Nancy Thompson's Boxing Career May Not Have Been a Hollywood Dream, But it Was Far From a Nightmare

“Whatever you do,” Nancy Thompson famously warns her boyfriend Glen in A Nightmare on Elm Street, “don’t fall asleep.” Playing opposite a then-unknown Johnny Depp in the franchise’s original slasher flick, Heather Langenkamp portrayed Nancy Thompson, ultimately going toe-to-toe with the Christmas-sweater-wearing Elm Street boogeyman in three movies while becoming one of the most memorable “final girls” of the 1980s and 90s.

Five-foot two, 112-pound Nancy ‘Little Rock’ Thompson, a female prizefighter of the 1970s and 80s, may have a legacy that is far less chronicled or enduring than that of her fictional counterpart (in name, anyway) but, interestingly, she did once lace up the gloves opposite a former actress and was put to sleep in her boxing debut. At least this Nancy Thompson didn’t have to contend with Freddy Krueger once she got to dreamland.

Having grown up in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Nancy later ventured across the country and settled on the west coast, San Diego specifically, where she worked as a car detailer at a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership. When her daily shift was over, Thompson would head straight to the 5^th Avenue Gym and train with Joe Lopez.

“I used to train in the naval gyms—you know—just fooling around and I guess that’s how I really first got discovered,” said Thompson.. “I was banging on the bags and folks started to say that if I could hit that hard I should take up boxing. One day a sports writer came in and wanted to do a story on me. We went down to the gym and Joe Lopez was with me as a sort of trainer. He’s been my trainer ever since.”

A Korean War veteran and lifelong fight fan, Lopez first set up a makeshift training facility in the backyard of his Clairemont home before founding the 5^th Avenue Gym in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter in 1969, bringing through its doors established local scrappers such as Archie Moore and Ken Norton. Not to mention countless young hopefuls like Nancy Thompson, who stood apart from the rest for obvious reasons.

“I had some second thoughts for sure. I hated to have a girl in here,” confessed an initially reluctant Lopez when asked about deciding to take Nancy under his wing. “But she kept hanging around, so I finally said it was okay and let her come in.” Her work ethic and undeniable dedication soon altered Joe’s skeptical mindset and he elected to champion her cause.

“I’m pretty tough. I hit pretty good, too. It doesn’t bother me to get in there with the guys. I’m not scared or anything,” Thompson boasted. “It’s very hard to get any competition because I’m the only woman pro boxer in San Diego.”

Nancy’s first professional competitor would be Rosetta ‘Rosi’ Reed, with whom she would tangle on October 23, 1978 at Strongbow Stadium in Reed’s hometown of Bakersfield. Born in Tehachapi but raised in Mojave, Rosi moved with her family to Bakersfield during her high school years. To pick up some pocket money while attending Bakersfield College, she took a job delivering papers for the Rosedale Roadrunner, which was owned and operated by her soon-to-be husband Tony.

After they married, Rosi dropped out and began covering politics and boxing for the Roadrunner. Always good with her hands, Reed also assumed a hands-on managerial role in her stepson’s auto body shop when he opted to depart, soon disassembling and rebuilding car engines with relative ease.

                                                             (Rosi Reed)

 

Rosi decided to go from sportswriter to prizefighter in the late 70s, passing a written test with flying colors and demonstrating that she was proficient at applying handwraps, which she was required to do by the athletic commission for a reason that was never made readily apparent to her. Nevertheless, she put this skill to good use while training a local middleweight named Javier ‘Harvey’ Solomon following her abbreviated boxing career which kicked off with a second-round knockout of Nancy Thompson in the pro debut for each woman.

“The first couple of times I was in the ring, I was nervous,” Reed later admitted. “I looked at the other fighter and thought, ‘What am I doing here?’ But I knocked Thompson out in two rounds anyway.” Rosi’s raucous supporters displayed their appreciation by showering the Strongbow Stadium ring for fifteen minutes with fistfuls of coins and dollar bills. Rosi and Tony scooped up the spoils, bringing home an additional $135. Her May 30, 1980 outing at Strongbow Stadium would earn Reed more than a pile of spare change, as she would knock out Muncie, Indiana’s Bonnie Prestwood inside of six rounds to become the world flyweight champion.

The first ever all-female boxing card was held on February 11, 1979 in Hawthorne, California. Featuring matches pitting Cora Webber against Lydia ‘Squeaky’ Bayardo, Shirley ‘Zebra Girl’ Tucker against Toni Lear Rodriguez, and Lady Tyger Trimiar against Carlotta Lee in the main event, Nancy Thompson was supposed to have opened the show with a five-round contest opposite Santa Monica’s Graciela Casillas.

Although the weight differential between the two was deemed too substantial for her scheduled bout with Casillas to go ahead as planned, Thompson showed up regardless, hopeful that a viable option could be arranged. “I had five or six fights with guys,” Nancy said. “Amateur bouts they were, and then I had one pro fight. I’m trying to get back into the heat tonight.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be on that particular evening.

“Right now I weigh about I10 lbs., so I’m a flyweight. But when I first started training I had to put on some pounds as I was only 101,” she recalled. “Before I started boxing I was always a very physical-type person. I’m small for my size but I have a pretty good punch in my hands—mainly my left. And I can hit pretty hard! I train six days a week and I run every morning. The same things a guy would do … spar, hit the bags, condition myself.”

Next up for Nancy Thompson, on April 4, 1980, was Amy Levitt, who had won her first fight by outpointing fellow novice Denise Coleman over four rounds at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Auditorium three months prior, after walking away from a promising future in film and television. First appearing on the soap opera One Life to Live in 1968, Levitt scored bit parts in the movies Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? and Dog Day Afternoon, as well as a recurring role in the four-part TV mini-series Arthur Hailey’s The Moneychangers and return visits to The Streets of San Francisco in 1976 and 77.

“I hated Hollywood. I couldn’t understand that world—the shallow people, the phoniness, and the lack of values,” said Levitt. “I realized that I loved life too much to waste it on a career as a Hollywood actress. That was when I found boxing.” Amy was criticized by family, friends, and peers for deliberately choosing to get punched in her pretty face for a living.

“That hurt is nothing compared to the hurt you suffer in life when you don’t stand up for yourself,” was Levitt’s response. “The image of a woman fighting is shocking. But there’s something special about it to me. If a woman can fight, anyone can. We all can fight. People have to stand up for what they believe in.”

                                                            (Amy Levitt)

Nancy Thompson outworked Amy Levitt to earn the four-round decision at the San Bernardino Arena, after which she said, “I think women’s boxing is kind of a new frontier. I think it’s going to be real popular, but it will take some time. I just have to be patient, that’s all.”

Later that year, Nancy would split a pair of fights with Rochelle Ragsdale before falling victim to two more knockouts—against ‘The Frisco Kid’ Louise Loo in 1982 and Del Pettis thirteen unlucky months later. Brief as her career may have been, Thompson deserves due credit for traversing the unforgiving terrain of boxing’s new frontier for women.

It's like what Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy Thompson says in the third Nightmare on Elm Street movie, The Dream Warriors: “I’m not gonna kid you, this is as dangerous as it gets. If you die in this dream, it’s for real. Nobody has to go in that doesn’t want to.”

Sources:

John Cox. Rosetta ‘Rosi’ Reed: Unconventional Path Led Kern Native to Life of Distinction (Bakersfield Californian, November, 3, 2021)

Zach Esparza. Real People: Attorney Recalls Her Days as Boxing Champ (Bakersfield.com, August 29, 2014)

Sue Fox. Pioneer Boxing: Nancy Thompson (WBAN, July 1, 1980)

Pretty Actress Gives Up Show Biz For New Career As A Brawling Boxer (Weekly World News, January 6, 1981)

This Is Your Life, Joe Lopez (sportofboxing.com)

imdb.com