‘I know I have the heart’
~ The Downtown Eastside was the long-time home to the historic Astoria Boxing Club and while they've recent closed the club's facilities beneath the Astoria Hotel, the dreams it inspires aren't dying.
28-year-old Dave Petryck is part of a lineage that goes well back on the DTES, but one that has faded into history.
Petryck, a 3-3-1 pro fighter, now trains out of the East Side Boxing Club on Granville Street, a club founded in April after the closure of the old, historic Astoria Action Boxing Club that had trained in facilities in the basement of Astoria Hotel on East Hastings Street.
The closure of the Astoria was heart-breaking for coaches and staff of the club. The club has moved "uptown," but for fighters like Petryck, the dreams and possibilities haven't changed.