Twenty-year-old Diego Ayala Avalos wanted to take on the boxing
world.
But he lost a valiant fight with heart problems when he died
Sunday night at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital.
Twenty-year-old Diego Ayala Avalos wanted to take on the boxing world.
But he lost a valiant fight with heart problems when he died Sunday night at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital.
Bulldog Boxing Gym owner Zeke Lopez trained Avalos for about three years. Often Lopez would let the young boxer stay at his house for several days when he needed a place to stay. Avalos’ father died when Avalos was real young.
“He was like my son,” Lopez said. “We had our arguments like most father and sons do, but we always sat down and talked about it.
“He was always with us when we went places,” he said. “He would help us out with things.”
Lopez worked with Avalos to help him develop both his boxing skills – and the skills he would need for life.
“Every fight he fought, he was always knocking guys out,” Lopez said. “He was in different foster homes, but he always came back to me.
“It always hurts when something like this happens. He could have been a good pro. He could have been a world champion,” he said.
Lopez did what he could to try to help keep Avalos out of trouble. During that time of training, Lopez was able to form a bond between him like he does with all of his students.
“He came to me as a tough teenage kid who wanted to box,” Lopez said. “He swore he could take on the world. I told him to try out the ring and see what he had.
“He got beat up a couple times. But he stuck it out and became very good.”
During one of the fights in Stockton, Avalos fought a tough fight before knocking his opponent out. But after the fight, he was exceptionally tired, Lopez said.
“He loved to get in there and always got excited when he went in the ring,” Lopez said. “I told him he needed to relax and try to keep his blood pressure down.”
Avalos was a two-time Golden Glove champion and also won a Junior Olympics title. He moved around in different foster homes.
“He would always keep in touch,” Lopez said. “When he came back to Hollister, he was always with me.”
Avalos, who had heart troubles for about 10 years, was forced to quit boxing at one point because it got so bad.
“He went to the clinic because he was coughing up blood,” said his aunt Rosa Avalos. “He didn’t want to go to the hospital because he didn’t like hospitals. But they said he needed to go.”
He was at the hospital for two weeks before he died.
“When I talked to doctors on Sunday, they said it was really bad,” she said. “He had a lung infection, and his heart was enlarged with the infection. They said a heart transplant was the only option, but he was not eligible because of the sickness.”
Lopez plans on making some shirts in memory of Avalos for the team to wear in their March 6 event in Porterville.
