By unanimous decision, Jack Candelaria CC is back

If you’re a boxer, you can get bigger. You can get stronger. You can improve your cardio.

But, your natural style? Don’t mess with it. Be who you are.

As Mayor Tim Keller and the city of Albuquerque set about renovating and expanding the boxing gym at Jack Candelaria Community Center at 400 San Jose SE, a half-block west of Broadway, that was the mission: make it bigger, better, shinier, but retain the room’s essence.

It’s still a boxing gym — “not Defined Fitness,” Keller pointed out on Saturday at a ceremony held to commemorate the South San Jose building’s reopening after approximately a year-and-a-half closure, “that was (made) loud and clear.”

So, upon inspection, how did Keller and the city do?

For welterweight boxer Josh “Pit Bull” Torres, one of many Albuquerque boxers who began their careers at Jack Candelaria, mission accomplished.

“I love that it still feels like Jack Candelaria,” Torres said. “It doesn’t feel like a new gym. It feels like the old gym, with a little more room.

“A little nicer, a little newer and room for opportunities to do big things for the community.”

Without question, the changes are more than cosmetic. The east wall of the room was knocked out, that space now occupied by a show ring for amateur smokers, tournaments, etc.

At the west end of the building, new resistance-training equipment glistens. As before, the north and south walls are adorned with photos and posters celebrating the city’s boxing history.

Among Saturday’s honored guests was Albuquerque native Angelo Leo, the International Boxing Federation featherweight world champion. Like Torres, his boxing journey began at Jack Candelaria.

“I love the way they preserved old posters, the original names,” said Leo, who started boxing at Jack Candelaria 24 years ago at age 7.

No community center, of course, is just about boxing — there’s a basketball court, with just one basket but with plenty of room for 3-on-3 — or just about sports.

“What we really need to do,” said state Sen. Michael Padilla, “is give our children something to do. Do you agree?”

Without question, said Albuquerque City Councilor Joaquin Baca.

Jack Candelaria, Baca said, “saves lives.”

Torres said he was on a destructive path as a youth before he came to Jack Candelaria.

“I was just a punk that liked to fight,” he said.

His close friend Vincent Mirabel, Torres said, introduced him to Richard Mirabal, Vincent’s father and a veteran boxing trainer.

“Richard Mirabal, may he rest in peace, took me under his wing,” Torres said. “He taught me the sport, I fell in love with it, and I turned my passion for fighting into a profession.

“This place literally gave me life.”

In some cases, said Jake Valencia, a community center’s mission is as simple as giving kids a place to come after school and wait for their parents to get off work and pick them up — latchkey kids no more.

Valencia, a longtime coach at Jack Candelaria, and Luís Chávez, Leo’s co-trainer with the boxer’s father, Miguel, were among the few Saturday attendees who remember the William Street Gym — where coach Joe Turrietta’s Albuquerque Parks & Rec boxing team was formed.

They were there when South San Jose Community Center opened in 1985 and when it was renamed Jack Candelaria Community Center — honoring a South Valley anti-drug activist — in 1997.

Valencia’s father, Jake Valencia Sr., was a central figure in making South San Jose Community Center a financial reality. Jake Jr. was a state Golden Gloves champion who suffered a career-ending injury.

Saturday, Valencia expressed concern that the middle ring of the center’s three rings might have to be temporarily removed to provide for adequate seating if Jack Candelaria were to host boxing events.

Otherwise, he said, particularly in contrast to his memories of the decrepit William Street location, “Everything’s first class. They did a really good job.”

Several hundred people attended Saturday’s ceremony, including many of Albuquerque’s boxing figures of the present and past. The following list is not necessarily complete:

Boxers: Leo, Torres, Matt Griego-Ortega, Stephanie Jaramillo, Victoria Cisneros, Yoruba Moreu Jr., Max Heyman, Willie Villanueva, Raymond “Hollewood” Montes.

Trainers: Chávez, Miguel Leo, Manuel Anaya, Flory Olguin. The MMA community was on hand as well: Greg Jackson, Brandon Gibson.

Administrators: Joe Chavez, a longtime New Mexico Athletic Commission chairman and a former promoter, attended with his wife, Isabel. Jaramillo attended as a member of the Athletic Commission.

Among the fallen (but not forgotten): coaches Turrietta, Joe Louis Murphy, Richard Mirabal and Jim Johnson; journalists Carlos Salazar, Toby Smith and Austin Killeen.

And, of course, the late, great Bobby Foster and the one and only Johnny Tapia.