Karlos Zenon Balderas Jr. (born August 24, 1996) is an American

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom *Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe eel, ...

who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

, Brazil.

Personal life

Balderas was born on May 24, 1996, in

Lompoc, California Lompoc ( ; Chumash: ''Lum Poc'') is a city in Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast, Lompoc has a population of 43,834 as of July 2021. Lompoc has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Chumash people, who call ...

. He was the first member of his family to be born in the United States; his grandfather first came to California, leaving his wife and children behind in

Oaxaca ) , population_note = , population_rank = 10th , timezone1 = CST , utc_offset1 = −6 , timezone1_DST = CDT , utc_offset1_DST = −5 , postal_code_type = Postal ...

, Mexico, to work in strawberry fields, eventually earning the money to move the rest of the family to the United States. Whilst growing up in

Santa Maria, California Santa Maria ( Spanish for " St. Mary") is a city near the Central Coast of California in northern Santa Barbara County. It is approximately northwest of Santa Barbara and northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Its population was 109,707 at the ...

, Balderas was first taken to a boxing gym as a punishment for fighting in the streets with his friends and getting suspended from school. His older brother Jose is also a boxer.

Career

Balderas is coached by his father Zenon and his uncle David. In December 2014, Balderas won the lightweight division of the US National Team Trials, qualifying him for the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: * 15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak a ...

held in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, where he received a first round bye and was defeated in the quarterfinals by

Lindolfo Delgado Lindolfo Delgado Garza (born 31 December 1994) is a Mexican professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as ...

of Mexico. Balderas represented the USA Knockouts in the

World Series of Boxing 250px, LA Matadors vs. Moscow Dynamo in Hollywood, CA on 4 December 2011. Both amateur boxers compete without vests or head guards. The World Series of Boxing or WSB was an international boxing tournament that allowed amateur boxers to compete p ...

(WSB). In 2015 he took part in five bouts, defeating

Fabio Introvaia Fabio is a given name descended from Latin '' Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). Its English equivalent is Fabian. The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented ...

of Italy, Dawid Michelus of Poland, Brian Nunez of Argentina and Adrian Javier Martinez Morales of Puerto Rico but losing to Azerbaijan's Albert Selimov. In 2016 he won his first two bouts against Lindolfo Delgado and Moroccan

Hamza Rabii Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from ...

. He qualified for the men's lightweight event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Brazil via his results in the WSB where he won the gold medal in his elite division and was named Outstanding Boxer of the event. Balderas was given his Olympic allocation by the

International Boxing Association The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organization that sanctions amateur (Olympic-style) boxing matches and awards world and subordinate cha ...

(AIBA) after two of the athletes ahead of him in the final WSB rankings instead qualified for the Olympics through the 2015 World Championships. Balderas won his first two Olympic matches but lost in the

quarterfinals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

to Cuban finalist

Lázaro Álvarez Lázaro Jorge Álvarez Estrada (born 28 January 1991) is a Cuban amateur boxer who won the world title in 2011, 2013 and 2015. He also won gold medals at the 2011, 2015, and 2019 Pan American Games and bronze medals at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 O ...

. On April 9, 2017, he won his pro debut by first-round TKO.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balderas, Carlos 1997 births Living people People from Santa Maria, California American male boxers Lightweight boxers Olympic boxers of the United States Boxers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2015 Pan American Games American boxers of Mexican descent Pan American Games competitors for the United States