Left 2 Right Boxing Gym of Gilroy and San Martin Boxing Club
took six boxers to the 10th annual Desert Showdown Lonsdale World
Amateur Boxing Championships and came back with four first-place
titles.
Left 2 Right Boxing Gym of Gilroy and San Martin Boxing Club took six boxers to the 10th annual Desert Showdown Lonsdale World Amateur Boxing Championships and came back with four first-place titles.
Elizabeth Rodriguez, Noel Temores, Jackie Gomez and Jesus Gomez all represented their skills well at the tournament and came away with their first-place titles. Ronnie Huererra and Valerie Rodriguez placed second.
“As a coach, I’m happy no matter what. It’s in my blood,” said Jerry Rodriguez, head coach of Left 2 Right boxing.
Though Rodriguez said he was happy about the outcome, he also said that it was not something he expected either. He said the success the youth boxers had was due to all the fighters’ experience and the effort they put into their sport.
“It’s a tough sport, not many are doing it,” Rodriguez said. “They go in there and I see the pay-off of their hard work.”
Elizabeth Rodriguez, 17, won her 10- pound weight class beating Sonora Gutierrez of Palm Springs, California for the title.
Temores, 12, competed in the 95-pound weight class and took the championship in just two fights.
Jackie Gomez, 14, competed and won the 125-pound bracket. She won her bracket alongside her younger brother Jesus, 12, who competed in the 132-pounds weight class. The Gomez siblings represented San Martin Boxing Club.
“I tell them, ‘if you go in and fight and do the best that you can, you are a winner in my eyes. You are all winners,” Jerry Rodriguez said.
Huererra, 8, battled to the semifinals of the 65-pounds bracket but lost by split decision. Valerie Rodriguez’s situation around her second-place title seemed to be an underdog moment as well. Rodriguez usually competes in the 65-pound weight class, but was bumped up to the 70-pound weight class.
“She put up a good boxing fight with her. She came up short a little, but she did did very well,” Jerry Rodriguez said.
