No matter where in Puerto Rico, the youth needs to stay busy in the sport of boxing. The World Boxing Organization (WBO), chaired by Francisco Valcárcel, Esq. and under its worldwide program WBO Kids Drug Free, along with the Boxing Bullies entity – founded by Jake Paul – joined forces to open a gym in Utuado, located in the Cabrera neighborhood.
The gym has a new ring, a variety of training equipment for coaches and boxers of all levels, plus remodeled bathrooms, as well as the gym’s surroundings and its floor.
Orlando Samot, Wilfredo Guzmán, and Jorge Luis Nieves will manage the gym.
“We want to make a great card in Utuado in this incredible facility,” Valcárcel said. “The alliance we’ve made with Jake Paul will continue to bear fruit because we have a list of gyms. We will be supervising the already fixed gyms so that they stay clean. The gym is the best place a young person can be. Here you learn to be courteous, respectful, humble, and disciplined. Mayor Jorge Pérez is committed to this gym and that is important”.
WBO founder Mr. Luis Batista Salas, Esq participated in the crowded festivities, along with Valcárcel, the mayor of Utuado Jorge Pérez, the representative of Boxing Bullies Francisco Correa, president of the Puerto Rico Boxing Commission Miguel Laureano, and the representative of ECONO supermarkets Viviana Mass (Marketing Manager), and Alejandro Hernández (Sales Director) of Home Power Sun Energy, who are part of the sponsors of these charitable causes that will continue for the whole island and the world.
“We all have violence inside,” Batista Salas said. “We try to organize that violence into educating it, to get young people out of using that violence in gangs, to kill, and to use it for other positive things; to educate them, to put on the gloves, to discipline it, and that the young person can use it to benefit himself, his family, his people, and Puerto Rico. This is extraordinary work that will bear much fruit. Every boy or girl who touches this gym is a seed”.
Francisco Correa, representative of Boxing Bullies, added: “We want to give a space for young people and people from the area where they can develop as individuals and athletes. As we open spaces like this for the youth, we get them off the streets, with new friendships, learning discipline, and a better quality of life. We have several initiatives going on with the WBO. The goal is to continue building throughout the country”.
Among the boxers who were present were former world champions Samuel Serrano, Alex “El Nene” Sánchez, and René Santiago; world-ranked Pedro Márquez; rising prospects Omar Pacheco and Pedro Cruz; members of the Trujillo Alto municipal gym, referees Roberto Ramírez Sr., and José H. Rivera; judges César Ruiz and Jerry Martínez, and manager Margaro Cruz.
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