Emerging super bantamweight Manuel Avila enters a rematch with David Reyes on Saturday night aiming to show his superiority and in a way prove a unanimous verdict should have been rendered instead of the split decision that was announced after their initial October meeting. The bout takes place at the Woodland Community & Senior Center in Woodland, California – a short drive from Avila’s Fairfield home and will air on Telefutura Solo Boxeo, giving the young fighter a chance to further endear himself to both local and national fight fans.
The fact that Avila (6-0, 2 KOs) found boxing as a youth was really a fluke matter of circumstances. “My parents wanted to keep me off the street with sports like baseball and soccer, but they have off seasons,” recalls Avila. “Then when I was nine my dad asked me if I wanted to box and I said yes. So he told me that when I turned ten we’d go.” The elder Avila did not have any aspirations for his son to pursue boxing as a profession, it just happened to be a sport that would keep him busy year round.
Just days before his tenth birthday, Avila’s dad did take him to the local boxing gym, but his son was not eager to begin at first. “I saw some kids sparring and I got scared and didn’t want to do it anymore. I was told that I’ll work my way up, so I decided to do it, starting a day before my birthday.”
The gym his father took him to that day would be the same gym Avila would train out of his entire career, the Georgie Duke Sports Center in Vacaville, where he has trained under Al LaGardo. Shortly after hooking up with the young Avila, LaGardo would give his young pug a nickname that would stick. “My coach Al used to have this pro fighter named Tino Huggins,” explains Avila. “He said I looked just like him, so he told me from now on my name is Tino and it just stuck. Now everyone calls me Tino.”
Tino would get over his reluctance to spar and ten months after arriving at the gym, he would begin competing. Avila developed into one of the top amateurs in California, claiming a Silver Gloves title and placing third in the country at the 2008 Junior Olympic National Championships.
In 2009, Avila traveled to Denver, Colorado to compete at the USA Boxing National Championships. Unfortunately for Avila, his hopes for a national title would be dashed after a controversial disqualification in a preliminary round bout against Luis Rosa of East Haven, Connecticut. “They disqualified me for bowing, but I never did,” explains Avila. “The guy would grab my head and push me down but they called me for it.”
After the fight with Rosa, a few people, including an amateur boxing official not working that day, explained to a dejected Avila that there may have been an explanation for the disqualification. “I was told they weren’t going to let me win the fight because my whole uniform was the Mexican Flag and it wouldn’t look right when I’m representing the USA Team.”
In the immediate aftermath of his exit from nationals, Avila decided he wanted to turn professional. Unexpectedly for Avila, things started falling into place quite rapidly, as prominent manager Cameron Dunkin courted him before he was even old enough to fight in the United States. “It was amazing because I wanted to become a pro as soon as I turned 18 and when I was 17 I got a call from Cameron saying he wants to sign me,” remembers Avila. “I didn’t think people like me get discovered like that or sign by anyone at 18 coming from where I’m from.”
Eventually Dunkin signed Avila up with Golden Boy Promotions, who scheduled his debut for November 18, 2010 on the regionally televised Fight Night Club program emanating from the Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California. “I was excited to finally fight as a pro, but to me it was just another fight,” says Avila, who dominated Alexis Hernandez en route to a four-round unanimous decision that night.
In January of the next year, promoters Don Chargin and Paco Damian, who partner with Golden Boy on several of their Solo Boxeo dates, decided to bring boxing to Fairfield for the first time in many years and Tino Avila was a big reason why that decision was made. Unfortunately for Avila and his strong local fan base, his fight fell out at the weigh-in, as his late replacement opponent did not come close to the contracted weight. However, thanks in part to tickets Avila sold, the January event was such a financial success, Solo Boxeo came back to Fairfield the very next month. This time, Tino Avila fans would go home happy.
On that February night, Avila stopped Jose Garcia in the fourth round before a national television audience and of course his large local following. “It felt great being able to fight on TV and in front of my friends and family,” says Avila. “I felt like everyone has a lot of hopes for me. I wasn’t really expecting a KO because I didn’t know anything about this guy. I didn’t even find out he was southpaw until the fight started, but it was a real good feeling.
With the February event again doing well at the box office, Solo Boxeo came back to Fairfield for the third straight month that March and again Avila was on the bill scoring an impressive stoppage. This time it was limited journeyman Frank Gutierrez that would taste the canvas three times and fail to make it out of the second round against Avila.
Two months later Avila returned to Solo Boxeo as he traveled down Costa Mesa, California and scored a four-round unanimous decision over Jesse Padilla. One month later on June 24th, Avila came back to Fairfield for a non-televised decision over Salvador Cifuentes.
After keeping an incredibly busy pace for the first eight months of his career, Avila ran into some bad luck as a series of bouts would fall out on sometimes short notice. One such bout scheduled for September in Reno, Nevada would have to be cancelled as Avila attempted to get the additional necessary medicals required by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, but could not complete them all in time.
On October 15th, Avila returned to the ring on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. As Avila stepped into the ring to fight unbeaten local David Reyes on the undercard of a pay-per-view for the first time, the Fairfield native claims the larger stage had no effect on him. “No, not at all,” says Avila. “I just felt like I was getting up there to the big times.”
According to most ringside accounts, Avila won the fight fairly clearly, as he even scored a knockdown in the third of the four-round bout. However, one judge had the fight scored for Reyes, 38-37. The other two had it for Avila, 39-35 and 39-36, giving Tino his sixth professional victory. After hearing the one card for Reyes, Avila feared for a moment he would be the victim of some home cooking. “I thought they were going to give the fight to him just because he was from there in L.A.,” said Avila. “I felt like I won every round.”
That brings us to this coming Saturday. Avila, fighting close to home for the first time in many months, feels he has a little something to prove in the rematch with Reyes. “This time there is doubt that I’m going to win every single round convincingly to show everyone that is watching,” says Avila.
With another win on Saturday, Avila will move one step further away from the kid that came to the gym to stay busy and one step closer to prominence as a professional boxer. As Avila continues to move forward in the sport, chances are some kids in the Vacaville area will walk through the doors of the Georgie Duke Sports Center hoping to be Coach LaGardo’s next “Tino.”
Tickets for Saturday’s event, promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Don Chargin Productions, Paco Presents and Jorge Marron Productions, are available online at PacoPresentsBoxing.com or by calling Paco’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Woodland at 530-669-7946.
Photos by Stephanie Trapp/[email protected]
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at [email protected].
