quincey's lives,

but I want to make a difference in a lot of kids' lives.

- Fighting out of the blue corner,

with head trainer Barry Hunter, from Washington, D.C., USA,

the number-one-ranked challenger in the world,

Lamont "Havoc" Peterson!

- When I was coaching with the HeadBangers, I had went to jail.

And I looked up and I seen Lamont Peterson fighting on TV,

and I kind of felt bad

'cause I knew I wasn't there to share that moment.

So I told myself once I get out,

that, you know, I'm gonna give this boxing thing my all.

- ...to the winner by majority decision...

and new light welterweight champion of the world...

Lamont "Havoc" Peterson!

- Using drugs was my biggest downfall.

And that's one of the main reasons

why I cannot go back to the streets.

I wasn't expecting none of this.

I didn't know they was gonna win all them national titles.

I didn't know that.

I just knew whatever we did, we had to work hard at it.

Look at Peanut, man. That's his first nationals right here.

Boom. Good brick.

- Good jab. - Both sides of the body.

Good jab? It was a good jab?

Now, come on, Peanut.

- ...boxing out of the blue corner...

...Ragahleak Bartee.

- Go, blue! Yeah!

- There was just something about Peanut when I first seen him.

You know what I'm saying?

He held up to those expectations, you know?

So it all started with me, Peanut, and Quincey.

When I first met Peanut and Quincey,

there was no male, there was no role model.