Meet the Grantees

Empowering Local Martial Artists to better Serve their communities

We are proud to announce the selected grantees for 2022.

Mike was born and raised in Tyler, Texas to a single mother. After graduating from high school, he attended the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, quickly discovering a passion and aptitude for boxing. He would eventually win 3 National Championships and 2 Most Valuable Boxer awards as a light-heavyweight competing at 175 lbs. After graduation, he served in the Marines for 5 years, with deployments to Afghanistan, Japan and the Philippines. He left the Marines in 2015, relocating to Newark, NJ with the intent of starting a free boxing gym for young men and women of color. Two years later, he partnered with the City of Newark to launch the Ironbound Boxing Academy.

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic lockdown, Mike started Thrive by Ironbound, a program (virtual/online at the time) for training young people in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, fostering small business ventures for young Newark-based founders and supporting them with mentorship and networking opportunities as well as grants. For Mike, boxing and entrepreneurship fit hand-in-glove: the grit, determination and discipline that make for success in boxing are the same qualities that make for success in growing a small business. To date, Thrive by Ironbound has run two intensive 8-week training sessions for young entrepreneurs and distributed $11,750 in grants to 15 young founders.

Better Fight is proud to partner with Mike and Ironbound by funding the third iteration of the Thrive program.

Sally Rizzo and Julian Marquez are partners in both life and the Old Koloa Regenerative Farm, which they took over in early 2022.

Sally grew up in in the Endless Mountain Region of Northeastern, Pennsylvania. She and her twin brother spent their days running around, barefoot and wild, exploring the wilderness and creating in nature. These experiences shaped her into a soil-loving, energetic, community-minded activator. After graduating college in 2012 with a BA in Environmental Studies, Sally started a small community outreach business called Mindful Harvest. By designing and hosting hands-on workshops, she was able to connect disenfranchised youth and their families to the healthy, local produce growing around them.

Julian grew up farming with his family on the island of Kauai. Though he moved to California at the age of 14 to deepen his martial arts training, he always dreamed of moving back to Kauai and teaching jiujitsu to his local community. After travelling the world and acquiring his black belt, he did exactly that. He is a solid pillar of the Kauai community, spending his days teaching martial arts to both kids and their parents, while raising a small family of his own.

With the support of Better Fight, Sally and Julian are piloting their Gather to Grow program, which they hope will serve as a bridge for the youth of Kauai to expand upon and learn new self-sustainability skills off the mats, while also strengthening their connection to one another and the aina (land). Through weekly hands-on workshops, students will have an active role in learning about where their food comes from (both plants and animals) and how to care for it properly and ethically in order to reap a sustainable harvest.

Reggie Ordoñez is the Founder of Embrace Process, implementing his vision of social and civic integration for youth through their physical, mental and spiritual development.

Reggie grew up in rural Arizona and experienced life as a disenfranchised teenager. He understands the impact of positive role models and their ability to steer the direction of impressionable youth. He is a former Marine, having served as an infantryman in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti, as well as a Marine Corp Martial Arts Instructor. He believes that service continues long after we’ve served and chooses to make an impact in the sorts of places he needed when he was young. 

Working out of The Academy in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Reggie and Embrace Process are piloting a novel program (funded by Better Fight) that will pay young athletes to act as “big brothers” to community youth, encouraging these children to train consistently and look to the gym as a place where they might find resources and support that they or their families need.