Warrior Boxing: 8 years and going strong
Story by Gerardo Martinez
Photos by Jose Leon Castillo
One room, one punching bag, two pairs of gloves and a dedicated coach.
That’s what it took to build one of the Duke City’s long-standing boxing programs.
Warrior Boxing, formerly known as Van Buren Warrior Boxing, has been in existence since 2004 when Coach Ray Zamora began the program at Van Buren Middle School in Albuquerque’s Southeast side.
“I started the program to keep kids off the streets and stay in school” says Zamora, who is in his last year as a school resource officer at the middle school.
Zamora grew up in the same area of the city. He will be retiring from the police force after 20 years of service.
Zamora admits that when he began his post as a school resource officer at the middle school he was not sure of his role.
“I was arresting kids who committed crimes on school grounds,” he says, figuring his time would be more well spent in keeping the kids out of trouble.
One of the troubled youth he helped straighten out and one of his most dedicated pupils is Christain Cabral, a star amateur and future pro.
“I always used to get in street fights, and then coach asked me if I wanted to get into real fights,” says Cabral, who will be getting into a real fight in his upcoming pro debut in the Fresquez Productions card on December 2. He has been with Warrior Boxing since it’s inception, close to eight years ago.
“Ray Zamora, he’s a great coach, everything I know I learned it from him” says Brandon Munoz, another one of the original group of Warriors. ‘”I trained for a month and I had my first fight and I lost. But I continued going because I wanted to win.”
That’s exactly what the current 18 year-old Highland High School senior has been doing since middle school: winning. Munoz has competed in the National Golden Gloves tournament and has won several state titles. He will be making his professional debut next year.
Coach Zamora had an amateur career and was helped along the way by former Albuquerque boxing coach Jim Johnson, who passed away in 2002.
“If it was not for my boxing coach Jim Johnson I would not have become a police officer,” he says. “I fought for San Jose, that’s were I started,” referring to the Jack Candelaria Community Center where many in the boxing community have, at one point or another, passed through.
Currently, Warrior Boxing is located at 1203 San Mateo NE – it’s third location since leaving Van Buren Middle School due to an increase in numbers and not enough space. It is now one of the better outfitted gyms in the city and serves as a one stop shop for youth in Southeast Albuquerque.
“We are now a for profit business,” says Zamora. “Cutting Edge Youth Empowerment, we do boot camps for underprivileged and troubled kids, we have a social worker on staff, we have counseling. You come here and you learn boxing. We also have a computer room for the kids.
“It’s all about keeping them stable and helping them grow.”
There are around 35 kids and five professionals currently training at the gym. Zamora’s and fellow coach Ruben Griego’s (retired APD) goal is to one day have a world champion out of there stable of fighters.
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