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New Boxing Club to Host First Match
By
Gene C. Johnson Jr.
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – Compton
resident and aspiring professional boxer Briana Salgado, 14, said it
was an experience that she will never forget.
Salgado and her teammates who make up the newly-formed Compton Champions – the
Compton Youth Activities League’s boxing club – thought
after two months of training that they would fare well June 29 against
other area clubs during a competition held at the Jerry Ortiz Memorial
Boxing Gym in South Los Angeles.
Such was not the case. They lost all four bouts. The lesson learned?
Time to take boxing more seriously, Salgado said.
“When we got here, we thought it was a piece of cake,” said
Salgado, who did not fight June 29 but trains daily for about two hours. “But
when I saw the people in the ring, it was like ‘Whoa!’”
What the 13-member team is in dire need, said their coach, Zenith Burkes,
a former Golden Gloves competitor, is more conditioning.
“They found out that there’s more to boxing than what they
see on television,” said Burkes, 47, who once fought 1984 Olympic
Gold medalist Jerry Page. “They didn’t know that you have
to put in work. Compton is going to come back strong. We’re not
going out like that. They have the skill. They just don’t have
the conditioning.”
And conditioning is what his team will certainly get, said Deputy Al
Rodriguez, who oversees the gym and the boxing team for the Sheriff’s
Department’s Compton Station.
“We realize that we have a lot of work to do. We were going in
there with no experience. We were dealing with a lot of experienced
clubs,” Gonzalez
said. “So basically we didn’t do so well. We’re going
to implement some new strategies.”
“I’m going to run the conditioning for the kids. A lot
of them have never played organized sports before, so they’re
not familiar with certain things,” he said. “It’s
a whole new acclimation process.”
One of those new strategies, he said, will include visiting other area
locals as a means of building up a sense of rivalry.
“We got brothers and sisters here. We got two brothers fighting
each other, two cousins fighting each other. So a lot of times they’re
not too aggressive,” he said. “But if you’re fighting
someone you don’t know, it’s a little different. If they
know you belong to a different club, a little rivalry begins to build
and they’re more focused.”
Another “strategic move” will include the 37-year-old deputy
getting into the ring during the club’s next boxing show slated
for this Saturday, July 19 at the Youth Activities League, 700 N. Alameda
St.
“Am I ready? You don’t know until you’re in there,” he
said. “I’m learning the physical part – and still
learning how to fine tune that. And now I just have the mental part.
About three weeks out, the mental part is starting to sink it. And
it’s all about a fitness strategy, just working on endurance.
Basically, I just kind of want to lead by example.”
Gonzalez said that for about four months now he has been working out
with a Sheriff’s sergeant who has a strong boxing background.
Prior to boxing, the Lynwood native said he “dibbled and dabbled
with martial arts probably for the last 10 years.
“If I get this team started, even though we got our butts kicked,
it will be a huge life’s accomplishment for me,” he said. “It’ll
be up there with becoming a United States Marine, a war veteran and
a deputy sheriff.”
At the end of the day, Gonzalez and Burkes said they want the boxing
club to be a place where kids can go to learn how to defend themselves
as well as provide a means of building self-esteem.
“We get some rough customers in here. And a lot of times when
they see the structure, they don’t even want to be a part of
it,” Gonzalez
said. “I’m very laid back, but I do have standards. You
have to respect the staff here and you have to follow the rules.”
“It’s been a year since I’ve been here,” added
Burkes. “They
(Compton Sheriff’s Station) really never had anything here, just
doing the same old thing – letting them (the kids) come in and
train. And if they get tired, then they leave. We want to change that.
We want to make an institution out of this.”
For more information about the July 19 boxing show, call (310) 668-4203.
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