How Does an Undocumented Boxer Chase a World Title?

To the red corner, from the boogie down, by way of Mexico City, Mexico, it's some noise. I know you wouldn't be a champion, but you got to take time. The only thing Andy needs is a little bit of patience. It's the hunger, the ambition, and goal that he wants. And the goal that he wants is not for himself. There's someone out there who really wants to achieve something. Despite him giving it his all, he's very limited and can only go so far because, quote-unquote, his status. My name is Andy Dominguez. I'm currently a WBA feather central champion, and I am undocumented. Andy was born in Mexico City. He was a child raised in Puebla. I wanted to come to New York to give them a better future. He's a good boy. I was five when my mom left to the U.S. I lived with my grandparents in Atlixco, Puebla until I was 10. At that time, my mom saved up enough money to bring me to the U.S. I didn't want to leave my grandparents, and I didn't want to leave my little brother. After three days, we got caught. They sent us back somewhere else in Mexico. When Andy came here, he took two months of immigration. He suffered a little more, so it took him a month to get here. Me, a little kid, Trying to come for a dream, it was pretty tough. Not everyone makes it to the other side, some people die in the desert. I just remember following the peyote and boom, I was in the U.S. already. Él me decía a veces, no, yo no quería venir para acá. He fought a lot. One day I was walking after him and there were like ten guys in front of him waiting for him to hit him. I didn't know English. I didn't know what they were saying, so I don't know if it was a bad word or a good word, so I would just, like, fight. My mom just got tired of me, like, she was like, you need to do something. That's when I started boxing. My trainer, Lupin, he put me to spar literally, like, the first week. He basically took care of me. He's like my dad. He's the one that made me. That person totally trained me. Lupin used to scold him, he used to tell him you have to behave well, respect your mother, he used to tell him. I've been very poor in boxing and I've also been very poor at the level of people in society. Since I was 12 years old, all my fights have been in my corner. I used to be in the streets and I don't think it was good for me. I'm just glad I started boxing. His climb up the ladder in the amateur ranks here in New York was very limited due to his residency that he wasn't quite a citizen. So therefore he was allowed to compete and allowed to do certain tournaments. He would fight in the finals, beat the guy, and yet that kid, the one that he just finished beating, would move on and do the bigger tournaments, the national tournaments, the international tournaments. To my team, like Nelson and my coach, So we're talking to our manager, and we're just going to see. I think I have no other choice but to go pro. So it's time for me to move up to the next level. I recognize a lot of elite talent, and because I've been around it, I realize that Andy is one of them. I recognize that in very few people, and I've been around sports most of my life because I worked for Nike for a long time, and I've been around elite athletes. I knew that I wanted to help Andy gain a world title because I felt like he had the talent to do that. And I also knew that it would be hard for him in the beginning to gain a foundation for building up these fights. You really need a huge team around you to create those fights, make those fights happen for you, help you get sponsors, and help them along so that they can develop their talent. Everybody's dream is that green belt, you know, the WBC belt. And that's, you know, that's my goal. But now I'm like, even if, like, if I don't make it far, it's just like, I feel like... I accomplished something in life, you know? The last time we walked in the park was... You remember we took a picture? Oh, that day we got reined in? We met at Mendes Boxing. We were friends for a long time. My dad was a big fan of Andy. He always talked about how he's going to be someone great. They had a lot of things in common. The way they both crossed over. Both grew up with single moms. So they bonded a lot because of that. My dad saw him as his own son. I had found someone that, like, completed me. I grew up with the idea that one day my mom might not be here, and I had the option to either stay here, which they encouraged, or go back to Mexico with her. And then she got her papers, and now everything's okay. But now this is happening again with Andy. The first fight was obviously virtual because it was during the pandemic and there was no spectators allowed. We did it because you enjoyed it. When you watch Andy, it's not boring. This kid Throws combinations, he's a volume puncher, he's constantly taking angles. We have had a very good fight tonight, excellent. He does it in such a graceful way that even though he is the aggressor, it looks good. Oh, what a good right, there came the track. Despite the guy sometimes being bigger than him because he is a very small guy, he just makes that bigger guy look like the little guy. It's incredible what he does. He doesn't just come and throw punches. He hits you, he moves, he hits you again, he's back this way. He's constantly keeping people like on their toes. He gets mean and cocky and arrogant in the ring. Only in the ring. He becomes the street fighter. There's flashes of violence in him that you need to survive in the ring. He's not like that at all afterwards. He's not like that at all before. How does it feel to have your mom ringside today? How does it make you feel? Yeah, I mean, she's always on my corner. Except for my last flight, she couldn't come. But now, she's here. What's next, Andy? What's next for you? Next, we're gonna see. We're gonna wait. I'm gonna talk to my manager and my two managers. Thank you, Andy. We look forward to seeing you again. Thank you. What they want me to do is just get ranked up quick, and they will take me to Japan. Yeah. Ooh, both? Yes. Japan's big for little guys. Yeah. It's all up to them, honestly. Oh, whoever, like, I end up fighting, I could fight the number one, beat the number one, I'll be number... Yeah. No, right? I don't even know how that works. I don't know how that works, honestly. Yeah. What they want me to do is, I mean, just get ranked up quick and see if, like, a promoter could do something faster. Like, yeah. Yeah, I should be fine. It's all patience. When Marcelino flew me here, it was literally my first time on the plane. I had my Mexican passport and I literally, like, I was panicking. It was my first time. I've been eating good. I just been slowing down at night. At night, that's it. You know what? His body, his metabolism is going fast. I saw him training and I know he had something, that hunger. What interested me the most to work with him was the issue of immigrants. Andy needs to be with other elite-level people in order to develop his talent. That's just that simple. It's impossible to do that on your own. I started training with Salas. He's one of the best Cuban trainers. My manager put me with him for my professional career. Well, my first thought of Andy, I told him that the weight market where he can fight is between 108 and 118 pounds. At that limit, all the fighters, the power is in Asia. Many Filipino fighters, many Thai fighters, many Japanese fighters, Indonesians. That is to say that everything has accumulated in the Asian part of the small weights. His weight class, it's a rare weight class. You know, I think that there are 32 flyweights in the U.S. The bad news is there are 32 flyweights in the U.S. The good news is it's going to be a short path to a belt. Andy is definitely a star. His career is continuing to move fast, but still it's undocumented and his application is in process. He gets really quiet before fights, very to himself. I know he knows how hard certain chapters of his life were and it's motivation for him. And I think that's where he lets everything out. He moves his head. Getting his status through his mother or getting his status through his two-year marriage to an American citizen, it's going to take more than a year. You might hear like a lot of people screaming my name. My name. Honestly, like everything just shuts down. Like I can't explain how I feel. All I'm paying attention to is my opponent. I'm thinking of winning. Yeah, this is yours! My lawyer keeps telling me, you're going to get your paper soon. The unfortunate part about a lot of cases is that the person who's applied or their family, they don't have a lot of information about what was filed. Particular cities like New York have a backlog just because of the amount of applicants in the city and the office resources or not. That equipped to file so many cases. That instability can be debilitating. And so it is amazing to me that he retains his positivity. If anything, it may fuel him to work harder. He does it very well. His record needs to continue to develop because these are years that we can't waste away. The Blacks, Dominguez in the white and blue. Dominguez doesn't have the speed, but he has good timing. He likes to surprise opponents. I do get nervous. You could say scared because nobody would like to lose, you know, especially in a pro fight. Unfortunately for Andy Dominguez, it sure looks like he punched himself out in that ninth round. It be times I do want to give up, it's just so hard, like, I never had a father. And sometimes, like, I don't know who to talk to. Andy's always been a very happy person, and I think he likes to recall the happy times in his life. That's the side he wants people to see. I don't know how he felt like not having his mom around for a few years when his mom came over from Mexico, but I know he knew that he was going to reunite with her eventually. I think about my mom. She didn't come here for like for no reason. She didn't brought me here for no reason and I want to become someone. I want to make my mom proud. You can always tell your children that they're going to be people. Boxing made me grow up, made me think about things, like who you really want to be. I want you to know who I am, and honestly, I don't have a bad record. I'm not I'm not a criminal so all I have to tell you just like I wasn't born here that's it. He wants to be a world champion. It's really in that journey of reaching for your dream and being able to actively pursue your dream. We are married but honestly like it's all a waiting game just to get that letter in the mail but at the end of the day like it's not up to me. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll get my papers. Once I'm in the ring just everything goes away like You have no choice but to fight.