Manny Thompson wouldn’t deny that boxing probably saved his life.

“If I didn’t have boxing, I would have been hanging out with the wrong people,” Thompson said. “I didn’t have much time to mess up as a kid.”

Thompson grew up in the neighborhoods surrounding 13th and Oliver, and found boxing to be the outlet that kept him from joining local gangs.

Now Thompson, a graduate student in criminal justice at Wichita State, hopes to take those same skills he learned through boxing and use them to help better other people’s lives.

“As boxing set a platform for me, I get to try and use it to set a platform for another person to change their life,” Thompson said.

His medium for doing this is the Title Boxing Club, a national franchise that recently opened its first Wichita location near 21st and Rock Road.

Thompson is a personal trainer and lead instructor for the gym’s “Power Hour” fitness courses.

What is unique about these workouts is they are based on the same workouts professional fighters use. The majority of the workouts are spent in boxing gloves, learning how to properly punch and kick, all while getting an intense workout.

It’s possible to burn as much as 1,000 calories per workout.

“When it comes to the fighter fitness craze, not only are you getting a very healthy cardio workout, you are also learning self-defense at the same time,” Thompson said.

These “fighter fitness” courses have become very popular, likely due to the increasing popularity of mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

One element that separates the workouts at Title Boxing Club from competing gyms is its no-contact approach. Participants are never asked to spar with each other and the risk of leaving with a black eye is virtually zero—unless you decide to go in for personal training.

The classes are not designed exclusively for fighters—they are meant as a fun alternative for the average person to get in better shape.

“You’re guided; there are no pauses,” Thompson said. “You are going to have a very productive fitness hour. You won’t spend any time thinking about what to do next.”

Among Thompson’s credentials for teaching the class is a 38-11 amateur boxing record and a 1-0 record as a professional boxer.

His one professional fight happened about a year ago in Albuquerque, N.M., where he knocked out his opponent 58 seconds into the first round.

And for Thompson, what you learn in the ring goes well beyond the fight itself.

“Fighting sports are parallel to life,” Thompson said. “You have your ups and downs, you lose some, and you learn. So when you do make mistakes you learn from them and you incorporate them into your next fight.”