Written by Justin Governale, Sunday 17th Jul 2011
Mexican Americans take spanish and get a B

So I am in my home town where I grew up for 15 years, Laredo aka Northern Mexico for the next 3 weeks or so. Laredo Borders the northern part of Mexico being divided by the Rio Grande River and checkpoints of course. Not being racist…but small Mexicans make really good boxers…they are really good at boxing apples, oranges, tomatoes…Just Kidding. To be honest the lighter built Mexican boxers are some of the faster ones in my opinion. After my last fight which resulted in a draw, I found that my western boxing needed the most work as I had been focusing on Muay Thai and BJJ. I found a solid boxing gym to train at on the south side of town within minutes of Mexico. The gym is only 10 dollars a month to train at and the Webb County Sherrif’s Dept funds it to keep people off the streets so I have some tough sparring partners. With all that being said; all the classes are taught in Spanish. My coach only speaks Spanish to me so I am forced to respond in spanish as well. I speak Spanish because my mom was born in Mexico and also because of the strong Hispanic influence in my home town however, I don’t like to speak Spanish because I am quickly nicknamed guero (white man) after I open my mouth. ANYWAYS, the gym I am training at has world class trainers Manuel “Shotgun” Gomez and Rodolfo “La Cobra” Gomez Sr. (Brothers)

Manuel “Shotgun” Gomez has faught big name boxers like Antonio Margarito and lasted 11 rounds with Shane Mosley. Both trainers have over 30 years experience and are excellent trainers.

I have come to find out that training MMA is great, but you also need to take time to focus on all the seperate arts when you get the chance. By that I mean you need to take western boxing for the sake of taking boxing, take Muay Thai to learn how a Thai fighter thinks and how he wins his fights. Go to a gym that has a solid wrestling base and even slap the Gi on for months at a time to improve your technique. Then overall, you need a gym that can put it all together well and devise a proper MMA program. Alot of gyms just brawl and call it MMA but I have 2 solid gyms that are GREAT at putting it together with trainers and good training partners. One is in California called Subfighter that I will be going to train at next month for a few months and the other one is Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket Thailand that I will be going back to at the end of this year, but for now I am in Laredo Texas training at Paragon BJJ and PAL’s Boxing gym, both great at what they do!

After I get OWNED when I spar with shotgun he always tells me day by day you are getting better. He sums it up in this phrase and after I repeat it they all laugh…new tattoo? lol “un elefante con paciencia y poquita de saliva puede cojer se a una ormiguita” google it…