EXPANDING BROOKLYN-BASED GYM CHAIN FIGHTS FOR UPSCALE BOXERS.

Byline: Tim Whitmire Associated Press 

Gleason's, the down-and-dirty Brooklyn waterfront gym where Jake ``Raging Bull'' LaMotta rose to boxing fame, is going upscale.

There is no peeling paint or frayed tape on the ring ropes, no gray, sweat-stained towels or dripping pipes at Gleason's newest branch, which opened Sept. 1 at the gleaming Chelsea Piers Sports Center in Manhattan.

The new gym is not aimed at the hard-core pro and amateur fighters who have made the 59-year-old original Gleason's the premier fight gym in New York, home to current world champions like Junior Jones, Arturo Gatti and Lonnie Bradley.

By expanding into Chelsea Piers, a 1.7 million square-foot sports complex, owner Bruce Silverglade hopes to attract white-collar recreational boxers, men and women who have been lost in recent years to trendy Manhattan gyms that feature boxing as a way to get fit.

``We're going to go after vigorously the white-collar business that actually wants to go into a gym and fight,'' Silverglade said.

The Gleason's name also has been licensed in The Netherlands, and Silverglade plans to open a gym next month in Clearwater, Fla. Further expansion will be key to reviving mainstream interest in boxing, Silverglade said.

``A fight gym doesn't have any kind of a budget. We're lucky to make our rent,'' he said. Attracting white-collar business is ``allowing gyms like Gleason's to survive and flourish to the point where boxing will come back.''

There are about 1,600 boxing gyms registered with the U.S. Amateur Boxing organization, up from about 1,300 in the early 1990s.

Recent years also have seen an influx of fitness gyms. But at most of these places, ``boxing'' means working out with a jump rope and speed bag and maybe some shadow-boxing. There is no actual in-the-ring punching.

``It's not boxing,'' Silverglade said. ``(People) get a tremendous workout, but in their mind they think they're learning boxing. In a fight gym, you learn how to fight.''

At Chelsea Piers, members can hire Gleason's trainers for lessons and workouts. On one recent morning, computer salesman Jim Markham was being trained by Carlos Ortiz, the world lightweight champion from 1962 to 1968.

Markham was one week into a 90-day program designed to get him in shape and teach him the skills to do some sparring.

``The one thing I realized after the first week was if you're not in shape, you're really going to get killed,'' said Markham, 32, who played football, baseball and basketball in high school and college.

With a round timer buzzing at 3-minute intervals, Markham worked up a sweat, punching mitts worn by Ortiz, then laying into the heavy bag and some speed bags.

``In an hour of boxing you're accomplishing everything you want to do with your body that day,'' Ortiz said.

Markham was drawn to boxing by his longtime interest in the sport and by the chance to acquire new skills.

``The big thing is, you're learning something, you're learning to fight,'' he said.

One woman started going to Gleason's in Brooklyn after being assaulted as she entered her apartment last year.

``It really inspired me to start boxing as a way of regaining my confidence and as a mode of self-defense,'' said the 32-year-old financial manager for a general contractor, who asked that her name not be used. ``It's good, I really enjoy it as a form of exercise. Going in and hitting things is a great stress-reliever, even though I'm not really into the idea of hitting people.''

Boxing has helped in the aftermath of the assault by building physical confidence and forcing her to confront psychological hurdles, the woman said.

``The person who is my trainer fits the description of my attacker to a `T,''' she said. ``He outweighs him by 20 to 25 pounds, but otherwise . . . it took me about two to three months to get over that.''

For 55-year-old Tony Pellegrino taking up boxing was a return to his roots. His father made a living in the ring during the Depression.

``He was a real good fighter, but he never really made it,'' Pellegrino said. ``He took us to all the gyms, taught us how to box, but never really inspired us to do it.''