Don’t Underestimate Gloria Alvarado, an Unconventional Boxing Coach

Don’t Underestimate Gloria Alvarado, an Unconventional Boxing Coach

“I have been around gyms all my life. Combat sports are in my DNA.”

So said Gloria Alvarado, a boxing coach/trainer who has earned the respect of her peers. It’s no longer shocking to see a woman assisting in the corner of a prizefighter, but when a woman is the main cog, as Alvarado usually is, well, that’s still a novelty.

“Coach Gee” to her fighters, Alvarado may not fit the stereotype of a boxing coach, but she certainly has the pedigree. Her grandfather boxed and her grandmother was a professional wrestler. Gloria is the niece of MMA legend Benny “The Jet” Urquidez and his sister, Lilly Urquidez Rodriguez, both of who were instrumental in popularizing the sport of kickboxing in the United States. Aunt Lilly, notes Alvarado, once trained Bridgett “Baby Doll” Riley, a ground-breaking West Coast boxer who fought on the undercard of the first meeting between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield at Madison Square Garden.

“In my family, people became great fighters or great trainers,” says Alvarado, 53, who competed as an amateur kickboxer. A single mom for the last 22 years, Gloria was born in the great boxing incubator of East LA and currently resides in Burbank.

She helped train Seniesa Estrada when the future undisputed world minimumweight champion was an amateur. “I have known her since she was a little girl. She was a great kid growing up,” says Alvarado.

Things between them became frosty when Alvarado began training Yokasta Valle. The rift between them became a major storyline when Estrada and the Costa Rican, each holding two world title belts, were matched for the undisputed title this past March in Glendale, Arizona. The media contorted the match into a grudge fight which became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Valle finished strong in a fan-friendly fight, but all three judges voted against her, giving the fight to Estrada by 97-93 scores. Valle was fighting an uphill battle from the opening round when she suffered a bad gash over her right eye, the result of what was ruled an unintentional clash of heads.

Gloria Alvarado begs to disagree, arguing it was an intentional head butt. Post-fight, she took umbrage with the decision, an unpopular verdict, and demanded a rematch, but that’s not likely to happen, at least not in the near future. Estrada announced her retirement in October several months after tying the knot with Sports illustrated Senior Writer and DAZN ringside correspondent Chris Mannix. And if Seniesa eventually unretires (for an undefeated fighter, the first retirement is seldom the last) and a rematch comes to fruition, Gloria Alvarado likely won’t be there. She and Yokasta Valle are now on the outs because, says Gloria, Yokasta was a stiff, refusing to pay her all that she was owed.

Alvarado doesn’t limit her good counsel to boxers that share her gender. She trains and is also the manager of Alan “Kid Kansas” Garcia.

Garcia, who turns 22 tomorrow (Jan. 5), hails from the town of Ulysses in the southwestern portion of the Sunflower State. He fought twice on Top Rank cards before inking a multi-fight deal with the organization in March. “Alan Garcia is a sensational young talent with world championship potential,” Top Rank honcho Bob Arum was quoted as saying in the press release that announced his signing.

Kid Kansas

Kid Kansas was 14-0 with 11 KOs when his career hit a snag. On Sept. 20, he was knocked out in the fifth round by Spanish-Bolivian journeyman Ricardo Fernandez.

Garcia had his back to the ropes when he was tagged with a looping right hand. It was a classic one-punch, 10-count knockout. Garcia crashed to the canvas, his head resting under the lower strand of ropes. Coincidentally, it came in the round when ESPN broadcasters Bernardo Osuna and Tim Bradley had their microphones turned off and half the screen was focused on Alvarado shouting instructions to her fighter. The knockout punch rendered her speechless, but the look of horror on her face left a lasting impression.

“When it happened,” recollects Alvarado, “my view was blocked or I would have yelled for Alan to get off the ropes and he would have instantly obeyed my command.”

While a one-punch knockout can betray a brittle chin, it’s also easier to overcome than a knockout forged by sequences of unanswered punches in a relentlessly one-sided fight. That’s because the victim of a one-punch knockout was usually just careless, a correctable deficiency. Before the roof fell in on him, Garcia had won every round, arguably every minute of every round.

“I had no time to brood over the mishap,” says Gloria Alvarado, “because I had to be in Mexico the next day with three of my amateur boxers.”

Alvarado feels an emotional connection to all her fighters but that goes double for Garcia’s stablemate, 23-year-old Iyana Verduzco. Nicknamed “Right Hook Roxy” (her middle name is Roxanie), Verduzco is the youngest of Gloria’s two daughters. (The older girl, now 35 years old and a mother of three, fought as an amateur; she was Alvarado’s first boxer.)

As an amateur, Iyana won 21 national titles. “Thanks to her, I got to see a lot more of the world,” says Alvarado, noting that she accompanied her daughter to tournaments in places like Poland and Hungary.

Alvarado, who once owned her own gym, can usually be found at Freddie Roach’s famous Wild Card Gym. Iyana, currently signed to Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions and 3-0 as a pro, can usually be found there too, training alongside men including world champions.

Roxy Verduzco

Iyana entered the pro ranks with a ready-made fan base thanks to social media. Among other things, she has an Only Fans platform. But don’t be fooled; it isn’t what you might think.

While it is true that the bulk of its revenue derives from pornographic material, Only Fans didn’t start out that way and the majority of its content is still created by entertainers and influencers who use the site to monetize interactions with their fans. You won’t find anything raunchy on Right Hook Roxy’s platform. “If she did that,” says her mother, “I would disown her.”

Being a woman in a male-dominated sphere can be daunting. “Getting access to [my fighter’s] dressing room is always a challenge,” says Alvarado. “When I am with Alan Garcia or another male boxer, security guards assume that I am his mom. ‘I’m sorry,’ they might say, but only the boxer and his handlers are allowed in there.”

She says this without a trace of rancor. There isn’t a hard-edge to her, at least not around civilians with whom she is always pleasant. But there is one thing that really bugs her, and that’s internet trolls who spew invective at a boxer encountering adversity: “No one would dare rush up to ringside and yell ‘you suck’ at a fighter while a bout is in progress, but they can do it on the internet because their cowardice has no consequences. What others call a troll, I call a keyboard gangster.”

A woman who likes to stay busy – she ran three restaurants before her passion for boxing became all-consuming – Alvarado will be especially busy in February. Alan “Kid Kansas” Garcia begins his comeback on Feb. 1 in Garden City, Kansas, with the ubiquitous TBA in the opposite corner. Gloria’s daughter Iyana Verduzco, aka Right Hook Roxy, returns to the ring on Feb. 17 at SoCal’s Commerce Casino in a 6-round super featherweight contest that will air on UFC Fight Pass.

Concurrently, more people will become conversant with Gloria Alvarado, an unconventional boxing coach who can hold her own with the big boys.

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