Five years ago, Hurricane Sandy tested the fighting spirit of a retired boxer and his family living in Rockaway Beach. Today, that family and their business are stronger than ever before thanks to their down-but-never-out mentality.  NY1's Rocco Vertuccio has their story.

When Chris Romulo was knocked down during his boxing days, he got back up.

But after more than 40 fights and six titles in Muay Thai fighting, Romulo was staggered by Hurricane Sandy.

"Let's just say it was the biggest fight I ever had," he said.

Sandy destroyed the gym and fitness center that Chris and his wife Sarah had opened in Rockaway Beach just two years before the storm.

"We were just starting out and really building our gym, so money was definitely tight," Sarah said. "So for us to lose all of that it was really, really challenging."

The Romulos launched their business after Chris retired from fighting to help people in the Rockaways stay fit and healthy, and to give kids in the neighborhood a positive place to hang out. It was all lost under six feet of water.

"Everything that we built with our bare hands — with ourselves and our members and the rest of the community that helped us out — was gone," Chris said.

Losing their business would be bad enough, but the storm also destroyed their apartment and all their possessions, leaving Romulo, his wife, and their two children homeless.

"It felt weird to not have a place to kind of go back to, the comfort of a home," Sarah said.

The Romulos bounced around for months, living with family and friends. To earn some money, Chris taught classes here and there, even in a temporary apartment. The couple did not have flood insurance for their apartment or their business.

But they were determined to rebuild. "That's the fighter in me," Chris said. "I'm not going to give up. You're going to have to kill me to stop me."

They decided not only to rebuild but to stay in the Rockaways. "It wouldn't have felt the same," Sarah said. "It wouldn't have felt right to the people here who were counting on us."

The Romulos recently bought a home, and after operating their business in a few temporary locations, the couple opened their new and expanded CROM Gym around the corner from their original location.

Five years after Sandy, the Romulos' business is better than ever before. Back when they first opened in 2010, they had about 50 to 60 members.

Today, they have about 300 — not just from the Rockaways but from all over the city.

"We were wobbled and we were dazed, but we figured it out," Chris said.

"We were able to pull together, become stronger, really support each other," Sarah said.