The memory is burned inside Jose Valenzuela’s mind. He can still hear his mom crying out in shock — from seeing her 3-year-old son pinned beneath a car after being dragged along the road.
Valenzuela was playing soccer with his sister in the streets of Los Mochis, Mexico, when their mother, Vianey, went inside to change the laundry. The ball careened across the street and underneath a car. Valenzuela climbed under the car but the ball was stuck. At that moment, the owner of the vehicle jumped inside without seeing the young boy and took off.
“Everyone could hear me crying,” Valenzuela said. “People waved the guy down. They looked under there and I was being crushed and dragged.”
After the driver stopped, people on the street had to lift the car off the ground to pull him out.
“All I can remember is saying, ‘Mom, I’m fine, don’t cry,’” Valenzuela said. “I was in shock so I wasn’t feeling much.”
Riddled with broken bones, including both his legs, it would take him nearly a year to learn how to walk again. Ever since that near-death moment, Valenzuela was a fighter.
Life in the U.S.
The accident prompted Valenzuela’s father, Arturo, to move the family to the United States, in search of safer streets and better opportunities.
From age 4 to 10, Valenzuela and his family lived in Arizona, where he got his first taste for street fighting. He was a kid who had a lot of energy and loved to roughhouse. That eventually turned into schoolyard fights and soon became an ongoing problem.
The fighting followed him when their family moved to Bellingham to be close to his aunt, uncle and cousin.
“I got really good at fighting, and my dad tried to get me to stop,” Valenzuela said. “It was an issue. Then he threatened to take me to the boxing gym. I was really competitive and wanted to impress him. I fell in love with it; it was somewhere I could be free and let my energy out.”
By age 11, his parents were driving him two hours to Azteca Boxing Club in Renton. They could see boxing was not only helping curb his street-fighting desires but also that he had potential in the sport.
“I’d much rather make this four-hour (roundtrip) drive daily than see my son be in gangs or prison,” Vianey said.
Valenzuela didn’t play any other sports while growing up in Bellingham and attending Alderwood Elementary, Shuksan Middle School and finally Squalicum High School. By sixth grade, his sole devotion outside of schoolwork was boxing.
“Our family fell in love with it together,” Valenzuela said. “They drove me back and forth for five or six years until I was 17.”
Professional pugilist
At 18, he moved to Oregon where the boxing scene was bigger and more competitive. The southpaw tore through the amateur ranks, compiling a 50-5 record before turning pro at 19 years old in 2018.
Valenzuela set the pro ranks on fire, ripping off 12 straight wins before taking back-to-back losses at 135 pounds; a third-round knockout by Edwin De Los Santos in September 2022 and a unanimous decision to Chris Colbert in March 2023.
He turned things around and earned some revenge during a December 2023 rematch with Colbert, where he scored a sixth-round knockout victory.
Valenzuela, 25, then moved up to 140 pounds to vie for a world title, setting him up for the junior welterweight championship bout with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Valenzuela knew it would be the toughest fight of his career.
Cruz, 26, had not lost a fight since 2021 and had secured an eighth-round TKO victory in March to become a first-time champion. Valenzuela was a 3-1 underdog heading into the bout.
“They were calling him Mexican Mike Tyson,” Valenzuela said. “He has the whole country behind him. He came up through the news outlets in Mexico. For me to fight him, it meant a lot, being from Mexico.“
Valenzuela had the fight of a lifetime, fending off the bulldog mentality of Cruz with crafty finesse and an arsenal of weaponry, he said.
“It was a good tough fight. I would say I outclassed him,” Valenzuela said. “I was too much for him. He fights hard and strong but I had more tricks up my sleeve.”
The fight on Aug. 3 went 12 rounds, with one judge scoring 115-113 for Cruz, but it was overruled by 116-112 and 116-112 scores for Valenzuela. He had won the world title.
He almost couldn’t believe it. From a small kid on the streets of Sinaloa, Mexico, who thought he might never walk again, to a world boxing champion.
“It was a dream come true, it truly was,” he said. “Like 1,000 pounds off my shoulders. Like, I can help my family out. It’s a big payday. Once you win, that’s when you can cash in.”
Full circle to train in Washington
Valenzuela has been relishing the victory but is continuing to train in Washington for his next match. Cruz has already expressed interest in having a rematch in early 2025. Meanwhile, Valenzuela has since returned to where his boxing roots started, at the Azteca Boxing Club in Renton where Rodriguez has taken up coaching him again.
His mother said she couldn’t be happier with where her son has ended up in life.
“I feel very accomplished as a mother and proud of being a part of the whole journey; being there for him and that he was able to accomplish his dream,” Vianey said.
Though Valenzuela has received more recognition since his championship, including fans asking for autographs, he said not much else has changed. What he most wants to do is give back to the boxing community.
“Fighting is a beautiful thing and I think everyone should experience it,” he said. “We’re all warriors deep down. It’s in our DNA. There’s also a sweet science behind it; setting your opponent up.
“I want to continue to win, get big fights and get better. I’m still growing. When I came up there wasn’t a boxing scene out here. It would be rare to bump into a professional in the gym. No one really got into mainstream live TV. That’s what I want to do. Motivate and inspire people.”
Eric Trent is CDN’s news producer; reach him at erictrent@cascadiadaily.com.
