“We wouldn’t be anything without the community, and that was the motivation behind starting the gym because there was a need for it in the community. I can’t even think of how many lives we’ve mentored and change for the better because we have this establishment, and we didn’t know how it would grow to what it is today.”
-KD Miniano, Co-Owner + Co-Founder
“I’m from the Bay Area, born in Oakland, California and raised in Vallejo, California. I joined the Air Force straight out of high school, and eventually settled in Warner Robins after being assigned to the Robins Air Force Base. After I got out in 2011, I spent time between my job on the base and DJing, but [growing up in the Bay and being in the military] I always had an interest in martial arts and combat sports”
“Boxing is basically my whole life, to be completely honest with you. I remember being seven years old and my uncles having fight parties and everyone gathering to watch it on Pay-Per-View. I didn’t know what we were there for or what was going on, but I just remember it was something that brought my uncles together.”
“I didn’t get into it until I was 17. I had an uncle who was a professional at a lower level, and I remember I’d always see him shadow boxing and hitting the bag. It was always something that everyone in my family did, and I told him that I wanted to learn how to box. I went to Hibbits sports, got a pair of mitts, and told my uncle I’ll buy these and you can have them, just teach me how to box.”
- Sergio Anguiano
“He reached out to me about training, ‘Hey man, I see you’re out here doing your thing. I box a little bit here and there, what do you think about getting a session in?.’ At the time I didn’t know how to charge clients, so I told him ‘Just give me $60 and I’ll train you.’ I didn’t have a gym to train in so we just made it happen wherever. I lived in an apartment at the time, so we trained there in the multi-purpose room they had up there”
“After a couple of months of training went by, we started talking about how we wished that there was a boxing gym here in Warner Robins. From there, I told him straight up we should start one ourselves.”
We started out of Hope Church, in the spare room they had upstairs. Back in 2018, we had probably four or five members, and we’d just run mitts and teach the basics. We eventually got to 30 members and eventually outgrew that space at the church, so that’s when we made the move to Carl Vinson, then to a building on Constitution, until we settled here in our current space in 2019. From there we just kept growing, and growing
- KD Miniano
“We wouldn’t be anything without the community, and that was the motivation behind starting the gym because there was a need for it in the community. I can’t even think of how many lives we’ve mentored and change for the better because we have this establishment, and we didn’t know how it would grow to what it is today.”
“Even Sergio was like ‘How are we gonna make this work, we don’t even have a ring’ but we stepped out on faith and God has really been blessing our program. We started in 2018, and every month we grew from five members, to 30 members to 100 members. Everyone all over the community, from young kids in pre-school to senior citizens, we’ve had programs established for them now just in boxing but exercise programs, bootcamps, diet and nutrition plans [with the help from our trainers and coaches], whatever the community needed we tried to make a program for it right here at Kingdom Boxing.”
“For us, at Kingdom Boxing, we just want to make an impact any way that we can, help change lives any way possible. From the physical standpoint, the confidence, the mental health, any way that we can. Without the community, we wouldn’t have anything. Outside of them supporting our business, they’ve been here to support us, period. Whether it’s our shows, our back-to-school drives, anything we’ve had they show up.”
-Sergio Anguiano
“When you think of boxing in Georgia, you think of Atlanta or Columbus. In Warner Robins, the big thing is football and baseball. Getting this facility changed the game for us. KD and I would see other gyms hold these big shows and tournaments, and there was nothing like that here.”
“We’re sanctioned through USA boxing, and that’s the program that goes all the way up to the Olympics. With that, we’re a grassroots gym, and you have to get a sanction from the Georgia Boxing Committee, and every year in the fall we do our annual boxing tournament, the Wartown Classic. We donate a portion of the money that we make back to Hope Church for their Feed The City Thanksgiving Drive. It’s our way of giving back to the communities that support us and the families that show up for us.”
“It’s a show where these fighters and showcase their skills. They come here every day, they train, they put in the work, so now they can display that in front of their hometown crowd, which makes it even better.”
- Sergio Anguiano
“These kids can build confidence, learning how to defend themselves, getting in shape. One thing about boxing is anyone can learn it and it’s something you can pass down to the next generation”
“The theme was Gloves Not Guns, just as a way to support the youth and adult boxers and show them that there’s a better way than to resort to gun violence. There were fighters from Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, all over the region. We had 30 fights, 30 belts, about 60 fighters from eight years old to one of our oldest fighters in his 40s.”
- KD Miniano
“Our goal for the future is to help out the troubled youth, and the youth in general, and make an impact on them. Whether it’s confidence or bullying, a kid whose hyperactive or getting in trouble at school, he can come in here and burn off that energy.”
“At the end of the day, the main goal is for the gym to grow, more if possible, and to open up more avenues of income for us so we can continue to build our business and impact our youth.”
- Sergio Anguiano
