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Written by Michael Murphy, Northside Sports Editor   
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
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San Francisco welterweight contender Santos Soto prepares for the Golden Gloves. Photo by Elizabeth Armstrong.
Welterweight contender Santos Soto keeps his irons in the fire

"Every fight requires a ton of preparation. I go into training camp about five weeks before the fight and then I don't go out on the weekends and I go to bed by 9:30 or 10, depending on my homework. I get focused. I get up, I run, I train in the afternoon, I train at night.

"Three times a week I do 10-mile runs and two times a week I do sprints, work the stairs. I build cardio, run in spurts, bring it down, then keep going – like a fight."

More like a lifestyle for the 22-year-old Santos Soto, a Riordan High School graduate, junior at the University of San Francisco – and 10th-ranked amateur welterweight in the United States.

The personable Soto does not lack for ambition and has a double major at USF: the first, media studies, coincides nicely with his new cable television show The Jungle. The second, business with a focus in marketing, complements a real-life enterprise, the boxing tournament he founded called the Hilltop Cup, a charity event that draws 5,000 people and has two successful years under its belt.

While he is not working on his studies or community events, the 5'9", 154-lb. Santos trains to become an Olympic boxing champion. His goals include bringing a gold medal to San Francisco, as his friend Andre Ward did for his Oakland hometown in the 2004 Athens, Greece Summer Games. Ward won on the last day of competition, earning the U.S. its first and only boxing gold medal.

"My other boxing goal," Santos declared, "is to bring a professional championship fight to San Francisco."

"I've never been put down. I've fought a lot of tough guys and stay focused on what's next. I'm keeping it really focused for my professional career. I want to be the top amateur with a real pro style."
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"There's four people that I really admire," Soto continued, gazing at some of the legends on the wall at the 3rd Street Gym in San Francisco, where he trains locally. "I try to take a little bit from each and put it into my game.

"One is Salvador Sanchez, the second is Julio Cesar Chavez, an icon, then Roberto Duran and Alexis Arguello. What I like about Duran – he was mean. I love that. I have that mean streak, or at least I like to think I have that mean streak. Alexis Arguello, I like him because he was a quiet storm, a gentleman fighter who had pinpoint accuracy. Chavez was just bad! He was on you, very methodical and would tear you apart. A lot of people don't know this but Salvador Sanchez died when he was 23 years old in a fatal car accident. He was a great Mexican champion, a world champion, tough as nails. He was one of the greatest counterpunchers of all time, with wicked power and incredible speed.

"These are the guys I look to for style. I'm definitely not as good as they were – yet. It's a work in progress."

Some of the motivation also comes from his father, Santos Soto Sr., who happens to be the executive director of the San Francisco Golden Gloves.

"I'm pleased for Santos because I know how hard he works. He is a determined young man and I admire his resolve. He's a good kid with a good head on his shoulders. He's a great fighter, too."

The Golden Gloves is a showcase for the new and next generation of amateur champions along with recognition of boxing greats from years past. For this diamond anniversary event, the oldest sports jewel in The City, the weeklong celebration will start March 21st and include turning back the hands of time as the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium gets decked out in a retro 1930s theme.

Featured theme nights and boxing matches will continue throughout the week. A charity event dinner to raise funds to send kids to camp will be held on Thursday, March 23rd, hosted by the San Francisco Guardsman foundation. The Championships are on Sunday evening, March 26th.

Soto Jr. gets part of his civic pride from both his mom and dad. "My parents have had a tremendous impact on my life. The values, it all starts at home. They have pointed me in the right direction to provide opportunities. They put out a lot for me to have the chance to be successful. I went to Riordan High School (all boys) and St. Vincent De Paul grammar school. They did it for not just me but all the kids in my family (two sisters and one brother)."

Soto is a rare athlete, a mix of understandable bravado from his deeds in the ring combined with a social conscience. He also has a sense of humor.

"I'm on a strict diet when it comes to making weight during the five weeks before I fight. Otherwise, I'm on a see food diet – whatever I see, I eat it."

His embrace of history allows for a deeper understanding of the reality of today and his dreams of tomorrow.

"I'm a spiritual person from a Catholic background. I stick to, pretty much, my own philosophies. I try and take a step back, avoid getting caught up in the minutia of the everyday. Just stay focused and everything will work out. If you're hungry and on track it will work out.

"I look to fighters of the past for motivation. I think there is a lot of art that past fighters did that current fighters don't do, like the bolo hook and the side step with the rise."

As a boxer Santos understands that now is his time, his shot.

"It's a tough road. Anyone can do it for a short amount of time, do the sprint, but to come in here day in and day out, coming to the gym, dealing with the injuries and the sprains, when you're hungry, or tired, and you have work and you have school, on a day-to-day basis, that's tough, and that separates the men from the boys."

"If you skip out of it, you'll regret it. I don't want to be one of those people who say, ‘I was, or, I could have been.' I want to know. I want to be there. I want to know how good I am. Whether or not I make it, who knows.

"There are always a lot of distractions," he continued, "but in order to be successful in anything, to get what you want, you need to be focused. I get distracted from time to time. I have a slice of pizza when I'm supposed to be making weight. But I know what I want. This is my time, my window of opportunity."

The scholar-athlete – he currently maintains a 3.0 GPA – is an eligible bachelor with plenty of charisma, especially when it comes to promoting his brainchild, the Hilltop Cup.

"USF ... I'm very proud to attend the school. It's allowed me to open up some avenues to give back. USF gave me the opportunity to create the Hilltop Cup – the first and only collegiate fight night in the country. Stanford, Cal, Santa Clara, we get teams from Reno and San Jose, all the rivalries get together for a big mixer.

"We fight for bragging rights for the toughest school in the Bay. We draw about 5,000 people.

"A tangible reason we are fighting is to raise money for a Latino scholarship on campus at USF. This past year was the second year we did it. The first year was on my birthday, the 17th of September – this year we are going to do it the first week of October. USF gave me the support to be able to put it on and do it during Latin Heritage Month. We are going to give back to the community – the school is very supportive to allow the young men and women to come forth and do something like this.

"USF is a proactive school – it's a big school but there are small class sizes and you get a lot of individual attention.

"I did all the grass-roots marketing, selling tickets door-to-door in the dorm rooms – people are not going to tell a boxer no (laughs) – and we got the dance team involved, helping us to sell tickets.

"The beneficiaries are the high school kids who are the scholarship winners – the name of the scholarship is Saber es Poder – Knowledge is Power."

The young welterweight with unlimited potential continues his quest to become the best he can be in boxing at the upcoming San Francisco Golden Gloves. As a young man, he's already there.

Email Michael at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 March 2008 )
 
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