{"id":954624,"date":"2026-11-01T18:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T18:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954624\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T18:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T18:28:21","slug":"woodland-native-josiah-salas-takes-gold-in-2026-usa-boxing-open-nationals-daily-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954624\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodland native Josiah Salas takes gold in 2026 USA Boxing Open Nationals \u2013 Daily Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, local boxing prodigy Josiah Salas, 13, brought home the gold at the 2026 USA Boxing Open Nationals, crushing his way to three consecutive unanimous decisions to claim his first national championship.<\/p>\n

\"Earlier<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, local boxing prodigy Josiah Salas, 13, brought home the gold at the 2026 USA Boxing Open Nationals in Cleveland, Ohio, in late September. COURTESY<\/p>\n

\"Earlier<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, local boxing prodigy Josiah Salas, 13, brought home the gold at the 2026 USA Boxing Open Nationals in Cleveland, Ohio, in late September. COURTESY<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, local boxing prodigy Josiah Salas, 13, brought home the gold at the 2026 USA Boxing Open Nationals in Cleveland, Ohio, in late September. COURTESY<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Salas made his hometown proud with three outstanding performances, bringing home the first-place medal in the 101-pound intermediate division at the open nationals in Cleveland, Ohio, in late September.<\/p>\n

Representing Alvarez Boxing Club, a family-owned boxing gym in Woodland, Salas has, according to his coaches, \u201cdemonstrated the discipline, determination, and skill that have helped him become one of Northern California\u2019s promising young amateur boxers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family-owned gym, located at 611 Kentucky Ave., takes pride in developing young athletes through discipline, hard work, respect, and commitment to the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis victory represents years of hard work and dedication to the sport of boxing,\u201d coach and uncle Eduardo Alvarez said. \u201cDespite being only 13 years old, he has already accumulated an impressive 70 amateur fights and competed in seven national tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his boxing career, Salas has consistently challenged himself against some of the nation\u2019s best young fighters, earning national recognition and rankings along the way. His previous accomplishments include bringing home a bronze medal from the USA Boxing Junior Olympics<\/a> in 2025 and a silver medal from the USA Boxing National Championships.<\/p>\n

Although he had previously reached a national podium, a first-place gold medal had remained his ultimate goal. Following his three consecutive victories by unanimous decision, Salas finally reached the top of the podium, earning his first national championship title.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis accomplishment represents more than an individual victory,\u201d Eduardo Alvarez said. \u201cIt is a proud moment for his family, coaches, boxing club, and the entire Woodland community.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he continues to grow and develop as an athlete, Salas hopes to build on his accomplishments and continue representing Woodland at the highest levels of amateur boxing.<\/p>\n

In December, Salas will compete at the USA Boxing National Championships. His long-term goal is to make the USA Elite High-Performance Team and, from there, eventually try out for the USA Olympic team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, local boxing prodigy Josiah Salas, 13, brought home the gold at the 2026 USA Boxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,3335,48,1050,4245,884,6519,44,1412,112527,11763,82,69661,326363],"class_list":["post-954624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-canada","tag-community","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-sports","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-sports","tag-woodland","tag-yolo-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954624","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=954624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}