The Fight Against Suicide hosted its first event at SMU on Thursday March, 26, featuring a boxing match between SMU students that raised over $140,000.
The event took place at the Mesquite Rodeo and featured 10 matches with guest speakers discussing mental health and suicide prevention. All boxers were SMU students competing across different weight classes.
The Fight Against Suicide was started at the University of Georgia in 2021 as a partnership with the Sam Asbury Foundation. The Sam Asbury Foundation was started after Asbury committed suicide after graduating University of Georgia to raise money to promote suicide prevention.
Half of the proceeds from the fight went to the foundation, and the other half to a new SMU sunshine fund which parallels UGA’s, a fund to help students with drug and alcohol addiction along with suicide prevention.
The organization exceeded its $100,000 goal by over $40,000 and sold 2,000 tickets. Co-head of marketing and social media, Lily Tollison, was thrilled over the turnout.
“We also had a live stream and over 3,000 people streamed it,” Tollison said. “ It was definitely super surprising, but it was awesome.”
Although each event had different winners, the overall winner was junior Jaxson Lavender. He was inspired to join because both his father and grandfather were Golden Glove champions, one of the most prestigious annual amateur boxing tournaments.
Lavender said his experience on the SMU football team helped him train for the event.
“The way I prepared for it was very similar to how I would prepare for a football game, and the mental aspect, which was just constant visualization and just the ability to be overprepared for all scenarios,” Lavender said.
Although TFAS has hosted events at other colleges like the University of North Carolina, University of Georgia and University of Alabama, Tollison was excited about the size of the SMU event.
“Honestly, I was very impressed because one thing that we had an advantage with was the venue, that was the biggest venue they’ve ever done,” Tollison said. “Usually, at other schools, they only have like 800 [tickets].”
Junior Garrett Seegers attended the event to support one of his friends, Brycen Purdue, who went on to win his match.
“I was actually very surprised by the production quality and how much of a serious event it was,” Seegers said. “I thought it was very, very well run and it felt like a professional fight.”
For Lavender, the fight meant more than just winning. He felt a personal connection because of the tie between mental health struggles and athletes.
“I also have seen multiple cases of student athletes who are suffering from depression, the pressures of everything nowadays,” Lavender said. “There’s so much pressure on these young men to not just make it and not just support themselves, but others around them because of the financial state that their families are in.”
The event was just the start for TFAS, as Tollison discussed the possibility of making it an annual event.
“It felt really rewarding, in a super sappy way. I had tears in my eyes yesterday because I felt so proud because our team put a lot of work in and it definitely wouldn’t have been possible without each and every person,” Tollison said
Listed below is who participated in each fight, winners are in bold.
Fight one
Carlo Jauregui vs. Colin Redmond
Fight two
Gabe Allis vs. Clark Godinez
Fight three
Brycen Perdue vs. Will Pruitt
Fight four
Maddox Fuller vs. Harrison Ayres
Fight five
Grant Jugerman vs. Lucas Bernal
Fight six
Justin Blaskovich vs. Tate Ames
Fight seven
Derek Brown vs. Rohan Gaur
Fight eight
Jackson Nicholson vs. Jaxson Lavender
Fight nine
Conner Low vs. Luc Beddor
Fight 10
Dalton Fleeger vs. Jack Autry
