Kaipo Gallegos, 15, works on his timing with his father and trainer Jayson Gallegos at the Las Vegas Fight Club gym Friday, March 19, 2021. Gallegos will compete in the USA Boxing National Championships, March 25 - April 3, for a chance to make the USA Olympic boxing team.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Faces of boxing legends decorate the walls in the Las Vegas Fight Club gym in east Las Vegas. Owner Jayson Gallegos is sure his teenage son, Kaipo, will one day also be mentioned as one of the sport’s greats.
So, the proud father maintains a growing tribute dedicated to his 15-year-old son and perks up as he points at the 20 or so belts hanging from a chain-link shrine.
Countless boxers go through the course of their career without winning a national title, much less the 16 Kaipo has conquered, said the elder Gallegos, who’s been training him since he was 5.
Kaipo has been competing since age 8 and just doesn’t lose. He sports a 95-5 amateur record.
“The minute he won his first national title I knew he was special,” Gallegos said.
The father-son duo this week were heading to Shreveport, La., where Kaipo is competing in the 114-pound division at the rescheduled 2020 USA Boxing National Championship. A win could bring him closer to representing the U.S. in the 2024 Olympics. For about a week, fighters will jump in the ring every day until they lose.
If the Las Vegas High School student is victorious, he’ll be invited to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and get a chance to compete internationally, getting a chance to qualify for the Paris games, Gallegos said.
Kaipo wants a gold medal before turning professional. Possibilities would be endless from there, but he eventually wants to be a world champion, he said. “I am prepared for it. I’m working hard. Just working hard; it’s going to happen.”
Kaipo has been around boxing since birth. For the family, the sport means everything. Jayson Gallegos recalls his childhood growing up in Hawaii with no guidance, and how he derailed and “went the wrong way” with gangs and drugs, he said.
He didn’t want the past to repeat itself. “I wanted something different for my kids,” Gallegos said. “Change the cycle.”
Gallegos, who’s been into boxing his whole life, moved to Las Vegas and worked construction for several years. It was a good-paying union job, but it wasn’t his passion. He would train his nephews and other kids in boxing after work.
About 16 years ago, he told his wife he wanted to open a boxing gym. “She thought I was crazy,” he said. Keeping the doors open the first few years was challenging, he said.
Gallegos has three daughters and three other boys, one of whom is a professional boxer with a 3-0 record.
Business started turning around the time 5-year-old Kaipo showed interest in the sport. He and his siblings help their father with the thriving business.
Throughout his young life, Kaipo has been “throwing punches, always fighting,” he said. “I’m always doing it, dedicated to the sport, training every day.”
It has paid dividends. His father describes a boy with an incessant appetite to succeed, whose dedication is unlike any he sees in fighters his age. “While all these kids are playing, he’s in the gym working,” he said. “Ever since he was little.”
On Friday, father and son waltz through the ring doing pad work, the man instructing his boy on where to punch, and Kaipo landing every hit.
“When I’m in the ring, I’m ready to fight,” Kaipo said. “When I’m in the ring, everything just goes away.”
The boy, who has idolized Manny Pacquiao and whose favorite fighter is Terence Crawford, carries himself quietly, but he’s also confident.
“I’m going to win it,” he said without hesitation about this week’s tournament.
Asked if he’s proud of his son, Gallegos said: “Oh man yes, it makes me proud because all the hard work and dedication is showing that … if you work hard, look what he became.”
