EDINBURG — Noe Mendoza Jr. has been a pioneer in collegiate boxing since his undergraduate days at Texas A&M.
Mendoza helped jumpstart interest in the sport at the college level with his founding of Texas A&M Boxing, a club which went on to garner recognition as a recreational sport by the university and compete in the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association.
The Weslaco native has continued to push the growth of college boxing over at UTRGV, founding club boxing on campus in 2021 while he pursued his master’s degree.
“Having come down from a program up there when COVID hit I didn’t know what to do so I came back home,” Mendoza said. “I sat down and reevaluated the next step in my life. I ended up going to UTRGV to do my masters and I came out and said let’s start this boxing program at UTRGV. That is pretty much how I started with the program. My name kind of translates over to Noah and I was always told my name was kind of biblical. With that in my head I went in with a quote in my head that says build it and they will come.”
Nearly two years have passed since its creation and UTRGV boxing has continued to grow and thrive on the foundation Mendoza set.
The club’s growth hasn’t happened overnight. Finding athletes to compete has been one of the biggest challenges with program not equipped with recruiting personnel to find talent.
Success in the ring on a national scale, however, has created buzz across the fighting community in the RGV.
“For me, I come from an MMA background,” UTRGV boxing club member Alejandro Huerta said. “I’ve been doing it for years. At the gym I went to we had people that supported the club. Since I was already a student at UTRGV, I thought I should go see how it is. … When I attended the first class I went in blindly and didn’t know what to expect. After seeing how it was programmed and scheduled I knew it was legit.”
During their first year the club saw two athletes win national titles, including Mendoza who defeated Air Force’s Zackary Phillips by split decision at the 2021 USA Boxing Summer Festival.
This year the Vaqueros added another three national champions, with Mendoza (140-pound), Omar Cortez (154-pound) and Henry “Mac” McFarland (heavyweight) coming out victorious during the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association’s National Tournament.
The national success has led to growth in the club, with practices seeing from 12-15 athletes on average. Some days feature even bigger groups of up to 25 athletes practicing at the UTRGV Recreational Center.
UTRGV’s success has also continued to spark interest across the state, with programs starting up at Texas Southern, University of Houston, San Antonio College and UTSA, according to Mendoza.
“That is just kind of what we’ve been doing, we’ve just been snowballing,” Mendoza said. “We just got back from competing in Georgia where we ended the year undefeated. … Because the buzz didn’t die down, there is a lot of hype coming up. A lot of people are looking at what we’re doing and they’re coming to us for advice on how we’re doing it.”
After picking up a trio of wins at the 2nd Annual College Fight Night hosted by Georgia Tech Boxing at Buckhead Fight Club in Atlanta, Georgia, the Vaqueros have their eyes set on the 2023 USIBA National Championships, taking place March 23-25 at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.
“Our vision is to bring more national championships. That is the main goal,” said Cortez, who serves as the club’s president and team captain. “We want to give the 956 a platform to perform at the highest level, that is my vision.”
