Pedro Sosa fought on the streets in the Dominican Republic, and he fought on the streets of the Bronx when he moved there at age 10.
On Monday morning, Sosa, 20, the 2011 National Golden Gloves champion, was fighting for his life after a car accident claimed his sister, Jeneffer Sosa, and put him in a coma.
Sosa was undergoing surgery to stop bleeding in his brain at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, according to Pat Russo, who runs the Atlas Cops and Kids boxing program. Sosa trained at the Cops and Kids facility in Manhattan.
Sosa, who fell just short of making the 2012 Olympics for the U.S., was on the Cross Bronx Expressway driving with his sister at about 5:45 on Sunday morning when a pileup occurred.
They exited their car to "check on a car ahead of them," according to the Daily News. That's when another vehicle slammed into them, and sent them flying off an overpass, about 75 feet down.
They were taken to Jacobi.
Jeneffer, the mother of a toddler, died.
Pedro, who fought at 141 pounds and wields a dominant left hook, was "barely clinging to life," the News reported.