How Jose Valenzuela’s near-death experience set off a quest to repay his parents for decades of sacrifice

NEW YORK — The long scar down the left side of Jose Valenzuela’s face is abnormal, even for a boxer.

That permanent mark, carefully covered by a thin beard, is detectable only if you look closely. Or you could talk to the polite pugilist long enough, but only if the WBA super lightweight champion chooses to discuss the harrowing afternoon 22 years ago when he almost lost his life.

Valenzuela was just three at the time, a typical soccer-loving child playing with his older sister near the street in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, an impoverished city near the Arizona border. His mother, Vianey, was briefly distracted by a timer that went off inside the laundromat where she washed the family’s clothes. She turned her head just long enough for Jose to try to retrieve his ball, stuck beneath a nearby car.

That’s when, according to the story Vianey relayed to Jose over the course of the past two decades, their lives changed forever. And for the better, though they couldn’t have known it then.

A drug-addicted man, on the run from who knows what, jumped into the aforementioned car and sped off. Tiny Jose Valenzuela, trapped in its undercarriage, was dragged down the street.

Neighbors heard the screams of a terrified child in jeopardy of losing much more than his soccer ball. The confused driver stopped. Passersby sprung into action and collectively lifted the car off of Jose. Vianey came running from the laundromat.

“I’m bleeding from head to toe,” Jose Valenzuela told Uncrowned, relaying his mother’s memory of that devastating day. “I had to learn how to walk again. My teeth, my face, everything was broken. I’ve still got surgery scars. My mom comes out and she just sees her freaking baby basically torn to pieces. She says I was starting to get really swollen and, like, purple.”

The nearest hospital wasn’t equipped to treat such severe injuries. Jose was helicoptered to one where emergency surgery could be performed, and without the benefit of anesthesia that doctors feared could kill him during a delicate procedure. The surgeon informed Vianey and her husband, Jose Sr., that the ensuing 72 hours would determine whether the youngest of their three children would live or die.

They heard their son’s screams from the hospital hallway, where they waited for what seemed like an eternity.

Vianey and Jose Sr. will sit side by side Saturday night, again fearful for their son’s safety. These days, though, the screams come from them and from the boxing fans who watch the ever-resilient southpaw ply his trade against dangerous opponents – in this case, Gary Antuanne Russell.

Russell (17-1, 17 KOs), a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Capitol Heights, Maryland, comes from quite a fighting family himself. His older brother and trainer, semi-retired Gary Russell Jr., was a long-reigning WBC featherweight champion once considered one of the most talented technicians of his era.

Their 12-round, 140-pound championship clash for the WBA belt that Valenzuela (14-2, 9 KOs) won in his last bout is a potential show-stealer scheduled to take place immediately before one of the most electrifying fighters in boxing, Gervonta “Tank” Davis, takes center stage.

Baltimore’s Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) is set to defend his WBA lightweight title against amateur rival Lamont Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in the 12-round main event of a four-fight Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; $79.99).

The possibility of facing Davis was discussed with Valenzuela, a lightweight contender before he moved up five pounds prior to his last bout for the opportunity to challenge another Mexican, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. With the newly acquired leverage his WBA belt affords him, Valenzuela opted to remain in the 140-pound division, despite the fact that moving back down to the 135-pound limit to face Davis definitely would’ve earned him more money than he will make for fighting Russell.

Valenzuela out-boxed the rugged Cruz (27-3-1, 18 KOs) and won a split decision six months ago on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. More important to Valenzuela, he rewarded his parents for the countless sacrifices they made when they decided after that life-changing incident to move the family – Jose and his older sisters Griselda and America – to Phoenix, and later Bellingham, Washington.

Jose Jr. was getting into fights at school when Jose Sr. decided to take him to a boxing gym to make more constructive use of his son’s aggression. Problem was, Bellingham, a city of about 95,000 approximately 20 miles south of the Canadian border, wasn’t exactly a hotbed for the sport that Jose Sr. had loved while growing up in a country proud of such legends as Julio Cesar Chavez, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, and, most recently, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Without a legitimate boxing club nearby, Jose Sr. picked up his son from school most days and they drove. And drove. And drove. And drove some more.

It took them two hours to drive from Bellingham to Renton, just southeast of Seattle, four hours roundtrip, just to get the training and sparring that was unavailable to them anywhere else.

“He was making $10 an hour and he had a little Honda,” Jose said of his father. “I would get out of school, we would get in the car, he would take me two hours to train and two hours back. Then I would train and we would drive two hours back. We did that for like six years.”

Jose Sr. barely had money for gas, let alone costly travel expenses for the amateur tournaments that make boxers’ reputations regionally and nationally.

Undeterred, Jose Sr. decided that his precocious son needed to become a puncher. The more knockouts, the better. Otherwise, talent scouts and promoters would never notice a kid who didn’t have his first fight until he turned 12.

“When I was probably like 16, 17,” Jose Jr. recalled, “when my career was [at the point] when I wanted to go pro already, we moved now to that [Renton] area, like South Seattle. It just made my commute easier and kept me fully focused on boxing.”

Nicknamed “Rayo,” Spanish for lightning, Valenzuela made his pro debut in September 2018. He was just 19 at that time, but he quickly ascended to become one of boxing’s more promising prospects.

Showcased during FOX telecasts that drew significant audiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Valenzuela was fast-tracked toward stardom by boxing powerbroker Al Haymon, whose PBC developed Davis into one of the sport’s greatest gate and TV attractions.

A knockdown, drag-out brawl with Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos saddled Valenzuela with his first defeat – a third-round knockout on the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz undercard in September 2022 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Valenzuela learned valuable lessons from that unforgettable battle, in which he dropped De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) in the second round. The skillful left-handed boxer-puncher should’ve approached De Los Santos strategically, but his heart and recklessness led to De Los Santos sending him to the canvas once in the first and again in the third round, before Valenzuela’s former trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., threw in the towel so that his overpowered prospect might fight another day.

That defeat and his subsequent setback against Chris Colbert – a debatable, unanimous-decision defeat in March 2023 – made Valenzuela realize he needed to change his approach. Valenzuela has looked impressive while winning both bouts since then. He took the rematch with Colbert (17-3, 6 KOs) by scintillating sixth-round knockout in December 2023, then beat Cruz in more measured fashion to re-establish himself as a threat to Davis, as well as fellow 140-pound champions Teofimo Lopez (WBO), Alberto Puello (WBC) and Richardson Hitchins (IBF).

The Dominican Republic’s Puello (23-0, 10 KOs) will defend his title against Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs) in another 12-round bout before Valenzuela opposes Russell, which is essentially a 50-50 fight according to BetMGM.

Beyond adding titles to his collection, reparation is Valenzuela’s motivation.

“First and foremost, even just winning the world title, it was a big, big debt [paid off], because they did everything for me,” Valenzuela said in reference to his parents. “You know, our whole lives revolved around me, around making me a great fighter. My dad, he just had me like a little soldier. … He dedicated everything to me, like his last dollar. Like he wouldn’t pay the rent, he wouldn’t pay the light bill, just to put gas in his car to bring me to the gym.

“We would come home sometimes, and the lights would be off. My mom would be at food banks, stuff like that. I saw all that as a kid. Coming from Mexico, all the sacrifices, I lived it with them. So, I can never take my foot off the gas. You know, they’ve been my motivation. It’s what I do it for.”

They’re together in Brooklyn, readying for what figures to be a dogfight versus Russell on another huge stage. They’re focused on their “blessings” and how all the hard work is paying off.

That fateful afternoon in Nogales is embedded in their minds, a reminder of how close they came to losing much more than two professional fights.

“My mom said that she could hear me screaming through the whole hospital,” Jose Valenzuela said. “I was getting surgery and she was just waiting outside, praying to God. Praying and praying and praying. She could hear me screaming, so she was like, ‘If you’re gonna take him, just don’t let him suffer.’ She said I just stopped crying and that was it. And the doctor comes out and he’s like, ‘He made it.’ She definitely thought I might have some issues later on in life. But, you know, I’m still here and I’m a fighter.”

A fantastic fighter at that, with a world title to defend Saturday night. And – win, lose or draw – an inspiring story to tell.