SALT LAKE CITY - If you need to find Sole Rodriguez, your best chance is at Louie’s Boxing Club in Salt Lake where she spends nearly every day throwing some of the hardest punches you’ll hear.
“Right away I knew she was a puncher,” said her trainer, Manny Soto who sometimes has to shake off his hands after taking the impacts of Rodriguez’s punches. “I don’t even have 200 pound guys that can do that to me. She’s got a heck of a right hand.”
The 14-year-old got started when she was only ten, and since then, it’s been 7 days of working out, and a disciplined diet every week: a routine worthy of her namesake. She’s fully committed.
“Here in Utah, it’s hard to find those fights because everyone knows she hits so hard,” Soto said. “So, we have to take her out of state.”
Rodriguez just won the Golden Glove Junior Nationals, and now has her sights set on climbing the rankings ladder.
“There’s a lot of girls in boxing now,” a shy Rodriguez said. It’s kind of fitting that the shy teenager, who throws a fierce punch is paving the way for women behind her. She credits her start to her family who remains dedicated to her training.
“I started off training with my dad and just got more involved with it,” she added.
The teen hopes to keep pushing forward, and her coach thinks the sky is the limit.
“I’ve told her, I think you could win a national title, and I’ve told her I think she could make the Olympic team.”
