Boxing still a lure for kids away from gangs, drugs

David Kihara

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

In the corner of the Las Vegas Boxing gym, tiny Cristian Ramirez stands on a platform to reach a punching bag that is his ticket to becoming the next Oscar De La Hoya.

It's a common dream for the kids who come to the scrappy gym. Kids as young as 6 come from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and as far away as Henderson to the small one-room gym in the industrial area of downtown, on Commerce Street off of Charleston Boulevard. Many put in several hours a day, six days a week, to learn how to hit like Mike Tyson.

Gym owner Robert Johnston is a former amateur boxer who sank about $50,000 into the place. He bought the three heavy bags swinging from a steel frame, a boxing ring and other training devices. On a wall hang an American and Mexican flag -- the latter a nod in part to his wife, who is Mexican.

"It's a big headache and I knew I wasn't going to make any money off it, but I have a love for the game and a love for the community," said Johnston, who works days as a foreman at the Riviera.

He also does it to help the community by providing youths with an alternative to hanging out on the streets, where the lure of drugs or gangs is powerful for kids like these, most of whom come from poor families.

On an average day, the kids begin trickling into the gym after school. They focus fiercely on their skills.

"This is a good way to stay away from drugs and in the meantime learn new stuff," said Davis Martinez, 14, dripping from sweat from shadowboxing with others. "It's a fun way to learn how to defend yourself."

The training, Johnston said, teaches discipline and consistent routine, which hopefully helps children avoid the temptations of drinking or drugs.

"Kids come here from environments where there are drugs and gang activity. After they leave here, they are too tired to do that stuff."

Johnston said he fought about 50 amateur bouts before eventually giving up competitive boxing. But the sport never left him.

About four years ago, a friend of Johnston, Carlos Fletes, a middle-school teacher, brought Johnston in to help instruct a handful of children in boxing. It was entirely makeshift at first. The two men would move desks to the perimeter of the classroom and hang a baseball on a string from the ceiling. The baseball swung like a pendulum, and kids trained by dodging it.

Two years ago, Johnston decided the classroom wasn't big enough and opened Las Vegas Boxing.

The gym recently burst into a hip-hop spotlight after the notorious Snoop Dogg filmed a video inside for his song "Signs." Some of the kids from the gym appear in the video, including 13-year-old Mya Paz, one of a handful of girls who use the gym.

Paz, who goes to Duane Keller Middle School, became interested in boxing when she would tag along to the gym with her older cousin. Soon, she says, she fell in love with boxing.

That was about six months ago. She has been training rigorously since, and her male counterparts cheer her along. One day last week, as she was crouched in a fighter's stance, swinging at an unseen opponent, a teenage boy who was also training turned to a friend and said, "She's good."

Being a girl in a sport known for brutality and force, Paz said she sometimes gets teased by boys who taunt: "Don't mess with the boxer -- she'll mess you up."

If the teasing ever goes too far, she says, she will invite them to her lair.

"If I would end up in a fight," she said, "I would bring them here and spar with them in the ring."

David Kihara can be reached at 259-2330 or at davidk@lasvegassun.com.