Culture & Media
Boxing With the One Percent

It was a viral Internet sensation last year, but Boxing Lessons with Eric Kelly is worth a second viewing today, as we swing into a year that promises only sharper divisions between those who control wealth and those who don’t. Eric Kelly, a former amateur boxer from Brooklyn, works at New York’s Church Street Gym, where he trains Wall Street executives in the manly art of self-defense.
Actually, according to the video, he mostly insults these Masters of the Universe nonstop – and they love it. In a recent SB Nation piece on Kelly, writer Brin-Jonathan Butler asked one of the gym’s patrons, a JP Morgan banker, why he has taken up boxing under the dismissive gaze and trash talk of Kelly. Reports Butler:
“You know,” he began with a sheepish smirk, “maybe, deep down, we just miss that whole Occupy Wall Street movement a little bit. Maybe some of us are a little nostalgic for that hatred and Eric Kelly picks up the slack.”
When Butler asked the banker if perhaps guilt factored into it, Mr. One Percent grew quizzical:
“What’s there to feel guilty about?”
“I dunno,” I shrugged, wondering where to begin. “The bailout? The bonuses? Betting against clients? No moral hazard? Not one prosecution in the entire mess? A rigged system that socializes your losses and not anybody else’s? That’s just off the top of my head.”

-
Column - State of InequalityMay 15, 2025
Innovative Medi-Cal Expansion Threatened by Budget and Trump Pressures
-
The SlickMay 12, 2025
Push to Make Big Oil Pay for Climate Damage Losing Steam in California Legislature
-
Featured VideoMay 15, 2025
A League of Her Own: Transgender Athlete AB Hernandez Faces Down Hecklers
-
The SlickMay 8, 2025
Solar Grants Held Hostage in Pennsylvania Legislature — as Demand Soars
-
Latest NewsMay 9, 2025
‘We Are in a Moment of Unparalleled Peril’: An Interview With Naomi Klein
-
Column - State of InequalityMay 22, 2025
The Great Food Bank Robbery: Hungry Californians Face Losing Their Daily Bread
-
Latest NewsMay 22, 2025
Trump Touts ‘No Tax on Overtime.’ But He Just Made It Harder for Millions to Earn Overtime.
-
Column - State of InequalityMay 8, 2025
The Unkindest Cut: Slashing Medicaid Threatens the Medically Vulnerable