BOXING – PART 1 by Sam Grubb
Who
would have ever thunk it? I have never been a fan of
boxing. I’m just not a fan of violence in any
of its forms. I guess you should never say never. There
is a family here that have become just like family to
us. They have four children, one grown boy, two teenage
boys and an 8 year old girl. The entire family is nice.
They are hard working, including the kids, polite, and
generous. They don’t have much, but they have
each other, and the parents do everything they can to
provide opportunity for the kids. Manuel is 14 now and
has been boxing for several years.
The local boxing club is an impressive volunteer organization.
They work the kids hard, but are very careful to avoid
situations where someone might be hurt. When they have
matches with the big cities of Mexicali, Ensenada, Tijuana
etc. our little village wins most of the fights. Polite
behavior and respect are demanded of them. The kids
wear big padded headgear and fluffy gloves. The fights
are three rounds, and if a fight appears to be one sided,
it’s stopped immediately.
It’s a treat to watch Manuel box. He is fast,
smart, technically skilled, and very aggressive, which
is odd, because outside the ring he is a quiet, sweet
young man. He is by far the best boxer on the team.
Last Saturday night we watched him dominate another
opponent. He has attracted a lot of attention, and they
have been taking him for weeks at a time to Mexicali
for advanced training. The next step for him will involve
trips to mainland Mexico, Cuba, and maybe Russia. Boxing
is a passion for him, and is presenting him with opportunities
that he would never otherwise have.
When Manuel fights he uses shoes that he shares with
another fighter, has hand me down trunks and shirt,
and shares headgear and gloves with several others.
As I understand it, his next fight is a championship
round, and if he wins he may be on the Mexican Olympic
boxing team. However, he will be required to have his
own shoes, gloves and headgear. So it looks like we
will be sponsoring a boxer, something I said I would
never do. Oddly, I’m excited about it and hope
this works out to be a dream come true, and a chance
for Manuel to see the world.
BOXING – PART 2
A few of you may remember that over a year ago I wrote
a piece about Manuel (Part 1) , the teenage boxer. Since
then he has continued to work hard, winning the title
for Northern Baja, then for all of Baja, and for the
last two weeks he has been down at Yucatan and he won
the gold medal, making him the amateur boxing champion
for all of Mexico. This trip was his first time on an
airplane and first time traveling outside Baja. This
has been an amazing opportunity for a young man from
a family of modest means. For his trip we gave him about
$15.00 for spending money. He used it to buy necklaces
for his mother and my wife.
His championship fight was against an opponent who
grossly outweighed him and was much taller. Manuel had
to reach up to hit him. He still won! He is now a local
celebrity with pictures of him with the mayor, interviews
and is being swamped by well wishes from all their friends
here in our little village. Just in case you didn’t
read the first article about him, the kids wear this
big fluffy headgear, huge padded gloves and mouthpieces,
and the fights are very carefully monitored. It is enough
to mollify my aversion to violence.
It’s almost breathtaking, all the attention
being given this shy, sweet young man. This December
he will be going to Cuba for a month to fight there.
The boxing federation also wanted to take him to Mexico
City for a year of intense training. His mother, wisely
said no to that. She felt that the temptations for a
16 year old living alone in a big city would not be
good for him. So instead of that, they are bringing
a top ranked professional boxer here to help him train.
I don’t follow boxing, so his name didn’t
mean anything to me, but people who know about that
sort of thing say that he is famous. All in all, it’s
a fairy tale story. Remember the name, Manuel Garcia.