LOGAN SQUARE — A professional boxer who grew up in Albany Park is realizing his dream of opening his own gym later this summer while continuing his fight to help Chicago's autistic youth.
Trinidad Garcia, who turned pro at age 21, is partnering with one of his trainees to open Unanimous Boxing Gym with the goal of creating a boxing gym for all.
That includes professional boxers, amateurs, those simply looking for a new unique workout and special needs kids from the city.
Garcia's six-year-old son was diagnosed with autism and one thing he loves is being around boxing.
"He loves it. He's just a cool little quiet dude," Garcia said.
Unanimous plans to hold classes for kids with special needs once a week at first and Garcia anticipates they will start off pretty unstructured, giving kids a chance to run wild.
His six-year-old son Jesiah was diagnosed with autism. Jesiah is currently non-verbal, but says a few words here and there.
"He’s getting there," Garcia said. "The more he's around people the more he talks.”
Garcia hopes that's the same for other children who come to the class.
The classes will allow kids and their parents to not only get a workout in, but to get to know each other.
"That’s like that for a lot of those kids. Unfortunately they are sheltered away from a lot of people, but this is a way where families can also meet," he said. "Parents of other special needs kids are going to be able to come in, meet other families, feel like they aren’t alone anymore.”
Garcia, a 33-year-old middleweight, has a professional record of 6-3-3 having most recently fought at U.S. Cellular Field, which aired on ESPN, and at the UIC Pavilion.
He had been out of the ring for about six years before agreeing to those last two fights in 2013 to help raise money to buy his son's special needs school, Beard Elementary, new computers and to raise funds to build a sensory room at the school, 6445 W. Strong Street.
He was able to raise the funds to build the room and buy 15 iPads for the school.
Garcia donated the proceeds from his last two bouts to help special needs schools in Chicago.
The new gym, 2764 N. Milwaukee, will give both professional boxers and those simply looking for a new unique workout, the chance to train like pros, according to Garcia.
"There’s so many CrossFits. There's so many Pilates. There's so many of everything else, but there's no boxing experience," said Yuri Polyak, co-owner of Unanimous.
Polyak owns and operates a dental lab in Streeterville and has been training under Garcia for the past four years in boxing.
The two decided the time was right to open their own gym and plan to open the doors to Unanimous in late May or early June.
Unanimous Boxing Gym will have a more upscale look, as a throwback to the gyms of the '50s, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
The first floor of the gym will have a full ring and about 15 heavy bags, speed bags and other boxing-related equipment.
The basement will be more of a traditional gym with weightlifting gear, cardio equipment and an area with Astroturf for specialized strength and agility training.
The gym will focus on group training classes and individual one-on-one training, but it's the once-a-week classes for children with special needs that has Garcia most excited.
"Our goal is to bring it back to everyone, not just guys like me who get in there, don’t care what the place looks like and you just kind of beat up on people," Garcia said.
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