Fresh off a fifth straight national championship win, Ja'sir Junior, 14, was in the gym preparing on Wednesday evening for an even bigger fight.

Junior is one of seven boxers representing America in the 'Gloves up, Guns Down' international boxing tournament, to be held this weekend at the Newburgh Armory.

In between reps on the hanging reflex ball at his home gym, the Newburgh Hook Elite Boxing Club, he told Spectrum News how the program has helped him stay above negative influences in his struggling community.

"It drives me to push myself as far as I could go," he said.

Every day after school, when his non-boxing friends might be looking to relieve their boredom or frustration, Junior goes directly to the boxing club to train with the seven other diehards, who are seeking scholarships and/or professional careers.

Junior's well-developed reflexes and six-pack abdominal muscles are evidence he has been boxing since he was 3 years old.

He said that without a strict routine to follow, competitions to train for, and having coaches monitoring him the whole way, he is not quite sure what he would have been doing on this particular evening.

"If that didn't influence me to push myself harder," he began, before interrupting himself. "I'm a hothead, so I'd probably be dead in these streets or in a [group] home right now."

Gym manager and coach of the American team, Leonard Lee, joined with some friends who manage boxing clubs in Europe to organize this weekend's tournament for reasons other than just to compete.

They want to lift morale in Newburgh, a city in financial crisis that experienced a sudden string of gun violence earlier this fall.

They also want to steer young people away from gun and knife violence in their respective home cities.

"It's a subject close to Lee's heart and to the hearts of the kids here," said Coach Sean Crowley of Northern Ireland's Erne Boxing Club. “We want to stop the violence and educate the kids that there's a better way in life.”

Crowley was alluding to Coach Lee's teenage son, who is recovering from being shot a few weeks ago.

"They think shooting people is OK, and it's not OK," Lee said of the recent violence. "All I guess I can do is keep praying and keep pushing these kids forward."

In the next room over, another American boxer, Elijah Williams, shared with a reporter the mentality he slipped into during a recent break from boxing.

He calls that period of time his "rough patch."

"I was just always getting into fights and falling in with the wrong crowd," Williams, 16, said. "I guess I wanted to be a thug. I wanted to be a gangster."

Williams said that thanks to Coach Lee's mentorship, he has moved on, is back in the boxing program, and feels less of a need to fight on the streets or at school.

"I do enough fighting in the ring," he said. "Now, if someone comes up to me and says something, I just walk away."

He said he understands, though, what has driven some of his peers into Newburgh's subculture of gangs and violence.

“Everybody wants to be cool. Everybody wants to be down," Williams said, before musing about the direct reasons. "Is it because they want to prove a point, is it because others really needed it for protection, or because they want to be down with their friends?"

In an interview with Coach Lee and the international coaches, the other coaches expressed a desire to help Lee market and grow 'Gloves Up, Guns Down' here and in their countries with slightly different messages.

For example, the British team's coach said there is a problem with knife violence in his London-area community, leading him to want to brand a similar event there called 'Gloves Up, Knives Down.'

The coaches seem to be fighting on two fronts: one short-term and one long-term.

As they work to help one another foster the sport of boxing and rescue teens from the streets in their home cities, they also concentrate on getting the best out of their current athletes this weekend.

"Our lads will be his team. He beat us last year," Crowley said of the American team. “We beat them the year before, but we're coming back."

The 'Gloves Up, Guns Down' International Boxing Tournament begins on Friday and runs through Sunday, with competition beginning early each morning and running through 10 p.m.

Tickets start at $5 each, and can be purchased on Eventbrite or at the venue.