Known for her relentless, scrappy aggression and killer instinct inside the ring, WBO flyweight champion Gabriela Celeste Alaniz borrows her boxing nickname ‘Chucky’ from the foul-mouthed Good Guys doll with the red hair and blue overalls who debuted in the 1988 slasher flick Child’s Play which spawned six sequels, an obligatory remake, and the current television series. The first three Child’s Play movies had already been released, with Bride of Chucky to follow two years later, when the 27-year-old Alaniz was born in 1996.
The Chucky doll lures his victims with the innocent-sounding invitation, “Wanna play?” This is precisely what Celeste ‘Chucky’ Alaniz will beckon to Marlen Esparza in San Antonio on Saturday night. Celeste’s first time fighting outside her native Argentina, this unification fight versus Esparza was supposed to have happened back in April, but visa complications prevented Alaniz from traveling to the US.
Her last outing was September 24 when she TKO’d Deborah Rengifo in the first defense of her WBO world flyweight title, taken by force from fellow Argentinian Tamara Demarco three months prior when the defending champion’s corner threw in the towel in round seven after Demarco had been floored twice in the first.
This has been a recurring trend throughout Celeste’s seven-year career. Anyelen Loreley Espinosa and Roxana Ayelen Bermudez were halted in back to back bouts with Alaniz when their respective seconds waved the white flag of surrender on behalf of their fighters. She comes into San Antonio with three consecutive stoppages, boasting six overall among her fourteen wins without a defeat.
Esparza likewise has fourteen pro bouts on her resume, losing only once–a technical decision to her arch rival Seniesa Estrada in a 2019 bloodbath that would fit right in with the Child’s Play franchise. Soon enough we will find out if the female prizefighting ‘Chucky’ can leave behind a trail of carnage in this flyweight unification that would make the wisecracking killer children’s toy sneer with evil delight.
Not if the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist and reigning, defending WBC/WBA/Ring magazine champion has her way. Marlen not only has three belts around her waist but a sizable chip on her shoulder, being of the opinion that she is overlooked and underappreciated among the women’s superstars of today. With a win over Alaniz, the next step toward respectability and mainstream acknowledgement would be collecting the last piece of the 112-pound puzzle by taking out IBF title holder Arely Mucino.
Becoming undisputed at flyweight would allow Esparza–or Alaniz, or Mucino–to breathe the same rarefied air as Claressa Shields, Katie Taylor, Chantelle Cameron, Amanda Serrano, Alycia Baumgardner, and now Savannah Marshall.
Another of the Chucky doll’s misleadingly cute catchphrases is “I’m your friend till the end.” While it’s doubtful that this sentiment will be spoken by Alaniz to Esparza, or vice versa–and we all know how things turn out for Chucky’s supposed “friends” in the movies and TV series–both women will undoubtedly leave it all in the San Antonio ring in pursuit of one another’s title belts and the pound for pound recognition that comes with consolidating them.
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