Community Champion: Jorge Muoz reflects on hall of fame boxing career

Boxer Jorge Muñoz was a boxing sensation in a boxing town.

And in two days, he’ll become a member of the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame.

Originally from Juárez, Muñoz would eventually move to El Paso and go on to dominate the amateur boxing scene in the Sun City and Texas throughout the early to mid 1990s, winning multiple Golden Gloves titles and even some national tournaments.

He was the 1994 USA Boxing national champion after claiming the title in Colorado. He would then go on to win the 1995 National Golden Gloves crown in Massachusetts.

Boxing took him all over the world and allowed him to do many things he never thought possible.

For him, one of the best moments came when he went to Russia for the 1994 Goodwill Games and became a semi-finalist against top competition from across the globe.

“That was awesome. That was the elite. It was pre-1996 Olympics, so they were the best boxers. There were athletes from all over the place,” he said.

These days Muñoz works for the Department of Homeland security and looks after his four children along with his wife, Alma.

But he’s still actively involved in the sport of boxing as a referee, judge, and training advisor. He said he can’t give up the sport because it’s given so much to him over the years.

“I owe a lot to the sport of boxing. Like I said, it gave me discipline. I got to meet a lot of people, and I got to know a lot of people also. And it opened the doors to a lot of things for me.”

ABC-7 will be streaming the induction ceremony Wednesday online on the home page of KVIA.com beginning at 6 p.m.

Here is the rest of the Class of 2019 set to be inducted at Wednesday’s ceremony:

Holly Cohen Mata – Franklin and UTEP soccer standout

Jennifer Delgadillo – Irvin High and UTEP star golfer

Quincy Dow Farley – Longtime El Paso High swimming coach

Gary Pippen – Recently retired Eastwood basketball coach

Duke Keith of KLAQ Radio – Longtime play-by-play broadcaster

Bill Scott – Big 12 and Mountain West football official

Eugene “Dez” Desboine – Longtime coach at the all-black Douglass School