CORPUS CHRISTI (KIII 3 NEWS) — A Corpus Christi teenager knocked out the competition last month after landing first place at Junior Olympics in boxing.
"Every time we open on the weekend he comes," Hillcrest Boxing Gym owner Luis Flores said. "He's the first one here. First one here and last one out."
14-year-old Jesse Garza said boxing is everything.
"I love moving just like hitting and moving out of the way," Jesse Garza said. "It's just the best feeling whenever you raise your hand up and get the dub."
Garza recently placed first at the Regional Junior Olympics in Laredo which was the place where he was first introduced to a pair of gloves.
"Discipline," Garza said. "How to respect my elders and to like protect myself so my mom put me in when I was seven years old."
When Garza moved to Corpus Christi a year and a half ago, he joined Hillcrest Boxing, a non-profit gym, by Miller High School.
"We don't want them to be going out in the streets doing drugs," Flores said. "We want them to build a good career for themselves."
Flores said Garza is a few years shy from qualifying for the Olympics, but he has sparred with boxers in their 20's.
"He's a real humble person," Flores said. "He respects everybody. He comes in. If he sees somebody that needs help, he goes and he helps them."
Flores said Garza is humble but aggressive especially when he hits the bag or his latest competition
"Everyone was going up to me and saying like he was a great boxer and just to go in there and show up," Garza said. "And that's what I did."
He is number one in his weight division in all of south Texas but his eyes are set on a professional boxing career.
"I just want to go out there and show up, show everybody that I got this," Garza said.
Garza goes to the State Junior Olympics in Houston on June 1 where he hopes to take the win and head to nationals.
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