I am currently a Digital Content Producer for NFL Media in Culver City, Calif., helping package and copy edit stories on the NFL.com website. It took me along and windy road to get to this point.
I got my start in journalism back in high school. As a freshman at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, Calif., I joined our high school paper in the second semester and immediately began contributing articles to The Wolfprint, our long running paper. By my junior year I was our newspaper's sports editor, compiling a solid balance of high school sports reports alongside updates on the Bay Area's national sports teams, including the 49ers, Raiders, A's, Giants, Sharks, and Warriors. This was also where the first boxing article I ever wrote appeared, a piece on Gerald McClellan's tragic end to his fighting career following his brutal 1995 fight with Nigel Benn. The fight reached its tenth anniversary when I was on staff, and I felt it an interesting story in the wake of Oscar talks for Clint Eastwood's boxing film, Million Dollar Baby.
After graduating high school, I moved onto college at the small Univ. of Texas at Tyler in East Texas. Though I didn't complete my degree in journalism, it was during this time I began writing about boxing, for the now defunct ultimateboxingresults.com.
The fight that transformed me from a casual follower of the sweet science to a die-hard one took place on May 7, 2005. It was the lightweight unification bout between Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales, televised by Showtime. The previous week, I was at a friend's house after school and found Corrales' bout with Acelino Freitas on Showtime On Demand. I ended up watching it while my friend got ready for that night's activities and I was blown away by the drama of the fight. At the end of it was an advertisement notifying me to tune in the following week to Corrales-Castillo. I made sure to do just that.
The tremendous war waged by both men flipped a switch for me that has not since gone dim. I began watching every fight I could, whether it was in English or otherwise. At house parties in high school, I earned the nickname the Dynamic Hispanic as, after a few drinks, I'd find boxing on Telefutura or Telemundo and zone out in front of the television while a party went on behind me.
The first story I ever penned for a boxing website took place two years after Corrales' dramatic come-from-behind victory over Castillo. Unfortunately, it came after Corrales tragically passed away following a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas. The gist of the article was me thanking Corrales for his tremendous efforts in the ring, something I am sad I never got the chance to do in person.
I covered my first boxing card in February of 2008, a small club show in Sacramento headlined by local fan favorite Michael Simms, who lost a split-decision to journeyman Damian Norris in the main event. Since that first bout, I've covered over 100 professional boxing cards through 2013, which includes over 500 individual bouts and more than 2,500 total rounds. These cards range from small club shows to fights televised on Telefutura, Fox Sports Net, ESPN2, Comcast, FSN Deportes, Azteca, all the way to major cards on HBO, Showtime, and even CBS.
Sites that I have covered the sport for, where unfortunately my work no longer exists, includes fightfannation.com, leave-it-in-the-ring.com, and undisputedfightmag.com. My work can still be found at queensberry-rules.com, where I wrote from December 2011 to December 2012. I currently am a regular contributor to RingTV.com, the web home of RING Magazine, as well as the tri-weekly regional newspaper Martinez News-Gazette since September of 2012. I've also contributed a number of full spreads to the prominent boxing publication Boxing Monthly, which is produced in the UK but features many prominent writers from the United States who have been plying their trade as long as I've been alive. In September 2012, my work was also recognized by The New Yorker and The Guardian, much to my shock.
I've penned features, covered fights on deadline, as well as conducted interviews with some of boxing's most important movers and shakers, from pound-for-pound greats to some of the sport's biggest power brokers at Showtime and HBO. My investigative reports have always been factual and hard-hitting, while also maintaining a fair balance to those covered.
Aside from the written journalism, from February 2010 to February 2011, I co-hosted and produced an internet boxing radio show Fight Fan Nation Radio, which was conceived by me and featured co-hosts Brent Alderson (a boxing historian), active fighter Otis Griffin, and I discussing the sport week in and week out as well as bringing on quality guests from around the world. We interviewed Andre Ward and Nonito Donaire when they were already two of the most recognizable fighters in the game, as well as a young Tim Bradley on the way up the pound-for-pound ladder. Our interview with trainer John David Jackson gained worldwide notoriety when Jackson made disparaging comments about Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach.
Here is where you can find an archive of some of my previous work, some of which no longer appears in any form elsewhere, whether it be because the sites it once appeared on are now defunct or the site got an overhaul and old articles didn't get re-listed. You will also find links to my stories that do still appear online over at queensberry-rules.com, martineznewsgazette.com, and RingTV.com.
I've also began compiling blog posts about boxing as well as a few concert reviews as music is another passion of mine.
I hope you enjoy thumbing through some of my previous work.
