With the ring of a bell, this year's Guns 'N Hoses began with a tribute.
The widow of St. Louis Fire Captain John Kemper rang a bell 10 times to honor her husband. He died in July, one week after getting injured while fighting a fire.
All of the money from Wednesday's sold-out boxing event between police officers and firefighters goes directly to Backstoppers.
The fighters volunteer their time to train so they can help raise money for the families of fallen first responders.
This year's fight was the second record-setting event in a row, with a crowd of more than 18,000.
It will for sure be the largest crowd Officer Tawanna Simms has ever fought in front of. She's a first time fighter who found boxing when cheerleading fell through.
Long before she weighed in as a boxer for Guns 'N Hoses, Officer Simms was growing up in public housing and dreaming of cheerleading.
"But what I wanted to be involved in my mom couldn't afford it at the time," she said.
So she walked into a boxing gym near her home, with swagger, at only 12 years old.
"As soon as she started to hit the heavy bag, everybody knew she was special," said veteran officer and boxer Major Jerry Leyshock, the man who became her trainer and mentor.
"It made me confident," said Simms. "He gave me a lot of compliments that I didn't hear on the regular. It made me feel like I could do whatever I want to do."
And what she wanted, came from the stories she heard the other boxers tell about their work as police officers, in the gym, training for Guns 'N Hoses.
Simms graduated from the academy and now patrols her old neighborhood, serving and protecting and fighting to change how people see the police.
