15-year-old LB amateur boxer preparing for upcoming national bout

Long Beach resident Moises “Mighty Mo” Orozco began boxing as an 8-year-old. His father Rudy Orozco, from local plumbing company Kid Rooter, had boxed when he himself was young and trained boys at a local gym. However, Orozco had to shut down the gym because of a lack of boxers. As his father closed down the gym, Mo found himself interested in boxing.
“Hanging around, traveling to the different states, watching the competition, other people fighting…I was watching it and decided to try it,” Mo said. “I just like being able to travel with my dad and other people, meet different people, hang out with different people.”
Orozco began training his son at his gym. “I just figured I’m gonna let him do it,” Rudy said. “He’s gonna get beat, he’ll get discouraged, he’ll quit and that’ll be it.” But now, 75 undefeated fights later, Mo is a seasoned, 15-year-old amateur boxer poised to compete in U.S.A. Boxing’s 2012 Junior Olympics in Mobile, Alabama from June 19-22.
The upcoming bout will feature 14 contestants, each the champion of their respective region. Mo, for example, is regional champion for California and Nevada. The funnel begins at the city level, rises to the district level, followed by state, regions, and then national. The winner and national champion would go on to compete on the international amateur boxing circuit.
This is the first time Mo has the chance to later take on the international circuit. Also, a victory at the bout is the first step to qualifying for the Olympics; Orozco and Mo have long aspired for him to win a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics. “In the event that we’re not successful, it’s not the only way,” Orozco noted. Other bouts can qualify and funnel boxers for the Olympics.
Mo has won nationally before, garnering the 2008 Silver Gloves award, among many others. “He’s won every amateur tournament or championship that he could’ve won during his time,” Orozco said. But Mo’s prior age forbade him from participating in the 15- and 16-year-olds-only 2012 Junior Olympics bout. “In amateur boxing, they can’t be more than five pounds off from each other, and no more than 24 months,” Orozco explained. For example, a 17-year-old cannot face off against a 14-year-old— their bodies are too rapidly changing.
Mo currently trains six days out of every week. Homeschooled, Mo has a flexible enough schedule to train during the weekdays. Mo said his homeschooling began a year after he began boxing. “It helped, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Even if he didn’t box, I still would’ve homeschooled him,” Orozco noted. “It worked out for our convenience.” Mo begins in the morning with either a 45-minute, four- to five-mile run or trains with coach Alisha Lopez at No Limits Sports And Fitness Academy in Signal Hill.

Lopez works with Mo on strength, conditioning, and flexibility training at her gym, and she also monitored and tweaked Mo’s diet to optimize his performance. “[Orozco] said that his son was in boxing and he wanted to take his son to the next level,” Lopez said. “He would get tired and fatigued.” Strength and conditioning training give Mo more stamina for fights, while flexibility training ensures Mo properly stretches to avoid injuring himself. “He’s a good, competitive athlete,” Lopez said. “It’s really nice when you work with a kid who likes what he’s doing. And when he shows up to train, he’s 100-percent ready to go.”
In the afternoon, Mo heads to the boxing gym for two to three hours. Orozco and Mo change up where he trains to find places with the proper sparring level. Mo trains wherever they end up with another coach, Anthony Huzair. “I was the coach up to maybe two years ago, and then I got another guy…he has a little bit more knowledge as far as Olympics style,” Orozco explained. “I’m not as familiar as he is, so I let him take over.” Olympics boxing emphasizes strategizing, technique, and careful punch placement over sheer brawn. “Plus, since we’re together all day, and then I’m the coach, the dad, and the homeschooling teacher and the disciplinarian! it’s better that way sometimes,” he said.
Mo is an amateur boxer, rather than a professional boxer. “It’s not about getting beat up. It’s about scoring points,” Orozco explained. Amateur boxing is safer and more regulated. Referees end fights quicker, and boxers score points by hitting the white portions of their opponent’s glove. For example, a direct punch to the opponent’s gut does not net any points, though it may make the opponent susceptible to a “clean shot” to the white, point-counting portions. Even knocking someone down only scores one point.
Still, it is unclear if Mo is a future professional boxer. “That’s not part of my vision,” Orozco said. “Let’s just say he was to win a gold medal. And let’s just say someone was to offer him a lot of money to sign a contract. Then it’d be up to him to say, ‘Can I still go to college and still do this professionally with the kind of money they’re offering?'” Mo himself doesn’t know yet as well. “It all depends,” Mo said. “Maybe.” If not boxing, Mo said he may become a lawyer or doctor, though he is unsure.
Mo’s nickname comes from 1 Chronicles 12:1-2, which partially reads, “…they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow.” These Biblical warriors used both their left and right hands to fight. “Mo is a natural left hand but I taught him how to fight right handed,” Orozco said. “He started to switch. Lefty, righty, lefty, righty.” In turn, Orozco suggested the nickname, appropriating Mighty from the mighty men and chopping off the end of Mo’s actual name, Moises. And so, Mighty Mo was born.