Check out this amazing story of member Lucien Liera and his story of how boxing gave his health and happiness back. Through his hardwork and dedication to his boxing workouts “Big Lou” shed 60 lbs. and has earned his way to helping with the fighters at The Arena.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Lucien Liera:
My name is Lu Liera. I was always overweight. I love boxing though. Even though I never really did any kind of training before in my life, never, but I always liked boxing. But I was always kind of intimidated to come into these kinds of places and try it out.
Lucien Liera:
So my brothers being here at The Arena for a while and he’d always tell me, “Hey, why don’t you come in and check out the gym?” And I’d always tell him like, “Maybe I’ll come by and check it out,” you know? So time went by, my health started getting worse and something just hit me one day. I came in here to The Arena and I just kept with it and the pounds just are coming off. In about five months, I lost like 50 pounds.”
Joe Vargas:
Lu’s high energy. Came in and a little bit overweight. I saw his work ethic and I was like, whoa, this guy was working hard. He loved it. And I just started seeing him shed, become smaller and smaller and smaller, and he started learning a lot. Every time a guy fought, he was always giving me advice on what to do. And I don’t tell him I know or be quiet. I just listen to him, because sometimes people have a point. But he’s always like that, the assistant coach man. Give me what he thinks we should do for the game plan. And I’m like, “Okay, Lu, cool, cool.”
Joe Vargas:
But he was so animated about it, so passionate about it. And the couple times that we fought, he’d come as a spectator and I can hear him yelling and he’s making sense on what he’s saying. So I knew he understood the fight game is a big fight fan. So I asked him one day, “You want to help me out?” And he got all excited, like ” of course, of course.” He loved it you know. And he’s been working with the guys and he’s been learning how to do what we do. And he’s been a great asset.
Lucien Liera:
It’s amazing because of how much I love boxing. I’m starting to help out the boxing coaches and learning how to hold mitts and starting to help train fighters. This atmosphere here at this gym is amazing. Nobody judges anybody. Everybody’s real helpful and encouraging and it just feels really good to be a part of The Arena.
