Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit Robert Garcia’s gym in Riverside, CA. He was running a unique program where he invited 10 randomly selected amateur boxing athletes to the gym for a five week training camp. They are going to stay at the camp house, eat there and train there with the R.G.B.A. team. The majority of the fighters were from Texas. One of the fighters was from Orange County near Los Angeles and another from Arizona. Of all the fighters only one was a professional. His name was Bruno Pola and was from Torreon, Coahila. He fought last Friday and has a professional record of 4-0.
The experience was different because usually we see the team of trainers working with professional fighters. This time it was really interesting Robert work with amateurs because he was correcting small little things in their technique. One fighter he asked to stand a certain way when he threw his uppercuts. Another fighter he told to not bounce around so much while throwing his punches. He told another fighter it's ok to bounce around but when you’re throwing a combination of punches I want your feet planted. Even small little things like, when you’re shadowboxing in the warm up, don’t just throw your punches with speed but throw them with a little bit of power behind them, not full power but he demonstrated to the boxer how to do it. Robert is very hands on and demonstrates everything he wants the fighter to do. It was really interesting and different because we are so accustomed to see him work with pro’s that have been perfecting their craft for years.
There are three rings at the gym. Robert worked with two fighters in the tallest of the three rings. His son Pita, worked in the ring with no bounce. This ring is in the same room as the tall ring but is not elevated off of the floor. The ring literally sits on the floor. The padding is thick but it doesn’t have the bounce the tall ring does. I noticed the ring had a new canvas on it since the last time I visited. Pita was working with two fighters in that ring. The new canvas had the Top Rank logo in the center. In the expansion room is where the third ring lies. This ring is elevated but not as high as the tallest ring. In this ring was Chepe Contreras, another trainer that has been with the team for a few years now.
The fighters did 3 or 4 rounds of jump rope, 3 or 4 rounds of shadowboxing, 3 rounds of mitt work with their respective coach, 3 rounds of double end bag exercises, 3 rounds of hitting the heavy bags and some abdominals workouts to end the session. All the fighters that started the workout ended the session. They are all in relative shape. They started the session around 11 in the morning and ended around 12:30pm. Coach Chepe instructed them to be ready at the 3pm for a light jog.
As the morning progressed more and more pro athletes arrived. First middleweight Esquiva Falcao who is scheduled to fight later this month, he is a Silver Medalist Olympian from 2012 and has an impressive record of 28-0. Then middleweight Alexis Espino who is undefeated and has roughly 10 pro fights. Also in the gym was sensational mini flyweight Jesse Bam Rogdriguez who just recently fought on the undercard of Mikey Garcia in Fresno. There to help Bam spar were David Navarro, Gabriel Muratalla and Arturo Cardenas, all pro fighters. The only lightweight in the gym was Ray Muratalla and it appeared Robert was waiting for another fighter that would help him with sparring.
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