Honduran immigrant Carlos Martinez, 18, battles toward a loss in his first professional boxing match during “The Gentlemen’s Brawl” at The Standard club in downtown Nashville, January 2019.

Martinez’s life reads like a folk story.

He is a young man literally fighting for his future. His mother was murdered bringing him to the United States as a child. They killed her crossing the border. He came to live with family north of Nashville in Springfield. He was angry and fighting and the schools did not know what to do with him. His future looked bad.

He was referred to Joey Brassell who runs a program that helps young people channel their aggression into something creative–in the boxing ring they learn discipline and find a healthy outlet.

The ring saved Martinez’s life.

In January 2019 he has just turned 18 and is in his first professional fight.