Sparring Undergrads Revive Princeton’s Boxing Tradition

“Pull, slip, roll,” Grace Shin ’28 shouts, throwing a punch into the air. It’s 7 p.m. in Dillon Gym’s Studio C, and the Princeton Boxing Club is in the midst of its semiweekly training. Shin, the club’s president and a sophomore who plans to major in the School of Public and International Affairs, guides the group through this week’s sequence. The atmosphere is lighthearted yet focused, the calculated footsteps shuffling as the boxers spar in pairs, keeping time while Snoop Dogg sings the hook of “Still D.R.E.”

Shin is one of 300 members in the Princeton Boxing Club’s group chat, which was only created last spring. Each training session attracts about 10 students. The club is open to all levels, from novices to more experienced boxers, such as Shin, who grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and was inspired to take up the sport five years ago after watching the film Kim Possible. She enjoys its collective aspect. “Back home, my gym is a community,” she said. “Boxers rely on both their coaches and their team for support.”

On this evening, the overwhelming majority of students are women. For Shin, this has made the club a comfortable and uniquely empowering environment. It is a far cry from her home gym, where she was accustomed to boxing mostly men in a male-dominated sport.

Seoyon Kim ’29 had a different experience. She spent 3 1/2 years training in a female-focused gym before joining the club at Princeton. Her decision was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. In the novel, one of Hemingway’s characters is a Princeton graduate named Robert Cohn, who joined the middleweight boxing team as a means of gaining confidence.

For other members, such as Elizabeth Hu ’29, training serves as a dedicated window for exercise and an excellent way to meet other students. Previously interested in martial arts but unable to find the time to learn, Hu has now formed several friendships in the club. “It’s cool like that,” she said.

The Princeton Boxing Club began in the fall of 2024 with a message on an informal boxing group chat. Prince Takano ’24 asked whether anyone would be interested in creating a club, adding that he would donate the equipment. When Shin and her co-founder, Nicholas Vickery ’26, liked the message, a plan was set in motion. By that October, the two found themselves in a frustrating back-and-forth with Campus Recreation, which ultimately denied their proposal due to the level of risk involved. (Until the early 1960s, boxing was a popular component of Princeton’s phys ed program, taught by sculpture professor and former pro boxer Joe Brown.)

In February, Shin and Vickery were given a second chance and presented their idea to the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, which accepted their proposal, with the caveat that they could not participate in competitions. Shin has continued to build community by hosting regular fight night watch parties, where members and boxing enthusiasts alike gather to watch another combat sport, UFC.

Once the club was established, Shin and Vickery faced another hurdle: finding a permanent training venue. Shadowboxing sessions were initially held on Poe Field, before transitioning to Dillon Gym in the first week of the fall semester. Shin remembers the outdoor workouts fondly, blasting music and training to build strength and conditioning.

Shin is currently working to establish a partnership with TITLE Boxing Club in East Windsor, which would enable greater access to equipment and exposure to the boxing culture in which she was raised. She also intends to recruit a treasurer and a media chair to assist in designing merchandise and creating a social media account. Drawing on her experience as director of events for Princeton’s student-run Coffee Club cafés, Shin aspires to ensure the boxing club’s longevity. Whether shadowboxing on Poe or mastering self-defense in Studio C, the club is already an important third space on campus, outside of Princeton’s rigorous academic framework, connecting students through their mutual appreciation for boxing.