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by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information
Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield is a boxing legend from the streets of the Fillmore district in San Francisco, who hurt Manny Paciao after he was hired to spar with him and the champ Mayweather mentioned Mayfield as a possible contender, then kinda sort of ducked him.
But all of that is in the past, Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield has stepped into the executive role and is promoting the “Hard Hitta Amateur Championship” on July 8 at 1 p.m. at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton St., in San Francisco. Undisputed world champ Devin “the Dream” Haney will be making a special appearance as well as there will be a performance by Fillmore’s own Ronski and others.
With the rise of boxing legends like the Hall of Famer and Champ Andre Ward, the Champ Devin “the Dream” Haney, Raquel “Pretty Beast” Miller and of course Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield, the Bay Area is definitely a region that demands respect from the boxing world. These amateur matches are an opportunity for the public to come and see some live boxing outside of Las Vegas, locally in Fillmore. Check out what San Francisco boxing legend Karim Hard Hitta Mayfield has to say in his own words.
JR Valrey: Can you tell us a little about your upcoming amateur boxing event?
Karim Hard Hitta Mayfield: I have an event popping off on July 8 in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, and it’s an amateur sanctioned event, with a lot of amateurs from across the Bay Area that are looking to showcase their skills and build their fans to support them in their boxing endeavors and other things that they may be pursuing.
It’s ultimately to shed light on San Francisco and the Bay Area’s up and coming boxers. This is taking place on July 8, 1-4 p.m.
JR Valrey: For people who have never been to a boxing match, what should they expect?
Karim Hard Hitta Mayfield: So we will have boxing matches from the youth from ages 10 and up. We will have an exhibition match where different people will face off and it will be more of a fun thing, with huge gloves that can not do too much damage with them, but you can still be competitive.
We will have a few performances. One of them will be from Ronski aka Mo Betta Mo Chedda. The highlight of the day will be the undisputed world champion Devin “The Dream” Haney out of the Bay Area, Oakland, California, and he will be making a special appearance.
JR Valrey: So can you talk about your production company?
Karim Hard Hitta Mayfield: I am putting this event on and this is the first amateur boxing event that I have done. I have promoted several professional boxing events and championship fights in San Francisco.
Again this will be my first amateur boxing event. I will be looking to showcase some of the young men that I mentored for the last couple of years, through my boxing non-profit, Soul Champ, which is a mentorship program. I also should add that this is a fundraiser for Soul Champ, because I’m looking to relaunch it at the beginning of the school year. We are taking a different approach this time and added tech to it.
So they are not only learning technique, they are learning tech. So they will learn how to build websites. They will learn some html coding and coding overall. They will learn how to create mobile apps. We will have job readiness, courses in financial literacy, and also courses in photography and videography. All of this will be for free, all on me.
So this will be at the African American Art and Culture Center, at 762 Fulton St. We are doing a vetting process and enrollment will open up on July 23.
The event on July 8; we are looking to do some recruiting there. We are not just accepting anyone, so it will be a vetting process. We want to make sure that this fits and that we aren’t babysitting. It will be a strict program. It will be for teenagers 13 and up.
They will not only be learning boxing skills, they will be learning self defense skills and life skills. They will be learning how to control their emotions aka emotional control. They will learn for the most part how to be more independent as a young teenager, so again, there will be a lot of life skills that are taught through the Sweet Science.
JR Valrey, journalist, author, filmmaker and founder of Black New World Media, is also the editor in chief of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. He teaches the Community Journalism class twice a week at the San Francisco Bay View newspaper office.
