STREET FIGHT
Maximiliano Garcia, 11, spars with Tony Serrano on the sidewalk outside the boxing club on Thursday afternoon. Serrano serves not only as a trainer but also a leader as the program coordinator.
BOXING KEYCHAIN
Even the keys to the boxing club travel van haven't escaped being branded with the red gloves.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
A red glove glows in the light as a fighter awaits his turn in the ring. "You can see a fighter by the way he moves and how he wraps his hands," said Tony Serrano. "Some are just born to fight."
SHADOW BOXER
Trainer Tony Serrano lets the light in as he opens up the Santa Ana Boxing Club. "In the ring, you're all alone in there, its just you," said Serrano.
HANDS UP
Ricardo Bravo, 11, strikes a fighter's pose at the club. Bravo comes to the club to learn to fight, but also for the exercise.
MORE THAN BOXING
In addition to physical training, the Santa Ana Boxing Club also offers tutoring and social welfare assistance. Some kids use the computers for homework, others like to come by and check their myspace profiles after school.
EYE OF THE TIGER
Eduardo Garcia, 15, who is from Los Angeles, but lives in Santa Ana with his grandmother, is a regular at the boxing club.
Dreams don't come easy. Indeed, to make a dream come true, there usually involves a struggle, or, a fight. At the Santa Ana Boxing Club on 4th Street, the fight for a dream happens one round at a time. Some times you win and sometimes you lose, but you keep on fighting.
While the Santa Ana boxers fight for glory in the ring, outside the ropes, trainer and coordinator Anthony Serrano has his dreams too.
"I want someday to have a professional boxer point down and say, that's where it all started, at that little ghetto gym," said Serrano who has been training boxers since 1992.
The SABC also serves the community in more ways than recreational. City youth who were on living on the streets or had substance abuse problems, family problems or even homework problems have found help at the SABC.
At the Santa Ana Boxing Club, a diverse group of clientele populates the bottom floor of the white building on 4th street. Though some club members are as young as 11 others look as weathered as the old building's paint. On some days of the week, you may even find officers from the Santa Ana Police Department Gang Unit having a sparing session with one of the trainers.
Anthony Serrano has seen through two young local boxers Alex Garcia and Jose Sanchez in world championship competition, though they didn’t win, they faught hard.
Dreams don’t come easy, but you have to keep fighting. “Just like life, in boxing when you want something, you have to go for it, “ said Serrano.
