Resurrection Gym: Where Rocky’s Story Was Born (And Came Full Circle)
If you’re a die-hard Rocky fan, you know the opening scene by heart: the camera tilts down from a colorful mural of Jesus Christ to reveal a smoky, beat-up boxing ring. A rough club fight is underway, and in one corner? Rocky Balboa, slugging it out with Spider Rico. That dark first look at Rocky’s world was filmed at none other than Resurrection Gym in East Los Angeles.
A Church Turned Fight Club
Before the sweat and leather ever hit the ring, Resurrection Gym was exactly what it sounds like—a church. Built in 1924, the building served a Godly purpose before shedding its pews and transforming into a rough-and-tumble boxing gym. It kept the spirit alive though—quite literally—with that powerful image of Jesus presiding over the ring. That scene wasn’t just set dressing. It was real, and it set the tone for the entire Rocky franchise.
Resurrection Gym in The Incredible Hulk: A Bold Move
Here’s a twist: Resurrection Gym also showed up in a 1978 episode of The Incredible Hulk called “Final Round.” And let’s just say—it took some nerve. The plot features David (aka the Hulk) working at this gym and befriending a boxer… named Rocky… who wears gray sweats. Yep, that’s right—just one year after Rocky won Best Picture at the Oscars, they rolled out a character in gray sweats, boxing in Resurrection Gym, and called him Rocky.
Bold move, Hulk writers. Bold move.
In the episode, actor Martin Kove (yeah, that’s Kreese from Karate Kid) plays “Rocky”. The episode also featured scenes filmed at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in LA—the same venue used for both the Rocky vs. Apollo fight and the rematch in Rocky II.
A Young Oscar De La Hoya Trained Here
In the early 1980s, another (real) young fighter was coming up inside these same four walls—East LA’s own Oscar De La Hoya. Long before the belts and big paydays, De La Hoya was training at Resurrection, working the heavy bag and learning the ropes in the same space where Stallone made movie history. It’s one of those rare, real-life crossovers where fiction and reality punch in together.
Back Again in Rocky V
Rocky V brought Stallone back to the gym in 1990, this time to film one of Tommy Gunn’s fights. It was a cool callback—Stallone returning to the same venue where his character’s story began. Resurrection Gym hadn’t changed much, and that was the point. The wood beams, the cramped corners, the sweat-stained walls—it still looked like the kind of place where real fighters are made. Perfect for a movie that was all about going back to your roots.
De La Hoya Buys the Gym and Preserves Its Structure
In the mid-1990s, De La Hoya returned to his old stomping grounds with more than gloves—he came with a vision. He bought the gym outright and transformed it into the Oscar De La Hoya Youth Center, aiming to keep local kids off the streets and in the ring. His goal was to modernize the space without scrubbing out its character. As one article put it, he planned to “refurbish the gym while keeping its quaint, Requiem for a Heavyweight appearance.”
He swapped in co-ed showers, fresh equipment, and air conditioning, but left the old bones in place. The Jesus portrait came down, but those wooden beams you see behind Rocky and Spider? De La Hoya left those in place, freshly painted white but unmistakable.
The Final Bell: Demolished in 2006
Sadly, Resurrection Gym didn’t dodge every punch. In 2006, the building was torn down to make room for De La Hoya’s Ánimo Charter High School. That might sting, but there’s something poetic about it—an old gym giving way to a future generation. Still, if you ever visited Resurrection or watched Rocky with the sound up and the lights low, you know it deserved its own place in boxing history.
