Chasing Down a Dream

The backstories of most professional boxers are pretty similar.  Typically they come from impoverished areas where making it as a professional fighter is their only hope of escaping a life of poverty and crime.  Often times these fighters come from single parent households and also lack an extensive education.  While these things may be true for many professional boxers, they aren’t true for Joseph “Diamante” Aguirre.

Aguirre is a young professional boxer who was born in Riverside, Calif. but moved to Cancun, Mexico when he was just a few months old.  There he was raised by parents Ismael and Gina in a middle-class neighborhood and was the only boy in a house full of three younger sisters.  Growing up in a boxing hotbed of Mexico, It didn’t take long for Aguirre to catch the boxing bug.

“I always loved boxing since I was 6 years old,” said Aguirre.  Unfortunately for the young pugilist his parents did not share his love of the sweet science.  “I didn’t want him to fight because I was scared of him getting hurt,” said Gina, his mother. 

Despite their fear of their son getting hurt in the boxing ring, his parents did allow him to have a heavy bag in the house, which he spent hours punching.  Then at the age of 12, Aguirre asked his parents for something that would change his life.

“When I was 12, the day of my birthday April 10, I asked as a gift if they would allow me to box.”

That day is when the career of Aguirre really started.  He met 1968 Olympic gold medalist Ricardo Delgado who had just moved to Cancun to start training and working with local fighters.  Delgado trained Aguirre for a few weeks and then proclaimed that he was a natural.  Delgado wanted to immediately enter Aguirre in an amateur match, but first had to convince Gina that her son would be safe.

“After much convincing and assurance that he would be protected by rules and equipment, I allowed him to participate in the match,” said Gina.

After winning that inaugural fight Aguirre continued to fight as an amateur while also attending high school.  In 2009 Aguirre received his high school diploma from the bi-lingual International American School of Cancun.

While plenty of other fighters have graduated high school, not many also have college degrees hanging on their walls.  Earning that degree may have been helped by the fact that Aguirre retired from boxing when he started studying law at the Universidad Anahuac Mexico Norte. 

“I was an amateur boxer for a long time, then I retired to study and become a lawyer,” said Aguirre.  However, that retirement would not last long as Aguirre could not stay away from the ring.

“I became a pro boxer in my last 2 years of law school,” said Aguirre who first professional fight was in 2013, the same year he would graduate from college.  His mother Gina understood just how difficult it was for her son to balance studying law with being a professional fighter.

“I wasn’t only proud of him for getting his law degree, but also for getting it while pursuing his dreams in boxing,” said Gina.  “It was a very proud moment for me to see him follow through and not quit.”

Now with school finished Aguirre can focus all his attention on achieving his dream of becoming a world champion in the lightweight division.  One man who may help him conquer that dream is the legendary trainer out of Mexico City Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain.  Beristain is a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame as well as the International Boxing Hall of Fame has worked with legendary fighters such as Ricardo Lopez, Oscar De La Hoya, Rafael Marquez, and perhaps most notably, Juan Manuel Marquez. 

“I used to train in Cancun with Adrian Nunez, who made me a national champion when I was 14 years old,” said Aguirre.  “But then Ignacio invited me to train in the Romanza Gym under his tutelage.”  Aguirre has been training with Beristain for nearly two months and decided to train with him because Beristain told him he would make him a world champion.    

So far the career of the 24-year-old Aguirre has been a perfect one.  He has a record of 10 wins with zero losses and seven of those wins have come by the way of knockout.  According to Aguirre however, he isn’t just a power puncher.

“Sometimes I don’t think I’m a big puncher.  I just have good timing and they go down.”

Most boxing fans know that Cuban fighters come out of a system that teaches them a defense first style where the goal is to hit and not be hit.  That is vastly different from the Mexican style of and standing and trading heavy leather in order to give fans a good show.  Aguirre considers himself a mixture of the two.   

“I’m a guy who has good technic because my trainers were Cuban since I was young, so they showed me to hit and not get hit,” said Aguirre.  “I have a mixture of Mexican style and Cuban style; I can box and fight.”

Something else that Aguirre believes will help him achieve his goal of becoming a world champion are his eating habits.  One of Aguirre’s biggest sponsors is Vegan Planet, a restaurant in Cancun where Miguel Bautista is the head chef, someone who Aguirre has attributed with helping him to learn more about the importance of nutrition. 

“I don’t like to say I’m 100 percent vegan, but I believe in the lifestyle,” said Aguirre.  “When I’m training I feel better and stronger when I’m eating vegan.” However, Aguirre also admitted to eating fish and occasionally red meat “when my body asks for meat.”

When asked about his future plans after boxing, and whether or not he will make use of his law degree, Aguirre remains focused on his current profession.

“I don’t know if I will be a lawyer, right now all I’m thinking about is becoming world champion.  It has been my dream since I was a kid.”