She’ll don the gloves on Oct. 14 for Haymakers for Hope Event
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
Dawn Morris will swap her baking mitts for boxing gloves when she leaves the kitchen at DJ’s Polish Market to compete in Haymakers for Hope’s Belles of the Brawl, a charity boxing event at MGM Music Hall in the Fenway next Wednesday (Oct.14).
Morris, who works at her family’s market in the heart of Boston’s Polish Triangle, was selected as one of 30 first-time boxers to fight in this year’s USA Boxing-sanctioned event. Still, while she is a pro at baking cakes or paczki (traditional Polish deep-fried pastries), she’s an amateur in the ring.
“I teach a Zumba class at the Polish Club down the street,” said Morris, “and a woman came to class, and at the end she was like, ‘Have you heard of Haymakers for Hope? They do a Belles of the Brawl’ and I was like, ‘No, I never heard of it.’ And she said, ‘You seem crazy enough that you would do well with it.’
“I went home, searched it, went through their website, and was like, this looks like so much fun. It’s for such a great cause, and it seemed like a great community.”
As things have turned out, the 40-year-old Morris seems to have the perfect amount of “crazy.” She quickly committed to four months of training with Matthew Duggan at Waymaker Boxing on Freeport Street.
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “I never worked out 5-6 days a week. That is a change, and then also fitting training in with a full-time job plus living life and trying to take care of myself and sleep, that’s been pretty challenging to do.”
She added that “learning boxing has been crazy. I never knew really how much goes into it. You have footwork, handwork, head work, speed, and there is so much focus that’s involved.
“It’s the one sport that I’ve done where you are only focusing on what you’re doing. You can’t think about anything else going on in your life while you are in the ring.”
Outside the gym sessions, Morris is committed to raising funds and awareness for cancer research. Each participant is required to raise a minimum of $10,000, something she said she has far surpassed through events like KO Cancer at Dorchester Brewery and Squats & Booty Pops at The New Studio by CTS.
Between those events and selling some of her baked goods and scratch tickets, Morris has raised close to $18,000, all of which will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as will the $2,000 more she expects to gather by fight night next week.
“When someone tells you they have cancer, it’s so devastating,” she said. “You don’t know what to say; there are no words that are really that comforting. I can give them cozy gifts to make them feel better. I can bring them food. But that never feels like enough.”
“I feel like this is a perfect opportunity for me to be able to raise a bunch of money for Dana-Farber and then feel like that is making some bigger difference for everyone I know who has gone through cancer. I’m hoping this helps. Maybe there will be fewer people who have to endure this battle.”
With just a week or so left of training, Morris, who will fight fellow amateur Lori Flynn, recognizes the event symbolizes a much greater fight.
“I do have people in my life that have taken a punch from cancer, but I think everyone has someone in their life who has taken a punch from cancer. There are several people I love who have faced this fight, and watching them go through it has been incredibly difficult,” she said. “I want to fight for them, for the strength they have shown, for the families that stand beside these people.”
For more information, or to make a donation, visit haymakersforhope.org.
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
