3 years ago
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SANTA ANA — Alexis Rocha’s days were simple, arsenic are astir roads to nowhere.
“I’d get up. Eat. Go to school,” Rocha said. “Come home. Eat. Play video games for a while. Eat again. Then person a snack earlier I went to bed. And past bash it each implicit again.”
“He was 13 and helium wasn’t rather 5 feet gangly and helium weighed implicit 200 pounds,” said Hector Lopez, present Rocha’s trainer astatine the TKO Boxing Club. “And helium was getting bullied.”
So Rocha showed up, due to the fact that his member Ronny Rios was already there, crafting a title-caliber boxing career.
Rocha told Lopez helium was lone determination to permission a bully chunk of himself connected the sweaty floor. No boxing.
“The archetypal workout, I had to tally 4 miles,” Rocha said. “That was tough. My oldest member Salvador was cheering maine on. I astir threw up, I’m not going to lie. I was truly sore, but I came back.”
One time Lopez needed idiosyncratic to spar. “Lex, get your ass successful the ring,” helium said.
Before Rocha could say, “Who, me?” helium was staring astatine different feline with gloves, who was staring back.
“Lex knocked him down successful the archetypal round,” Lopez said, proudly, arsenic Rocha and Rios got acceptable for a workout past week, speaking into portion recorders, posing for pictures.
“We said, wow. He had each this endowment and didn’t adjacent cognize it. We got him his amateur license. In a twelvemonth helium was winning a nationalist championship.”
Rocha had mislaid 40 pounds successful 4 months and 60 successful six. Now 24, helium is simply a 17-1 welterweight with 11 knockouts.
On Nov. 13 helium volition combat Jeovanis Barrera astatine Honda Center, connected the undercard of the duel betwixt Jaime Munguia and Gabe Rosado.
Six days later, Rios (33-3) reaches for his ain stars. In Manchester, N.H. helium meets Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev, who holds the IBF and WBC championships astatine super-bantamweight.
This volition beryllium Rios’ 2nd effort for a satellite rubric and his 5th combat since a damaging loss to Azat “Crazy A” Hovhanisyan astatine the Hangar successful Costa Mesa 3 years ago. Rocha had already won that night. When helium watched Rios spell done this peculiar wringer, Lopez saw tears successful his eyes.
“If Lex had fought aft Ronny, helium would person been a mess,” Lopez said. “They person antithetic fathers truthful they’re technically half-brothers, but they’ve ever lived together.”
“I wasn’t definite what I wanted to bash aft that fight,” Rios said. “But Lex had a batch to bash with my coming back. He said, ‘Look, I don’t privation to spot you get hurt. If you travel back, bash it due to the fact that you privation to.’ It stuck with maine large time.”
“Since then, my cognition is, hey, I’ve mislaid 3 fights now. I’ve got everything to summation and thing to lose.”
Rios, 31, has been a 4-0 wrecking ball ever since, with a knockout of antecedently unbeaten Diego De La Hoya and a virtual shutout of Oscar Negrete.
“After the nonaccomplishment to Azat I didn’t truly deliberation he’d travel back,” Lopez said. “I said, look, I don’t privation you to get hurt. But helium showed each of us.”
“We got done the COVID-19 year,” Rios said. “We didn’t halt working. Lex and I turned our store into a gym. I’m susceptible of doing a batch of things successful life, but I kept asking myself if I’d beryllium blessed if I wasn’t boxing. I’ll punctuation Sugar Ray Leonard: The top words immoderate boxer tin perceive is aft the combat erstwhile they say, ‘And the NEW…’ That keeps maine going.”
So does Rocha. He has mislaid once, to Rashidi Ellis past twelvemonth successful an bare Las Vegas room, wherever Rocha could perceive the cameras clicking. Disoriented by that and Ellis’ speed, Rocha couldn’t unlock his hands.
He told Lopez helium didn’t privation to consciousness that mode again and helium hasn’t. He’s successful a agelong enactment of ambitious welterweights but helium has the wallop to determination up.
“The powerfulness can’t beryllium taught,” Lopez said. “He has sparred with Canelo, Josh Taylor, Manny Pacquiao, Mikey Garcia. There is simply a batch of upside.”
For his part, Rocha remembers his caput snapping backmost during an aboriginal session. Things got acheronian for an instant.
“I caught a close hand,” helium said. “I was looking astatine the ceiling. It frightened the crap retired of me. Hector started yelling, ‘The lights are fine. I don’t cognize wherefore you’re looking astatine them.’
“But you don’t suffer that overmuch value unless you’re driven astatine an aboriginal age. Then I look astatine the mode Ronny works. He’s the existent warrior.”
Sometimes the aged tin get from the new.
English (US) ·