NASHUA – With the Scars Foundation, a nonprofit started by the lead singer of Godsmack, bringing boxing back to Nashua Friday night, fighters from across the country traded punches during the first ever Scars for Scars event, which took place at Nashua Community College.

Godsmack’s Sully Erna attended the event, serving as the corner assisting trainer for David Tubbs – who was making his professional fighting debut during his bout against Ranieri Souza. The passionate lead singer and his foundation aim to bring more public awareness to mental health issues, including depression, anxiety and suicide.

While the New Hampshire resident frontman is currently on a break from touring with Godsmack, a nationally recognized rock band, the promoting company for the fight – Boston Boxing Promotions – teamed up with the lead singer to bring the event to the Gate City.

“One of the primary reasons we chose to do it up here is Sully is the lead singer from Godsmack and he happened to be on a break from touring,” Boston Boxing President Peter Czymbor said.

Czymbor said he was approached by Erna, an avid fan of boxing as a recreational sport and fitness regimen, during one of his companies shows and the two talked about a way to support one of his other passions, his Scars Foundation.

“Sully Erna approached me at a weigh-in at one of our shows…” Czymbor said. “We started talking and became friends. He’s very passionate about the Scars Foundation.”

“I said, ‘Why don’t we have a fighting event and call it Scars for Scars,'” he continued.

The name for the event, Czymbor said, comes from the idea that the fighters traded blows, creating visible scars on their own bodies while raising money to bring awareness to the hidden scars of those who suffer with mental illness.

After dealing with the deaths of close friends in the music industry who lost their battle with mental illness – including Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots – as well as other members of his personal life, Erna started Scars to use his platform to reach millions of people worldwide.

“It’s always sad when you lose someone you know, especially when you lose them to something you didn’t know was a problem in their life,” Erna said prior to the Friday event. “Severe depression is such an invisible killer, you know, and you have to kind of have it be visible in order to offer health and support.”

“Some of the people I knew were always such happy-go-lucky people, very up beat, positive,” he added. “And you just never see it coming and all of a sudden, you get a phone call and they’re gone.”

While describing depression as a secret killer, Erna said the nonprofit works to pinpoint not only depression as a symptom and warning sign, but some of the root causes that lead people into a mental illness, including recovery and addiction, among others.

“We started targeting bullying, addiction, (post-traumatic stress disorder), suicide prevention – all those categories that feed people into a depressive state of mind,” he continued. “We also work with addiction and recovery as well because we also know that that is a problem up here.”

While he worked the corner for Tubbs during his bout Friday,Erna and his foundation, with the help of Boston Boxing, were also working the corner for the millions suffering from the silent scars received during their battles with mental illness.

Mathew Plamondon can be reached at 594-1244, or at mplamondon@nashuatelegraph.com, @telegraph_MatP.