My name is Lionel Omar Colón Santana.
And I am training in boxing.
(13 YEARS OLD)
As a sportsman, my dream is...
(BOXING PUERTO RICO)
..to reach the Olympics and win the Gold Medal.
(LIONEL IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S TOP YOUNG BOXERS)
(HEROES OF THE FUTURE)
(LIONEL'S DAD)
I realised Lionel was good at boxing almost immediately.
His first match was a knockout. Then he won his second match,
they asked for a rematch, and his third fight was
against the same one from his second fight, and he won.
And he kept on winning, one fight after the other.
And I told him, "I think that you were born for this".
(LIONEL COLON 13 YEARS OLD BOXING)
Boxing is one of the most popular sports in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico's greatest achievements,
it's greatest prizes, have come through boxing.
(LIONEL'S COACH)
And, like everyone knows, the Miss Universe contestants.
Puerto Rico is the only country with world champions
in every category.
We're warriors. We're aggressive.
We're determined, we're brave.
(PRESIDENT PUERTO RICO BOXING FEDERATION)
I think we all like it. Puerto Ricans like it.
We like fighting, we like...
We are hot blooded, like they say.
Boxing is all over Puerto Rico.
This is an unrelenting passion.
(MOROVIS, PUERTO RICO LIONEL'S HOMETOWN
I've been practising boxing since I was eight years old.
At first I wasn't really keen on him boxing, to be honest.
(PERSONAL BEST)
(GOLDEN BELT 2017 RINGSIDE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP)
But little by little I started feeling it and now...
I'm his biggest fan. (LIONEL'S MOM)
Well, my strong suit is that I punch a lot,
I am a brawler.
I have no weaknesses.
My heroes are Vasyl Lomachenko, and Floyd Mayweather.
Lionel is one fiery fighter
and he's been training since he was little.
For his age, he's really advanced in boxing.
This kid practices because he likes it.
He's got great skills.
His future, his prospects are great.
One of the key things about Lionel is that
he moves forward while punching a lot
with combinations of five or six punches.
That is his forte.
He is also quite strong for his age,
and he has a strong dedication to training hard.
My training includes hitting the sandbag,
sometimes moving around.
Sometimes, hitting the mitts,
or hitting a tyre, and crunches.
He trains hard, like a real man.
But in his small body.
Sometimes my dad trains me, and sometimes it's Papo,
who's my trainer here at the gym.
His gym mates and his trainer decided calling him Taz,
because they said he was a very calm, humble boy,
but as soon as he entered the ring,
he would transform into, like, that Tasmanian cartoon.
So now, everyone knows him as Lionel "Taz" Colón.
Hurricane Maria was so devastating for us.
For all of Puerto Rico, not just for us.
(SEPTEMBER 2017 WAS A BREAKING POINT FOR PUERTO RICO)
The people is suffering this low blow by nature.
Due to that hurricane, now there are many closed gyms
in Puerto Rico right now.
This hurricane affected the training of many people,
of many gyms. But I decided...
That my son wouldn't be stopped by that.
I applied myself to it, made some sacrifices
lots of them.
I built a gym inside my house, and the toughest days
of Hurricane Maria were spent practising some boxing.
Training hard...
Sometimes crying about the tough situation we were in.
But sometimes quite happily,
because we knew we were doing the right thing.
(SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO JOSE DAVILA BOXING TOURNAMENT)
You know, sometimes, at the most important fights,
my whole family comes.
They start shouting... Sometimes they bring
tambourines and all of that, and they start playing.
When I see them on the ring I get this amazing thrill.
I'm overcome by emotions, I scream and cry and...
Well, you get the picture.
I get proud beyond words.
When my match is coming up, I think I need to win.
I have to fight well, to be stylish.
Moving a lot, putting my guard up,
and giving it my all inside the ring.
Lionel's dream is that of every athlete.
He wants to be an Olympic champion.
He wants to be the very best.
As a sportsman, my dream is...
to reach the Olympics and win the Gold Medal.
(HIS TIME IS NOW)
(OLYMPIC CHANNEL ORIGINAL SERIES)