Vincent “The Beast” Avina waited nearly a whole year between matches and had to travel out of the country to make his professional debut in the squared circle.
It didn’t last long.
The 17-year-old incoming senior at Calla High landed a vicious right that wobbled and floored winless Diego Oliver Salazar Gastelum. Avina’s first-round knockout was part of the Noche de Boxeo XII card held in Tijuana.
“I was excited, but I think I was too eager in the beginning — I wanted that knockout,” he said. “I knew I could stay on him all four rounds, and once I realized he wasn’t really a match for me I just kept the pressure on him.”
Gastelum (0-3), a Mexican out of Hermosillo, Sonora, could not handle the younger puglist’s aggression and explosiveness. He didn’t even make the bantamweight limit of 118 pounds but was allowed to go on at 122 after initially checking in 7 pounds too heavy.
The extra weight had little effect on the outcome, and it was Avina’s power that ended it with a right cross that followed a winging lead left that missed.
“It (Gastelum’s weight) didn’t bother me,” Avina said. “I just had to trust my training and I have confidence in my skills.
“What I was trying to do was throw the hook to set his head in line with the right hand,” he added. “Once his head went into place I just let the right hand go.”
Avina’s last fight was in July of 2017 when he claimed the 15-16-year-old, 119-pound Junior Open title in the 17th annual Ringside World Championships in Missouri. He also claimed a Golden Gloves Junior Nationals belt the year before.
“The Ringside World Championships is one of the biggest amateur tournaments, and the way my schedule was and everything it just made sense for me to go pro,” Avina said. “I had 70-plus amateur fights, so I felt ready for it.”
Avina hopes to fight on American soil for the first time as a pro on Oct. 6. The event, put on by Square-Vision Entertainment, will be held in San Francisco and takes place after his 18th birthday on Sept. 12. He’s unable to box professionally in California until then and will likely take part in another tune-up fight in Mexico.
Avina — trained by his father Albert Avina, a former pro boxer — works out twice a day over the summer to stay sharp. He mainly trains out of the Bad to the Bonz Boxing Club in Modesto but also travels to different sites in Northern California for additional coaching as sparring.