Nearly every day for more than 20 years has ended the same way for Zeke Lopez. After three hours of training kids as young as 7, Lopez locks up Bulldog Boxing and waits for the next day.
Since 1992, Lopez has run a year-round, Monday through Friday, three-hour boxing clinic that charges no money. The only money he collects is for those who want to box around Northern California – and he doesn’t keep it.
Thanks to help from the city – the gym pays only $1 per month for its metal shack on the corner of McCray Street and Gibbs Drive – and community donations, Lopez has trained over 1,000 athletes from Hollister, keeping them away from gangs and the troubles of adolescence.
“I do it for the youth and the community,” he said. “I don’t charge anything. I’ve been doing it for over 20 years. I’ve got a lot of kids that I’ve trained – amateurs and pros. My thing is not just turning them pro and doing something with them but keeping them off the streets and keeping them straight on something like school or a good career. I just do it for the kids.”
Every year, he’ll take that training and push kids to move from sparring to actual competitions around the state. Because of that, he has helped boxers collect silver gloves and other championships. This year, Lopez will send four boxers – one as young as 10 – to fight around the state starting in July.
“It’s exciting to see them go out there,” he said.
For 12-year-old Jonathan Mamario, who is 1-1, Lopez’s passion for the sport gives him motivation to come every week despite living in Newman.
“I like it here because it’s cool,” Mamario said. “They train very good. (Zeke) is a good coach. He trains me very well. It’s important because I’ve been here since 10 (years old) and I feel like it’s a home here.”
Creating a home at Bulldog Boxing is one of Lopez’s constant goals. He doesn’t let problems persist and every year he’ll take the group of boxers to camping and fishing trips. That family atmosphere also includes his own daughter Mariah Lopez, who has been boxing since she could walk.
“I grew up with it,” she said. “I was a baby here. It’s just part of my life. It’s very important (to my father) because that’s his way of expressing himself. It keeps them out of trouble.”
The free program almost started out as an accident for Lopez. When he first started in 1992, he was training one person. Eventually, more and more parents and kids wanted to be a part of it, leading him to open it up to more people.
With expensive youth programs all around town, Lopez realized the importance of a free program to prevent kids from falling to the streets – something he experienced when he was younger, he said.
“I started out with one kid in my garage,” he said. “Since then kids have come in. I’ve been in and out of the gang thing and I did it because I hate to see kids go through that. I want to keep kids off the street. There is nothing here for that. There isn’t anything you don’t have to pay for. There is nothing. Look, the YMCA you’ve got to pay for. Other gyms you have to pay for. Football, baseball, basketball and anything else you have to pay for.”
With a free tuition it helps kids like Neftali Lopez, 15, avoid falling into a trap of gangs, he said. Instead, Neftali Lopez, who is called Ali, puts his focus in the ring.
And after three years of training hard, Neftali Lopez will have his first fight next month.
“It means a lot,” he said. “Before, I never thought I would make it this far. Zeke, he inspired me to train hard. He is a good coach and he is a very nice man. Without him I couldn’t have made it this far.”
Other kids in town should take notice, Neftali Lopez said.
“The community should be here,” he said. “The kids should be here to stay off the streets and not be lazy and work out.”
The gym isn’t perfect but Zeke Lopez tries his best to make it that way, he said.
“I have had kids that come in and went to college, got a good job, had a family,” Zeke Lopez said. “But then I have some kids that went the other way. They came to this gym and got killed because of the streets. I don’t want to say this is the place to go for total success because nothing is. I can’t save everybody, but I try.”
He continued, “It’s just my thing.”
