Mark Evans scuffles with another boxer in the centre of his gym. The hypnotic voice of Freddie Mercury reverberates out from a speaker across the tall walls of pressed white concrete. It is Evans’ anthem: he will rock you.
He and his team of fire-forged boxers have rocked the world. Flags from across the globe line his walls as trophies. It comes as a surprise that this strongman would be putting together Better Through Boxing. Evans plans to use his gym at Cooroy on the Sunshine Coast as a sanctuary for veterans and anyone else in the community to punch their stresses away. This even includes troubled teenagers and kids.
Why does this warrior open his gym up to those who are wary of the word discipline? Because it is just what they need – belting a bag while a strongman coaches them. It’s like they’ve finally have a father. A home.
Evans’ early life is a blur. He is born in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, where his life is uprooted as his family moves to South Australia. Most of his youth is wasted here, subject to the cruelties of a man he calls father only in name.
“My father was probably… not the most law-abiding citizen, so we moved a far bit,” Evans says.
It doesn’t help that school is anything but fixed. Changing schools means different crowds, and Evans constantly falls in amongst the bad ones. An extended hand comes only from the rest of his family, particularly his mother. Evans describes her as an angel. He winches, remembering the battles she fought against his father. Feeling trapped, emotions boiling into a fierce storm, Evans takes his anger out on the world. Like Evans’ father, there is no flame. Like his father, this path was hot steam – scorching briefly and then fading into cold mist.
“Obviously I rebelled … I was an angry young kid,” Evans says.
He is in limbo. There are no doors. No way out. He is alone. He slips further into a wintery night without a torch. Then … like the sun rises high into the sky. Evans is provided a social worker. His words etch themselves into Evans’ memory like a hot iron.
“He sat me down and said, ‘Mark, you’re a great kid. You’ve had some bad cards dealt,’” Evans says. “He said ‘but at the moment you are sitting at the crossroads. If you turn left, you’re going to have nothing left. If you turn right, you’re going to be alright’.
“It was a microphone drop. I honestly believe that the social worker I was assigned put me on the path of wanting to help others.”
The road is now clear. The vehicle of opportunity and necessity screeches to a stop in front of him. Despite how damaging his homelife was, it provides Evans with the need to step up. Evans helps his mother and his family escape his father when he is 16.
Evans cracks a hearty smile, proud of the good his gym can do.
“I was the protector of my family. It was a big job bestowed upon a young kid. Everything I earned I gave straight back to my mum,” Evans says.
Today, Better Through Boxing is one in a long line of projects designed to support those in need. The goal of Impact Boxing is always to provide structure and security. Evans says boxing and the gym has a strong camaraderie.: it is a family in all senses of the word.
“It gives people from all walks of life a place where they feel like they belong,” Evans says.
He reminisces about a young woman who made it all worth it. She has no plans to become a boxer, but she loves the journey and being around the gym community.
“She came up to me the other day and she said ‘coach, I just want to thank you’,” Evans says.
Evans asks her for what.
“She said ‘thank you for providing a space where I feel like I can be me, and nobody judges’,” Evans says.
That makes his day. That is his goal. That is why Evans opens his gym to those who need it.
His life was hard, but he is working hard so others’ lives can be a little easier.
