One night I went to photograph the illegal girl fight scene in Brownsville.Legendary fighters from Mike Tyson to Riddick Bowe all grew up in the Brownsville public housing projects like Marcus Garvey and Tilden.

The girl fights are organized by the local ‘boys from the hood’ and publicized by word of mouth, the location is kept secret up to the day of the fight. Held in a huge windowless garage on a dark industrial street, pit bulls chained up in the back room, a boxing ring assembled in the middle of the space, security guards searching everyone as they come in.  The place is jam packed, people of all ages, folks with babies, local youth, and the girls who are going to fight, some as young as 14 years old. There is no admission charge and the fighters are paid with proceeds from gambling on the fights.

The brawlers are recruited from the street, they fight at the club to further establish their rep in the neighborhood and to get a shot at the prize money.The girls have to fight hard or no one gets paid, the winner gets $1000. The rules are “No grabbing. No kicking. No scratching. No hair pulling. No biting. Three rounds. Ninety seconds a round.”.

‘Boys from the hood’ take bets on the fight

Girls fight and the crowd goes crazy