Andreas HaleApr 29, 2026, 07:50 AM ETCloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.Follow on XMultiple Authors
Sanchez predicted back then that the teenager, who was barely old enough to drive but was standing toe to toe with grown men with established boxing pedigrees, would become a world champion.
“He had a lot of gumption for a 16-year-old to want to spar with a seasoned pro,” Sanchez told ESPN. “I thought he had good skills and a bright future. He was developing the hand speed and combination punching back then and has matured into an exceptional fighter.”
“My dad didn’t know how we really were at school,” Jose Jr. told ESPN. “I used to make him fight because I wanted to fight. I’d always pick the kids who had older brothers around my age so if they jumped in, I would be there to fight them.”
When they weren’t boxing in the gym, David and Jose Jr. were sharpening their tools against any neighborhood kid who wanted to test them. Jose Jr. enjoyed starting fights and having David finish them. When you speak to them, you quickly realize Jose Jr. fought because he wanted to and David fought because he had to.
“My brother was a knucklehead who made me fight everybody in the neighborhood,” David said. “I was the calm guy. I didn’t like to fight people in the street but would if I had to. I always liked fighting, though. I was born into it and have spent my entire life trying to get better at it.”
“I wasn’t going to let him waste his ability,” Jose Jr. said. “I picked him up from my mother and took him to California with me. My mother called and asked where he was at because he had school. I told her, ‘I’m sorry to tell you, Ma, but David isn’t coming back anymore.’ She was mad and didn’t talk to me for a year because I kidnapped my brother, but I wasn’t going to allow him to waste his talent and took him with me to Wild Card Boxing Club.”
David dropped out of high school, and Jose Jr. and his father threw David to the wolves at Wild Card, the gym in Hollywood owned by renowned trainer Freddie Roach. Jose Jr. remembers everyone scoffing at his overweight brother but having a change of heart after stepping into the ring with him.
“He just started breaking motherf—ers apart,” Jose Jr. said. “I always knew what my brother had. I just had to bring it out of him.”
Rather than emulate his older brother’s amateur career, David opted to spend the next few years fighting off the extra weight. He plied his craft primarily as a sparring partner at gyms all over the country, standing across the ring from former champions such as Kelly Pavlik and Peter Quillin. That plan not only got him in shape but also molded his style into the exciting fighter who is always looking to hurt his opponent.
Everything changed for the brothers in 2016 when Jose Jr. was shot in the leg while walking his dog in Phoenix. The incident shattered his knee and put his championship dreams on pause. Around the same time, the brothers lost two family members, with the death of his grandmother and his uncle being murdered. David chugged along, carrying the weight of both his and his brother’s aspirations.
“I had to get that out of my system,” he said. “I’m way different now because I had my fun after going through a dark period and got off track at 20. If I didn’t live through that back then, imagine how I’d be now with 20 times the money I was making back then. Things could have gone way worse for me. I’m more mature now. I’ve grown up.”
“I love watching him fight,” former pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr., a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, told ESPN.
Jones knows what it means to create highlights. His career was one long viral moment pre-social media. Clips from Jones’ fights still make the rounds more than 20 years since he was in his prime.
“At first, I didn’t know he was one of them guys until I went to his fight and saw him close up. I’m definitely excited to be on a card with him,” Gervonta Davis said of sharing a fight card with him last year.
That means challenging himself against the best opponents possible, even when those plans don’t pan out, such as fighting Canelo.
Should he beat Ramirez, he plans to go back down to light heavyweight to fight either unified champion Dmitry Bivol or former champ Artur Beterbiev.
“Everything is finally falling into place,” he said. “I’m getting these big dates with big fights and I’m finally getting the respect I deserve. And all of that was because I had to be patient. Instead of getting frustrated, I knew my time would come. The face of the sport is changing hands, and I’m here to take advantage of these opportunities.”
Andreas HaleApr 29, 2026, 07:50 AM ETCloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.Follow on XMultiple Authors
CloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.Follow on X
“He’s electric all the time, and that’s what is missing in boxing.”
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