amateur boxing career.

And he’s applying the same kind of quick thinking he’s picked up from his time as an employee of the city.

“You have to take action,” Reyes said. “You can’t stay back and wait for something to happen. Because in boxing, if you stand back and wait, you’re likely gonna get hit in the face.”

During his career as a public servant, Reyes has worked in different aspects of the city. From the planning department, planning, city manager’s office and now Water and Power.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, after non-essential workers were sent home, Reyes needed a healthy outlet to balance a demanding job. He needed a way to work on his mental health, and he found the answer in exercising.

When the gyms closed, he took the home gym route, but it just wasn’t the same for him. After searching for a different alternative, Reyes found a gym near his home. It offered outdoor boxing classes, where he started to train.

Soon after, Pasadena’s Recreation Department started a lunch-time boxing class at Villa Parke and Reyes found himself completely immersed in the sport.

“I’ve been kinda hooked (since then),” Reyes said.

Before learning the intricacies of boxing, Reyes was a casual viewer. Now, he trains twice a day and appreciates the physical and mental aspects of boxing so much, he wishes he would have picked up the sport earlier.

In the ring, Reyes approaches boxing with the same kind of determination he strives for in his job. He’s a boxer that relies on his offense rather than fighting defensively.

At the age of 51, his reflexes are not as fast as his sparring opponents.

As he continues to learn the art of boxing, Reyes understands that in order to win a fight, he just needs to land more shots than his opponent.

“The more I recognize that to win a fight or to do well in a sparring session, you just have to hit the guy more than he hits you,” Reyes said.

Reyes applies the same mentality to his day job, except the stakes are higher.

“If you stand back and do nothing, then you become a bottleneck and you actually hurt the process. You stop residents from getting service they might need or you stop a solution that might need an answer.”

On Aug. 23, Reyes got the opportunity of a lifetime, to participate in his first official fight in front of his friends, family and coworkers with the Pasadena City Hall as the backdrop.

The annual, outdoor Centennial Square Boxing Show brought together a range of boxers, from younger, to older for a summer exhibition.

The fight was a three-round bout, with each round lasting 1 1/2 minutes, but for Reyes, each round felt like an eternity.

Looking back at the tape of the fight, Reyes was critical about his performance, he felt like he took too many punches.

According to Reyes, he managed to knock his opponent, Gilbert Ortiz, down three times. The ringside judges gave Reyes all three rounds and he won the fight by unanimous decision.

But the day after was another story.

“(I felt like) I got hit by a train,” Reyes said.

The pain did not stop him from continuing his journey. The Monday following the fight, Reyes was back to his routine, training twice a day.

For Reyes, success in boxing does not depend on wins. Success means keeping the routine of training, working on his mental health and balancing his demanding job with physical and mental activity.

The same kind of success he looks for in his life.

Jennifer Guess Mayo, the city’s assistant general manager of external affairs, watched the lead up preparation for the fight. She had a front row seat to seeing Reyes reap the benefits of his dedication and passion.

“It was very clear how passionate he was and the support he had not only from me and the other staff, but with [his trainer] Fausto and a lot of the young boxers that were coming up,” Guess Mayo said. “Even though they’re punching and doing all these things, there was a lot of love in the room.”

When asked if he ready for his second fight, Reyes laughed and said:

“That conversation I’m still having with my family,” he said.