Boxing and mental health are rarely mentioned in the same breath, but Anthony Girges, the founder of 555 Media, wants to change that.
On Thursday, May 22, 555 Media will host “Championing Mental Health: A Night Of Boxing” in partnership with Bash Boxing – a special charity event dedicated to mental health awareness in the sport, and a professional fight card. It will take place at the Avalon in Hollywood, California, and will stream on DAZN.
The idea stems from when Girges entered boxing on the managerial side in 2023. He had two passions: boxing and basketball. Girges is an 18-year season ticket holder to the Los Angeles Lakers and has attended some of the biggest fights live. As he entered the boxing realm, he began hearing something over and over, and he couldn’t let it go.
“Anthony, your biggest asset to these fighters is that you don't need boxing to make money,” Girges recalled multiple advisers telling him. “I was very confused. They said the biggest problems are the people who need boxing to survive.”
Girges, a successful businessman, began to find out that he was forming relationships with fighters.
“I am building these relationships with these fighters where it's genuine,” Girges said. “At the foundation of this relationship is, I'm interested in helping you. And once that barrier was broken, they open up their hearts, they open up their minds.”
These conversations led to a discovery. A lot of boxers deal with mental health issues but don’t know how to get help.
“It was like they kind of felt alone, and specifically in regards to the mental health aspect and their mental well-being,” Girges said. “That was the biggest trigger for me when having conversations with real fighters dealing with real issues that they just didn’t have the support or the resources to be able to reach out, because as a fighter, you need to have a certain persona, you have to have a certain image, and you have to have a certain toughness that you have to uphold, and that just doesn't translate well to day-to-day life. So that was the biggest trigger for me when I had this initial vision.”
One of the steps to help fighters’ well-being is that every fighter on Thursday’s card will be granted access to free therapy for one year via a partnership with Athletes for Hope.
"Most of these guys have the best hearts,” Girges said. “Look at every other professional sport in the world, they have some type of players' association. They have some type of health care planned out for them. There's not a single boxer who is a W-2 employee, right?”
Girges entered boxing through a meeting with welterweight contender Cody Crowley. Crowley was going through a difficult time, which helped Girges understand the struggles a boxer can face.
“[Crowley] had just lost his father about a year and a half before that. His father had committed suicide, and that was very heart-wrenching, because I've never, personally, ever been so close to suicide,” Girges said. “He struggled day in and day out and it was very eye-opening for me, and that's what planted the seeds, and that's how I got involved, is Cody Crowley.”
Another story is lightweight Jonny "Magic" Mansour, a decorated amateur, who is one of the fighters on the card Girges is focused on.
“It's public information, but Jonny's mother has stage four cancer right now,” Girges said. “For Jonny, his story is what his mother's going through right now and what their family is going through right now.
"I’m supposed to go to work, I’m supposed to fight. And while I can grieve or I can have the heartache of seeing my mother in pain, I want to show people that when life is hard, you've got to just keep pushing, and you've got to break through.”
Mansour, 4-0 (2 KOs), 24, is scheduled to face veteran Christian Avalos, 3-2-2, a 24-year-old from Carson City, Nevada.
“Different things trigger mental health challenges. It could be a loved one is sick. It could be stress at work. It could be anxiety,” Girges said. “There's no story that's harder than the other, or no story that's easier than the other. And for Jonny, his story is what his mother's going through right now and what their family is going through right now.”
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at .