You’ve seen them doing pull-ups and dips in playgrounds across the city, screaming at their brothers-in-arms as they squeezed out one last set on the monkey bars. But while the “hood workout” has existed for many decades, these street athletes never had a single place to showcase all of their talents until now.
Enter the UFL- Urban Fitness League.
Taking over the Ford Amphitheater in Coney Island on July 4th, the UFL brought together some of the most ripped and fit athletes from across the world to compete in the inaugural Urban Fitness League World Cup. And after hours of bar work, the US Team captured the UFL World Cup title, besting the World team with a score of 32-31, in a competition where the worlds best calisthenics athletes clashed in a merging of sport, style and music in front of thousands of spectators.
Its been a dream of mine to formalize urban fitness in America, and it was incredible to bring this to fruition on the 4th of July at Coney Island, the birthplace of urban fitness, said UFL CEO Ben Sturner. These amazing athletes and dedicated UFL staff have all worked so hard for this moment, and Im so proud of their achievements. Were all looking forward to launching the league in 2018.
Co-hosted by actor and fitness enthusiast Mario Lopez and model/actor Tyson Beckford, the fans were also treated to a half-time performance by borough-born hip-hoppers Dave East, Jim Jones and Juelz Santana.
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(Photo credit: Mauricio Merino)
The US Team, which included Akeem Supreme (Akeem Scott, above), Brooklyn Tank (Stephen Navaretta) and Beastmode (Brandon Correa) participated in the freestyle and one-on-one competitions, demonstrating various crowd-pleasing moves such as muscle-ups, levers, typewriters and the human flagpole.
Shout out to the #Serbian beast @iamstipke for coming out to #coneyisland and competing in the UFL World Cup #TrueCompetitor #ufl #uflpro #calisthenics #worldcup #serbia #beast ( @_mauriciomerino)
1,405 Likes, 12 Comments – Urban Fitness League (@uflpro) on Instagram: “Shout out to the #Serbian beast @iamstipke for coming out to #coneyisland and competing in the UFL…”
Chris “The Choice” (Joyce) captured the Men’s Freestyle division, while Simone Ming took first in the women’s division. Titles and belts were given out for six different battle rounds for the Men’s Welterweight Title.
Winners were: GI Joe (Joseph Pereira), Brooklyn Tank (Stephen Navaretta), The Choice (Chris Joyce) and Laura Novack of the US Team, and Simone Ming, 2J (Josh Pantoja), Prove It (Li Warren) and Isa (Isa Sabellek) from the World Team. Beastmode (Brandon Correa) from the US team won the Men’s Middleweight title, and The Dark Knight (Ed Lane) of Team World captured the Men’s Heavyweight title.
