Friday, October 2, 2026
Cloudy, 67°Wind: mph,
Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
Deandra Santos won a bronze medal in June when she competed in a national championship tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Santos is 14 years old and will be a sophomore at Mayfield High School this year.
Santos said she was “pretty nervous,” when she first climbed into the ring at the age of 12. But her mom encouraged her to take up boxing and now, two years later, Santos is winning medals.
“It’s a pretty good sport for me,” Santos told the Bulletin.
Santos said she gets into the ring to compete against both boys and girls.
Adan Sanchez, who owns House of Pain, one of the boxing gyms in Las Cruces, said Santos is “one of those kids who came in and worked her way to the top.”
But perhaps more important than Santos’ wins are her losses. Sanchez said one of the important aspects of teaching kids how to box is that, really, it’s a way to teach kids how to be successful in life.
Sanchez said he tells parents that he is a parent first.
“Then I’m a teacher, then I’m a boxing coach. I have to translate success into the boxing ring. That’s my mission. My success isn’t measured by the boxing ring. It’s what is their success in life,” Sanchez said.
Santos said that when she loses, she doesn’t get upset.
“I don’t take it as a loss. I take it as something to fix. It’s just a lesson and it helps me get better,” she said.
Santos said boxing also helps her with school.
“It’s very good discipline. It helps me to not pick on people or just start any drama. It’s pretty good to do. It keeps me away from drinking and smoking. It keeps me away from doing that,” Santos said.
Louie Burke, who manages Pal Boxing Club, a free boxing program offered through the City of Las Cruces, told the Bulletin that when the shooting happened at Young Park in March that took the lives of three young people, he didn’t have to worry about the youth he works with because they were all in Roswell competing at a boxing tournament that weekend.
Burke said two youths connected with Pal Boxing Club just brought back gold medals from a national junior golden glove competition. He said the students training with Pal Boxing Club came just one match shy of making it to compete as an Olympic alternate for three consecutive Olympic games.
Burke named off some recognizable names in boxing, like Austin Trout, who graduated from Mayfield High School and is now the Bare Knuckle Fighting Champion. He said boxing is a popular sport in many Latin countries and that influence has spread here.
Burke said a lot of the kids who have come through Pal Boxing Club and become successful adults are “an inspiration for me.”
“They keep me wanting to continue,” Burke said.
Sanchez said all the boxing clubs in Las Cruces work to keep kids busy, to keep them out of trouble and off the streets.
He said it’s also a great fitness activity.
“They’re spending hours in front of gaming devices, tablets. They’re out of shape, overweight. They have no cardio. We get these kids and give them a platform to learn to eat better, learn to control their emotions to control their actions,” Sanchez said.
He said the students he works with have brought back medals from multiple national championships as well as state and regional championships.
“We’re a dominating force in boxing for the state of New Mexico,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said his philosophy when a kid shows up for the first time to learn to box is to, first, condition the mind.
“Then condition the body,” he said. “Then start the boxing foundation.”
He said when the coaches teach boxing, it starts with lessons in how to punch, then how to use their feet. The next step is for an inexperienced kid to get in the ring with an experienced one to help get rid of anxieties.
Sanchez said the students he works with have been to Louisiana, California, Phoenix and Tucson to compete, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada.
He said that to afford the trips, the students fundraise.
“A lot of the time, I cover the cost,” Sanchez said. “We’re not doing it for the money.”
Sanchez works as a teacher and spends his weekends traveling with his young boxers to compete in tournaments.
Burke said firefighters and police officers come to the Pal Boxing Club to talk to students, coach them and, sometimes, to offer inspiration.
But also, the kids join boxing clubs to box because it’s fun. Santos, who won a state championship in November, said she likes boxing a lot.
“It feels pretty fun to hit people in the face,” she said.
