Luis Yanez is at a small gym in East Dallas quietly preparing for his professional boxing debut.
"We're going to paint the walls red, white and blue and we're going to put some Cowboys' stars on it," Yanez says. "I'm a diehard Cowboys fan."
The gym was set up by his management team so Yanez would have a place to train on his own.
"It's secluded, it's kind of like when Ali used to go to Brown Bear camp," says Michael Montoya of Brown Boy Media. "There's not a lot of traffic around here so Luis can focus on fighting. Train, fish, play basketball, swim, it's all his."
"This is a dream," Yanez says. "A dream that I've been waiting for and I've been waiting for it. And thank God, he gave it to me. He's given all these opportunities to me and he knows that I have worked hard for it."
Six months ago, Yanez was preparing to fight in the summer Olympics in Beijing, after his much publicized dispute with the U.S. head coach, who had him temporarily kicked him off the team.
"A lot of people didn't know what the actual situation was," says Dennis Rodarte, Yanez's trainer. "A lot of people kinda tried to use it against us."
Despite not winning an Olympic medal, Yanez still calls himself the Latin Legend, a name Cuban fighter Yampier Hernadez gave him at the Pan American Games.
"We went back up there and I met up with him and I beat him and I said 'Hey Conyo, yo so Latina layenda,' I said Yeah, I'm the Latin Legend," Yanez says.
His pro debut is Feb.20 at the American Airlines Center.
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