BY GREG SELBER

HARLINGEN – “Back with Vengeance,” because in boxing, one cannot have a fight without a slogan, the colorful, attendant retinue, and a show replete with bright clothes, lavishly dressed women, and rowdy drunken fans, beer in one hand and cellphone camera in the other. But “Back with Vengeance” was better than most half-cooked nicknames one will see, because it spoke volumes about the principals involved, the trio of Valley boxers most everyone came to town to see Friday.

Julio Marines gathered everyone together at the Casa de Amistad, and his trusty ticket draws were all coming back. One from the cold, one to take another step on the long-awaited road upward, and another returning to the ring to see if he could handle a bump up in competition. Indeed, inside the quant ol’ Casa, recently refurbished but still embodying the cozy, intimate feel of boxing joints from yesteryear, Roberto “La Amenaza” Garcia, Raul “El Tigre” Casarez, and Sergio “Time to Shine” Perales were ready, willing, and able. Yes, the fighters carry better nicknames by a mile of roadwork than the cards do, monikers that under the proper circumstances illustrate the personalities behind the gay, often patriotic costumes and the blather and bluster that are as much a part of the fight game as gloves and mouthguards.

This night was to be a weigh-station for our trio of heroes, as each sought to augment his record and prepare for bigger paydays down the line. They were back, and better than ever, as it turned out.

Deep within the bowels of the building, the fighters loosened up at 6:30 p.m, an hour before the six-bout card was to begin. Over a hundred early birds milled around the front of the place, hoping against hope that the crew at Amistad would be the first contingent in the history of such events to let them in early. Denied. Inside, Marines, the Weslaco promoter extraordinaire who always manages to be dapper and smooth even with all hell breaking loose and a cellphone glued to his ear, was rushing here and there making the last minute preps for the night of entertainment. He jumps obstacles like a champion hurdler, which he was in high school, and in that town, everyone either knows him or is related to him.

His prized possessions started to limber up in a series of rooms way down a lonely hallway. The main attraction, though he would be working next-to-last tonight, was a man who has dominated the local boxing scene for a decade.

Roberto Garcia, known far and wide as “La Amenaza,” was on a mission. As he began to get taped in his dressing room, he was at once eager to discuss the interesting path his life and times have taken in the past two years, though it is a tale not without pain.

He came into the rematch versus Philadelphia brawler Jose “Macho” Medina with a career record of 27-2 and a lifetime of highlights and adulation from Valley fans. He has also picked up some loyal rooters in the Central American country of Costa Rica.

How this came to be is now local knowledge. After splitting from Marines, his uncle, Garcia went through the tortures of the damned under new management, getting the short end of the stick, making some iffy business decisions, and falling off the pugilistic radar for quite some time. Just three fights in two years. Once ranked No. 3 in the world, Garcia found that once the train goes off the tracks, it’s a major-league effort to end the derailment and get back on the road forward.

Anyone who knows “La Amenaza” understands that he is a killer in the ring but an introspective character out of it. So it was no surprise that one of the first things he had to say sounded a lot like an apology.

“I get interviewed a lot, and I never have to think about what I am going to say,” he began, as three close lifetime friends helped him gird for war. “So I can say that I made a mistake, I can be honest and say that.”

He wanted to strike off on his own and see what the world had to offer, and there were bitter recriminations between he and his uncle; such is the intensity and intimacy within family circles. It did not work out, as he found that his new team was not providing for him, not even close.

“I had three fights, and every time it so happened that I was making less money than the last time,” he said. “They chopped it down after the second fight, I had gotten what they promised me the first time so I thought, ‘OK, these guys are alright.’ But then they chopped it down even more for the third time, and I knew that I had to get out of that arrangement.”

He paused to exhale, with the worst of the story on the way. His face turned ashen as he recalled the past two years of struggle, still handsome and rugged, but showing worry lines that seemed to come from another place and time.

“So it was cool down there, in Costa Rica, in some ways. But frankly the last two years have really showed me things.”

He recounted the problems that accrued like debts during his hiatus.

“I came really close to losing it all, man, seriously…my car, my house and worst of all, my wife. We had serious money problems, I had been used to just spending a bunch of cash, not worrying about anything. My wife and I don’t argue, but there were some difficult discussions, you know?”

He shook his head when admitting that he came within an eyelash of quitting the game, one in which he had risen so far, one that has been his existence since he was a callow teen growing up in Weslaco.

“I almost had to get a job! But I am a fighter, it’s what I do and it’s who I am. So I had to come back from this, I had to get right and start to prove to myself that I still had what it took. And it all started to turn around in L.A.”

The men in the room with him had been silent throughout this opening soliloquy, but now they began to add to the tale.

Michael Viramontes, gangly and jangly, an artist who has begun to produce exquisite vintage drawings of Garcia, poster-style. Nervous and witty, moving fast around the room or jiggling in place, he has been a part of “Amenaza’s” life since they were kids. Viramontes was winning the first fight they ever had against each other, at age 10, until L.L. Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” came blaring out a boom box and led to Garcia’s TKO.

Jesse Marines (yes, of the clan), a professional body-builder who was once a hard-hitting football linebacker for the Weslaco Panthers and is now one of the biggest (literally) handlers in the boxing game. Red bandana draped over his head, dark shades as well, Marines did not look like an erudite personal trainer as much as a hard-bitten gang-banger. But he’s the former, the guy who has set up much of the fighter’s local training regimen at his own Flex Extreme gym, in Alamo. Lying on his back upon the cold concrete, picking at a body-builder’s meal in the usual Tupperware container, he was listening intently to his cousin, and like Viramontes would soon chime in with some choice comments.

Finally, Bobby Zapata, quiet and understated, a pal who met Garcia “before boxing,” and a close confidant that every spotlight athlete needs. “We see a lot of things eye to eye and Roberto will tell me things, we’ll have talks, about all kinds of topics,” he said. Later he would warm up the fighter, using a towel waved over “Amenaza’s” head while he shadowboxed to simulate the movement and punches of the opponent.

This was the Crew, hard and fast with their guy, having hurt along with the champ during his absence, but never wavering in their blood loyalty to him.

“I tried it, it wasn’t it, and I had to make a change.”

While the taping continued, and Latin music gently swayed in the air of the small room, Garcia started to speak again.

“You know, some people have asked me, ‘Hey, you’re 29, are you done?’ I can tell you to just look around at the biggest names in the sport, and they’re all over 30, some older. Moseley, Sergio Martinez, Mayweather, I guess it isn’t the same as it used to be.”

“You get older, you get better,” echoed Viramontes in a sing-song cadence; for Garcia, “Waxxx” as he’s known in the art world, is like Drew “Bundini” Brown was for Ali, funny and talkative, absolutely in tight with the champ, able to make some noise when the situation calls for it.

“I got an education out in Los Angeles, Vegas, in my travels since I left the Valley. I am doing some things in the gym now and the guys I am sparring are like, ‘Damn, where did that come from?’ Well, it came from the sparring wars on the big-time circuit. Although I made a mistake from the business perspective in going off from my uncle, I was also able to meet some of the biggest names in the world. And a lot of what I learned working with some other fighters, it’s become part of me, I have absorbed it, and it is now second nature.”

The veteran trainer James Gogue, now a staple of Valley boxing after a long career that stretched from coast to coast and champ to champ, agrees. Earlier, he’d remarked that Amenaza has become even more of a beast in his two years on the road.

“He’s just an animal now,” Gogue had exclaimed. “He’s stronger, he’s more relaxed, especially lately, and I can see some of the tricks he’s picked up along the way. He is working the angles better, changing speeds, holding off on some punches to reload, he is very skilled. It ain’t like he wasn’t skilled before, either. Let me tell you, he hasn’t lost a thing, he is better today than ever and he is one of the best fighters in the world.”

Working with famed Freddy Roach out west was a kick in the pants for Garcia, who admitted that when he signed on to spar with some of Roach’s guys, he was a little apprehensive.

“I knew I wanted to prove myself to them. I mean, they were always telling Freddy that he had to see this guy from Texas get in the ring. I figured Freddy was like, yeah, OK, whatever. He hears stuff like that all the time. But I got in there and I was tearing them up, every guy I went in with, and pretty soon I earned his respect.”

Jesse Marines raised himself up on one massive arm.

“Now he’s focused man, totally focused, he’s got his mind straight, and his discipline has never approached this level. His diet is perfect and we have tapered off the weight work lately so he can be ready to fight.”

If a fighter tries to lose too much weight too fast, he is in trouble.

“You bring a dead body in there,” Garcia warned.

If a boxer lifts too much, he’ll be stiff, awkward, more powerful but slower, and prone to getting socked out of there. Defense dies with too many curls.

“We didn’t want him to lose weight fast, we gradually got there,” Marines continued. “If it happens too fast, you get drained.”

“You get older, it don’t matter…you train right, you get better,” Viramontes sang out.

Amenaza took a look around. In the doorway fooling with a video camera was his lovely wife, who hung with him through the hard times and who always dies silently every time he climbs into the ring.

“It’s about real people, what can I say?” Viramontes threw that in, and it led to some good old-fashioned storytelling about the good old days. A boxer is only as good as his last fight, but the chronicle of his rise to glory lasts a lifetime and is revised with new adventures by the day. Though Garcia is not overjoyed at having to relive some of the family tribulations he went through, he knows that the journey has made him a better person. Surrounded by people who truly care, as opposed to the fly-by-night bullshitters who circulate in the boxing universe like mosquitoes on a humid day, he is comfortable talking it through.

And Zapata can relate. He seems to be almost a spiritual signpost for the fighter, on the same wavelength.

“He’s the kind of guy who always has your back,” Amenaza stated with obvious affection. “You forget something, and he’s right there behind you, catching it and making it right. He has always been really positive about everything that went on with me.

“Positive, positive energy.” Marines now, succinct and sure, imposing and yet reassuring in a manner. What do they say about personality types, of big-hearted giants versus mean, little bastards?

Viramontes noted that the Garcia clan has always been there to encourage and support him in his endeavors. Zapata added that he and the champ each have mothers who birthed them after age 40; it seems to have helped them bond.

“Plus, there’s something about us having Mexican-born parents,” he added. It’s humility and the striving to be something better, Garcia added.

They know where they come from and are proud of it. They don’t run from it like so many pochos in the Valley; they embrace their ethnic identity, and it makes them strong.

“You get a lot of that down here,” Zapata complained. He was talking about the tendency for people to give up on someone at the drop of a hat, or to be jealous of their success and try to tear them down. In Garcia’s case, he’s heard more than once that he’s finished, that breaking from his uncle’s team was the death knell of a once promising career. He doesn’t buy it. Neither does the Crew.

“Crabs in a bucket,” that’s the phrase often used to describe the exasperating tendency to tear down rather than build. If one crab appears to be making it out of the mix, the others do their best to haul him back in, to keep him down.

“Yeah, a lot of that down here,” Zapata repeated.

Garcia has faced adversity, felt its sting, but lived to tell about it. Trainer Gogue says it’s a blessing in disguise, that Garcia has grown up a ton since he left town.

“He got rid of a lot of baggage lately, he’s relaxed, and he’s just killing people in sparring. He can go 20 rounds with anyone, and not even be tired.”

Amenaza feels every bit as excellent as the scouting report from his trainer.

“I’m not done yet, I feel like I learned a lot of lessons the past two years, some in the ring, some outside it,” he smiled. “One things from that is, hey, at the end of the day, all a guy has are his family and his close friends, which are actually more like one. So I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that being away has changed me. I have the support, I have been able to put my life back together, and I am going to get a title back one day soon.”

Those who may have lamented the supposed downfall of one of the Valley’s greatest sports folk heroes, take heart. That includes the crabs in the bucket. With the Crew on his side and a wealth of knowledge picked up on the odyssey just completed, Garcia is back and better than ever. Friday it would take just three rounds to see.

LEARNING NEW ROPES

But first, our second vignette.

There has never been any doubt about Raul Casarez’ boxing talent. A hard hitter with a mean streak as prominent as the tiger stripes he gets painted into his hair before every fight, the Edinburg native began a pro career at age 16 and seven years later went into the card at Casa de Amistad with 14 wins, two losses, and several close calls with the lure of the nightlife.

Training has been his bugaboo for many years and he’ll admit that in the past he didn’t care that much for the drudgery of gym work. He’d work like a fiend in the remaining few weeks leading up to a bout and then rely on brute strength and a truly remarkable penchant for murderous in-fighting to get him through. Usually, that was enough, but midway through his life in the ring, “Tigre” began to notice that he was tiring in some fights, less able to bring the heat he relied on to win the day.

At the same time, he was trying to finish high school, raise a family, and deal with 100 other details. Who says growing up is easy?

These days, however, Casarez has a new lease on things, and Gogue reports that the 160-pounder has never worked so hard.

“He has been really consistent for this fight, the last two actually,” said Gogue, who was disgusted at how the last try went, a 1-round No Contest after Casarez hit a bit late after the first-round bell. He had been pounding his foe into mincemeat for three minutes last August down in the Brownsville Sports Complex, but ended up with nada pinche nada after the disqualification.

“I think Tigre is really coming into his own now, he works hard and he stays concentrated on the task, which I understand was a sort of problem for him in the past. I think he is proving that he’s ready for the next step. He wins here tonight and I feel like he can handle it. We’re getting calls from Showtime…they want him on one of their televised cards. I think he’s about ready to do it.”

After a pair of planned opponents pulled out of the “Back with Vengeance” card at the last minute – an ordeal that anyone associated with the sport has gotten used to putting up with after all this time and repetition – Casarez was to go in against Efren Diaz, a long-time journeyman hitter from the Tri-Cities with a middling 8-11-2 mark. While it may have been somewhat of a letdown for Tigre, he didn’t show it. A half hour before his bout, he was poping the mitt Gogue held in front of him. POPPING it, Jack. Thwack, whack, sounded like the catcher’s glove when Nolan Ryan used to rear back and let them fly from 60 feet, 6 inches.

And to hear Gogue explain it, at this stage of the game, the opponent is less important than the result.

“Sure we wanted to get a shot at one of those better guys we had lined up,” he admitted. “But right now, Tigre is gunning for Showtime, and television is all about the numbers. They don’t really care who it is you fight, really, they want 20 and 2, 18 and oh, they want good records, it’s just the way it is. So Raul wins this one, he’s 15 and 2, that sounds good, looks good on TV. Funny isn’t it?”

Gunning for TV.

There was once a time when a chubby little boy in Edinburg was trying not to cry in front of his three older brothers. Reynaldo Casarez is Tigre’s dad, always at the fighter’s side, as are the brothers and a plentiful group of family rooters; they probably have the biggest blood cadre in the area, all wearing the trademark red head sashes emblazoned with “El Tigre” or one of the many T-shirts bearing his likeness. He’s always reminded some of Hector “Macho” Camacho, both in looks and attitude. Casarez is cocky and playful, always boasting or joking, and is a helluva lot of fun to be around.

When not sullen and ready to snap, which he is on occasion.

But his dad has been around long enough to recall the nascent stages of the Tigre legend. With a wide, sun-scorched face and sharp grey hair, Casarez is puro Mexicano, though he went to school at McAllen High.

“You know, Raul was a little chubby when he was a kid, so we took him down to a gym so he could get in shape. Like all boys he wanted to play sports and get some girls, so he started training. They talked him into fighting, and he instantly liked it.”

Rey Casarez said that the training came in handy during neighborhood athletic events.

“He’s tough now because when he was young, the older boys would only let him play football with them if he promised not to cry. There’s no crying in football, they would say. And little Raul, he wanted to play so bad. He never cried.”

Tigre the Elder grew up loving the sport of boxing, listing the ill-fated but marvelous Mexican champ Salvador Sanchez and a guy from Mexico named “Battling Torres” as his most cherished heroes.

As he watched his youngest son progress in the fight game, the father also noticed the speed bumps associated with life and its complications. But he is proud to say that as the father of a 5-year-old daughter, Tigre has rounded into form as an all-around person.

“He gets to see the child often, and he is a good father. He also gets along with the mother, though they are not together. I think he has understood that it is best for the young girl if that is the case. She may be 5, but she already understands everything. But she has a great attitude about it all.”

It takes an investment of trust for a man to speak of such personal issues, but the Casarez family is a legion of hard-working people who stick together and face adversity with combined force. Rey Casarez did not connect the dots Friday but he surely knows that Tigre’s progression and learning experiences as a man have carried over into the ring. When Gogue (his boxing dad) comments that Raul has never been so sharp in training and discipline, he is echoing the real father’s pride in seeing his son mature and take control of his ship.

Any poor sap seeking the fool’s errand of stepping into the ring with Tigre these days had better hope Obama’s on-again, off-again insurance plan passes through the Congress, and fast. He will need it against this cat, cuz he can throw thunder from one fist and lightning from the other. He’s in super shape, inside and out, and though newly tranquil from having striven well to become a dedicated father, still retains the telltale swagger, that little something special “from the street” that has always given him an intimidation edge once he enters the confines of the box.

He’s still El Tigre!

APPLE OF THEIR EYE

One can always pick Sergio Perales out of a crowd, especially of boxers. He’ll be the nice-looking one, sometimes in a plaid vest like an East Coast schoolboy, the one who looks like he wandered into a bad crowd by accident. With smooth skin and a youthful, almost pristine mien, “Time to Shine” seems as though he ought to be going to debate practice as opposed to entering the dark, dank skull-thumping mines.

But a fighter he is, and one of the best in the state already, with 13 wins to his credit before Friday’s Casa de Amistad event. A former Olympic Trials competitor who was good enough to be named an alternate back in 2004, the Los Fresnos fellow is a star in the making, popular with the fans (and ladies) and engaging to chat with. As the card got started, Perales, dressed in sharp black with nice pointy shoes, noted that with himself, Casarez and Garcia together on a docket again, the only person missing was Tito Olivarez, another Gogue/Marines comer who made a name for himself recently by sparring successfully over a monthlong period with champion Floyd Mayweather and other luminaries.

Leave it to Sergio to be thoughtful, he’s a throwback to yesteryear and the likes of Gentleman Jim Corbett or Gene Tunney, educated sorts with equal measures brawn and brains. He had to run just now, on the way out of the building to greet his mother. That’s what this kid is all about. A nice boy…who can slay.

Gogue argues that all the best boxers currently exist in the lower weight classes these days and he’s right. This trend has been umfolding for years and if you don’t believe it, try and name five really good heavyweights today. Chances are, people can run off the names of a bunch of mixed martial arts thugs quicker than they can remember, or pronounce any of those from the internationally dominated heavyweight ranks. Size? Doesn’t matter.

Perales is at the fore of the Valley’s effort to add to the list of great little guys, a lightning fast rabbit with a strong left hand and definite pro skills. He has a wealth of amateur experience and it shows, as he is practiced and methodical in the ring, hitting with both hands equally well, slipping punches like a veteran, and saving his energy with economical work at all times.

As for Tito, he is undefeated and rising fast, with Gogue saying that the Mission native has championship defensive skills at the ripe old age of 20.

“You think you’re hitting him but you’re really not, he’s slipping punches and rolling with others,” said the trainer, who insists that in 2010 he has the best stable of hitters in years, as good as the group he had in the 1990s led by titlist Diego Corrales. “Tito just needs some seasoning, to work on offensive attack. He didn’t have much work on the amateur level, so we’re in no hurry with him. He’ll get there and I think he has a chance to be really good some day.”

Gogue is equally enthused about the progress of 15-year-old Ricky Alvarez, a local who went to the national Silver Gloves finals before losing a controversial decision.

“Nobody around here wants to fight him and with good reason,” he laughed. “That guy is an animal, with the best work ethic of any of my guys. You just watch this guy, because he is something special. He’s just a kid, he’ll get bigger and stronger, and then watch out, he’s going to wins some titles.”

THE ACTION

The buildup to a fight card sometimes is more entertaining than the fights themselves and to an extent such was the case Friday in Harlingen. After three preliminary bouts, Casarez took to the ring against Diaz, and made short work of the opponent. He came out firing from the opening bell, peppering the San Juan brawler with good hard shots, including a series of uppercuts.

Though Gogue wanted his man to get a solid workout in, there is no stopping Tigre once he gets loose of the pre-fight mumbo jumbo. He simply attacks and there is no maybe involved.

He stunned Diaz with a thunderous right hand 30 seconds before the bell to end the first, and between rounds he sat on his stool shaking his head up and down. I got him he’s mine. And he was, his.

In the second, Casarez kept Diaz in the corner, banging away. And when the roles were reversed, the Edinburg man put into play some strategy he had learned in recent sparring sessions with “La Amenaza.” Pivoting to his left to exit the dangerous territory, Tigre deposited Diaz back onto the twines with a push and commenced to pounding his foe. Soon it was done with a TKO at 2:23 of the second.

“Raul is in great shape, sparring with Amenaza will do that for you,” Gogue said afterward. “You may go one or two days with him, but that third day, well, he just breaks you down, he is so physical and strong. But Raul did a good job with him, they must have went 150 rounds, at least.”

Easy enough and with Casarez celebrating with his coterie and dreaming about television bouts to come, on came Garcia.

In the first match with “Macho”Medina, Amenaza had endured a wicked body shot from the Philly plugger before rebounding for a third-round stoppage. This time, he was every bit as sharp as his handlers has insisted, starting the bout with a hard jab that made the visitor blink. Medina is short and stout like a box of rocks, but he keeps his hands low, which is not the best strategy to assume. In the first, Garcia boxed with textbook patience and style, working through his repertoire of moves with little resistance. A sweet right-left combination climaxed the opening three minutes.

At one stage in the next round, Medina hit him with a rabbit punch behind the head and Garcia grimaced, motioned with a glove behind his left ear, and looked at the challenger. He shook his head at Medina, asking him to touch gloves before the bout continued. It was almost politely done, signaling to the crowd that far from being ruffled or hurt, he was simply doing his part to make sure the rules were followed.

Garcia landed a hurtful uppercut that rattled his man near the end of Two, and had Medina just about ready to go as the bell sounded. He would follow that blow with several stinging jabs and a double-left followed by a deft cover-up. It’s obvious when watching him go that one is seeing a rare thing.

“He’s the real deal, what’d I tell ya!” screamed a front-row patron to his crowd of friends. “He’s the real deal!”

It was scheduled for eight rounds but didn’t last three, as Garcia knocked Medina down and the proceedings were stopped near the end of the round. Afterward, Amenaza spent more time in congratulations-and-interview mode than he had in the ring.

“This was my homecoming and I know that the people out there had high expectations,” said the gracious veteran. The television microphones were closer to his face than any punches from Medina had gotten. “I didn’t want to let anyone down and I wanted people to see that despite what we’ve been through, here we are, ready to go once again.”

As for the stoppage, which some fans had yowled about in complaint, Garcia was philosophical.

“I had him hurt, and pretty bad. I mean, if we had kept on, he could have really been hurt bad, so I think stopping it was a good move. I brought his hands down with some hooks and he was easy to hit after that.”

SERGIO SURGES

Perales has seldom been tested so far in a superb early career, but in against Mexican veteran Josimar Olivares, a Latino Federation champ with a ton of rounds behind him, this was going to be different. And good for that.

With “Faith” written across the front of his trunks, the super-fast Lower Valley sometime southpaw came out sticking and moving, flipping touch-and-measure right slaps and delivering crisp jabs. He was hit with a counter right inside the final minute, showing that the traveler from D.F. was not here to recite poetry.

In Round Two, Perales displayed the sort of skill that got him to the top of the amateur ranks, throwing a blow but stopping the next in an instant when the foe was out of reach. He worked the jab well, getting off first throughout and slamming a big right off Olivarez’ ear at 0:30. Good round.

He’s so adept at steping over and around punches, Perales can be called an expert in ring generalship. He put together a series of quick and hard combos in the mid-round period and ended the flurry with a solid left hand to remain in control.

“He needs fights like this, where he’s challenged,” Gogue said at ringside between rounds.

And this was a challenge of sorts, as the tough Mexican scored with a pair of shots over the top to start the fourth. Perales responded with a hammering left hook setting up a right uppercut, the multiple series rocking Olivares, though the latter has an iron chin and the will to match.

Slipping well and avoiding the counter shots, the Los Fresnos pugilist was nonetheless hit again near the end of the fourth with a right uppercut.

“You’re going to get hit, I don’t care who you are,” the trainer commented, chuckling. “The key is to minimize it when it happens, get out of trouble and above all, don’t make that a habit.”

Rarely has Perales gone even mildly deep into the rounds, so this was excellent on-the-job training. In the fifth he showed no signs of fatigue, rather rebounding for a fine three minutes, jabbing and moving, landing a right off the ropes, and dazzling the onlookers with his speed and agility. He’s fun to watch, this kid.

The sixth would be it, as Perales jabbed expertly, scoring a left inside and dancing out of range of the Mexican, who did not use the jab much, choosing to try and bang away at the leaner American. Halfway home, Olivares winged a wide right that found the mark but at this, the former Olympian surged forward to engage his man in a flurry. The action ended with a scintillating knockdown on a thudder of a left hook that stopped Olivares in his tracks and sent him tumbling backward like a sack of 1015 onions.

Later, in the postfight din, Perales was satisfied, if a bit more marked up than folks had seen him in the past. This had been a real fight against a solid pro, and “Time to Shine” had acquitted himself well, very well.

“He hit me with some good shots, that’s for sure,” said the articulate youngster. “And he took a lot of my best punches. He is a tough, strong guy and about two or three times, he stunned me. I had to retreat a little bit and regroup but I wasn’t worried. It’s a good test for me, to show me where I stand and what I have to work on. Hey, you’re gonna get hit in boxing, and I was glad to be in there with a good opponent, it only makes me better.”

THE SUM

A successful night all told, in front of a packed house of 2,000 at the Casa de Amistad, with three local stars shining bright, each continued the separate but parallel path to greatness with his own special circumstances.

For Roberto “La Amenaza” Garcia, a chance to show that he’s on the comeback trail after having been buffeted by a barrage of life lessons that left him in terrific shape, mind, body, and soul. He expects to fight for a title by the summer, and will probably have another tuneup locally before then, to give his huge and loyal fan base an opportunity to cheer him on. Garcia looks and seems right with the world, and it is good news. He’s a special guy who has been through the works and now at age 29 appears set to resume his date with destiny.

Raul Casarez has also seen his share of ups and downs, but has met the challenges head on and inches closer by the day to the payoff he’s been working toward for so many years. Gogue and Marines will be working on the Showtime card while Tigre gets back into the training regimen no later than Monday. In the past, he might have dropped off the face of the earth after a win, only to resurface somewhere down the road of the workload, content to make up for lost time with a whirlwind makeup study session. The new Tigre, however, knows that fights are won or lost in the gym, not at the weigh-in.

And “Time to Shine”? He is beginning to measure himself the way a rising comet must, against top-shelf competition. And he’s finding that the predictions his people have made about impending superstardom might not be much of a stretch. His name is becoming known upstate and beyond, and it won’t be long before Sergio Perales gets the chance to hit the road for bigger paychecks in larger markets. He is the pride of the Valley and nothing seems to stand in his way.

As the crowd dissipated, a teenage girl playfully punched at her boyfriend, caught up in the spirit of the night. The boy seemed pleased at this sudden show of aggression from his significant other, though he was unsure about the protocol on returning the favor.

Outside the building, in the mild Harlingen night, a 7-year-old sparred with his younger sibling, and was surprised when the little tyke came at him with a combination of blows thrown with the murderous intent of a Baby Amenaza.

One youngster, perhaps 10, stopped The Observer as he was leaving the gym and inquired, “Hey, are you a coach?”

He was informed to the negative and just smiled. Off he went, to find someone more well-placed to be able to tell him more about this magical intoxicant called boxing. That’s what the trio of stars should always keep in mind, that the world is watching and learning from everything they do. Sure it’s great to see The Boys take it to a pack of opponents from here or there. But the subtlety therein – that they are role models and beacons of light to thousands of youth, that their trials and triumphs outside the square may also be used as object lessons by the masses – makes what they do doubly important.

They will be remembered for their complete body of work, after all.

Tags: Boxing, marines promotions, Raul “El Tigre” Casarez