Kendo Tremendo

Before he proclaimed himself to be “Kendo Tremendo” and “The Tremendous Goon,” Kendo Castaneda tailed his big brother around. The lil squirt wanted to be like Felipe, who wanted to be like their mom’s dad, Nalo Mendez, a pro in the 1960s who scrapped on the Mexican circuit.

“I was bullied in the fourth grade,” the 18-5 brawler/boxer told ProBox News as he counts down to an Aug. 5 Last Chance tournament semifinal clash with Florida-based over-achiever Joseph Fernandez. “I’d take the bus with my brother to the gym, just tag along, and I started training.”

Kendo, now 28, started at the Calderon Boys and Girls Club, on the west side. He then paid dues at the San Fernando Boxing Gym, and had his first amateur fight at age 10. This hard and fast immersion didn’t surprise family, Kendo’s mom’s brother Manolo Mendez fought professionally in Mexico and the US, and acted as a sparring partner for San Antonio boxing royal Jesse James Leija.

The boxing bug often runs in families, and Kendo’s older brother Jairo still gloves up, while Felipe hung up the mitts and occasionally does battle with barking dogs as a mailman.

Lil bro, though, is the one who has the opportunity to get a career kick-start, should he get past the 15-4-3 Fernandez. The 30 year old grinder has been getting sparring work with ex welterweight tilts Keith Thurman in Florida, and insists he can nick the W in the tourney finale.

The prospect of a juicy payoff after decades of expending time and toil isn’t the main motivator for Castaneda, though. Kendo stole the show May 20 in Plant City, Florida when he landed a round one-hitter quitter Taser shot on Sonny Fredrickson in the tourney opener. And that’s what keeps him on this winding and thorny path. Lord knows it’s not even a hint of fun working to keep his 5-10 frame in the junior welterweight class for this event, not for someone who doesn’t pretend he doesn’t love pizza and beer.

“Does doing this for so long make it harder, or easier to keep at it? It makes it easier,” Castaneda says, after a cryotherapy session. “It’s hard for me now, getting older my body, making the weight, that’s the only effing thing. Fighting is all I know. My mom (Imelda Mendez) would say, ‘What you know best you don’t forget,” so I stick to to what I know, every single day, that’s boxing.”

Kendo had a solid run as an amateur, he won the Ringside Nationals in 2011 and back-to-back Texas State Golden Gloves in 2011, at 123 pounds and then in 2012, at 132. He considered the 2012 Olympic Trials, but let’s be honest, this is person better suited for the pro style. His run off the starting block got him increasing hype, he went to 17-0, but then encountered a slide which might have sent someone with less love for combat to pick a straight job. Like, say, at FedEx. “I load boxes every morning from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m.,” he told Ring Magazine a couple years ago. “I’m ‘Cinderella Man’ today in boxing. I’m always ready because I live the ‘Tremendous Box Life’: Box, box, box from 3 a.m. till dusk.”

And he still works that a shift, though he has extra time off to get ready for Fernandez. No, Kendo isn’t seeing the tournament as a springboard to snag that title crack at 140, or 147, though of course that would be a sweet development. “Us San Antonio guys, we’ve grown up together, we’re all dogs, man,” says the throwback type who epitomizes a good bit of the ProBox ethos.“It’s not even about the riches and fame, we love this sh-t. We do this, we like to fight!”

Joseph Fernandez

When the participants in this Last Chance tournament for 140 pounders in need of a career boost were announced, really nobody came out and said that they liked Joseph Fernandez to win the whole thing.

That’s not a harsh diss, being that his record coming in didn’t strike you as that impressive. 14-4-3 with 5 KOs, and add to that, this: Fernandez, a 30 year old lefty, got stopped out in round one in his last fight coming into the bracket. And this: he’s been stopped three times.

And yet, the purpose of this Last Chance construct was to give another chance to someone like a Fernandez, who hadn’t had the benefit of careful management, or received a promotional push.

As we look to the tournament semifinals, which have Fernandez matched with Texan Kendo Castaneda (18-5, 9 KOs), it’s fair to say that now, followers of the Last Chance happenings aren’t as quick to discount the possibility that the entrant with the worst won/loss percentage makes it into the finale.

Partly, that’s because Fernandez, who grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts before moving to Florida at age 10, looked solid in decisioning Zhimin Wang May 20. And also, word on the street is that Fernandez’ work ethic is A-plus grade.

The fighter, a Tampa, Florida resident, holds a day job, installing hurricane doors and windows. He’s up every day at 4 am, for a strength and conditioning workout at 5 am. He works his day-job shift, then hits the gym, Fight Fitness Center in St. Petersburg, at 6 PM.

Ali Tareh runs the gym, and handles Fernandez. He insists, forcefully, that in all his years in the business (18 years as a pro boxer, 16 years running this business) he has never seen anyone work harder than Fernandez. “He’s the last to leave,” Tareh tells ProBox News.

Fernandez’ POV matches Tareh’s take on his desire level. When asked to point to a period in his career, which kicked off in 2011, when he felt like saying hell with it, the boxer insists that he’s never gotten to that point. Even though he started out 2-1-2 in his first six, even after getting round-one starched in February. “I feel like I’m learning on the job,” he says. “I never got down.”

He offers credit to his mom, Maria Figueroa, who has led the way for Joseph and his three brothers. “It was one of those rough upbringings,” he said, “and she pulls us through things, does what she can.” No, she doesn’t adore him doing the fighting. “She supports it,” but doesn’t come to see his bouts, in fact. However, Joseph has promised to fly Maria from Wisconsin if/when he makes it to the final.

Castaneda has fought far better competition, been on ESPN, and stole the show in the quarterfinal round with his demolition of Sonny Fredrickson. And yet, when you hear the steady calm as Fernandez speaks on his desire to live the right way, expend all available mental and physical energy on getting better, and preparing at max efficiency, the presence of the 15-4-3 guy in the final doesn’t seem outlandish. “Losses made me want to grind harder,” Fernandez says, before noting that he’s been happy to spar this camp with ex welterweight champion Keith Thurman. “In my life, I don’t want to look back and think I woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

The West Texas Warrior

The story starts out the same way for so, so many pugilists. It’s a grandfather, a dad, or maybe a brother, who got hooked on boxing, and the little one follows in the footsteps. For Michael Dutchover, it was his older brother Junior who got boxing in his blood, at Midtown Soldiers Boxing Club, in Midland, Texas.

Lil bro played all the sports, and excelled at football and cross country. They don’t mess around in the slightest in Texas with their football, so Michael knew he needed to be in proper shape for the startup of camp before he began third grade.

“Football was my first passion growing up and I was a bad little dude,” says Dutchover, who holds a 16-2 (10 KOs) record, and meets up with seasoned Mexican Antonio Moran (27-5-1, 19 KOs) in the Last Chance tournament semifinal on August 5.

“I needed to stay in shape for the next football season. I told my parents (dad Jerry, mom Angel) I want to skip the off-season and do boxing to stay in shape. I went to a boxing gym, I fell in love with boxing and it just took off from there.”

The fighter dubbed “The West Texas Warrior” compiled a 130-17 record as an amateur, advanced to the US Olympic Trials in 2015, and then decided to embark on the next leg of the journey. He progressed nicely on the professional side, signaling the strength of his conviction to succeed when he jetted to California right after graduating high school, to get work in a flourishing zone of like-minded athletes.

“Since I moved to train in Southern California, I sparred world champions, contenders and top prospects,” the low-key personality told ProBox News.

No one’s ride on this path stays smooth, though. At 12-0, Dutchover, trainer/manager Danny Zamora and promoters Thompson Boxing and Banner Promotions decided to book a step-up fight, against 14-1-1 Thomas Mattice on ShoBox. The clash would unfold in Midland, so yes, the makings were there for a triumphant hometown celebratory bash. The boxing gods didn’t get the memo, however.

A nasty cut over Dutchover’ left eye appeared in the eighth. From a punch? From a butt? The distinction was crucial, as the ref said a punch caused the damage. Thus, Mattice had his hand raised, there would be no jubilant confetti shower for the Midland fighter. Two years later, Dutchover tasted another L, at the hands of 13-1 Nahir Albright, who stopped the Texan in round six after sending him to the mat four times.

Boxing is weird that way—maybe that loss will prove to be a blessing, because Dutchover’s character truly emerged. When the opportunity came to hit the reset button, and enter the Last Chance tourney, he didn’t shrink away. The 24 year old knew ProBox would have him in with fighters of a similar level, he’d not be gifted gimmes to regain momentum. "I live my life, win, lose, or draw you gotta get out there, you can’t lay down. In the fight against Albright, I would have kept getting up if the ref didn’t stop it. You gotta put me on stretcher! I’m learning a lot about life from fighting, I take my losses like my wins,” says the boxer, who frequently makes references to his faith in a higher power. “The fighting life is very humbling, it teaches you a lot about life. Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it.”

Antonio ‘Tono’ Moran

More pundits predicted, when asked which of the eight entrants would likely to be the ultimate victor, that Antonio ‘Tono’ Moran would make off with the Last Chance tournament trophy. He’d faced the best caliber of talent, they reasoned, and he didn’t look out of place versus Jose Pedraza, Devin Haney and Arnold Barboza. Those clashes prepared the Mexico City native for what Jeffrey Torres brought to the table at the ProBox Events Center May 20.

Moran, age 29, holds a 27-5-1 record, with 19 KOs. Those who opined he’d be the final Last Chance man standing haven’t backed off their belief. Moran, nicknamed ‘Tono,’ has come off as an earnest pro’s pro. That perception didn’t waver as ProBox News looked to get a better handle on what makes the right-handed pugilist tick.

“I grew up with my family in Mexico City in the Bondojito neighborhood, my mom has always been a housewife and my dad works in immigration,” Moran shares. “I have a brother and a sister who are younger than me. Everyone has always supported me and goes to every one of my fights. I started training boxing when I was 12 years old, my dad took me and my brother to practice sports but I fell in love with boxing from the first day and only I continued training.”

There’s no hint of any character tics or references to habits that might be detrimental to the Mexicans’ desire and ability to run the Last Chance table.

“I grew up in Mexico City, I have lived here all my life. I currently live with my wife and my 9-month-old son,” says the steady-as-he-goes practitioner who took a UD8 in the semis over Torres (10-1 coming in). “I started training boxing just for sport but when I started I liked it a lot and I haven't let it go. I had an amateur record of 90 wins and 10 losses.”

The pairing of Moran and 24 year old Texan Michael Dutchover (16-2, 12 KOs) seems appropriate, in that they match temperament in their approach to the craft. “After my fight in Florida, I rested for a week and then resumed my training for the next fight,” Moran says. “I think Michael is a strong and seasoned fighter, but we are training hard to win. I see that Dutchover moves around the whole ring and he is someone who boxes, but by keeping him at a distance and landing hard shots we can beat him.”