The metal shell of the Goodman building reverberated with bass-boosted music. The air hung thick with anticipation – and nerves.

Boxers bathed in the bluish glow paced the open-air second floor, overlooking the buzzing audience. 

“Strangely enough, I wasn’t nervous to fight in front of all those people, because I knew it was for a good cause,” Elliott Eischeid said. “I couldn’t even hear the people chanting my name because I was so locked in.” 

Eischeid, a senior at the University of South Carolina, was one of 16 volunteer fighters participating in The Fight Against Suicide on Friday, Sept. 12. 

He decided to volunteer because a close friend and founder of USC MIND, Wade Jefferson, asked him to. 

“I have literally never been so proud of my friends in my life,” Jefferson said. “The biggest thing you can do for your friends and other people is to show up. And, like, the fact they’re able to show up and actually get in the ring and fight is just a different level of showing up for your friends and being there. I mean, they sacrifice a lot of time.” 

The event was the debut “Fight Night” for USC, but the ninth event held at participating colleges for The Fight Against Suicide. USC’s collaboration can be directly attributed to the on-campus club, USC MIND. It was founded by Jefferson in his sophomore year and has since exploded following the viral, revamped ice bucket challenge that had national news coverage last fall.

Jefferson has a rooted, personal connection to spreading the awareness of suicide. Jefferson had two close friends take their lives when he was a freshman.

“Let’s bring these suicide prevention efforts to South Carolina, and, you know, make sure that what I saw and what my brother and sister and my dad saw (me go through) never happens again here in our community – and people don’t have to go through that,” Jefferson told the Carolina Reporter. 

Jefferson heard about The Fight Against Suicide through friends at the University of Georgia, the birthplace of the organization, and wanted to bring it to USC. After USC MIND went viral, The Fight Against Suicide reached out to Jefferson and worked with USC’s student government to plan the event. 

UGA graduate Jackson Stuart, also known as “Stuce Buffer” or “the Dean of the Ring,” is the announcer at these events and a founding member of The Fight Against Suicide.  

A close friend of Stuart’s died from suicide in 2021, and the memorial of his life was the catalyst of the entire movement. 

“It … started out just trying to, you know, memorialize a buddy, get a bunch of guys and girls, college age, in one room, and put on a badass show, but also bring that purpose component into it to where, you know, you can have everyone in one room and, you know, take a moment to really bring the light that, like, it’s OK not to be OK,” Stuart said.  

That night was just the start.  

Four years later, The Fight Against Suicide brings “Wellness Week” to college students across campuses and hosts speakers and demonstrations. It ends the week with the boxing match.   

“We did a great QPR (method) suicide prevention training, which kind of equips people to have those tough conversations with their friends, or honestly with themselves, to really, like, identify, you know, when you’ve got a buddy going through something – or when you’re going through something, how to best approach those conversations and get those people the help that they need,” Stuart said.

Because there’s a stigma attached to men sharing their feelings, some people have lost close friends, the program acknowledges. Stuart and other founders of The Fight Against Suicide have found a way to bring the topic to light in a way that men can open up to – through boxing.

There were 815 tickets sold for the Columbia event held at the State Fairgrounds. With the free tickets that went to sponsors, the light and sound crew, the fighters, the coaches and the support staff, there were about 1,000 people in attendance. Ticket sales and donations brought in about $40,000.

The head of ticket sales, senior USC student Whit Tiller, was in charge of walking each fighter out before a match.  

 “My favorite part about it was being able to live vicariously through him in the ring and being lucky enough to be the one that walks him out and puts him in the ring,” said Tiller of seeing his friend, Eischeid, fight. “And being able to do that was very special in my eyes. It was electric.”