By Mario Ortega Jr.-
Troubled or at-risk youth stumbles upon or is otherwise introduced to the supportive arms of a boxing coach or coaches and into the walls of a boxing gym that in time becomes their second home and potential launching pad to fame or fortune, or more importantly just a better life. This story has been written before because it is a story as old as the hills, or the mountain ranges that border the Salinas, California town that has produced yet another promising fighter about to make her professional debut. Super featherweight Lizette Lopez will make the move from the amateur ranks next Friday, January 21st at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton in Sacramento, California, aiming to put the lessons learned, both life and boxing, to good use as she becomes another example of the positive impact the sport can have on a young individual.
There are many different paths that lead one to finding themselves in a boxing program, but one of the most common is having a shepherd that goes out of their way to get the prospective fighter in a situation that will allow them to thrive. Luckily for Lopez she had her sister Neftaly to go out of her way, once Lizette expressed interest in boxing, to find the program that could nurture her through what can be an intimidating introduction to the sport.
“I was doing a delivery and I got to know her sister,” says Josh Sanchez of the MXN Boxing Center, one of Lopez’ two head trainers to this day. “One day I was wearing a boxing shirt and she asked me, ‘Hey, do you box?’ I said, ‘No I don’t box, but I train. I am a trainer.’ She says, ‘I have a sister of mine that could use some boxing.’ I said ‘Yeah, bring her by.’ She brought her the next day and she came to me and [Lizette] came looking pretty mean, so I said, ‘What do I have here?’ She never smiled and just kept straight dead on looking at me. So I said to myself, ‘OK, this girl is serious.’ So that’s how we started. I told her all the get down about boxing and asked her if she had any questions. She said, ‘Yeah, when can I started?’ I told her she could start tomorrow. I thought, ‘Whatever, she ain’t coming back.’ She came back the next day and the rest is history. She has been with us ever since she was fifteen and a half, 16.”
Prior to that chance meeting between Sanchez and Lopez’ sister Neftaly, Lizette had found herself headed admittedly in the wrong direction. “I was in high school and I was just going down the wrong path, hanging out with the wrong crowd,” explains Lopez. “I told my sister I wanted to fight one day and she found Coach Josh and we just hit it off from there. We went and visited the gym and that’s about it. Once I started boxing that’s when I started taking care of my grades and my schoolwork and all that and going down the right path.”
With the help of Coach Sanchez and her other head trainer Liza Lopez, the young pupil showed a near immediate aptitude for the sport. By the time of her third sanctioned bout, Lopez’ team felt confident enough to match her with another fighter that had a far deeper resume.
“We got ready and were offered that there was going to be a boxing show happening and if we wanted to put her in,” explains Coach Lopez. “They told us they had this girl that had about 40 fights and my girl was going into her third fight. Everybody was telling us, ‘Why are you fighting this girl? This girl has been a Beautiful Brawler champion, she has over 40 fights and she’s good.’ Then they said, ‘But it’s only your girl’s third fight’, and we said, ‘That’s ok, we know what she’s capable of.’ That day came and people were betting money and everybody was bidding and the crowd got so big and my girl beat her. That girl had over 40 fights and that was my only my girl’s third fight and she beat her. It went beautifully. It was wonderful.”
By the time of the 2017 Desert Showdown Boxing Championships at the Hanford Civic Auditorium in Hanford, California, Lopez had come into her own as an amateur fighter. “Hanford was one of my best performances,” recalls Lopez. “The way I was boxing, everything was on point for me. I was just landing the cleaner shots and moving my head really well. It was huge. It was a huge auditorium.”
One of the highlights of her amateur run came in the moments after Lopez came up short at the 6th Annual Gloves Not Drugs Boxing Show, which was hosted by the 51 Fifty MCSAL Boxing Club at Livingston High School in Livingston, California in March 2018. The featured celebrity speaker at that year’s annual event was none other than women’s boxing icon Laila Ali.
“It was a pretty big fight and I actually lost that fight, but she came up to me and started talking to me and saying that I had the better style and she felt that I won and stuff,” recalls Lopez, who was already a big fan of Ali prior to the meeting. “It was amazing actually. It was awesome.”
If Lopez can become one of the young faces to emerge in the always changing world of women’s boxing, the sport will have a debt of thanks to pay to Lizette’s sister Neftaly for introducing her to the team at the MXN Boxing Center in Salinas. “She has always been a big person in my boxing life because she is the one that got me into it and she is one of my biggest supporters,” says Lopez of her sister.
As Lopez embarks on her chosen career path she brings along the team that nurtured her from day one and has become her second family. “Ever since the beginning they have always supported me,” says Lopez of Coach Sanchez and Coach Lopez. “We used to have this small gym, it was in Chinatown, and ever since then it has been non-stop support and endless love from them. They have honestly just felt like a family.”
With what industry professionals refer to as the “club scene” beginning to return in the aftermath of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in California and bubble events across the nation, Team Lopez feels now is the right time for Lizette to make the move to the paid ranks.
“She’s ready,” proclaims trainer Liza Lopez confidently. “We had been doing just regular shows here and there and then COVID hit and you know she’s at that age too. She has more opportunity to get out there and she wants to do it as a career and it’s time. She’s 22-years-old and, me personally, I talked to her and she wants to do it and we feel like we are ready.”
With her opponent for next Friday’s bout, Victorville’s debuting Neveah Martinez, in place, Lizette Lopez is in agreement with her team that now is the time to strike it out as a professional. “I have just been grinding non-stop and I think I’ve got a really good opportunity and it’s time to take it,” says Lopez of the January 21 event at the DoubleTree Hotel Sacramento. “I’m honestly going to go out there and show what I got and dominate the fight.”
Perhaps inspired by her meeting with Laila Ali four years ago, Lopez has her immediate focus on Martinez and bout number one, but the larger picture still looms in her mind down the road as her career will progress. “[Next up is to] just get another fight, grow more and get stronger,” explains Lopez. “I want to make women’s boxing grow.”
Tickets for the January 21st event at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton, Sacramento, dubbed “Super Boxing Battles” and promoted by Nasser Niavaroni’s Upper Cut Promotions, are available online at https://www.showclix.com/event/super-boxing-battles- or in person at Niavaroni’s Kickboxing in Roseville (916-782-4757).
Photos courtesy Team Lopez/MXN Boxing Center
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @MarioG280
