This past Saturday was a surreal day for Marblehead native Zach Calmus, who realized a dream when he won his first professional boxing match at Granite Chin Promotions’ “Gold Rush” at New England Sports Center in Derry, N.H. Calmus, a heavyweight who trains at Private Jewels Fitness in Lynn, won via technical knockout just 2:48 into the very first round against his opponent Yhago Goncalves. Calmus hurt Goncalves with a short punch and the referee called the fight when he determined Goncalves was unable to continue.
“It might’ve been my first pro fight and it might’ve felt a little different with the smaller gloves and no headgear, but to be honest I felt right at home out there,” said Calmus, who goes by the nickname “Shark Attack” in the ring. “I felt stronger than I ever have and I felt really comfortable, so I just went out there and threw every punch as hard as I could.”
“He was determined from the very beginning, and when he took this fight he told me that he wasn’t going to lose,” said Calmus’ trainer Alex Sepulveda, who owns and operates Private Jewels Fitness. “He’s always been a promising fighter, and he came out and worked for 2 1/2 months every day to prepare for this.”
But while Calmus was only making his professional debut, he is far from an inexperienced fighter. Calmus has been a top-ranked amateur boxer for much of the past nine years, including being ranked No. 8 in the nation among heavyweights in 2018 after winning the New England Golden Gloves title in 2017.
Coming into his professional debut, Calmus focused mainly on sparring for his training — working at gyms from Private Jewels to Dorchester to Maine. For strength training, Calmus simply relied on his day job.
“I help move big pieces of furniture for a living, so I’ve been spending the past few months carrying 275-pound pianos and huge desks up and down flights of stairs,” said Calmus, who graduated from Marblehead High in 2009. “Because of that, I really just decided to use my time in the gym for sparring. Gym time was limited for the most part because of COVID, so I wanted to make the most of the time I had.”
“Zach’s work ethic is unmatched,” said Sepulveda. “The guy just can’t get enough, he always wants to work on his craft and get better.”
Moving ahead, Calmus isn’t planning on taking any down time. After not suffering any noticeable damage in Saturday’s fight, Calmus was back at Private Jewels Monday for training and sparring. He’s aiming to take a fight soon — sometime in the next month or two if possible.
“There are a lot of opportunities out there, and you have to take them because as fighters we don’t have a ton of time in this profession,” said Calmus. “There’s no time off ever, and I’m just going to push to get better each and every day.”
But Calmus wasn’t the only Private Jewels fighter who grabbed a win Saturday. In the welterweight division, “Ruthless” Augustine Mauras — who joined up with Private Jewels more recently — pulled out a win via majority decision after an entertaining four-round bout with John Ferrera. The fighters went toe-to-toe in an action-packed fight before Mauras pulled off a mild upset win.
“I’m so proud of Augustine and all the work he’s put in,” said Sepulveda. “He worked so hard to get back to this point and he really took advantage of all his training in the fight this weekend.”
The win puts Mauras at 7-6 for his career, which has been very up-and-down in the early going.
“Augustine had an incredible amateur career and worked at a different gym, then he turned pro and won his first six fights,” said Sepulveda. “But after that, he lost his next six fights. When he came to us, we really tried to change up everything that he was doing and get him on the right path. He’s really moving in the right direction now, and we couldn’t be happier.”
For Calmus, Mauras and a number of other fighters, the culture at Private Jewels is what pushes their performance to the next level.
“They say that in ‘Lynn, Lynn the city of sin, you never go out the way you came in,’ but that doesn’t have to mean that you came out worse,” said Calmus. “Private Jewels Fitness and Alex Sepulveda have done so much for me and so many other fighters. I know I couldn’t have done this without that place.”