Mission Street gets new boxing gym

Next time you’re strolling down Mission Street, you might consider skipping your huevos rancheros brunch and getting your Rocky Balboa on.

On a stretch of street powdered with bars, taquerias and a trash-filled shopping cart for every square foot of sidewalk, a not-yet-opened boxing and mixed-martial arts gym is already garnering attention.

World Class Gym, the brainchild of brothers Ata and Mohammed Salem, will open next Sunday at 1943 Mission between 15th and 16th Streets. Mohammed told Mission Local:

“Anybody who is interested in boxing, they are going to be interested in this gym because we are going to deliver.”

Mohammed, who won the Northern California Golden Gloves boxing tournament in 1998 at the Cow Palace, and his brother made the decision to open their own boxing gym when other gyms in the immediate area were becoming too crowded.

Conveniently, the Salem family owns the residential hotel above the gym space, which has been vacant since 2007. The brothers told Mission Local that passersby who have walked by the store space and have seen the banner have become interested and “already signed up.”

In addition to a ring that will feature fights among members—as well as some anticipated “professional fights”—the brothers are looking to hire “former amateur and professional trainers” to train youth that are looking to get into boxing.

Time will tell how World Class does against its neighboring competitor, Park Gym, located just down the street at 1960 Mission.