WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — An 18-year-old from Wichita Falls will be heading to Philadelphia to represent the state of Texas in the National Golden Gloves tournament.

Emmanuel Carrillo joined our morning show to talk about his passion for boxing and to show Jaron Spor and Carney Porter a few basic moves.

Jaron Spor: Well, a local boxer we introduced you to last month is all set to represent our Lone Star State at the National Golden Gloves Tournament in Philadelphia.

Carney Porter: After winning by a hard-fought split decision in the Texas State Golden Gloves final, this 18-year-old will now travel to Philly next month to try and bag the most coveted national title in boxing.

Jaron Spor: Yeah, we’re talking about Emmanuel Carillo, the seven-time national champion and two time gold medalist at the Junior Olympics from our very own Wichita Falls.

Carney Porter: Yes. He’s joining us here in the studio now. Good morning and thanks so much for being here.

Emmanuel Carrillo: Thank you for having me.

Jaron Spor: It’s early, on a school day, too, but we appreciate it.

Carney Porter: At least he’ll be on time. We know that for sure. Yeah, well, you know, like we said, congratulations on winning the Texas State Golden Gloves. That’s such a high honor, and I know you worked hard for it. But tell us a little bit about how you got your start in boxing.

Emmanuel Carrillo: So, I mean, I’ve been starting since- I’ve been boxing since I was in diapers. My dad, he was a three-time Golden Gloves champion, and he started training me when we lived in Amarillo, Texas. We moved here, and we started at Precision Boxing originally, and then we joined with Coach Mike Zapata, and we made Fallstown Boxing, and well, we’ve been going on- going along with that ever since.

Carney Porter: You’ve been dedicated to it, that’s for sure.

Jaron Spor: Yeah. So would you say your dad is your inspiration through it all?

Emmanuel Carrillo: Oh, definitely. Yeah. That’s my hero, right there. That’s my Superman. He’s my biggest inspiration, my role model. He’s been my coach inside boxing and outside boxing in life. So he’s been everything to me.

Jaron Spor: And I love watching this video. Is that your dad? Well, that one’s not. But I think it’s your dad working with you there, so that was pretty cool to see. Well, okay Carney, you ready? I heard we’re going to get to learn some moves here. Well, she said she wants to take them out on me, but I don’t know…

Carney Porter: You know I’m going to make sure I keep you in line, right now.

Jaron Spor: I know, right? All right. So what are some, for someone that may not have ever boxed before, don’t know anything, what are some basic moves that you would teach them?

Emmanuel Carrillo: Some basic moves? I’d say it would just be the footwork. That’s the- probably the biggest, the fundamentals.

Jaron Spor: So, we like left foot in front of the right?

Emmanuel Carrillo: Have y’all ever squatted or anything?

Jaron Spor: Yeah. Okay.

Emmanuel Carrillo: So, you know, you get your squat and you just go like that and then just look straight, almost like a split. That’s your stance right there. And then you keep your dominant hand – your right – like your dominant hand, your dominant leg in the back. And then I say the, the other two like fundamentals would just be the simple jab and then the right cross.

Jaron Spor: All right, so jab. Right cross. Now, you’re going too hard.

Carney Porter: Yeah. I’m fighting for it, I’m following through. Hey, you know, I’m trying to emulate, you know, the boxing champion over here.

Jaron Spor: Is there, like, a certain bounce to it or a flow to it?

Emmanuel Carrillo: Oh, yeah. I mean, you see us, like, doing jump rope and all that all the time is because in the ring, you want to be light on your toes. You want to be jumping all the time. And you definitely don’t want to be on your heels and get off balance.

Carney Porter: Literally. Yeah. Don’t be on your heels.

Jaron Spor: Yeah, don’t be on your heels, Carney. Yeah, that’s how you get knocked down.

Carney Porter: You know? Hey, I can give it my best shot: A for effort.

Jaron Spor: Well, what was your favorite part about the whole experience of the – well, I guess you’re going to the Nationals. But just so far, what’s been your favorite part of the whole experience?

Emmanuel Carrillo: Well, this whole tournament was back-to-back, so it started on the fifth. The regional tournament started on the fifth through the, I want to say it was the eighth, and that was against the best boxers in Fort Worth, and actually competing in that tournament, we had the National Golden Gloves champion from last year. He was Fort Worth’s first national champion in 70 years. So- and he was in my bracket, and I won- I won that division, and then three days later, it was the start of the State tournament. And I competed against the best boxers in the state.

So we had fighters from Houston, Dallas, Antonio, El Paso, all over, all over the state. And even within that tournament we had four, actually this year’s World Champion and then another two boxers that were part of the USA boxing team. So, it was- it was competing against some of the best boxers in the nation at the state level.

Jaron Spor: Yeah, for sure. And we got your gloves and your, your plaque over here. So we got to show those off for sure.

Carney Porter: I know.

Jaron Spor: But you talked about how it was back-to-back. We only have a little bit of time left, but talk about the endurance that it’s so important, you know, having the stamina during all that.

Emmanuel Carrillo: Oh, yeah, definitely. I run- I run close to three to, three to four miles a day. And I do that in the training mask. You got, you kind of got to stay conditioned. You can’t, you can’t ever let yourself get out of shape, you know? Yeah. Got to keep the diet on and got to watch what you eat, make sure you’re in the gym at all times. You can’t take days off, you know.

Carney Porter: Dedication, to say the least.

Emmanuel Carrillo: Because if you don’t work hard, it’s you and another fighter in the ring. And yeah, that other fighter could be working harder than you and it’s not gonna end so well.

Carney Porter: You want to make sure you come out on top on that one.

Jaron Spor: And right there. We got a shot of the plaque right there that you just got. So, but again, thank you so much for coming. I think we speak for everyone here in Texoma to wish you luck in your next tournaments in Philadelphia.

Carney Porter: Can’t wait to hear how it goes.

Jaron Spor: Absolutely. Well, don’t go anywhere. We got more news after the break.