By Robert Coster
Be on the lookout for unbeaten 18-year-old junior lightweight standout Rene Tellez (10-0, 6 KOs). He’s a young star in a hurry, hoping to showcase his talent in the United States very soon.
Tellez remembers the day he fell in love with boxing. It was in his native city of Queretaro, Mexico, when as an 11-year-old he went with a cousin to see his first boxing card.
Says Tellez, “That day I was hooked. I went home and told my dad that I wanted to box – I wanted to be a world champion.” Tellez went to the gym of maestro Bonifacio Arellano and laced up the gloves at age 12.
It wasn’t very long before young Rene started making a name for himself in the Mexican amateur ranks. Says trainer Bonifacio, “Rene became my pet project. He had the work ethic, the talent, the mind of a champion.”
At age 14, Rene won the Mexican Junior Golden Gloves in the featherweight class. A year later, Rene became the Mexican National Junior Champion. The Mexican Amateur Federation wanted Tellez to go to the 2016 Olympic Games but Bonifacio convinced Rene to turn pro instead, putting an end to his amateur career with a stellar 45-5 record.
Trainer Bonifacio contacted his relative Ramon Arellano who has a gym in Tennessee.
Says Ramon, “Bonifacio kept telling me ‘I have this terrific kid, you must absolutely see him.’ So I took a plane to Queretaro to watch Rene in a pro fight. That very same night, I signed him up to a managerial contract.”
And what makes Rene special? According to Ramon, someone who has many years of experience in boxing, “The young man has lightning fast hands, is a great body puncher and, above all, he’s totally focused. Boxing is his life and, at 18, he’s getting better every day.”
In his short career, Tellez has not been fed soft opposition but beaten fellow young prospects like Ricardo Gutierrez 6-0, Raul Geraldo 5-0, and David Alegria 7-1.
“I want to fight tough guys,” says the clean-cut, outgoing teenager. “That’s how you get better. My hero is Salvador Sanchez who became a world champion at 19. I have one year to do as well as he did!”
Robert Coster is an excellent judge of boxing talent. To date, five young fighters from his “New Faces” series have gone on to win world titles (Tomoki Kameda, Evgeny Gradovich, Johan Perez, Nicholas Walters and Ruslan Provodnikov).