First day back visiting the gym in 2023

Today was my first visit back to the legendary Robert Garcia Boxing Academy gym since last year and boy did it live up to its name. Last time I saw the team, they were promoting a boxing show in San Bernardino showcasing many of their up and coming talented boxers.

The team currently consists of 5 trainers including the patriarch of the family Don Eduardo Garcia. The hot topic of the gym conversation was if Canelo, who beat John Ryder over the weekend, has surpassed the Mexican icon and legend Julio Cesar Chavez. The consensus was that on paper accomplishments Canelo had passed Chavez many years ago but that because of Canelo’s reserved and private lifestyle he would always be runner up to Chavez Sr. who was always in the tabloids for relationships with famous women like Thalia and Salma Hayek.

As the dozens of fighters entered the gym, many started warming up all with their unique stretching and warm up exercises. At R.G.B.A. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays are traditionally sparring days. The gym is split into two rooms, the first room has the main sparring ring and a second ring level to the ground along with a half a dozen heavy punching bags. The second room to the gym only has one ring with a dozen or so bags for the fighters to practice on.

Most of the fighters that sparred have fight dates lined up in the near future. From Texas are fighters like Jesus “Panterita” Martinez, Dan Cortez, Slvestre Quiñonez & World Champion Joshua Franco. Franco did not spar on this particular day. There was a middleweight fighter scheduled to fight in Stockton, CA on the Top Rank card and he has started his weight cut so he didn’t spar today either, his name is Javier “Milwaukee Made” Martinez and is currently 8-0 and scheduled to fight another undefeated fighter from Sacramento Joeshon James with a 7-0 record. This will be the biggest test for Martinez to date as James is coming off a knockout victory over Richard Brewart of Thompson Boxing.

The Bantamweights Panterita, Cortez and Milwaukee’s Javier Zamarron did a round robin where fighters one and two spar for a couple rounds then fighters one takes a break for two rounds while he waits his turn to fight fighter three for his last two rounds. It is a very popular way to train boxers when you have an uneven number of pupils to work with.

The next round of fighters were all lined up to give Ray Muratalla 8 rounds of sparring. This is the last week of sparring for Ray as he is scheduled to fight on the undercard of VasiliyLomachenko versus Devin Haney in Las Vegas. Ray’s opponent is 23-2 Jeremia Nakathila of Namibia who has previously fought Miguel Berchelt and Shakur Stevenson. Super Featherweight Louie Coria of Perris, CA gave Ray many good rounds with his come forward brawler style. After 8 rounds of sparring Ray did another 4 rounds of mitt work with Robert’s son Pita Garcia then another 4 rounds of heavy bag work. Once all the sparring was done for the day, then arrived Dr.Charles Trembly of Fight Force Athletics to give all the fighters 30 minutes of strength and conditioning exercises.

Stay tuned for more updates on RGBA and their long list of professional boxers, fourteen world champions and counting.

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