I started boxing December 2021 at Valverde Boxing Club in Azusa, California.
Only a mile from my house, the gym is tucked into the corner of a sagging strip mall, squeezed in between a medical clinic and dance studio, and only only three doors from a sub par panaderia with weak-ass pumpkin empanadas.
I get my ass up early Monday through Friday, drink Mestizo and Athletic Greens and some protein and some collagen and some green tea extract and some Vitamin D-3 and alpha lipoic acid, so that I’m punching air and leather by 7am with the rest of the morning crew. By my estimations, 95% of the nearly 100 students who attend the gym have no aspirations of becoming a professional boxer. Like me, they practice for the sake of fitness and for an appreciation of the art and science of the sport. And to kick some ass, of course.
Earlier this year, a new face joined us in the morning. I overheard he was a boxer from Brazil. And by the looks of it, he ran from San Paolo to Azusa…that morning.
As it turned out, the boxer was Sidney King Rosa, a professional fighter who’d come to California to train with Daniel Valerde, in pursuit of bigger fights against better opponents . Rosa (5-0-0) will have his chance this Friday, May 13th in Detroit, Michigan when he faces off for the NABF Jr. Super Welter title against defending champ Ermal Hadribeaj.
Mestizo had the opportunity to serve as a sponsor for this match. You’ll see Mestizo on Rosa’s shorts.
I sent the Ring King a few questions in advance of the fight.
Q+A
- What have you heard about Detroit?
Nothing. I’m excited to go there, it’s new for me. [editor note: I sent Rosa and Valverde a link to Dilla’s Welcome to Detroit) - How are you preparing for this fight? We’ve training hard everyday and smart, but now we’re focused in losing weight.
- What does your training schedule look like? My days are really the same, only gym and home, no distractions. I don’t know the city because there’s no time to chill out. We workout 2x a day, but it include the rest time and restricted diet.
4. How do you think this fight will go? We’re going to win, the goals are working on taking advantage of his mistakes and keeping my rhythm.
5. Tell me about your relationship with your trainer. The relationship with Danny is amazing. We really understand each other, he’s increasing in my technique and we’re working a lot of fundamentals. We talk about everything, boxing and life, stuff that I’ll bring for the rest of my life. I’m even learn Spanish with him 😅.
6. How’s the boxing community in Los Angeles? This is one of the things that surprise me a lot. There’s a lot of gym around and they take it to the other level. We were sparring at some gyms and the sparring looks like fight. They take it so serious, it’s helped me a lot. I’m not the same fighter after that.
7. Why do you fight? I I fell in love with the beauty of the science of boxing, it’s something incredible, self knowledge, self improvement, boxing speaks a lot about who practices it, we will never be good enough and that’s why we are always learning and practicing everyday in gym.
We know King Rosa has worked hard and deserves to win. I’ll update this post with video after this weekend. Let’s go, King!