Corpus Christi boxing community remembers coach David Baltazar, a father figure to generations

David Baltazar gave generations of Corpus Christi fighters a place to train, learn and grow. Now, his family says the gym he built will keep his legacy alive.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi boxing community is mourning the loss of David Baltazar, a longtime coach and mentor who spent decades using his gym to give local kids a place to train, learn and stay off the streets.

Baltazar died Tuesday, leaving behind a legacy that stretches far beyond the boxing ring.

For former boxer and Baltazar’s Boxing Gym coach Jose Jimenez, the gym has been part of his life since 1998.

Jimenez grew up just three blocks from the gym and said Baltazar kept the doors open for anyone who wanted to learn, even if only one child showed up.

“He kept the gym running, and not just for me, but for everybody here in this community,” Jimenez said.

Over the years, the gym became a training ground for generations of fighters, including professional boxers. One of those fighters was Willie Warren, who went on to face Marvin Hagler, one of boxing’s all-time greats and the undisputed middleweight champion of the world for seven years. Warren lasted seven rounds against Hagler in a 1978 bout at the Boston Garden. 

But for the people who came through Baltazar’s doors, the gym was about more than producing fighters.

“To me he was a father to the fatherless,” former boxer and Baltazar’s Boxing Gym coach Gilbert Cabrera said. “It’s an honor to have trained under him, been coached under him, learned coaching techniques from him. It’s really an honor.”

For Baltazar’s children, that legacy wasn’t just something they saw at the gym. It was something they lived.

Baltazar’s son, David Baltazar III, said his father was committed to giving children a way to stay out of trouble.

“He opened the doors for all these children to come in, give them opportunity to get away from the streets, the gangs, the drugs, and he was just so big-hearted that he did so much for these kids that if they needed equipment, gear, he came out of his pocket to make sure that they had it so they could be here,” Baltazar III said.

His generosity wasn’t the only thing that made those relationships special.

“He had different relationships with each and everybody. The relationship he had with me was different than one with somebody else than from the coach, the from the trainers,” Baltazar III said. “Every kid that came in here he called them ‘son’ or ‘mija.’ All these fighters are his extended family.”

That family spirit is now spreading to a new generation.

“He meant everything to me as a coach, inside and outside the ring,” said 12-year-old boxer Gabriel Noel, who trains at Baltazar’s Boxing Gym.

Jimenez said Baltazar’s commitment to his fighters never wavered, even as his health declined recently.

“He couldn’t get in the ring, couldn’t put his legs up, but he was able to get up the stairs and coach some fighters the other weekend here with Corpus Christi,” Jimenez said. “He coached till the day he died.”

Now, Baltazar’s family says the gym he built will continue to serve the community.

“The lights are gonna stay on, the doors are gonna stay open,” Baltazar III said.