The Hinojosa Boxing Club, which is located where the gun shop of Buena Vista used to be, opened up in 2017. At first the gym was fairly empty, with no ring, few punching bags, and no speed bags, but it had a coach with a purpose.

As time went on, more people joined the gym, more and more equipment was added and the gym acquired more soul.

Reva Hinojosa, the daughter of Coach Larry Hinojosa, has been a member of the Hinojosa Boxing Club since it opened up in 2017 and has watched the gyms evolution over time.

“I started boxing when my dad opened the gym up, I first started just to get a workout in, but when I started sparring, I took it a lot more seriously, I wound up gaining a lot of confidence, gaining new experiences, like helping prepare Britain Hart (current Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Women’s strawweight champion) for a fight, and meeting a lot of cool people from boxing. I remember when my dad opened up and there was only one heavy bag, and he was mostly doing personal training,” said Reva Hinojosa.

Some of the accomplishments of the Hinojosa Boxing Club are: leading a fighter to win the United States Intercollegiate Boxing (USIBA) nationals, leading a fighter to win the VA/NC State Golden Gloves, and leading fighters to win Carolina Gloves, which is a multi-state event.

Not only has the Hinojosa Boxing Club accomplished these great feats, it’s also accomplished many other great things. It has helped change people’s lives for the better, giving confidence in people, and teaching great life lessons that will resonate with people for the rest of their lives. This is where the slogan “Boxing saves” comes from.

One person whose life has been drastically improved by boxing at this gym is Souther Virginia University (SVU) sophomore, Liam Coleman.

“I started boxing in 2019 because I was getting bullied in school and I was scared to fight, but starting boxing really shot my confidence through the roof, and I gained a brotherhood and a group you can count and rely on,” said Coleman.

The Hinojosa Boxing club offers a team that will help push one another and is very supportive of each other, Coach Hinojosa also benefits from this.

“We have a really good group of boxers, and they become each other’s support system, and I think that’s the best thing, and the best part of being a coach is the people that I train,” said Coach Larry Hinojosa

From people who came in looking to represent their college, to people who came in to better their condition, there have been many people who had their lives completely changed by Boxing.

The Hinojosa Boxing Club has something for everyone, from young kids to the elderly, to people wanting to lose weight, to people wanting to get competitive.

The equipment in the boxing gym includes: seven heavy bags, two double end bags, three speed bags, a wall mounted punching bag, dumbbells that go up to 40 lbs, kettlebells, a boxing ring, a push sled where you can do sled push and sled pulls on, TRX suspension, three benches, an ab bench, a tire with four sledgehammers to use on the tire, several medicine balls going up to 25 lbs, jump ropes, and a slip bag.

Coach Larry Hinojosa used to be a boxing coach at VMI, and led them to their 1st USIBA national win in 2015. After coaching the VMI boxing team for ten years, Coach Hinojosa decided to open the Hinojosa boxing club to offer boxing to the community. This would then cause a rivalry between the Hinojosa Boxing Club and VMI’s boxing club. This rivalry was apparent when William Hawley (Washington And Lee sophomore at the time,) a member of the Hinojosa Boxing club fought a member of the VMI Boxing Club in 2022, and when Nicholas Odeh (SVU senior at the time,) another member of the Hinojosa Boxing Club fought another member of VMI’s Boxing Club in 2023, and when the VMI opened up a sparring session for the 3 competitive adults in the Hinojosa Boxing Club in Feb. 2024.

The Hinojosa Boxing Club has big plans for the future, like taking two fighters of the gym to the USA Boxing nationals in Richmond and taking the youth boxers to the VA state silver gloves. These two events will be happening December of this year, and going into more national events later on, and then eventually, making successful pro fighters.