Powell’s local boxing club has made it to the spotlight.

After two years of drawing crowds to the Park County Fair as a free event, this year 307 Boxing is Wednesday’s grandstand main event. 

The event replaces last year’s concert, which while popular among those who attended, didn’t draw nearly as large of a crowd as needed to justify the cost, Park County Events Manager Billy Wood said. He’s excited to see what level of crowd boxing will bring to the grandstands, and the organizers are expecting a good crowd. 

“If anything in the past we can use as a benchmark, I think we’re gonna have a really good crowd, because our small in-house events that we do through the nonprofit, we usually get about 250 or so, and that’s just for our little kids,” 307 Boxing board president Tim Heine said. “The more people hear it’s going on, the more people are going to come in and want to buy tickets … boxing outside, how often do you get to see that?”

The event, beginning at 7 p.m., will feature two main event matches featuring accomplished boxers from the region. 

One features local boxing club star Adrian Geller against Honor Senti of Gillette, fighting for the Big Horn Brawler series title, while the other features top boxers from Billings and Casper going toe-to-toe. 

“We should have some pretty good ones,” said co-owner and coach David Holland, who is himself going to box competitively for the first time in 15 years against a fellow 40-year-old 307 Boxing athlete. 

“‘I’m excited, just for the simple fact that you know I turned 40 last year, I’m able to do this,” he said. “I think it would be cool for my own children and my athletes to see me go through the trenches right there with them, through the tough practices, getting punched in the face, fixing bloody noses, you know.”

Heine said both fighters have been training hard and it should be quite the fight, along with all of the others. 

“We’ve got some heavyweights, we’ve got some featherweights,” he said. “We’re running through the list of different classes that they’re going to be boxing in, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Holland noted all four judges are neutral and not aligned with the local club to ensure the judging is fair, something the club has prided itself on. 

“We want it fair, we want  the judging to be nonbiased, it doesn’t matter if it’s a Powell kid or not,” he said. 

Heine hopes the whole experience will draw more people into the growing club, which recently acquired a new boxing ring that will be showcased at the fair. 

“We want a good hometown show out, so it’ll be fun,” he said. “We’ll have T-shirts there for people if they want to get T-shirts, if they want to support us that way. And so we’re looking forward to it.”