Retired Champion to Return to the Ring

Former world welterweight boxing champion Carlos Palomino is making a comeback in the ring, and he’s encouraging young fans to stop by the Anaheim Boxing Club today for a visit while he works out.

Palomino, 47, a graduate of Westminster High School, will be training from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will be on hand to talk with boxing fans afterward.

Palomino retired from boxing in 1979, but he’s coming back for an Jan. 10 bout with a yet-to-be-named opponent at the Freedman Forum, formerly the Celebrity Theater, in Anaheim.

Palomino, a successful actor, decided in August to give boxing another shot, partly as a way to deal with his father’s death. He went back to the Westminster Boxing Club he co-founded to see old friends, and after 17 years out of the ring, ended up sparring with fellow boxing champion Hector Camacho.

“I was just standing there watching him, and I wanted to get back in the ring,” Palomino said. “I had gone through a lot of emotional things with my dad and figured if I got hit in the head a few times it would work. . . . I feel like it’s almost like a healing process for me.”

Palomino, now a Sherman Oaks resident, is staying temporarily at his family home in Westminster while he trains. He has maintained a workout schedule since his retirement and run in eight marathons, so getting in shape to box has been that much easier.

After getting back into the ring, he started getting calls from promoters, and the potential financial rewards proved enticing.

“I’ve been in the gym three months and I feel great,” he said. “All my skills are there. I feel strong.”

His hope is to fight Camacho or one of two other boxing greats, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, next year.

Palomino, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Long Beach, began boxing in the early 1970s. At the same time, he started giving motivational talks to local students.

“Boxing is a sport that always draws kids from low income areas,” Palomino said. “But the problem is with some kids, school is not that important.

“But I tell them that school is the most important thing in their life, and that even though you become a champion, you still have to have an education--something to fall back on once your career is over,” he said.

Anaheim Councilman Lou Lopez, a former boxer and Anaheim Boxing Club supporter, said, “This is what makes the boxing club work: good role models like Palomino.”

The Anaheim Boxing Club is at 313 Broadway.

Information: (714) 999-1402.