Jason Sanchez was born into a legacy of boxers. With the current boxing record of 12-0 with 6 knockouts under his belt the native New Mexican is planning on adding to his family’s lengthy legacy in boxing this Oct. 31 in Panama City.
By Nichole Harwood | Photos by Marissa Perez
Sanchez grew up surrounded by boxers and as a child he watched his two older brothers Jose Luis Sanchez and Alan Sanchez rise as professional boxers after they followed in the footsteps of their father Jose Sanchez Sr. who boxed as an ameuter.
Together Sanchez and his family have worked together to establish a legacy while chasing the dream of one of the family becoming a world champion. They have grown and stuck together even through tragedy as on April 23, 2015 Sanchez’s older brother Alan Sanchez passed away.
With his remaining brother and father Sanchez and his family persevered and together opened up Sanchez Brothers Boxing just this summer on June 1.
“Sometimes I can feel him (Alan Sanchez) here,” said Sanchez’s mother Eva Sanchez.
Despite the loss the family has continued forward positively and the opening of the gym was a large accomplishment for Sanchez and his family who said they worked together to contribute to its opening.
“It felt really good,” Sanchez said. “We all worked on the gym together, we painted it and now that it’s open it just feels great.”
In honor of the oldest Sanchez brother the gym held its first 1st Annual Alan Sanchez Memorial Boxing Show Sept. 29 which featured an ameteur boxing competition.
Now Sanchez a father of two himself and a teacher at the family gym, said his family and gym are relentless in supporting him in his career.
“I’ve always been there for their fights and they have always been there for mine,” Sanchez said.
While Sanchez is the latest link in his family’s boxing legacy he said he would support his two children if they pick up the helms and go forward as well.
“It would cool- I would let them do it,” Sanchez said.
Having gone professional just five years ago Sanchez said the transition from ameuter to professional came with difficulties as Sanchez said it wasn’t easy to get fights in the first few years. Despite this he overcame and in the last year has seen an increase in opportunities to fight, he said. Due to his opponents identity being a mystery often until a few weeks before the fight Sanchez is always training hard for his upcoming fights.
Sanchez’s brother Jose Luis Sanchez will be fighting at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Oct. 20th with Sanchez’s fight following in Panama quickly after. His upcoming fight will mark a special occasion as it will be the first fight Sanchez will participate in since the opening of Sanchez Brothers Boxing. Sanchez’s has always had a supportive family but now he will be going into the October fight with both his family and gym who are behind him constantly encouraging him and cheering him on.
“It feels good to have a team behind me,” Sanchez said.
With Sanchez and his brother helping to train members before training themselves the gym welcomes those of every age. Currently Sanchez Brothers Boxing oldest member is 45-years-old while the youngest member is only 5-years-old.
While still a young gym Sanchez himself has felt pride in his gyms team members as just recently a few children from the gym participated in there first fights, winning them.
“It was pretty cool, them winning their first fight and we were able to help them out,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez himself intends to win his upcoming fight and continue to push forward towards his dreams. Sanchez’s passion for boxing stems not only from his desire to win the world title but also from watching each family member contribute to boxing.
“Always training around my brothers and my dad and then finally opening up this gym that along with everyone here including the kids motivated me to be someone,” Sanchez said.
