Dozens of women with no boxing background spent months training for three two-minute rounds, then stepped under the lights at MGM Music Hall on Wednesday night to fight for causes tied to cancer patients and survivors in their own lives. The 13th annual Belles of the Brawl, hosted by the nonprofit Haymakers for Hope, turned an all-female match card into one of Boston's more unusual fundraising traditions.
According to WCVB, 26 women from across New England stepped into the ring for the event, which the station described as everyday individuals turning into prizefighters for a few rounds. An earlier report from the Waltham Times had put the field at 30 scheduled fighters, while WCVB reported that 26 women actually stepped into the ring. Either way, the rounds themselves were personal: WCVB reported that contestants raised funds for causes dear to the contestants' hearts, often tied to their own families' cancer experiences.
A $10,000 Minimum and Months of Training
Every Belles of the Brawl participant had to clear a fundraising bar before lacing up gloves. Per Dot News, each fighter was required to raise a minimum of $10,000. Dorchester's Dawn Morris, one of the fighters profiled ahead of the event, had raised close to $18,000 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with another $2,000 expected by fight night, the outlet reported.
Morris trained for four months with coach Matthew Duggan at Waymaker Boxing on Freeport Street before facing fellow amateur Lori Flynn, the same report noted. The Waltham Times had earlier reported that its own cluster of four Waltham fighters had combined to raise more than $37,000, part of a total exceeding $175,000 across participants at the time of that report. The USA Boxing-sanctioned bouts, consisting of three two-minute rounds each, were scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., according to the Waltham Times.
A Nonprofit Built on Ordinary People Turned Fighters
Haymakers for Hope describes itself as a cancer-fighting 501(c)(3), and its model hinges on empowering ordinary people to train and raise money simultaneously. The organization says participants can direct their fundraising to an approved cancer-focused organization of their choice or to one of its primary beneficiaries, according to its own Our Impact page.
Haymakers for Hope’s Our Impact page lists more than $35 million raised. Other reports have cited different cumulative figures at different points in time — a 2024 MassLive report put the total at more than $25 million since 2011, while a separate Yahoo-published report cited more than $32 million since the organization's creation. The gap likely reflects the different dates those figures were reported, though none of the sources reconcile the numbers directly.
Boxing as Fundraiser, Boston as Home Base
According to a 2024 MassLive report, Haymakers for Hope has hosted events in Boston since 2013, and a separate 2024 account from the outlet detailed a companion event, Rock 'N Rumble, that featured 32 amateur boxers at MGM Music Hall at Fenway and had already surpassed a $750,000 fundraising goal ahead of the fight. Jimmy Fund materials describe Belles of the Brawl as an amateur boxing event where female boxers train for four months before facing another amateur, welcoming first-time boxers into the ring.
The scale of the program has grown over more than a decade. A 2026 report from Mass Nonprofit said Haymakers for Hope has transformed more than 1,500 ordinary participants into amateur fighters, and that last year's Belles of the Brawl raised more than $231,000 for the organization's mission. The prior year's event, the 12th annual Belles of the Brawl, also featured 26 women boxing at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, per WCVB's earlier coverage.
Haymakers for Hope's broader portfolio extends beyond the ring, with the organization also running a charity road race, golf outing and polar plunge, according to its Our Impact page. For the women who spent their fall training instead of relaxing after work, though, Wednesday night's bouts at MGM Music Hall were the culmination of a very specific, very personal goal — raising money for cancer causes tied to people they know, one round at a time.
