In trying to escape wild baseballs, flyweight Sergio Espinoza of San Diego, CA, took a strange road as he chose a sport that consisted of him getting punched in the face. The “San Diego Sensation” is in the co-feature bout of “Havoc at the Hard Rock II: No Mercy” this Friday, July 10th at the open air Woodstock Terrace at the Hard Rock Hotel in downtown San Diego, CA.
“To be honest, I ran in by mistake. I used to play baseball back in L.A. for like three years and when I got to San Diego I used to see these guys pitch the baseball real fast and I got scared because I got him a couple of times before,” Espinoza says laughing “Where I used to live in some apartments there was a kid that used to box in Mexicali and he asked me if I wanted to go to the gym, I wasn’t sure at first but I decided to give it a try.”
The at the time thirteen year old Espinoza definitely gave it try and although it took some time to show his talent, eventually the “San Diego Sensation” showed himself and his coach, Robert Coons, that he was something special.
“Sergio was about thirteen, fourteen years old, he came in here with about seven other kids,” Coach Coons states fondly. “I couldn’t have picked him out from the group, as a matter of fact, there was another kid that stuck with it as an amateur but he eventually went back to the streets. Sergio just stayed with it and ended up winning almost everything as an amateur. For him to be around since he was fourteen, tells you a lot about his character.”
“I was in the gym for four or five months and coach said I was going to compete. I said ‘what do you mean compete?’“ Espinoza says chuckling. “I had never seen boxing in my life and I didn’t know there were competitions. I decided to try it and then I competed in the jr. Olympics. I went against these kid that was like 38-1, Eddie Cruz, I remember his name. We fought in the championship and he ended up winning, of course, but he never thought that was my first fight, he thought I gave him a run for his money so I showed him my pass book.”
Espinoza stayed with it and ended up amassing an impressive amateur record of 73-12 on his way of becoming the first San Diego amateur fighter to capture all of the major amateur titles, the Junior Nationals, the National PAL title, the National Gold Gloves and the USA Nationals.
“I won my first tournament when I was 17. That was against 17-18 year old guys. The winner would represent USA in the world championships. That was my first major tournament, Espinoza says proudly. “I feel good, I thank God for giving me the will, the strength and the determination to doing it. I first I never knew that I was the first to win all those major tournaments. When I came back and I was seventeen and fought the big boys, that is when it really counts because a lot kids when the tournament when they are young and then they can’t win anything so it made me feel better winning with the big boys.”
At 22, the now father of two joined the punch for bucks ranks in a four rounder where he defeated future NABO super flyweight champion Kahren Harutyunyan at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in north San Diego.
“I remember I had about fifteen opponents change and in different weight classes. To be honest, I should of stayed amateur until 2004 but I was so anxious to jump in the pro ranks, I wasn’t thinking about the money,” Espinoza remembers. “I remember I fought a 2-0 undefeated Armenian guy and he became a NABO champion. That morning I had to go up to 120 lbs. from 115 lbs. to fight. It was a tough fight but we beat him.”
Espinoza kept fighting, mostly in his adopted town of San Diego, cultivating a fan base that had followed him since the amateurs but not surprisingly the politics of boxing reared their ugly heads in the direction of the affable Espinoza.
Coach Coons remembers the circumstances.
There is a whole story of why he hasn’t fought in San Diego. Sergio was an extremely popular athlete when he was an amateur. He used to bring 200-300 fans as an amateur. Once he went pro, he used to bring the same amount of fans to the shows. Promoters here in San Diego started using his name with no intention of using him,” Coons states choosing his words carefully. “Fans go to 5-6 different competitions and they would tell him ‘Why is your name on the thing? I went to the show and you didn’t even box.’ The people stated blaming him and we decided to not fight in San Diego anymore because the promoters started killing his reputation.”
After three years of fighting consistently, Espinoza began to have trouble finding fights and began to feel the burn of overtraining but not having the opportunity to show his skills.
“I wasn’t getting any fights, I had six fights postpone in like six months. I was training and training and not getting any fights so I was getting burned out. These people would tell me that I was going to fight, knowing that I wasn’t and wait until two days before to tell me that I wasn’t fighting,” Espinoza then made a difficult decision professional but an even more important one personally.
“I told coach that I was going to take some time off, I had just gotten engaged, so I just worked and saved up to get married. I just wanted to come back and hopefully everything that was going on with these people goes away and we can start all over again.”
Now Espinoza has been married for six years and holds a full time job in the hotel industry.
After a year and a half, Sergio felt the itch to lace up the gloves again and fight.
“After my layoff, I fought this kid from L.A. and they made it a six rounder because they knew I was a front runner and that I would get tired, it should of been a four rounder. I dropped him in the second round with an overhand right and I thought ‘please God, keep him on the floor’,” Espinoza says chuckling. “I was already tired but he got up and I lost that fight. That was my fault and coach’s fault but after I went on a winning streak beating everybody that they put in front of us regardless of weight class.”
Because of the winning streak, Espinoza signed with his first promoter, the once defunct but coming back Guilty Boxing out of Las Vegas, which was a well received experience for Espinoza.
“I was with them for two years, they kept me busy in Vegas and I didn’t have to fight in San Diego. I didn’t want to be part of the politics but it never bothered me because I knew what had to be done.”
After his promoter Guilty Boxing folded, Espinoza kept fighting sporadically and then an opportunity arose.
“Some time later we fought a guy that (Marco Antonio) Barrera had, his name is Juan Alberto Rosas, he was ranked #9 by the IBF. Golden Boy said ‘we are going to give you an opportunity’. They said they were going to sign the winner but it didn’t matter to me because I knew I could beat him. I want to fight the best fighters so I can become a better fighter. Nobody thought I was going to beat him but I knew that my experience, my talent and the skills that I have and I beat him unanimous for ten rounds.”
Golden Boy did not offer him a contract but Espinoza was undeterred even after suffering a tough loss to journey man Benji Garcia and then another to world ranked Luis “Titi” Maldonado in ’07 although Espinoza is of a different opinion regarding that loss.
In that fight I beat him for twelve rounds, cut him, busted him up and I lost a unanimous decision. It broke my heart because even in their corner, they knew they lost, everybody knew he lost.”
Despite the loss, Ontario’s Thompson Boxing became Espinoza’s second promoter of his career when he signed with them in early 2008. In his first fight with the local promotional company, Espinoza was matched up tough but shone through with the challenge.
“I fought a tough guy Wilbert Uicab, he was ranked #8 by the WBC and I beat him unanimously in eight rounds. After that I was ranked #9 by the WBC and #14 by the IBF.”
A month later, Espinoza became a test for Manny Roman, whose career is manned by 2007’s manager of the year Frank Espinoza. Espinoza lost a majority decision that was for the vacant WBC Continental Americas Flyweight title. With the loss, Espinoza was dropped from the world rankings by both organizations and his contract with Thompson Boxing.
At 31 years of age, Espinoza knows that time is running out for his dream to become a world champion and is ready to make that run towards a coveted title.
“I am just thinking of an opportunity. Like I told Roberto Diaz, my co-manager, bring on anybody, bring on Donaire, I even will go to Argentina to fight that Navaez guy, I don’t care, as long as I get one opportunity, that is all it takes to prove the world wrong, that I am still become a world champion regardless of my record, I still got what it takes.”
Espinoza is clearly excited in fighting in his hometown once again in front of the fans that showed him their support in the beginning his career.
“It makes me feel good, having other promoters, new promoters here in San Diego and they picking the right guy that is really willing to fight anybody and to just prove my name out there and to prove to everybody that I can become a world champion,” Espinoza concludes. “I am staying active but I do want tougher fights and fighters that are ranked so I can get that opportunity against any of the world champions in my weight class.”