TULARE, Calif. (KSEE) — There are seven more days until the opening ceremonies of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Tulare native Richard Torrez Jr. is the number one super heavyweight boxer for Team USA. He also represents the third generation of the Torrez Boxing family from the Central Valley.
Richard Torrez Sr. was an Olympic trialist in 1984 and also happens to be Torrez Jr.’s coach. However, through the grit and grind of the sport, Richard’s mother Kim Torrez says there is a side of her son that fans rarely see.
“Everyone knows Kiki [Richard Torrez Jr.] as a phenomenal boxer, but I know him as Kiki my son, and all the tender little things about him,” says Kim Torrez.
“To this day, he won’t pass up a homeless person without giving him a couple of dollars, or if we’re in the grocery store and there’s someone struggling to get their groceries out of the cart, he’s the first one to help.”
Torrez Jr. has a deep pride in his family’s boxing roots – and even deeper roots in the small farming community of Tulare.
Torrez Jr. now represents the best hope for an American gold medal in the super heavyweight division.
