Local amateur boxer, Sandra Tovar nabbed her fourth win after defeating Gabrielle Cassaro on July 19 in Brentwood.

Tovar, competed in the 13-year-old, 92 pound girls’ novice division and was able to win all three rounds in convincing fashion against Cassaro.

“Well, I won all three rounds. Everybody thought that I could have knocked her out,” Tovar said.

“She pretty much dominated the whole fight,” said Sandra’s dad and coach Jeff Tovar. “She had her opponent hurt after the first round and the second round should’ve been stopped but she dominated all three rounds pretty easy.”

It was a battle of one-minute rounds, but Tovar was able to keep Cassaro in the match by not being as aggressive when her opponent showed signs of defeat early on.

“Sandra was pretty consistent and felt bad for the girl so she held back and I told her once she gets to the open division she can’t be doing that and should finish it,” Jeff Tovar said. “I saw she pulled back a little bit from finishing the fight so I kind of explained to her that the other girls wouldn’t do it for her.”

Now Tovar hopes to amass 10 matches in her career to be able to compete at the open division and hopefully make a spark at the junior Olympics.

“She has had seven fights and will be open to compete at the national junior Olympics after 10 bouts,” Jeff Tovar said. “So that’s what we’re shooting for this year.”

The junior Olympics start in April and run until June, and Jeff Tovar is using this time as motivation to train the young fighter to be ready once the opportunity arises.

“I am teaching her how to work the clock. That means she needs to work the clock by starting fast, pace in the middle and finish very strong and be more aggressive,” Jeff Tovar said.

Tovar has also been preparing by sparring with boys in her gym from Delhi Boxing Club since the gym does not bring in many other girls.

“She has been fighting with boys because I don’t have girls to spar with and she is getting good with sparring,” said Jeff Tovar. “We go to Fresno, to Stockton and Sacramento and travel on weekends to get all the sparring done to be ready to get to that level.”

A huge asset to the training has been Assistant Coach Tomas Fernandez, who is a big part of helping her out, Jeff Tovar said.

“He is my partner and takes care of the 25 kids. We train and he’s really good and donates a lot of time there,” Jeff Tovar said.

Tovar’s next fight is in Modesto at the Red Shield against Fatima Herrera out of Tulare in the 92 pound weight class on Saturday.

“We don’t know much about her right now, just that she has one fight under her belt,” said Tovar. “She might be really good too, so we will never know until we fight.”