Bairoa Gym is a boxing gym located in Caguas, Puerto Rico. [1] El gimnasio Bairoa, as it is known in Spanish, is the most famous boxing gym in Puerto Rico because of the list of world champions and top contenders who have trained there.
On March 4, 2005, Bairoa boxer Joseph Serrano, a gold medalist at Central American and Caribbean Games competition as an amateur and 1-0 prospect, was standing near the gym's front door, when he was shot three times by an assailant. Serrano was picked up by his father Edwin and by fellow boxer Victor Bisbal and taken to a hospital, where he recuperated from the gunshots. [2] The shooting's alleged planner, Jonathan Huertas Claudio was sentenced to 15 years probation for paying $2,000 to Jorge Davila to shoot Serrano. Davila was sentenced to 6 months in jail and 11 years probation.
World champions and well known boxers who have used this facility include Alfredo Escalera, Héctor Camacho, Julian Solís, Henry Bruseles, Juan Cruz, Alberto Mercado, Jesus Rojas, Javier Garcia, Jose Miguel Cotto, Juan Carazo, Miguel Cotto, Daniel Rosario, José Rodriguez, and many more.[ citation needed ] The gym was managed since 1976 (year when it was inaugurated) by Cuban trainer Julian Delgado, until Evangelista Cotto replaced him during the late 90s. Bairoa Gym's creator Delgado passed away on December 14, 2021, at the age of 91. [3]
Miguel Cotto became the gym's first "homegrown" world champion when he conquered the WBO's world Jr. Welterweight title by knocking out Kelson Pinto of Brazil in six rounds in 2004. Cotto built a career that included various world titles and fights with Antonio Margarito, Sergio Martinez, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul Alvarez. [4]
Caguas is a city and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, south of San Juan and Trujillo Alto, west of Gurabo and San Lorenzo, and east of Aguas Buenas, Cidra, and Cayey. Caguas was founded in 1775. The municipality had a population of 127,244 at the 2020 census.
Alberto Mercado Monserrate is a former Jr. Featherweight boxer who was on the verge of fighting for a world title at least twice in his career.
Juan Carazo Serrano is a former boxer from Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017. He is a multiple-time world champion, and the first Puerto Rican boxer to win world titles in four weight classes, from light welterweight to middleweight. In 2007 and 2009, he reached a peak active pound for pound ranking of seventh by The Ring magazine. Cotto started out his career as a hard-hitting pressure fighter, but evolved over the years into a more refined boxer-puncher as he moved up in weight.
Julian Solís is a former boxer from Puerto Rico. He was born in the San Juan area of Río Piedras, but because of the closeness of his birthplace to Caguas, he often trained at the Bairoa Gym in Caguas. His training base, however, was the Caimito Gym.
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Joseph Serrano is a Puerto Rican who was an amateur boxing star.
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Amanda Serrano is a Puerto Rican professional boxer, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. As a boxer, she is the unified featherweight world champion, having held the WBO title since 2019, IBO title since 2021, IBF title since 2022 and the WBA title since 2023. She is the only female, and Puerto Rican, to win world titles in more than four weight classes, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most boxing world championships won in different weight-classes by a female, having held 9 major world titles across seven different weight classes.
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