Julius Washington Reports

Pictured: Dusty Hernandez-Harrison holding a District of Columbia flag (photo via @Dusty30th on Twitter)

By Julius Washington

On Thursday, Events DC announced that the latest Beltway Battles boxing event, scheduled for Saturday evening, would be postponed. It comes after the death of local boxing trainer Buddy Harrison.

The fight would have been the third in a series of bouts set to re-ignite the boxing scene in the District. Harrison’s son, Dusty Hernandez-Harrison, was scheduled for his first fight since February 2020. 

Dusty Hernandez-Harrison, right, pictured with his father, Buddy Harrison, left. (photo via @buddyharrisondc on Instagram)

Earlier this week, in the immediate wake of Buddy’s murder, the fight was set to proceed as planned. A photo on fight promoter Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna’s Instagram was captioned “for Buddy, all systems go,” and on Wednesday afternoon Dusty was joined by LaManna for a press conference over Zoom where he reiterated his desire to fight to honor his father’s legacy.

“I think it was something my Dad would have wanted, he was at his best when I was fighting…it was an easy decision to make,” Dusty said. 

But between Wednesday’s press conference and Thursday’s announcement, Events DC made the decision to postpone the fight.

“The decision was made after much consideration and out of respect to the Harrison and Hernandez families, as well as the DC boxing community and the general public,” an Events DC spokesperson said. 

The fight is set to be rescheduled for a later date in 2022, which has not yet been announced. 

“I don’t plan to take any time off, and will continue to train and be ready to step back in the ring when the fight card is rescheduled for later this year,” Mr. Hernandez-Harrison said in a statement.

Buddy Harrison was a staple on the boxing scene in the DMV, as the owner of the Old School Boxing Gym in Hillcrest Heights, just outside of the city limits. He started training Dusty at two years old and had helped him cut weight prior to the match.

Outside of boxing, Buddy was known for being a community man. Tributes poured in from people across the region sharing how he had been a presence in their lives in some form. Even Dusty was surprised to hear some of the many things his father had done for others.

“It’s amazing how many people of us it’s going to take to step up and do what one man did,” Dusty said. “It’s like six or seven of us just trying…and we’re failing to do what he did as one man.”

Anthony Peterson, another DMV-area fighter who was also set to appear on Saturday’s card, shared some memories he had with Buddy as well.

Pictured: Dusty Hernandez-Harrison, center, Anthony Peterson, right. (photo via @buddyharrisondc on Instagram)

“We were so much alike,” Peterson shared. “He’s always gonna be a gladiator, father figure, friend, buddy, all that, to me.”

This story was written to fulfill a writing requirement for Multimedia Storytelling.