{"id":836479,"date":"2026-07-30T18:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836479\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:51:17","slug":"santa-rosa-boxing-and-mma-gym-to-host-fundraiser-saturday-the-press-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836479\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Rosa boxing and MMA gym to host fundraiser Saturday \u2013 The Press Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sanchez Boxing MMA gym near Santa Rosa\u2019s Railroad Square is hosting a fundraiser Saturday aimed at helping to strengthen its community impact through scholarships and new equipment.<\/p>\n

The gym was founded in 2008 by Rosendo Sanchez, who has over 20 years of experience in martial arts coaching. It provides training in boxing, Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to give back to this community and give back to the gym and I feel like the more you give, the more you get back,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said his gym provides roughly 20 scholarships a year to children in the area whose families may struggle to afford a membership.<\/p>\n

He described the gym as a great space for kids to make connections, whether in martial arts or other career paths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith having police officers in my gym, firefighters, chefs, CEOs, we got a bunch of different people in the community \u2026 eventually, some of these kids will be looking for a job and I\u2019ll be able to contact this person or contact that person and see what we can do and help them get a job,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

The gym will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for Saturday\u2019s event. Attendees will get the opportunity to meet UFC coaches and fighters.<\/p>\n

The Donahue Street facility has produced noteworthy fighters such as Imanol Rodriguez, who made his debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship<\/a> on Feb. 28 by beating Kevin Borjas in the second round with a technical knockout.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez is scheduled to be one of the UFC fighters in attendance Saturday, alongside Jacobe Smith and Tommy Gantt, according to Sanchez.<\/p>\n

\"Competitive<\/p>\n

Erik Castro \/ For The Press Democrat<\/p>\n

Competitive amateur boxer Halana Perez, 15, poses for a photo with her father Anthony Perez, left, and gym owner Rosendo Sanchez during a training session at Sanchez Boxing MMA in Santa Rosa on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, the night before traveling to a national competition taking place in Kansas City, Missouri. (Erik Castro \/ For The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to me, just like seeing all the hard work that I put in and it\u2019s satisfying to see how it\u2019s all coming together,\u201d Sanchez said of the fighters he\u2019s trained who now compete in the UFC.<\/p>\n

Fighters and trainers will also conduct boxing, Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu sparring exhibitions at Saturday\u2019s event<\/p>\n

Raffles, giveaways, food vendors and a lowrider car show are also set to be part of Saturday\u2019s festivities. Local food trucks Tacos San Juan and El Roy\u2019s Express will be on hand and donating to the gym as well, Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

The gym\u2019s equipment is either purchased out of pocket or with donations, and Sanchez hopes the proceeds from Saturday will help get more mats, punching bags, gloves and other supplies to help the gym grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like some of these kids have never been taught to open up to talk to a person and say, \u2018This is what I\u2019m feeling,\u2019 and we try to give them advice and guidance. You might not be a world champion boxer or a Muay Thai fighter or a jiu-jitsu person, but you\u2019re in a gym where you have a bunch of great people with no egos,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI just want it to be somewhere where it\u2019s a safe haven for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets are $25 per person and available at the door Saturday. Sanchez Boxing MMA<\/a> is located at 808 Donahue St. in Santa Rosa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sanchez Boxing MMA gym near Santa Rosa\u2019s Railroad Square is hosting a fundraiser Saturday aimed at helping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-836479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}