RANGELY | After years of shaping champions at Sanchez Brothers Boxing, Jaime Sanchez stepped out of the corner and into the spotlight.
The former amateur boxer from the quiet town of Rangely, Colorado, made his mixed martial arts debut this past weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah, trading mitts and sparring rounds for the roar of the cage in a bold new chapter of his fighting journey.
Sanchez reflected on his boxing roots and what drew him to the sport growing up.
“I moved to Rangely my freshman year of high school. I started boxing when I was 7 in New Mexico and moved to Colorado. I wanted to do an independent sport where I had to rely on my team,” Sanchez said.
When he arrived in Rangely in 2019, he faced a major obstacle: there was no boxing gym in town.
“There was no gym for boxing when we moved here in 2019, so we opened Sanchez Brothers Boxing and trained there for a while,” he said.
Sanchez shared that when he first started boxing, he didn’t have any particular idols.
“I had no idols that I looked up to while boxing. I just wanted to be the best version of myself,” he said.
He also spoke about what led him to take on a coaching role at Sanchez Brothers Boxing.
“My parents owned the gym, so me and my brother became the coaches,” Sanchez said. “It was fun to teach people of all ages and to see how far people were willing to push themselves. It was nice having a smaller group of hard-working individuals than a big group of people who weren’t willing to work as hard and weren’t there for the right reasons.”
Coaching others, he said, also gave him a deeper understanding of the sport.
“I have always thought that you win the fight in training and go pick up the medal there,” Sanchez said. “Coaching has made me realize that you must work hard for what you want. You can tell if you’re going to win or not because you fight based on the training that you did.”
As for his transition to MMA, Sanchez said his interest in the sport had been building for some time.
“I have always been a fan of combat sports, and the past couple of years I have been watching a lot of UFC,” he said. “That made me become more interested in finding a gym to start training and fighting.”
When asked about the most difficult part of the transition, Sanchez pointed to grappling.
“Grappling. I have one year of high school wrestling. I wish I could have done it for more than one year,” he said. “I go to a jiu-jitsu gym on top of the MMA gym to improve my grappling and submission skills. So going to an extra gym primarily based on grappling has helped me improve my ground game.”
On April 5, Sanchez made his MMA debut at the Union Event Center in Salt Lake City. He won by unanimous decision, with judges scoring the bout 30-27 and 29-28.
“I did good, but I will do better in my next fight,” Sanchez said. “I learned to keep my hands up. My cardio was good, but I want it to be even better.”
Sanchez said he sees MMA becoming a long-term focus.
“Yes, boxing has been with me since I was young and will continue to be with me,” he said. “But as this sport requires, you must branch out to different things. I want to win, kick butt and rearrange a lot of people’s faces.”
Representing his hometown on a larger stage is something Sanchez doesn’t take lightly. He also had advice for young athletes from small towns who aspire to compete in combat sports.
“I live in Rangely, and I get a lot of support from the town,” he said. “I commute to Vernal to train every week. Rangely doesn’t have much to offer besides the rec center, which I do use and I am thankful for. Know what you’re getting into, train hard, and don’t make excuses if there are no training gyms around. Be willing to travel for training and be ready to drive home with a headache sometimes.”
As he looks to the future, Sanchez remains grounded in his roots and focused on growth — both inside the cage and out. With the town of Rangely behind him and a relentless work ethic fueling his rise, his journey is just beginning.