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Aurora cops, boxing club take a swing at scholarships

The inaugural “Tuition Knock Out” is planned for Nov. 11, and will feature 30, three-round bouts at the C Club, 2445 Church Road, Aurora.

The event is organized by the Aurora Police Departments’s National Latino Peace Officers Association’s Aurora chapter and sanctioned by the Jesse “The Law” Torres Boxing Club.

Aurora Police Sgt. Alfredo Dean, who also serves as vice president of the association’s Aurora chapter, noted that other chapters have held boxing event fundraisers in the past, including one in San Diego that has raised $500,000 over 10 years.

“We just thought it would be a good idea to host one,” Dean said. “This is our first event. The tickets are fairly inexpensive. We’re hoping to pack the place.”

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids 10 and younger. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. with the first match scheduled for 2 p.m. The association also is selling a limited number of reserved seating packages for $100, which include a table, four tickets and four T-shirts.

The event also will have a raffle, concessions and T-shirts for sale at $13.

Dean said organizers hope to make the boxing event a yearly event and they hope to raise between $10,000 and $15,000.

“So far, there’s been a really positive response (to the event),” Dean said. “It’s been spread by word-of-mouth very, very rapidly.”

The event originally was slated for 15 matches. But interest from other boxing clubs in Chicago, Palatine, Iowa, Wisconsin and downstate pushed the fight card to 30 bouts. Certified judges will score each amateur bout and boxers from Torres’ club will be in 12 matches. No Aurora police will be boxing in the event.

Mirna Lopez-Freitag, who is board president for the Torres Boxing Club, said bouts will range from fighters weighing 100 pound to a heavyweight division of more than 200 pounds.

Two of the bouts will be between female fighters as well, she said.

“We have fighters coming from all weight categories. We’re really looking forward to it,” Lopez-Freitag said, noting that Torres is a retired Aurora police officer. “This is one of the largest (events) we have arranged.”

The East Aurora High School Choir will perform the national anthem and Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and others are expected to attend.

The NLPOA Aurora chapter was the first local chapter in Illinois, and it hopes to recruit Latinos into the law enforcement profession as well as to educate the Latino community that law enforcement can be trusted and is a vital, dependable resource.

Tickets can be purchased online at ticketriver.com or by calling Dean at (630) 816-6522.

The Jesse “The Law” Torres Boxing Club can reached at (630) 631-9270.

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