A refugee of war in Ukraine, Riverhead High School student finds friendship, belonging and success in a boxing ring

Sixteen-year-old Oleksandr Bodnariuk is a quiet boy struggling to find his place in a strange new land. 

A native of Chernivtsi, Ukraine, Oleksandr came to the U.S. with his parents and sister two years ago, after Russia invaded his homeland. 

He works hard to learn a new language — which requires learning a whole new alphabet — and relies on a translation app on his phone for assistance. The language and cultural barriers he’s faced have made it rough for the teen to make friends at Riverhead High School, where he is a sophomore. 

But when Oleksiy walks through the door of the Hill Street Boxing gym in Riverhead, he is in his element — comfortable among a multicultural circle of friends who love the sport and speak the same language: the language of boxing. 

Trainer Justin Mattera, a mathematics teacher at Westhampton Beach High School, says he knew from the first day he watched Oleksiy working out at Hill Street Boxing last year that the boy was something special. 

Having worked with him since mid-July, Mattera now believes Oleksiy has the potential to be a champion.

Oleksiy started martial arts at age 8, then began training in boxing at age 13, inspired by the Ukrainian heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk.

Then came the Russian invasion that led his parents to seek safety in the U.S., where the boy’s grandparents already had a home in Riverhead. 

The first day Mattera met Oleksiy, he worked with him for about an hour, watching him shadow-box, and assessing his ability — and his determination. That night, Oleksiy’s father Halyna Bodnariuk texted Mattera to ask if he would train his son in boxing. “And I said sure. And so we’ve been together ever since.”

Oleksiy, who turned 16 on March 30, has come a long way, his enthusiastic trainer said.

“He competed in the Strong Island Fight Night Series event on Jan. 20 at Stereo Garden in Patchogue in front of over 1,100 people,” Mattera said. “He held his own. I knew he could be competitive in that fight — and he was.”

“He won an out-of-state fight on Feb. 25 versus a tough, rugged opponent,” Mattera said. “He recently fought the top-ranked boxer in the division, in the Ring Masters Semi-Finals and lost a controversial split decision that many onlookers felt he won.”

Mattera believes the young boxer is “going places” in the boxing world.

“Oleksiy never backs down from sparring anyone. I could tell him that I’m taking him to spar with an undefeated pro, and instead of being fearful, he gets excited for the challenge,” Mattera said. “At barely 16 years old, Oleksiy is mature enough to know that challenges will make him better.”

In a typical week Mattera drives Oleksiy to gyms in Westbury or Freeport once or twice, in search of  “a higher level of sparring than anything out here,” the trainer said. “That’s what level he’s at right now. He’s sparring adults — and I mean some of the best amateurs in the state. And he holds his own.”

Oleksiy learns English during the car rides and his trainer learns about his student — his country, his culture and what inspires him as a boxer. 

The pair manages to overcome the language barrier.  “We sort of made up our own language so we can communicate, even when he’s in the ring,” Mattera said. It works, he said. Mattera chuckles. It’s sort of like a secret language — he can shout out a word and Oleksiy knows exactly what he’s telling him, but his words are meaningless to the youth’s opponent in the ring.

When Oleksiy steps into the ring, everything about him is transformed. His shy smile disappears and his choir-boy demeanor is replaced by a visible ferocity. 

At a practice with Mattera last week, Oleksiy landed hard punches on the pads his trainer wore on his hands. 

“He is tough, has a lot of heart and he doesn’t like to lose. I can’t teach heart,” Mattera said. “I can teach boxing skills.”

His job, he said, is to teach Oleksiy technique, style and discipline.

“Without discipline, there is no success,” Mattera said. 

The young man exhibits a great deal of discipline and has already had “rapid growth as a boxer,” Mattera said.

He’s bringing him along with intense training at Hill Street Boxing, competitive sparring at every opportunity, and competing in matches against more experienced opponents. These things will continue to build Oleksiy’s skills, Mattera said.

On April 28, he’s going up against an undefeated fighter in New Jersey, Mattera said. On May 3 and 4, he’ll be competing in a Junior Olympics tournament at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn.

“My dream is to become a professional boxer,” Oleksiy said last week after he and Mattera stepped out of the ring, where he’d just finished pummeling Mattera’s training pads, and the shy smile returns to his face.