Óscar Rivas is assailed by memories when two of his sons confess that they want to be boxers.
“They don’t know how hard it is,” he says. One of them comes to mind of the lanky boy who arrived, with worn shoes, to train at the El Pueblo Coliseum, in the south of Cali. He had no gloves, no boots, no bandages.
That boy who listened to almost all of his mom’s advice, Carmen Luz Torres, a platter of chontaduros, avocados and fish, a solo fighter for her four children, first in Buenaventura and then in an invasion in Cali. But she who she did not listen to when he fell in love with boxing when he saw the wrecker Mike Tyson.
At 34 years old, Óscar, a devotee of the Virgen del Carmen, with more than half his life in the glove and who is called ‘Kaboom’, by the sound of explosion, conquered the dream of being world champion. His name remains from October 2021 as the first champion bridgerweight (bridge), category created by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and that supports the famous heavyweights.
Now he is studying his first rival: Lukasz Rozanskia Pole who defeated his compatriot in the first assault Artur Szpilka and won the international heavyweight title bridger.
Further, the champion thinks in social and sports function. The mayor of Cali, Jorge Iván Ospina, appointed him youth ambassador at the 2021 Junior Pan American Gamesand with the manager of the Sports Institute (Indervalle), Carlos Felipe López, the boxer gives talks to those who dream of titles.
In the neighborhood of Polvorines, a former Army space, on the southern slope of Cali, built as an informal occupation, there are still echoes of the victory of ‘Kaboom’ against the Canadian Ryan Rozickiin Montréal.
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Carmen, the mother, has never wanted to see him fight and prefers to go out to pray on the hill. “At every step I ask God against all evil to my son. The title is as if Óscar Andrés were reborn, thanks to God and to the sacrifice”.
Almost 30 years ago, when leaving Pueblo Nuevo, in Buenaventura, he knelt in front of the Virgen del Carmen and told her that just as he carried the Child, he would do it with his two children (Evelyn and Óscar). He arrived from an inn to an invasion of the jarillón of the Cauca river, in Cali. He worked in homes and stores, until he put the plate on his head and went out to sell ‘hot panocha’. And he decided that the plato would be his ‘company’, and that’s what he calls it.
Even then she had four children and was still single. She says that she never sued her parents for food. “The time that she would lose on errands, she dedicated to the platoon.” One morning, Carmen and three friends devoted to the Virgin went to look for a lot on the hill of Polvorines.
She set up the cabin, lined with plastic bags from La 14, where she nested with her 4 children. She reinforced it with mats and cans. Carmen got up early to prepare breakfast and lunch. “I didn’t want my children to use a stove or go outside.”
When Óscar started talking about boxing because of his uncle Marino’s hobby, the mother was afraid for her skinny 10-year-old. “Ma, I want to give you a house,” he repeated. In the celebration of a title of the America, team of the loves of Rivas, the detonation of a tote made a man want to hit him, but he, 13 years old, knocked him out and sent him to the asphalt. So, when he carried packages in the gallery and washed cars, they baptized him ‘boxer’.
Carmen was relieved when he went to school. But her son took hour-long walks to train. “A neighbor from Nariño asked me if he was going on foot and gave me a second-hand bike. A blessing”, remembers the mother.
Rafael Sanclemente, the first trainer, received Rivas, 10 years old and 31 kilograms. Then came the teachings of Javier Estrada and Carlos Lopez. And of Jorge Aguirremaker of champions.
“Óscar always said that he wanted to build a house for his mother. He won a few medals, but he didn’t get any money, ”says Marlon, his younger brother.
In 2004, Rivas reached the support of Indervalle and in 2005 he won his first national title. Two years later she was a silver medalist in the amateur super heavyweight, at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio. There she began to build the walls of the house.
In silence, the mother became her fan, especially when she saw that the swimmer Michael Phelps was raised by the mother. The joke was that Phelps ate 8 eggs for breakfast, while in Polvorines one egg was for eight.
Carmen kept in a suitcase, with medals, rosettes and photos, a glass trophy in the shape of a glove and press clippings. Rivas shared a career with Jonathan ‘Momo’ Romero, from the Aguablanca district, in Cali. Both achieved gold for the municipality and Valle. and qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. There they coincided with future world champions Eléider Álvarez and Davis Pérez.
‘Momo’ was world champion in 2013, in super bantamweight (57 kilograms). Álvarez took longer, but at 34 years, 3 months and 26 days, he held the WBO light heavyweight title in August 2018. The Rivas title was missing. After the Olympics, he built the walls of the house. And the Government of the Valley gave him, in turn, a house and a motorcycle. In those years three children were born, including Mike Jhoer, whom he named after Mike Tyson.
Rumors spread of his passage to the rope of the American promoter Don King. But nothing, and with Eléider Álvarez from Antioquia they ventured to Canada on May 15, 2009. On August 28, Rivas made his professional debut and defeated American Joe Stofle. He won three more fights and returned to Colombia after nine months. When he wanted to return to Canada, he was denied a visa because he had exceeded the time allowed during the first trip.
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The adventure was to go by land, crossing the Caribbean to Venezuela, but drugs were found on the bus and he was about to fall into jail. They were days of hunger when feeling defeated. He returned to Canada without understanding English and with those cold training sessions at dawn and at night. He shone again in his fights and had a daughter in that country.
The shadow of difficulties reappeared. In July 2013 he was almost out of boxing in training due to a retinal detachment in his right eye. In 2016, ‘Kaboom’ got ready to face the American Gerald Washington, in Los Angeles. But in the medical check-up they did not guarantee it by the eye. The mother remembers that she called her crying and she went into depression for almost a year. She encouraged him and he did not back down. In September 2017 he smiled again because he beat Carl Drummond the vacant title of the North American Boxing Federation (NABF), in Montreal. Two victories followed and then the tough fight with the Belgian Herve Hubeaux, in May 2018. The Colombian suffered an injury to his right biceps, but won through courage.
Hope came back in a fight with Bryant Jennings in New York on January 18, 2019. Rivas was putting his NABF heavyweight title on the line, but could win the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) and WBO-NABO titles. His mother did not want to see that fight, but her daughter Jenny and her grandson Fabián followed her through a social network. He was losing, until the last round when Rivas took out hooks and straight lines that knocked the American down. The title had no echo in Colombia, but it confirmed an indeclinable boxer.
Two of my four sons want to get into boxing. They don’t know how hard this sport is. But one reaches what is put in the head
In July 2019, the fight for the interim WBC heavyweight title arrived in England. The British-Jamaican Dillian Whyte, who a couple of days earlier tested positive for 3 substances, won the match, according to the judges. It was said to be a “robbery”. Estewil Quesada, a journalist from EL TIEMPO, analyzed that Rivas did not win, he lacked determination, but “he leaves hope that later on he can be crowned full champion.”
The pandemic was another blow. The mother repeated the formula of faith and discipline. He had spent a year and nine months unemployed when the door opened: the WBC created the bridge weight, between 90 kilos and 101 kilos.
On March 16, Rivas defeated the Canadian sylvester louis and was picked for the bridge title fight. His rival would be the well-known Bryant Jennings, who refused the covid-19 vaccine. She appeared, then, on billboards Ryan Rozicki, Canadian, 26 years old, undefeated in three fights in the cruiser category. Rivas was the favorite by experience and weight (222 to 203 pounds).
On Friday, October 22, in the first round, ‘Kaboom’ almost knocked down the opponent, but the bell saved him. Rozicki showed courage and wanted to impose his greater reach and height of 1.88 meters.
In the 11th round, Rozicki stumbled again. The fight closed with two exhausted fighters. Rivas won with judges cards of 116-111, 115-112 and 115-112. He thus became the 50th Colombian to reign in boxing. And the heaviest and oldest, for his 34 years, 4 months and 16 days.
The mother was once again the only one who did not see the bully. She prayed for the hillside of Cali until she was stunned by the chorus of ‘champion’. Then the cell phone rang: “Ma, you know that I got into boxing because, as a child, I saw her go out with the plate to look for food. It is what I see when I raise my arms and, therefore, the world belt belongs to him and to Colombia”.
The Colombian had planned to face the legendary Russian Yevgeny Romanov36, undefeated in five years, but conflict issues put a damper on that idea. Lukasz Rozanski1.86 tall, the rival, whom he would face in August in Cali, brings an unbeaten record.
To the two sons who want to be boxers, Rivas confesses that it is a hard road. “I ask them and the boys to study and to know that you need desire and perseverance because to be a champion you have to suffer.”
JOSE LUIS VALENCIA
Correspondent of EL TIEMPO in Cali
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