A Kensington boxing arena once known as ‘The Blood Pit’ could become a youth center and ‘a beacon of light’

The last set of bleachers was still standing last summer when Buddy Osborn walked into the Cambria, a warehouse-like building tucked off Kensington Avenue that 50 years ago was the hub of the city’s boxing scene.

The wooden seats saw their final fight in 1963 and spent the last few years watching over stacks of automobile parts. It has been a while since the Cambria buzzed.

But Osborn ― a once-promising amateur fighter from the neighborhood who spent five years in federal prison and is now the pastor of Kensington’s Rock Ministries — wants to pick the Cambria off the mat. His ministry, which uses boxing as a way to introduce children to Jesus, purchased the brick building near Kensington and Somerset Avenues for $600,000 and dreams of transforming it into a youth recreation center.

It will have a basketball court, a rock-climbing wall, classrooms, and “every game you can imagine,” Osborn said. A banner outside the old boxing arena says it’s the future home of the “Youth Factory.” It’s a needed refuge, he added, for kids in a neighborhood that is the center of the heroin epidemic.

“The sad part is that the kids from this community, they didn’t sign up for that,” Osborn said. “What they’ve seen with their eyes and heard with their ears, a lot of these kids have post-traumatic stress disorder because of what they’re experiencing through no fault of their own. But when they come in here, they know it’s a safe haven. We give them hope. We believe that God transforms lives from the inside out.”

The Cambria was the Blue Horizon before the Blue Horizon and the Spectrum before the Spectrum. Philadelphia was a fight town with venues like the Arena, the Alhambra, and Convention Hall. The Cambria was where the city’s fans of the sweet science gathered every Friday night, stuffing into bleachers to watch world champions like Tommy Loughran, Benny Bass, Johnny Jadick, and Sam Langford

The fights were promoted by “The Man in the Iron Hat” and ran every week of the year except the Friday before Easter.

The Cambria became known as “The Blood Pit” three years after it opened when a 1920 fight was so gory that the referee had to change his shirt three times. The fans in those bleachers loved it. It’s why they flocked there to watch boxing when the neighborhood was still bustling with factories.

But it’s been a while since the bell rang. To transform the Cambria, Rock Ministries needs to raise $1.8 million. The old fighter from the neighborhood is confident it can be done.

“Anything we can offer these kids to get them off the streets,” Osborn said. “We want them to have an opportunity.”

Osborn started boxing when he was 13 years old at Hennelly’s on Clearfield Street, became a national champion, and was named to the U.S. Boxing team. The kid from Kensington moved to Montgomery County and trained with pros like Matthew Saad Muhammad, Eddie Gregory, and Trevor Berbick. He traveled the world, fought at Madison Square Garden, and was so confident that he would turn pro and become a champion that he dropped out of school before his first day at Frankford High.

But after 90 amateur fights, Osborn’s desire stopped burning. He gave up boxing for roofing and quickly climbed the ranks of one of the city’s most powerful unions. He was arrested in 1986 on racketeering charges along with 18 others, including the union leader who had been Osborn’s boxing coach. Instead of a world champion, Osborn became federal inmate No. 36314-066.

He journaled every day in prison — Osborn said he wrote 250,000 words — and scribbled his dreams for life after he was released. Osborn’s in-ring career was finished and he was barred from the roofer’s union. He needed to find something else.

“I wrote that I didn’t have an Ivy League education and I didn’t go to Harvard or Yale, but I want to have influence in the community,” Osborn said. “I wanted to help the homeless, the addicted, and I wanted to teach boxing.”

Three years after being released, Osborn committed himself to his faith after attending a communion breakfast in Germantown. He grew up Catholic, but this felt different. Osborn led a Bible study for inmates, traveled to Russia on a missionary trip, and found time to train boxers while working as an insurance appraiser. He kept his religion out of the gym.

And then one of his fighters came to his Bible study as an inmate at the House of Correction in Holmesburg. Osborn now knew why the fighter stopped coming to the gym for three weeks following a tough loss at a national tournament. The boxer he coached was being charged with murder. That was enough for Osborn to quit training. He wasn’t sharing his faith with his fighters. It felt empty.

“I got this urge to really train again,” Osborn said. “How am I going to do this? Ultimately, I came up with this idea from the Lord. Bring the kids in and train them up with a Bible study.”

Juan Rivera will soon have a decision to make: turn professional or keep building an illustrious amateur boxing career. The 17-year-old from Juniata Park has won 17 national titles, captured a championship last year in Romania, and traveled this month to a tournament in Germany with the U.S. Boxing team, which ranks Rivera No. 1 at 139 pounds.

He dreams of being a world champion, the next great fighter from a great fight town. And it was Osborn’s ministry that helped nurture him.

Rivera’s father, Johnny, met Osborn when he was a teenager. Johnny Rivera was homeless, lived in group homes and foster care, spent time in juvenile detention, sold drugs in Kensington, and dropped out of high school despite being a gifted student.

“I was a real poor inner-city kid,” he said.

And then he found “The Rock.” Rivera connected with Osborn, who offered free boxing lessons as long as you came to Bible study on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Osborn purchased the old Dennery Sporting Goods store, where he bought his first pair of trunks as a kid, and Rivera lived there for six weeks while they transformed it into a boxing gym. Rivera trained in the ring while his son watched from a playpen.

Rock Ministries offers children free boxing, grappling lessons and weight training. It has an after-school program with tutoring, a food pantry, and a tent filled with donations. It connects people with detox, has a coffee house for the homeless every Friday night, and offers a medical clinic that has wound care and HIV testing. It has six houses in the neighborhood where 15 missionaries live and there’s a church service every Sunday. The program that started as boxing with Bible study has grown into much more.

“The only way to prevent crime is to stop it before it happens,” said Johnny Rivera, who has been married for 18 years, has three children, and is a business representative for the operating engineers union. “Giving the kids something they can do to protect them from society and the ugly world that has become the norm to the kids in this neighborhood. This is a safe haven. This is a beacon of light for them to come in and enjoy.

“God can really change your life. I believe I’m where I’m at right now because Jesus Christ allowed me to be here. He changed my life dramatically. Without Him, I’d be nothing.”

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About 20 years ago, Rivera was the kid that Rock Ministries was looking to help. Now, his son is. The younger Rivera has trained with all the top pros in the city and his future in the sport is bright. But he said Rock Ministries has taught him much more than a jab and a hook.

“It’s way more than boxing,” Juan Rivera said. “The Rock means a whole lot more. Me growing up in The Rock and me growing up with a Christian background means a lot to me. I know that I have a strong backbone and I’m grateful for that. Every kid who walks in there is seeking a new opportunity in their lives. I want people to know that you can push the extra step no matter where you’re at. I want people to be motivated no matter where [they’re] from. You can always find a way to make it happen.”

When Rock Ministries deconstructed the final set of bleachers, they found a wooden sign covered in dust. It advertised the Cambria as “the oldest boxing venue in the country.” That sign — and a row of urinals attached to the wall — is about all that is left from what the old building once was.

They are a reminder of the legendary fights that took place there and the spirit that filled the room near Kensington and Somerset. As legend goes, a snowstorm trapped fans inside the arena one night after a show ended. The trolley cars were not running and no one could get home. So “The Man in the Iron Hat” asked the fighters at the Cambria if they wanted to go again. It was a boxing doubleheader in Kensington.

The “Youth Factory” won’t be a blood pit and it will offer much more than a boxing ring. But Rock Ministries hopes to bring that spirit back to the building with the red wooden door. They want to make the Cambria a destination again. This time, for kids.

“It’s right in your backyard,” Osborn said. “As a Christian, you’re called to share your gifts and go and work, to go and serve the Lord. We offer that here. Even if you’re not a Christian, come on. Do you want to get involved? Come on.”