Costa Rican WBA champion "Medallita"Jimenez is a real boxing world hero
By Gabriel F. Cordero
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Apr 2024
The brave Costa Rican David “Medallita” Jiménez (16-1, 11KOs) put Costa Rica at the top of world boxing, after a surprising victory by unanimous decision against the American John “Scrappy” Ramírez (13-1, 9KOs) for the interim 115-pound world title of the World Boxing Association (WBA) at an event held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York Saturday, April 20, on the undercard of the Haney-Garcia WBC super lightweight world title championship.
Jiménez, 32 years old, was born in Cartago and debuted in professional boxing in February 2019 with experience in the Olympic cycle. He came out from the first round and throughout the fight he gave everything in the ring, landing more blows and leaving Scrappy without a response. He covered himself in almost the entire fight to avoid them.
Jiménez belongs to Ernesto Sandoval's Costa Rican promoter FightClub Promotions, which signed a promotional contract with Golden Boy Promotions and trained in Las Vegas for this important fight.
Medallita was not wrong, his statements at the press conference had been emotional "I am here for my family and I am going to fight with everything until the last minute to win this title for me and Costa Rica."
Jiménez began boxing at the age of 12 and was for many years the benchmark of Olympic boxing in Costa Rica, and was the only Costa Rican boxer to win a medal in the World Amateur Boxing Championship. He won the bronze medal at the 2013 XVII World Amateur Boxing Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and was a bronze medalist at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. Furthermore, for 4 years he was in the Top 5 of the International Boxing Association rankings, achieving his best position as number 3 in the world.
His nickname "Medallita" is due to the fact that David insistently asked his coach and trainer, Freddy "Mecánico" Acevedo, to give him a medal to impress his friends in the town. After much insistence, his coach finally gave him a medal. At this gesture, David burst into tears and this medal became his greatest treasure. He cleaned and polished it daily and displayed it to everyone in his town, saying that he was a national boxing champion. The people of the town, seeing that boy who insistently cleaned his medal and showed it to whoever passed by him with great pride, out of affection nicknamed him "Little Medal"
David married his teenage girlfriend Daniela Cubillo Barquero, who has been a fundamental pillar in his career since since his beginning in boxing she always supported him, even for a period of time she worked to cover household expenses, so that David He will dedicate himself fully to his sporting dream. In 2015 they had their first son Daryel Alejandro Jiménez Cubillo and are expecting a girl at the end of 2019.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Gabriel F. Cordero.
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