La Colonia Youth Boxing Club is a boxing gym on 1st Street in La Colonia, a neighborhood in Oxnard, California. Notable Mexican American boxers train at the gym and future boxers are also brought up there.[1] [2]
The gym is a place where members of the community can train and box. It is complete with punching bags, workout machines, lockers, bathrooms, weight sets, speed bags, and a ring. The owners and trainers of the gym take young boxers to amateur fights throughout southern California to compete against similar gyms.[3]
It has produced such notable Mexican American fighters as Fernando Vargas, Robert Garcia, Miguel Angel Garcia, Victor Ortíz, and Brandon Rios. Robert Garcia, a former IBF World Champion, is the head trainer. His father Eduardo Garcia is a former amateur boxer and is also a trainer.[1]
Fernando Vargas, a former resident of La Colonia, is still a regular fixture at the gym. Victor Ortíz trained at the gym after moving to Oxnard from Garden City.[4] Daniel Cervantes, junior flyweight champion Brian Viloria, and Mia St. John have trained there.[5]