Alex Saucedo boxing his way toward the American dream

Alex Saucedo took part in one of the most brutal bouts of 2018, but his hard work has him challenging for his first world title.

Life isn’t easy for anyone, but in recent years, immigrants coming to the U.S. haven’t been welcomed with open arms. The American spirit used to represent the words from “The New Colossus”: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” But for Alex Saucedo (28-0, 18 KOs) and millions of other Mexican immigrants, they’ve been made to feel like second-class citizens. Boxing has been his way of conquering racial discrimination, and he’s on the precipice of achieving his American dream.

The fear-mongering originating from the Oval Office is creating a scary nationalist movement vilifying caravans of immigrants who are just looking for asylum and a better life for their families. Saucedo can relate to their journey and their desire for the American way of life.

According to Boxrec.com, Saucedo is the 15th best super lightweight in the world, and on Nov. 16, he challenges WBO champion Maurice Hooker (24-0-3, 16 KOs) for the title. His path to this moment hasn’t been easy, but his father’s decision to move the family to the U.S. from Mexico nearly 17 years ago helped make his title shot and successful boxing career possible.

“My father used to work in the United States, and I was living in Mexico,” Saucedo said to FanSided. “When I was seven or eight years old, he was working in the oil fields of Oklahoma, and he fell in love with Oklahoma. He brought us down from Chihuahua, Mexico to Oklahoma.

“I got there in third grade,” Saucedo added. “I started boxing at that age as well when I got there. It has been a blessing being in Oklahoma.”

While talking to Saucedo about Oklahoma City, it’s clear the love that he has for his transplanted home. His title fight with Hooker is in OKC, which is a huge advantage for Saucedo. However, while OKC is nicknamed ‘The Big Friendly,’ the city wasn’t initially very kind to Saucedo as a Mexican immigrant child.

“It was very challenging not being able to speak English,” Saucedo said. “They [kids] used to make fun of me. I’ve had a lot of challenges growing up there. With time, I was very patient, and I started boxing and putting the name of Oklahoma on the map. The people started falling in love with me. At first, it was a very hard transition.”

Saucedo’s third-grade peers weren’t accepting and bullied him when he first came to the U.S. His ethnicity was the target of their attacks. Who knew that 17 years later, much of the national discourse concerning would-be Mexican immigrants would mirror their vitriol? Saucedo’s way of enduring harsh treatment was to absorb it and eventually fight it. The problem was that he didn’t know how to box. No one in Saucedo’s family boxed, but he always possessed a fascination with the sport.

“I have pictures when I used to live in Mexico at the Halloween parties, I used to dress as a boxer,” Saucedo said. “Nobody in my family ever boxed. I guess it was just in me. ”

Boxing may have naturally appealed to Saucedo, but his boxing training came about by chance. Saucdeo related to FanSided how he entered a boxing gym for the first time:

"When I came to the United States, I wasn’t doing anything at home — just going to school and back home because I didn’t have no friends. I didn’t speak English. They used to make fun of me. I found my way to a boxing gym. One of my dad’s friends told him about a boxing gym. I was very interested. As soon as my dad told me would you like to try it, it was like it was what I’ve been waiting for my whole life."

Early into the young Saucedo’s boxing tutelage, he demonstrated extraordinary ability. Maybe boxing allowed him to take out the frustrations of being bullied or he finally found something to be passionate about. Regardless of his source of motivation, he excelled in the ring.

“The day I walked in the gym it was like I lived there,” Saucedo said. “I had my first amateur fight a week after I walked into the gym because the coaches said I was a natural. They were like, ‘this kid knows how to fight already.’ That’s how everything started.”

From that moment on, Saucedo was all-in on boxing. Very little is publicly known about Saucedo’s amateur career and even less exists in written form, but Saucedo detailed his successes.

"I had about 165 amateur fights in the United States and about 20 of them in Mexico. When I was around 16, I started trying out for the Olympic team in Mexico. I would go over there to fight. I fought in the states. I fought nationals and I won all those tournaments in Mexico as well. I qualified for the 2012 Olympics to represent Mexico, and then they gave me two weeks off to come home with my family. And between those two weeks, I got the call from Top Rank about getting a deal and becoming professional. At the age of 17, I just went for it. I’m happy with the way everything turned out."

Saucedo took a gamble by passing on the Olympics. Many boxers use an Olympic performance as a springboard to a lucrative contract with a major promoter, but Saucedo passed on the opportunity to win gold in favor of a guaranteed contract with Top Rank. His risk proved to be wise.

Everything was going Saucedo’s way, but suddenly he found himself without a trainer. His trainer at the time was barred from re-entering the U.S. due to visa complications. With the absence of a mastermind in his corner, Saucedo took it upon himself to find a new teacher to guide him in his boxing odyssey. He turned to the internet and YouTube for guidance.

“I didn’t have a trainer, and I started looking online,” Saucedo said. “I was looking at Abel [Sanchez] and GGG, actually, on YouTube, and I just loved everything they did — his morning runs and the way they live here in the house. I thought that would be perfect for me and I called him, and he seen [sic] me and said come on down and give it a try.”

It sounds simple: A talented fighter needed a new trainer, so he found one on the internet and contacted him. However, gaining the attention of one of the world’s best boxing trainers isn’t that easy. Abel Sanchez is a strict evaluator of talent. Saucedo passed his eye test, but there are many others he has refused to work with because they didn’t have what Jack Kerouac would describe as “it.”

“I’m very happy that he took me because I’ve been here for two years now and I’ve seen him decline so many fighters that call him, and I’m talking Olympic fighters,” Saucedo said. ” It’s been a great two years.”

The pinnacle of Saucedo’s career occurred this past June when he fought Lenny Zappavigna (37-4, 27 KOs) on ESPN. Zappavigna was the toughest competitor of Saucedo’s life on paper, and that trend proved to be a reality. What ensued was a bloodbath that took Saucedo to the brink and almost beyond.

Saucedo cruised through the first three rounds, flooring Zappavigna in the third. It looked like he was on his way to a short night and an easygoing victory, but then Round 4 came along and nearly derailed his hopes and dreams.

Zappavigna caught Saucedo with a right hand that badly hurt him. Saucedo was stuck on the ropes, and Zappavigna hit him continuously for the remainder of the round. It was hard to watch but thrilling to see Saucedo withstanding Zappavigna’s onslaught at the same time. It’s an image that sums up the ambivalent nature of the sport. What goes through someone’s mind as they’re viciously battered and their future is slipping away? Saucedo tried to explain it the best he could. His memory is surprisingly vivid considering the position he was in.

"Flashes would come to my mind of how hard I worked to get there. I was in my mind going, ‘you can’t go out like this. You worked so hard for this moment and now you’re here in front of all these people.’ That’s what was going through my mind because I could here the people in the background going ‘OKC’ and shouting my name. That helped me a lot and woke me up. I was just thinking I couldn’t go out like that."

In the end, it was the OKC crowd’s cheers that helped the city’s adopted son survive one of the most brutal rounds of recent memory. Saucedo shook off the effects of Zappavigna’s punches and regained his senses and control of the bout.

“That fifth round I came back and started working all over again on what I was doing in the first three rounds,” Saucedo said. “You saw how his face ended up. Yeah, it was a battle.”

Saucedo turned Zappavigna’s face into a bloody mess on his way to a seventh round TKO. It’s a fight that will linger in the memories of boxing fans and purists for a long time to come, but now Saucedo has an even bigger fight on the horizon as his title shot against Hooker is almost here.

Hooker won the WBO super lightweight title from Terry Flanagan in July. He is the obstacle in Saucedo’s way of achieving the American dream he envisioned as a young boy in a foreign home. Saucedo realizes how good Hooker is.

“He’s a fighter that has good reach,” he said. ” I think he was able to use it with Flanagan very good. I watched the fight, and I saw him winning. He used his distance pretty good.

“I’m not Flanagan,” Saucedo was quick to add. “I’m a different type of fighter. That’s what I’m going to show everyone on November 16.”

In numerous ways, Saucedo has already achieved the American dream. He came to the U.S. with very little, and he’s accomplished a lot in the sport of boxing at only 24 years of age, but he won’t be satisfied until he’s a world champion. Even if Saucedo wins, his victory will be bittersweet considering the tense political climate haunting his fellow countrymen who are trying to follow his lead. He’s bothered by the racially charged verbiage from the White House that is characterizing Mexican immigrants as invaders.

“It hits in my heart,” Saucedo said. “It’s hard to see those types of things. I have to focus on my career because I have a family that’s growing. It is very tough to see those types of things. It’s very sad because I know we’re hard-working people. That’s why they want to come. They want a better life for their family.”

Saucedo’s fight continues on Nov. 16 against Hooker on ESPN at midnight ET. If he wins, then he will have achieved a lifelong goal. His hard work and upward movement through his vitality are the bedrock of what makes the United States special among a world of nations.