On Jan. 6, Alex Espinoza, a boxer who has been training at the Garland Ninth Street Gym Project since he was 8 years old, will fight in the Olympic trials.
It is a long process that requires lots of work to get to this point. These are the steps as explained by Espinoza:
- A boxer begins as a novice fighter, which is a beginner fighter who has won under 10 fights.
- When the boxer reaches 10 fights, he becomes an open fighter.
- Then the boxer must qualify for the Olympic trials. Espinoza qualified by winning the National Golden Gloves title.
- Then the boxer must win in the trials to qualify to go to the Olympic Camp.
This is where Espinoza currently is. He will fight Jan. 6, and WHEN he wins, he will stay in Colorado and train at the Olympic Camp.
A mistake at his previous fight almost ended Espinoza’s dream. The officials accidentally set the rounds for two minutes each, and they should have been three minutes. The judges had scored his opponent as the winner. However, a grievance was filed, and Espinoza had the opportunity to fight the next day with three 3-minute rounds, the way it was supposed to have been the first time. He won and is now on his way to the championship fight in Colorado that will get him to the Olympic Camp.
Espinoza said that when he thought he had lost he felt like his dream was over. When he heard that he would get to fight again, he was able to re-focus and win.
“It feels great,” he said. “My emotions have been everywhere, especially since those 24 hours thinking I hadn’t won. I went from thinking my dream just ended to being back in it.”
When Espinoza first started in the program at the age of 8, he wasn’t fond of boxing.
“I was getting beaten up all the time,” he said. “But now there’s something about it that I just love.”
He has worked with Coach Americo Santos since he first started.
“He sacrifices a lot for me, and my dad does too. They’ve both sacrificed a lot for me to get where I am,” Espinoza said. “They’ve always told me that I had to do good in school and that whatever I’m going to do, I have to try to be the best at it. That’s what this gym is about.”
He added that the coaches are not there to make champions as much as they are there to make exceptional human beings.
Espinoza was a student at Austin Academy when I first interviewed him and then he went to South Garland High School where he graduated in 2022. He is an exceptional representative of Garland and of the boxing gym.
Espinoza said that after he’s finished boxing, he will go back to the gym as a coach because he believes strongly in what they do.