Inside the legendary Michigan boxing gym where champions are made and a new star is rising
JaQuan McElroy poses with family during a Juneteenth Celebration at William S. White Lawn in Flint on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
FLINT, MI – Flint is a town, known for its fight, grit and determination.
That spirit is embodied a place where fist meets face — Berston Field House on the city’s north side.
A purple and yellow boxing gym where heroes are born and legends live can be found in the basement of the historic facility built more than 100 years ago.
JaQuan McElroy shadow boxes on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at Planet Fitness in Burton.
Boxers from the history books line the walls from pictures to newspaper clippings while the names of coaches that came before - Floyd Fielder, Lissus Walker and Dee Cavette - can be found in the center of the ring.
Ja’Quan McElroy works his legs on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at Planet Fitness in Burton.
Claressa Shields and brothers Andre and Anthony Dirrell are just a few of the pugilists that’ve walked through the field house and became successful professional boxers.
Ja’Quan McElroy, 25, hopes to be added to the list of Berston Field House legends.
Starting around the age of 8, McElroy remembers going to the field house with his brothers to watch his older brother Ardreal Holmes Jr. train.
It was from watching his brother train and compete that motivated McElroy to start training alongside him a few years, abandoning his childhood dream of becoming a break dancer.
Beads of sweat drop onto a treadmill as JaQuan McElroy stops to make an adjustment at YMCA of Greater Flint in Flint on Monday, June 23, 2025.
The move ties him to another generation of Berston history with his uncles Lionel, Terrance and Rodney who were also boxers there.
McElroy’s trainer, Coach Bean, had the privilege of seeing McElroy’s uncles and brother, who is still active, fight and sees a lot of them in him.
“You can kind of see a little bit of everything in ‘Quan,” Bean said.
Bean likened McElroy’s growth and journey into the sport not only to his literal family but the boxers and coaches around him at Berston, even equating Shields as a sister to McElroy.
It’s the significance of growing up in Flint and training at Berston that Bean said he believes gives a lot of boxers coming out of the field house a leg up on their opponents.
JaQuan McElroy runs on a treadmill at YMCA of Greater Flint in Flint on Monday, June 23, 2025.
Dating back to when Bean still competed at Berston, he remembers people used to come in to simply watch their intense training.
Ja’Quan McElroy smiles in the ring on Thursday, May 29, 2025, at Berston Field House in Flint.
The work put in at the gym there instilled confidence into Bean when heading to tournaments that it was going to be a walk in the park against opponents.
Even today through the weathered ringside ropes with frayed tape on the edges, and the occasional leak in the ceiling caught by a bucket all found in a dimly lit room, Bean doesn’t hesitate to point out the Flint-Berston one-two punch puts boxers in a different league.
“If these walls could talk they’d say, ‘Damn I would hate to be that guy’s opponent,’” Bean said.
In the same concrete gym that formed legends is where McElroy now finds himself.
It’s where the well-timed poetic symphony of pierced breathing coincides with a boxer’s jab stinging the air and stops at the sound of a bell that can only be matched by the ring at the end of a school day.
However, this class is only just beginning, as quick footwork mirrors levitation, beads of sweat fall onto gloves and reflexes snap like a lightning bolt.
Ja’Quan McElroy jumps rope on Thursday, May 29, 2025, at Berston Field House in Flint.
Early in his career as a professional boxer with a 2-0 record, McElroy hopes Berston’s magic will rub off and he’ll one day be talked about like those who came before him.
Eli Kendall, son of Coach Bean, watches as Ja’Quan McElroy trains with Coach Bean on Thursday, May 29, 2025, at Berston Field House in Flint.
The 160-pound middleweight boxer has a chance to improve that record on July 26 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit when he’ll fight on the same card as Shields.
Even though he is viewed as a rising star, McElroy still considers himself a “regular person,” and like most early professionals, he’s balancing a full-time job while doubling up on daily workouts like veterans in the field.
Coach Bean helps JaQuan McElroy put on his gloves on Thursday, May 29, 2025, at Berston Field House in Flint.
McElroy’s day job allows him to be a mentor to students at Holmes Middle School.
He uses the platform as a boxer to show students they can accomplish their goals if they put their mind to it with the running motto: “I inspire to aspire.”
Coach Bean sees McElroy’s ability and style in the ring as something future boxers could try and emulate one day.
As McElroy eyes the path toward becoming a legend in the squared circle, he added Scott Soldan, a nutrition coach from EatWater Fitness and Nutrition, to his team.
JaQuan McElroy punches a bag at YMCA of Greater Flint in Flint on Monday, June 23, 2025.
“Berston teaches a system of boxing, and he has that system ingrained deep into every cell of his body, so it’s like a second language to him,” Soldan said.
He said he hopes to add to what McElroy has built from his childhood to now and sees the addition of nutrition guidelines as “compounding interest” to what already makes the young boxer great.
Coach Bean sees McElroy’s success in a lot of areas but says what sets him apart is his attention to detail in the ring.
“Ja’Qaun is at the top of the game as a technical boxer and technical boxers give people trouble,” Bean said.
Bean also attributes McElroy’s success to the fact that McElroy is focused on the love of the sport and less on the fame and the money.
Soldan has experienced McElroy’s passion first-hand for about a year now.
Unlike other combat athletes Soldan has coached, he sees how McElroy is able to be light-hearted and joke while training, but flip a switch when its go time.
“It’s a little bit more playful when Jaquan’s around, but at the end of the day, he’s a dog,” Soldan said.
It’s a mentality McElroy has embraced through the nickname King ‘Quan, in the vein of LeBron James, with an unyielding belief that he can take on any opponent.
“I don’t care who it is. I feel like they’re not better than me,” he said.
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