Denise Castle's Quest For Justice...and the WBC Atomweight Title

 

There is good reason why boxing is often likened to the Wild West. Several reasons, come to think of it, not least of which what an egregious integrant to the landscape thievery is within both realms. So commonplace as to cross the border into parody. Incompetent or partisan officials seated at ringside scoring tables are the new masked bandits on horseback sticking up innocent victims at high noon.

Of course, just because playing fast and loose with the rules is part of the scenery that can’t be painted over with a few effortless brushstrokes doesn’t mean it should be accepted with a casual shrug of the shoulders, or that the purveyors of these injustices be permitted to ride off into the sunset unencumbered by the consequences of their actions. Or inaction. Take your pick. Sometimes they’re one and the same.

Anybody who implies that a boxer should “just deal with it” or “stop being a crybaby” because they participate in this unquestionably crooked sport of their own free will does so from the perspective of a keyboard warrior know-it-all who obviously does something for a living that doesn’t involve getting repeatedly punched in the face. Are there occurrences of sour grapes or sore losers of the vintage “We wuz robbed” variety? No doubt about it. But that argument fails to stand beneath the weight of carefully considered evidence so overwhelming in its veracity that it cannot be ignored or laughed off with some sort of snarky quip.

Think about it. The very fact that these men and women, cognizant of the risks inherent to their chosen vocation, sacrifice their bodies and brain cells for their shot at immortality or even short-lived glory, not to mention for our entertainment, is instantly and undeniably worthy of your respect, if not admiration. At the bare minimum, a fighting chance at being treated fair and square. Unfortunate as it is, fighting for title belts occupies the same domain as fighting for accountability in a sport which has been known to all too often reek with the stench of malfeasance.

Consider the case of Denise Castle, 51-year-old atomweight fighting out of Bournemouth, Great Britain who somehow manages to balance her boxing career with working two jobs and caring for three daughters. Repeatedly denied a license by the BBBofC based on what can only be categorized as age discrimination, Denise has been forced into the unenviable position of a road warrior constantly fighting in her opponents’ homelands or on supposedly neutral ground. Her last bout being no exception, Castle journeyed to Dubai on March 26 of this year where she came out on the wrong end of a split decision to Filipina Norj Guro in an eight-round battle for the vacant WBC Silver title. 

“Denise worked up until Wednesday, flew in on Thursday, weighed in Friday, fought Saturday, flew home Sunday, and took the kids to school Monday,” her husband and trainer Lorne detailed matter-of-factly. This summary provides a fleeting glimpse into the intricacies of a fighting life for a woman who wears many different hats on any given day. It goes without saying that there’s much more to the story.  

Formerly an elite long-distance runner representing the team assembled by her then-employer Chase Manhattan Bank, Denise (maiden name Mellor) would pound the pavement for six miles every morning and lift weights during her lunch breaks in preparation for competing in both the London and New York City Marathons.

This is the point at which Denise’s life path intersected serendipitously with that of Lorne Castle, a Muay Thai instructor who had himself run the London Marathon as part of the Global Gym Fitness First team. Denise became his running partner. Lorne became her Muay Thai trainer. The rest, as they say, is history. Not to mention a love story.

Denise dispatched her first five opponents, collecting the UK National Muay Thai championship in the process, and never took a backward glance. A mere eight weeks after giving birth to their daughter Leah, she was back in the ring competing for the Muay Thai International Title, losing on points in a competitive fight to Patti Teran of Las Vegas who Denise would defeat in their rematch one year later to take the International Title.

She would go on to collect multiple championships in the discipline of Muay Thai and take third place in the Miss UK Fitness competition along the way. In 2013, Castle was recognized by the WBC as their Inspirational Female Athlete of the Year. As if you needed more convincing as to the kind of awe-inspiring physical condition Denise is in, she once set a new course record in a 10k marathon in the morning before flying to Belfast, Ireland to participate in a five-round title fight that evening. So, there’s that.

“Her experience developed in Muay Thai paid dividends,” says Lorne regarding Denise’s 2014 transition to prizefighting. “This is a similar but different sport. The head is not the main target. Her entrance into professional boxing at a late age meant that she had plenty to offer safely.”

Nevertheless, Castle ran into an immediate and imposing stumbling block in the form of the British Boxing Board of Control. The lengths to which she has had to go in order to circumnavigate this impediment have been as substantial as they have been costly.

“I am angry with not being supported for a fight license in my home country,” Denise tells me. “The Board have belittled me, similar to a bullying tactic. I feel I have lost out on being able to fight in my own country, which in turn has negated any ability to get recognition and sponsorship. They don’t look at me as an individual, all they looked at was my age. That’s not right. I can fight anywhere in the world but my home country. My biological age is far lower than my chronological age, and never once in any fight have I put in a bad round.”

Time and again, Castle has complied with every standard procedure credible applicants must be put through, and met with only resistance. “I have passed all the enhanced medicals required by the WBC for athletes over 35 years, yet that wasn’t even considered in my home country. They wouldn’t even support me,” laments Denise. “They insisted I pay. As soon as I paid, they sent a letter saying they would not support me, and no refund would be given.”

(Denise with 'The Incredible Hulk' Lou Ferrigno) 

By necessity, Denise made the first two entries in the ledger of her pro boxing career with a pair of stoppages in Thailand, a first-round knockout of Dorkmaipa Keangpompetch (3-2) and a sixth-round TKO victory over Saranyaphong Theinthong just two days later.

In only her third outing as a professional pugilist, Castle was given a shot at the WBC world atomweight title on April 2, 2014. Legendary Japanese southpaw Momo Koseki was the first and, at that time, only WBC 102-pound champion, having laid claim to the inaugural title seven years prior when she decisioned Chirawadee Srisuk.

Koseki put an end to Denise’s first world championship bid in the eighth round of a Tokyo slugfest and would successfully defend her title eighteen times before relinquishing the belt to fight for—and win—the WBC world minimumweight title and retiring shortly thereafter in 2017, which was also when Castle gave birth to her daughter Savannah.       

With the world atomweight title now vacant, the WBC saw more than enough merit in Denise, who had been away from the ring for a little more than four years at that point, to grant her a second opportunity to fight for the belt, opposite undefeated Fabiana Bytyqi, in the Czech Republic contender’s backyard as was standard operating procedure for the globetrotting Castle. This action-packed scrap lasted the full distance with Bytyqi emerging victorious in what was deemed the 2018 WBC Female Fight of the Year. No chicanery. No excuses. An honest to goodness defeat which the soft-spoken Castle accepted with her customary humility.

Denise returned to Thailand in October 2019 where she again enjoyed a fruitful trip by stopping Bangkok’s Sutthinee Bamrungpao in the fifth round to win the vacant WIBA atomweight world title. It would be two and a half years before Castle would be back in the squared circle.

Now with three daughters to care for—aged 24, 16, and 5—Denise also works two day jobs. She is a Health and Fitness coach in the Physical Education department at the Bournemouth Girls Grammar School where she also teaches Boxing as a subject for GCSE (General Certificate for Secondary Education) and, as Lorne was quick to point out, “is an inspiration to many.” Denise is additionally employed by the Bournemouth University Fitness Department. These considerable responsibilities notwithstanding, the now 51-year-old and fit-as-a-fiddle Denise Castle is determined to forge ahead with her boxing career and take care of what she considers unfinished business. “Denise just lives and loves the sport,” affirms Lorne.

Back in March, not quite at the midway point between her 50^th and 51^st birthdays, Denise was offered the co-main event fight for the WBC Silver atomweight belt mentioned at the beginning of this story. A win may well have put her on the fast track to a rematch with Fabiana Bytyqi, who, four years later, still holds the world title.  

Knowing that she would have to soldier forward without the backing of the BBBofC, Castle once again took to the skies for a journey abroad. Dubai to be precise, where she would take on Norj Guro (11-6-1) of the Philippines. Unbeknownst to Lorne and Denise at the time, this spelled trouble before their wheels even touched down at Dubai International Airport. They would find out soon enough. “The Filipino community is the second largest community in the UAE,” Lorne informed me, having learned the hard way. “We were told it was a neutral country. Our bad.”

A 32-year-old southpaw, Norj Guro has been fighting since 2011 and came into Dubai with a record of 11-7-1. Four of her eleven wins had come by way of knockout, and she had been stopped three times herself, which reveals two elemental truths right off the bat. Guro can hit, but she can also be hit. The draw was the result of a technical decision when Nuro’s 2012 bout against Leslie Domingo was stopped in the first round due to Domingo suffering the effects of a headbutt. The clash of heads was declared accidental but, as we shall see, there is more than enough proof to call that into question although we’re not here to litigate that specific decision. It’s the injustice done to Denise Castle we are concerned with now.     

Mere moments into her fight with Guro, Denise is cuffed behind the neck by Norj’s left hand for several seconds as the two engage at close quarters after coming together at center ring. Guro doesn’t take advantage of this opportunity to throw anything, and Denise punches her way out of the illegal clutch. This happens again not ten seconds later and will occur many more times throughout the course of the bout without a reprimand of any kind. Keeping count beyond this point would be strictly academic. But take note of it regardless. The referee obviously didn’t.

“I found that so frustrating. From the early rounds I was surprised at the lack of enforcement action from the ref. I felt something wasn’t right, as so many fouls were allowed. I have fought at world level many times before and this was so different,” commented Denise. “There were times I had to even shout at the ref for him to stop Norj from holding. I have never had to do that before. I was there to fight, not fight and officiate.”

Much worse and more egregious than the holding and cuffing, however, was Guro’s repeated headbutting. This the referee could not ignore, issuing his first warning in the second round for blatant use of the head. That said, thanks to her effective counterpunching and aggressive body work, Guro came away with the edge in the first two frames, which even Denise will admit.

“I knew at that point Norj had won rounds one and two, as her tactic was to try and finish me early as my stamina was known to be superior,” Denise says. “However, after round two I had her worked out and that’s when I started to make the fight mine.” Any impartial observer viewing the fight film will be left with little choice but to see eye to eye with Denise on this. Two of the three ringside judges saw things quite the opposite, from what will prove to be a very skewed perspective.     

“After round four, when the open scoring was passed and I saw that I was down when I and Lorne knew it should be even, a real rush of disappointment fell in as I knew that no matter how hard I then fought I was fighting against more than just Norj,” attests Denise. “I knew by round four, I had two and she had two rounds. Yet the score cards said different, and that’s hard. I had to go back out there with that on my mind. That’s a factor that organizations need to consider with open scoring, as it can affect a fighter if they know the wrong scores are being given.”

As fatigue and desperation visibly begin to set in for Guro, the fouls really start piling up, resulting in two additional warnings for headbutting in the fourth round alone. “I felt it was clear that Norj was getting frustrated when her tactic of finishing me early wasn’t working, and that’s why she then started fouling continuously,” Denise theorizes, speaking from firsthand experience. “That frustration should have shown to the judges. How can a fighter win when their most successful tactic is fouling?”

Good question without a satisfactory answer unfortunately, especially since there seems to be no doubt about the fact that Castle starts to take command from the third round forward, and Guro has little to offer by way of response to being outsmarted and outhustled other than unsportsmanlike conduct. Here is where we encounter some semantic gray area.

Conventional wisdom has pretty much always dictated that a referee will first “caution” an offending fighter for an infraction, deliberate or otherwise. A boxer who has been “cautioned” three times, will next be issued an official “warning,” for which a point is to be deducted on the occasion of each repeat offense.

When it comes to the handling of fouls during championship fights, the somewhat obscure WBC rules state that warnings and point deductions are left to the discretion of the referee. In this case, Robert Verwijs, an 18-year veteran from the Netherlands with 174 fights under his belt as of this writing. Verwijs, who has been on the job long enough to display at least a basic competency for officiating, created further needless bewilderment in the penultimate stanza.     

“Round seven confused me. I felt and knew I had hurt Norj with a couple of straight shots, and so when the ref sent me to the neutral corner I genuinely thought he was stopping the fight, as there are no standing eight counts in female boxing,” states Denise. “Yet he just spoke with her and then continued the fight. I still await official confirmation of exactly what happened there.”  

Indeed, just prior to this incident Verwijs seemed to be keeping a very close watch on Guro with an eye toward potentially stepping in to wave off the fight after she absorbed several unanswered head shots. And yet the expression on his face as he addresses Guro is stern which leads you to believe that she was receiving her fourth admonishment, in other words a “warning” which should have brought about a point deduction. No clarification was forthcoming from Verwijs, neither in the moment nor since then.

“By round eight, Norj was throwing nothing and not even coming forward at all,” recounts Denise. “I felt I finished rounds seven and eight very strong, yet on two judges’ scorecards I lost round eight. I don’t understand that at all.” Again, simple scrutiny of the fight footage corroborates Denise’s evaluation of her performance and strongly supports her suspicions regarding funny business among the officials. Not so funny to Denise, of course.

“I felt it was a tough fight, but only because of the continuous fouls. Nothing hurt me at all from Norj boxing, and the only marks I had were from Norj’s head,” she says in her closing argument. “I felt dominant throughout. I held the center and believed that it was clear Norj was backing off and the fight was clearly mine. The effectiveness of my shots meant that the fight was my fight. The only way that was broken was through Norj’s fouls which shouldn’t have been allowed or scored. I felt I won.”

Mike Hayel was the only one of the three ringside judges who concurred with Denise’s assessment, awarding her the pivotal last two rounds and, thus, the decision by a 79-76 tally. Gary Kitanoski, who ruled 77-75 in favor of Norj Guro, is seen making unusual hand gestures before the beginning of round eight. This was brought to the attention of WBC Supervisor Oksana Semenishina, former Miss Lithuania and translator to Don Sulaiman, but has still yet to be addressed.       

Edwin Aliong, a UAE native of Philippine descent who judged the bout in favor of Guro by a margin of 78-74 had posted a photo of the fight poster on his personal Facebook page three days prior with a caption reading “Support our Filipina boxer.” So much for fair and balanced officiating. 

Oksana Semenishina admitted to Lorne immediately after the bout that Aliong’s score was “wide and not right.” However, she was dismissive when confronted by Castle regarding Guro’s repeated rule violations. “I am not sure how many fouls there were, sorry,” she responded to Lorne. “Yes, maybe one point should have been deducted but that would not change the result.” Having filed her report without watching a replay, Semenishina upheld Aliong’s suspect score and Guro’s split decision victory.    

In the role of Supervisor, Semenishina herself should have been paying undivided attention to the fight from her ringside seat. Instead, during the eighth and deciding round, she can be seen frequently focusing her gaze not on the action in the ring but on the man with whom she is conversing.

(left to right, Judge Gary Kitanoski, Jose Mohan, WBC Supervisor Oksana Semenishina)

The individual in question, seated between Semenishina and judge Gary Kitanoski, is Jose Mohan, the Dubai boxing commissioner who is also a manager and promoter with direct links to the WBC. The conflict of interest stems largely from the fact that Mohan additionally owns and operates the Round 10 Boxing Club, a Philippine gym located behind Dubai’s Times Square Mall where Norj Guro prepared for the fight against Denise, as evidenced in the photos posted to the social media account of Round 10’s head trainer, Jun Paderna, who worked Guro’s corner that night.     

“By the end I genuinely thought it was a clear win to Denise, as did the other foreign fighters who were on the show and next to us,” Lorne tells me. “Yet when Norj was announced winner I was disgusted, and we launched an appeal immediately with the WBC. I was amazed and saddened with the whole event and believed that the appeal we sent was clear and supported our concerns.” 

Accountability was not a top priority for referee Robert Verwijs either. Upon paying a perfunctory post-fight visit to Castle’s changing room, Lorne says that he told Denise, “What do you expect? You come to a country like this, you have to knock them out to win.” Not surprisingly, this didn’t sit well with them. “We were shocked,” exclaims Lorne. “He protected Norj. We were genuinely shocked. It was so clear Denise had just been robbed, and he is trying to protect his actions.”

For what it’s worth, even though the WBC seem to stand behind the original fight result, if not unanimously that is, they did order a rematch set for 2023 with the date and venue still to be determined. The official press release announcing the rematch was posted on October 24, coincidentally Denise’s 51^st birthday which made the news at least a timely consolation prize and the very least they could do in an attempt to set things right. It is hoped that bringing awareness to the injustice of the first fight will have a direct effect on the neutrality of the location and officials chosen for the rematch. 

In the meantime, Norj Guro was given the opportunity to compete for the vacant WBO Asia Pacific minimumweight title in Sakai, Japan on November 27, a fight she lost to Riyuna Yoshikawa by unanimous decision. If Denise emerges victorious in her return bout against Guro early next year, winning the WBC Silver atomweight belt would make her boxing’s oldest female titleholder. This distinction currently belongs to Alicia ‘Slick’ Ashley, who was sixty-seven days past her 48th birthday when she reclaimed the WBC World super-bantamweight championship in 2015. Denise came close to breaking this record back in 2019 but had turned 48 just two days prior to defeating Sutthinee Bamrungpao for the WIBA World atomweight title.   

Like a shoot-em-up pulp novel or a rerun of Gunsmoke, the fight game is populated by a mostly upright citizenry who have little choice but to cohabitate alongside dirty rotten scoundrels. Those whose duty it is to enforce the rules must demonstrate an unimpeachable integrity which proves to those they are obligated to either protect or punish that the lawmakers themselves are not above the law. Otherwise, the repeated and flagrant corruption of the rulebook ensures that there is nothing separating the town sheriff from the village idiot, and the hanging judge can claim no moral high ground over the common criminal he has sworn an oath to send to the gallows.    

“Denise just wants a fair fight. She has lost before, including at home, and never complained. So, she can’t be called a bad sport,” beseeches Lorne. “I just want everyone to know our side, so it’s clear we are not just sore losers. This is why we want to show everyone.”

 

Sources:

Author interviews with Denise and Lorne Castle

Boxrec.com

WBAN Profile: Denise Castle (https://www.womenboxing.com/NEWS2020/news100320castle-denise-biography.htm

WBC Ordered Rematch—Atomweight Female Silver Belt (https://wbcboxing.com/en/wbc-ordered-rematch-atomweight-female-silver-belt/)

WBC Profiles: Oksana Semenishina (https://wbcboxing.com/en/wbc-profiles-oksana-semenishina/)

World Boxing Council Rules For Championship Fights (http://wbcboxing.com/downloads/WBC-SYNTHESIZED-RULES-FOR-CHAMPIONSHIP-BOUTS-AL-2017.pdf)

🇵🇭NORJ GURO vs 🇬🇧DENISE CASTLE FULL FIGHT / WBC SILVER ATOMWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP / MARCH 26,2022 (YouTube, posted by Baki Sports on March 27, 2022—accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi43T2yHBrM)

You Can't Stop Destiny: Seniesa Estrada Makes Triumphant Return in Vegas, Vows Best Yet to Come

 

With this momentous year for women’s boxing rapidly winding down, Seniesa Estrada finally made her long-awaited reappearance in Las Vegas last night. I’m confident that I speak for pretty much everyone, except for maybe Marlen Esparza, when I say that it felt super good to welcome back ‘Superbad.’ 

We have been denied seeing Estrada in action for eleven long months, the last time being December 18 when she wrapped up a remarkable 2021 by ending Maria Santizo’s evening with a Kodak-moment left hook in the fourth round. 

Watching from the sidelines thus far while the likes of Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, Claressa Shields, Savannah Marshall, Alycia Baumgardner, Mikaela Mayer, Chantelle Cameron, and Jessica McCaskill grabbed all the major headlines in 2022, Seniesa has undergone some life and career-altering changes in the meantime–turning 30, cutting ties with Golden Boy Promotions, and inking a multi-year contract with Top Rank. 

Nearly a year’s worth of ring rust is no insignificant amount to shake off, even for a fighter as youthful and fit and accomplished as Estrada. Therefore, it stood to reason that a substantially low-risk opponent would be chosen for her return fight, Top Rank debut, and second defense of her WBA World minimumweight title. This is the point at which Jazmin Gala Villarino (6-1-2, 1KO) is plucked from obscurity to enter the story. 

The 32-year-old Argentine they call ‘La Jefa’ lost her 2016 pro debut, a four-round majority decision that went to Andrea Soledad Sanchez, but has since gone unbeaten in her last eight bouts. Villarino claimed the newly-created WBA Gold minimumweight championship last November by forcing former world title challenger Yenifer Leon out of Venezuela to quit in her corner after the completion of seven rounds. Similarly, Leon opted to remain on her stool rather than come out for round six and take more punishment from Seniesa Estrada in 2019. In her previous outing, Leon had gone the distance with then-WBA minimumweight champion Anabel Ortiz, from whom Estrada eventually took the title.  

Defending her WBA Gold belt back in March, Villarino outpointed 10-4-1 Judith Vivanco over ten rounds in Coyoacan, Mexico which was presumably what put her at sixes and sevens opposite the ultimate 105-pound high roller, Seniesa ‘Superbad’ Estrada, at the Palms Casino Resort. Trying her luck in this big stakes toss of the dice, the odds were stacked tremendously against Villarino. Not surprisingly, she came up snake eyes on Saturday night. 

It was certainly not for lack of trying on Jazmin’s part. The Argentinian challenger put forth a spirited effort from the opening bell by letting her hands go early on, demonstrating a valiant willingness to stand and trade with Estrada. It became evident pretty quickly, however, that Seniesa’s elevated skill set and offensive acumen would be the deciding factors in this contest. 

Working upstairs and down and switching stances with blinding speed, Estrada’s volume and variety of punches cannot be described as flurries so much as white-out blizzard conditions, something you just don’t see on the Vegas strip under ordinary circumstances. Then again, there is nothing ordinary about Estrada. 

If the left hook doesn’t get you, she will pivot to a southpaw stance and come at you with her right hand before reaction time can set in, assuring that you stand little chance of being able to do anything about it. Securing the earmuffs to weather the storm up north leaves you vulnerable down south to Seniesa’s ambidextrous body shots. 

For Villarino, as rugged and determined as she proved to be, this put her smack dab in the middle of a no-win scenario. Simply put, she ate an incredible amount of punches, nearly twice as many as she connected with herself. 210 to be exact, the majority of which seemed to be Estrada’s thudding overhand rights as evidenced by the tell-tale swelling on the left side of Villarino’s face at fight’s end. 

The fact that she was able to remain vertical until the final bell was something of a moral victory for the intrepid Villarino, who got to share the ring with arguably the most gifted and entertaining fighter in the sport today, regardless of gender.     

“I just want to tell all girls, and all women in sports, to always believe in yourself, always believe in what you can do, and always go after what you want,” said an emotional Estrada after sweeping every round on the judges’ scorecards en route to a unanimous shutout victory.

“I might have been slowed down, but I can’t be stopped. This is what I was born to do,” Seniesa vowed. ”This is my destiny, and you can’t stop destiny.”

Big Bang in Abu Dhabi: Chantelle Cameron Puts on Stellar Performance Against Welterweight Sovereign Jessica McCaskill to Become Undisputed 140-Pound Champion

 

One undisputed champion entered the squared circle on Saturday. Two walked out. 

This sounds like the boxing equivalent of some kind of quantum anomaly. This situation, fortunately, is far easier to make sense of, and no particle accelerator was required to facilitate the bombastic collision between Jessica McCaskill and Chantelle Cameron. Just a boxing ring in Abu Dhabi. 

McCaskill, unrivaled in her supremacy at 147 pounds since upsetting Cecilia Braekhus two years ago, last turned away a challenge to her crown this past June by pummeling Alma Ibarra into submission after only three rounds. 

Meanwhile, WBC, IBF, and Ring magazine super-lightweight champion Chantelle Cameron boxed circles around Victoria Bustos back in May when her much-anticipated ‘Road to Undisputed’ fight with WBA/WBO/IBO title holder Kali Reis failed to materialize. 

During a hiatus taken to tend to medical issues, Reis, having received rave reviews for her Indie Spirit Award-nominated performance in the feature film Catch the Fair One, accepted a co-starring role opposite Jodie Foster on the upcoming fourth season of HBO’s True Detective. When, or indeed if, she will return to the prize ring is strictly hypothetical at this stage.  

McCaskill and Cameron had both lost out to Amanda Serrano in this year’s Katie Taylor lottery, so they opted for a super-fight against one another instead. Not exactly a penny-ante consolation prize. The unknown variable to be solved was whose titles would be up for grabs. 

Ultimately, it was decided that McCaskill would climb back down the scales to the 140-pound division where she first became a world champion by winning the WBC title from Erica Anabella Farias in 2018, and taking ownership of the vacant WBA strap by outpointing Anahi Ester Sanchez.   

The current custodian of the green and gold hardware formerly worn around the waist of McCaskill, Cameron was not only putting her three championships on the line against Jessica, but looking to scoop up the trio of titles subsequently vacated by Kali Reis which were thrown into the mix to ensure that nothing less than the entire collection would go home with the winner. For McCaskill, of course, this complete set of title belts would be her second.

Under these conditions, there was so very much for both women to gain. But Cameron alone stood to lose everything in terms of personal property. To the victor, the spoils of war would also include bragging rights, a more favorable spot over the other on the pound-for-pound rankings, and maybe, just maybe, that mega-bout showdown with Katie Taylor. 

But, first thing’s first. To Abu Dhabi we go for the first women’s boxing match to take place in the United Arab Emirates. Don’t let the judges’ scorecards fool you, the fight wasn’t as close as they would have you believe. Cameron set the needle in the groove at the opening bell and established the rhythm she and McCaskill would dance to for the next twenty minutes. And ‘Caskilla,’ whose moves are unorthodox already, looked especially off-balance almost from the very outset..

Her trainer Rick Ramos wrote it off to the disorienting effects of a first-round head clash, the evidence of which was visible high up over Jessica’s left eye. You have to wonder though, what toll, if any, did the seven-pound weight cut take on McCaskill’s 38-year-old body and could it too have been partly responsible for her early lethargy? Only they know the answer to that.

What is not open to debate is the manner in which Cameron weaponized her punishing jab which created openings for stiff right hands with the vast majority of everything she threw connecting nearly at will. All the while, she employed lateral movement to frustrate a lunging McCaskill into continually swinging and missing, with the exception of one nicely timed left hook that grazed Chantelle as she backed up toward the end of the first round.

The most impressive facet of Cameron’s last several outings has been her gradual evolution from a slugger into a boxer. This is not to suggest that Chantelle was previously without nuance or finesse, but many hours have obviously been put in by Cameron and her team to fine tune these technical aspects so that her added dimensions serve her well in high stakes situations such as these. 

For example, Cameron and her trainer Jamie Moore smartly determined that uppercuts would be Chantelle’s best friend in exploiting McCaskill’s ill-advised tendency to lead with her head, crouching down and lurching forward to wing blind sidearm haymakers that leave her chin temporarily exposed. 

Bouncing energetically on the balls of her feet, Cameron would circle to Jessica’s left before reversing course and stalking her prey from the other way which not only kept her adversary guessing from which angle the incoming volleys might be launched and unable to set herself to get off impactful punches of her own, but greatly enhanced the illusion that the directionless McCaskill was plodding through quicksand. 

The bigger, taller Cameron also used her size advantage to lean on McCaskill, doubling her over and thus tiring her out ever more.It wasn’t until the sixth that Jessica appeared to finally gather her wits about her and enjoy enough success that, well behind on points at this juncture, she was able to put a round in the bank to lessen the deficit. Her shot selection and connect rate were vastly improved throughout the latter half of the fight, and the return of her trademark intensity was no doubt a welcome sight to her corner.

A spirited second half notwithstanding, it was simply too little too late for McCaskill. The pendulum had swung too far in Cameron’s favor by this stage of the game, and it had taken Jessica an unfortunate amount of time to crawl out of the pit she had dug for herself throughout the first five rounds. Precision, effectiveness, ring generalship, all of these factored into the dominant fashion of Chantelle’s performance. 

The tenth and final frame gave us a glimpse of the toe to toe slugfest some of us were expecting this undisputed clash to have been all along, both women emptying their arsenals before a conservatively restrained crowd of spectators. 

Chantelle Cameron pulled away with the fight from the beginning and left little doubt as to the outcome, but McCaskill admirably recovered to make things interesting down the stretch. So much so that two judges awarded the bout to Chantelle by curiously slim margins of 96-94, while the third scorecard made Cameron’s victory a unanimous one by a more reasonable 97-93 verdict, making her the first British undisputed women’s boxing champion. 

The vanquished McCaskill didn’t travel back home to Chicago empty handed, of course. She is still in possession of each and every one of her welterweight title belts. But for how long? Cameron stated her intention to offer McCaskill a rematch, but this time at 147 pounds with all of Jessica’s straps on the line. 

Chantelle feels it’s only right, though, to give Kali Reis the right to first refusal for a crack at her undisputed crown, half of which consists of belts relinquished by Reis to make this coronation possible. 

Boxing pundits, not unlike theoretical physicists, love a good debate. The integrity of both fields thrives and depends on discussion, experimentation, and nonconformity. After last night, however, it is an undeniable matter of fact that the name Chantelle Cameron has been elevated much closer to the top of the conversation concerning the ranking of modern day greats. How far up? Well, let the discourse begin.

Katie Taylor Retains, Ellie Scotney Wins, and Maisey Rose Courtney Debuts at Wembley Arena

 

Approximately one week prior to Katie Taylor’s undisputed lightweight title defense against Karen Carbajal, the latest copy of The Ring magazine began to materialize on newsstands and inside mailboxes. For those of us who still treasure physical media, the periodical was accompanied by news of a most unwelcome sort by way of a proclamation that this would be the last edition of the century-old Bible of Boxing that would be made available in print format.

After 100 years, dating back to its inaugural February 1922 issue, The Ring will continue from this point forward only as downloadable digital content, another sad death rattle which is making the agonizing demise of print media all the more depressing and impossible to ignore. Boasting a back catalog in excess of 1,200 issues, a paltry total of three female prizefighters have been depicted on its front cover. The first was Cathy ‘Cat’ Davis in 1978, followed nearly four decades after the fact by a still-amateur Claressa Shields who had just won her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2016.      

Katie Taylor etched her name in the history books on April 30 courtesy of her split decision victory over Amanda Serrano in the headlining bout at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. The following month’s issue of The Ring bore an image of Katie posing with her armful of championship belts on the front, the magazine’s own coveted strap featured prominently among her collection. Though we couldn’t have known it at the time, Taylor made history yet again as the last woman to grace the Bible of Boxing’s cover. In a tangible edition you can hold in your hands and flip through and place on your bookshelf, and will stand the test of time and technology, for whatever that’s worth. To me, the value is incalculable and there is no acceptable conversion rate.   

Eddie Hearn’s initial post-Serrano proposition for Taylor involved a homecoming rematch at Ireland’s 82,000-seat Croke Park in September. The featherweight titleholder, however, opted to seek out unification opportunities in the 126-pound division. The names of Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg were subsequently conjured as potential crossover rivals for Katie, with nothing progressing past the speculative stage in either case.

Therefore, returning to Wembley Arena on Saturday night for the second time since making her professional debut there by scoring a third-round TKO over Karina Szmalenberg six years ago, Taylor successfully defended her undisputed lightweight crown for the seventh time with a unanimous decision win over Karen Elizabeth Carbajal.

This was Carbajal’s first business trip to Wembley, or anywhere outside her native Argentina for that matter. Previously unbeaten in 19 bouts, the 32-year-old Carbajal was nevertheless an unranked anomaly with only two stoppages accounting for her seemingly impressive victory tally and none of those wins having occurred against noteworthy opposition. In fact, she had fought only three prior ten-rounders, all of them regional title matches opposite Cintia Gisela Castillo, the first two lasting the full distance and the third resulting in a TKO. 

Carbajal’s last outing, on April 10, was a six-round unanimous decision over 2-0-2 Lorena Edith Agoutborde. These are hardly the types of eye-popping statistics that would or should warrant world title contention, but of course these things happen and low-risk contenders sometimes slip through the cracks. Taylor herself acknowledged that fights like these are necessary to stay sharp for mega bouts. But taken no less seriously, she made sure to add.      

The lanky Carbajal, who was nothing but respectful of, and complimentary toward, Katie in pre-fight interviews, looked to prove that she was no soft-touch by closing distance behind her jab and attempting to counter the much quicker Taylor. Content to sit in the pocket and mix it up with Katie when the opportunity presented itself, Carbajal found herself being bombarded by Taylor’s fast hands but was not without success in these exchanges, timing some nice check hooks despite the fancy footwork and pendulum-like head movement which are among Katie’s trademarks.      

Shortly after the two combatants shared a post-fight embrace at center ring, the score totals (100-91, 99-91, 98-92) were read out by David Diamante, to no one’s surprise all overwhelmingly in favor of the reigning, defending undisputed lightweight champion of the world.  

Deflecting talk of retirement for quite some time now, Katie recently gave at least a vague indication of envisioning a life beyond the squared circle. “I obviously know I can’t do this forever. I don’t know if I want to take punches for the rest of my life,” confessed the Irish phenom. Don’t start running a countdown clock on her though. 

Taylor isn’t shopping for rocking chairs or writing her Hall of Fame speech just yet. “I absolutely love my sport,” she continued. “I love training. I’m not sick of the early mornings and I’m not sick of the cold mornings, the running sessions, the sparring sessions. I genuinely do love my sport.” 

Yesterday’s bout may not have been the fight we wanted, but it was the fight we got. If Katie gets her wish, so will all of us boxing fans as well. Taylor made it very clear that her hopes are for her next stop to be at Croke Park early next year and that Amanda Serrano will share the ring with her once again to do what the two of them do best. Fight and make history.  

Serrano's response? "Congratulations, Katie. 2023 we dance again!"

***

Earlier in the evening, Londoner Ellie Scotney, coming into Wembley hot off back to back wins over former world champions, namely Jorgelina Guanini and Maria Cecilia Roman, improved her pro record to a perfect 6-0 with a narrow points win over Mary Romero, halting the Spanish warrior’s seven-fight win streak. 

By virtue of her victory in this action-packed scrap, Scotney wrestled away Romero’s EBU European super-bantamweight title to compliment her own WBA Intercontinental strap, propelling her up the rankings and toward a crack at Mayerlin Rivas, the WBA’s 122-pound world champion. Scotney came into Saturday ranked #5 with Romero occupying the third spot, so it stands to reason that those positions will be reversed at the very least as soon as the WBA super-bantamweight ratings are updated. 

Ellie is also currently second in line for a shot at the IBF belt held by Cherneka Johnson, who just toughed out a unanimous decision win over Susie Ramadan in a Melbourne bloodbath.     

***

Maisey Rose Courtney, a six-time National Champion at the amateur level who has been described as a “boxing prodigy,” made her anticipated debut in the paid ranks at Wembley Arena by pitching a four-round shutout against Hungary’s Judit Hachbold. 

An athletic youngster who obviously relished in sports of the rough and tumble variety, Courtney switched gears from football to boxing at the age of eight. With the South London coaches reluctant to humor what they no doubt dismissed as a passing fancy on Maisey’s part, it took her seven years to begin fighting competitively out of Bethnal Green’s Repton Boxing Club, racking up multiple titles along the way. 

Courtney is the first female to call the Matchroom Elite Boxing Gym run by head trainer Tony Sims her home base. The flyweight prospect has high hopes of fighting for a world title before her rookie year is over.   

For now, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. “All the news that’s fit to download” just doesn’t have the same Ring to it.

Claressa Shields Bests Savannah Marshall, Alycia Baumgardner Upsets Mikaela Mayer at Sold Out O2 Arena in London

“London calling to the faraway towns

Now war is declared and battle come down

London calling to the underworld

Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls

London calling, now don’t look to us

Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust

London calling, see we ain’t got no swing

Except for the ring of the truncheon thing.”

–The Clash 

 

After all of the preliminary push and shove had been dispensed with, and the O2 Arena was packed to the rafters with 20,000 fight fans, it turned out to be a great night for a pair of Michigan’s finest female prizefighters on the other side of the pond. 

The fight week festivities didn’t fail to entertain, no doubt about that. Mikaela Mayer and Alycia Baumgardner had to be pulled apart on Wednesday and separated again on Thursday before coming to blows on Friday which was also when Claressa Shields flipped off the UK fans while chanting “USA! USA!” It was anybody’s guess what the hell was bound to happen when fight night finally rolled around.  

One of the many distinguishing features of Saturday’s all-women’s boxing card in London was the degree of genuine disdain that exists between the two pairs of co-headliners. Cataloging the full litany of invective hurled back and forth by Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall would take an entire team of researchers solely dedicated to this singular task. I did my best to record as much of it as possible for the last several years but simply couldn’t keep up, especially as the slanderous exchanges reached unprecedented levels in recent months.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-division world champion Claressa Shields vowed to gain revenge for her decade’s old loss to Savannah Marshall, her only one inside a boxing ring, by knocking out her British nemesis. Marshall pointed out the obvious, that only two stoppages account for Shields’ dozen professional victories, the last of which occurred over five years ago versus Nikki Adler. Furthermore, Claressa was taken the full distance by their two common opponents, Hannah Rankin and Femke Hermans, both of whom Marshall dispatched before the final bell.

“12-0 as a pro, and you haven’t learned to finish anyone,” scolded the heavy-handed Savannah, with her 83% KO ratio, at Thursday’s final press conference. “That’s concerning, you haven’t learned.” After Shields reversed course by insisting that “knockouts don’t matter,” Marshall coolly responded that “It will matter when you’re on your back, looking at the lights.” Asked by a reporter whether she and Claressa could have been friends in some alternate reality, Marshall responded in the affirmative, sardonically suggesting that the two of them go grab a coffee together afterwards. Shields’ grim expression sufficed for an answer to Savannah’s invite.   

Not to be outdone, Mikaela Mayer and Alycia Baumgardner have been plenty busy themselves swapping trash talk during interviews and on their social media platforms since title unification became a tantalizing possibility in the aftermath of Baumgardner’s explosive TKO victory over former WBC/IBO super-featherweight champion Terri Harper last November. 

The Shields and Marshall feud, it goes without saying, has a far longer reach than that. Five months more than an entire decade to be precise, dating back to May 14, 2012 at the AIBA World Championships in Qinhuangdao, China when Marshall handed Shields her first and, going into this past weekend, only loss as a boxer both as an amateur and a professional. 

Was the win a simple fluke, or did Savannah perhaps benefit from some underhanded chicanery on the judges’ scorecards, as they may have preferred a British representative to vie for the middleweight gold medal at the London Olympics rather than her American counterpart? Did Shields merely suffer an uncharacteristic off night, or was it an open and shut case of biased larceny? 

Categorize it however you wish, and Claressa herself has offered up a myriad of alternate takes on the subject with the exception of being legitimately bested by Marshall, there is no denying that this lone loss took up residence in the deepest recesses of Shields’ mind ten years ago and has festered there from that day forward. 

Whether she is willing to admit it or not, it’s fairly obvious that the two-time Olympic gold medalist and self-professed GWOAT has been haunted during her waking and nocturnal hours alike for the last ten years by Savannah Marshall as if the ‘Silent Assassin’ were a poltergeist and not a pugilist. Saturday night at the O2 Arena, two weeks before Halloween, Shields finally cast out that ghost, walking out of the London ring with the complete collection of 160-pound championship belts.

We’d all waited this long for the Shields vs. Marshall grudge match to happen, so what was another five weeks? Well, for Savannah and Claressa specifically, not to mention Mikaela Mayer and Alycia Baumgardner and every other woman on the card, there was the matter of having trained and peaked and been optimally ring ready for September 10, only for the postponement to be announced prior to that Friday’s weigh-ins due to the entire nation beginning a ten-day observance of mourning for the loss of Queen Elizabeth II.      

Respectfully, the show could not go on under those circumstances. But, at long last, rivalries were renewed, the flapping of gums finally gave way to the throwing of hands, and a new undisputed queen of boxing’s middleweight division was crowned. As a tribute to the long-reigning and recently deceased British monarch, the victorious Shields was additionally awarded a commemorative Elizabethan championship belt designed by the WBC specifically for the occasion.

Before proceeding with this train of thought, we should switch tracks for a quick but necessary detour to address the all-female aspect of the media’s pre-fight coverage and clear up what was a repeated misrepresentation of this event being the first ever occurrence of women occupying each spot on the bill of a boxing show. Taking nothing away from the participants of this weekend’s momentous affair, this simply couldn’t be further from the truth.

Sammy Sanders’ Western Promotions staged the inaugural all-women’s boxing card, a series of world title elimination matches headlined by a lightweight bout between Lady Tyger Trimiar and Carlotta Lee, on February 11, 1979 in Hawthorne, California. Another followed just five months later at the LA Sports Arena with Lady Tyger once again fighting in the main event, this time opposite Ernestine Jones. 

In fact, Saturday’s all-women’s show in London wasn’t even the first of its kind as far as the UK is concerned. Sponsored by Barbara Buttrick’s WIBF, York Hall in Bethnal Green hosted an all-female card on February 19, 1994 featuring no fewer than eleven bouts. There have been many more before and since then in several different countries across the globe.       

Before Savannah ‘The Silent Assassin’ Marshall there was ‘The Fleetwood Assassin’ Jane Couch, who deserves to be acknowledged as the first officially licensed female boxer in Great Britain after earning the right to fight by overcoming the BBBofC in the court of law.    

With that little history lesson out of the way, we can climb back into the time machine, zip ahead to the present day, and resume discussing the current business at hand. Which there is more than enough to sort out. So, without further ado, let’s return to yesterday and pass through the turnstiles of London’s O2 Arena where Claressa Shields avenged her amateur defeat to Marshall by starting strong and exhibiting grace under pressure to withstand a late rally by her power-punching nemesis. 

From the outset, Shields sought to negate Marshall’s significant height and reach advantages by breaking past her barrier behind a busy jab, both throwing and landing a multitude of punches once she had invaded Savannah’s personal territory, the most frequent and successful of which were body blows. Shields’ voluminous work rate from uncomfortably close quarters kept Marshall, a typically slow starter and methodical stalker, from boxing at mid-range and looking for opportunities to get the measure of Claressa in order to load up her right hand and tee off with a game-changing or night-ending power shot.        

The frustration and frantic pace were exacting a visible toll on Savannah, as she breathed deeply between rounds to take in much-needed oxygen and appeared somewhat flustered that things were not turning out according to plan. A reversal of fortune was carried in on a second wind in the middle rounds, and Marshall not only halted Claressa’s momentum but swung it around in her own favor by using her impressive size to bully Shields from pillar to post.    

Whether trapping Shields in the corner or positioning her foe with her back against the ropes, it was bombs away for Savannah as she connected with power punches which Claressa later admitted compromised the sight in her right eye from the sixth round on. Nevertheless, perseverance is something Claressa Shields knows more about than your average person. Sexually assaulted as a little girl, she struggled through a nonverbal and sometimes parentless childhood, and spoke with a pronounced stutter when she did finally begin to communicate.

Decked out in stars and stripes on Saturday night, the waistband of Claressa’s trunks bore the word Cocoa which was the nickname given to Shields as a youngster by her beloved grandmother. Shields stood tall under adverse circumstances yet again, withstanding Marshall’s best efforts and returning fire with a natural born tenacity and a purposeful intent that has been practiced and perfected since taking up boxing sixteen years ago.  

After ten rounds of battle, the tension and anticipation inside the O2 hung heavy in the air while the scores were tallied. Claressa Shields became the middleweight division’s undisputed titleholder by slim margins of 97-93 (x2), and 96-94. Savannah Marshall accepted defeat, her first as a professional, with her customary humility, congratulating her conqueror warmly and genuinely. The same could not be said for the competitors in the evening’s co-feature.         

The conflict between Mikaela Mayer and Alycia Baumgardner became especially hostile in a personal way, escalating quickly from a perfunctory unification challenge to Mikaela calling Baumgardner a “broke bitch” and Alycia responding with characterizations of Mayer as being coddled as well as burdened by struggling to maintain her weight. 

Things got downright ugly at Thursday’s presser, Mayer interpreting Baumgardner’s smirk to mean she was taking this situation lightly, and Alycia responding with incendiary epithets hurled at Mayer the likes of “horse face” and “fucking Karen.” The fuse being lit, Mayer did indeed explode, accusing Alycia of turning the situation into something unnecessarily racial, not unlike the way Savannah Marshall had reacted to questionable comments made by Claressa Shields ahead of the originally scheduled September date when Claressa for some reason felt the need to presume Marshall wished she was black. 

During the stare down portion of Friday’s weigh-in, a shove from Baumgardner led to a retaliatory karate kick from Mayer before security intervened. Mikaela later quipped that she couldn’t use her hands because they were holding all her title belts. 

Baumgardner, who Mikaela not so affectionately dubbed ‘Bum Bum,’ has implied that Mayer never outgrew her amateur pedigree, leaving her encumbered by a boxing style vulnerable to being exposed by the right fighter as “one dimensional” or, in contemporary parlance, “basic.” It goes without saying that Alycia believed herself to be the chosen one to assume that responsibility. Not only was this a knock on Mayer, but a probably unintentional jab at Mikaela’s lifelong coach, mentor, and father figure Al Mitchell, whose retort took the shape of an ominous warning that Baumgardner “got hell coming.” 

When the need to be physically separated when appearing tandemly in public became as obsolete as all the braggadocious cheap shots, hell would freeze over in London as Baumgardner defied the odds, same as she did against Terri Harper last November only this time with the stakes even higher, to stun the boxing world with a split decision victory over Mayer to unify her WBC and IBO super-featherweight belts with Mikaela’s IBF, WBO, and Ring magazine titles.       

It wasn’t the back alley brawl we had all been expecting given the gallons of bad blood that has been spilled between the two in the last several months. That said, Baumgardner imposed her will early and often over Mayer, employing her jab both upstairs and directed at Mikaela’s midsection as a calling card for a rather impolite introduction to left leads and hard right hooks which eventually opened a gash over her adversary’s right eye. Fortunately, Mayer had Manny Robles working her corner as cut man, and he was able to stem the flow and keep the wound from becoming a factor as the fight wore on. 

Alycia curiously abandoned her jab in the later rounds, allowing Mayer the opportunity to turn the tide with her own. Despite her ring generalship beginning to take command, Mikaela more often than not followed up her frequent jabs with single shots whereas the busier Baumgardner’s punches were let loose in bunches. Even if it was not turning out to be a predictably vicious war of attrition, this more technical back and forth was proving close to call in either gladiator’s favor. 

This was evidenced in the split verdict which gave the nod to Alycia Baumgardner courtesy of matching razor thin scores of 96-95 that nullified the 97-93 tally in favor of Mikaela Mayer, who left the ring in disgust without extending an olive branch to her arch rival. For her part, the newly unified 130-pound champion declared that no rematch would be offered to Mayer, as Alycia instead will seek the opportunity to take Hyun Mi Choi’s WBA belt and reign supreme over the super-featherweight division.           

The loaded undercard saw Georgia O’Connor outpoint Joyce Van Ee and Shannon Ryan defeat Buchra El Quaissi in the four-round prelims. In the evening’s six rounders, Sarah Liegmann outpointed Bec Connolly, Ginny Fuchs shut out Gemma Ruegg, April Hunter defeated Erica Juana Gabriela Alvarez, Ebonie Jones outpointed Jasmina Nad, Karriss Artingstall decisioned Marina Sakharov, Lauren Price notched a fourth-round stoppage over Timea Belik, and Caroline Dubois scored a TKO win over Milena Koleva in the penultimate stanza.   

A jubilant and emotional Claressa Shields broke down in tears during her post-fight interview. Honoring the generations of women before her who paved the way for this night to have been possible, she also recognized Savannah Marshall as a great competitor and worthy adversary. Savannah joined Claressa at center ring to take part in a ceremonial burying of the hatchet with no problem admitting that she lost to the “better fighter.”

Having settled their differences inside the squared circle and hugged things out afterwards, Shields and Marshall kept the possibility open for a rematch or perhaps a trilogy. And maybe, just maybe, these two remarkable women will one day meet up for that cup of coffee.

“London calling, yes I was there too

And you know what they said?

Well, some of it was true

London calling at the top of the dial

And after all this won’t you give me a smile?”

–The Clash

 

Super-Bantam Legend Jackie Nava Collects Career Victory #40 in Goodbye Bout

 

It wasn’t easy, but a battle-ravaged Jackie Nava overcame a tough challenge from the scrappy and headbutt-happy Gloria Elena Yancaqueo to emerge victorious in her farewell fight in Tijuana last night by scores of 98-92 and 97-93 (x2).

Well before she recently came to the conclusion that the time was right to hang up her boxing gloves for good, the question of Nava’s Hall of Fame credentials wasn’t really a question at all. The eventuality of her plaque hanging on a wall in Canastota among the pugilistic immortals has long been considered inevitable rather than debatable. Now that the ‘Aztec Princess’ has officially relinquished her crown after two decades, just three years separate her from eligibility for enshrinement.  

The 42-year-old Nava punched her Hall of Fame ticket, not to mention four dozen faces, during the course of a stellar career that dates back to May 29, 2001 when she traveled from Tijuana, Mexico to Honolulu, Hawaii and outpointed the 1-0 hometown favorite, Vicki Cozy, over four rounds. Cozy decided she was not cut out for boxing and never competed again. In just over four years, Nava would become a two-division world champion. 

Having claimed the Mexico super-bantamweight title ten months earlier, Jackie stopped Martha Leticia Arevalo in the seventh round to win the inaugural WBA world bantamweight championship, and rejoined the ranks of the 122-pound class four and a half months later where became the first ever female to hold a WBC world title belt by virtue of a unanimous decision over New York native ‘Downtown’ Leona Brown. 

Her first reign at super-bantamweight lasted ten days short of a full calendar year. On May 20, 2006, Nava was flattened by an Argentinian ‘Locomotive’ named Alejandra Marina Oliveras, who put Jackie on the deck twice en route to an eighth-round knockout. Their rematch nine months later ended in a majority draw. Oliveras, herself a deserving Hall of Fame candidate, would be the only woman to put Nava down for the count and ran full steam ahead toward 33 career victories and world titles in four weight classes before pulling into the last station on the line in 2017. 

Defeating Donna Biggers in September 2007 earned Nava the interim version of the WBC super-bantam belt, but her next shot at reclaiming the world title ended in disappointment when she was floored and widely decisioned by new champion Marcela Eliana Acuna. It would take seven years for Jackie to once again wear the green and gold around her waist, when she wrested it away from Brooklyn’s Alicia ‘Slick’ Ashley by majority decision in a 2014 unification bout. In the meantime, the ‘Aztec Princess’ had ascended to the WBA super-bantamweight throne with a ten-round shutout of Chantall Martinez. 

Incidentally, Ashley, yet another strong contender for Hall of Fame induction, took the now vacant belt back the following year by beating Christina McMahon. 48 years old at the time, Alicia became (and remains) the oldest female boxer to win a world championship. 

Nava’s win over Gloria Elena Yancaqueo last night capped off a career-closing 17-fight unbeaten streak which began in 2011 when she rebounded from a loss to Ana Maria Torres in their return bout by dominating Edith Soledad Matthysse two and a half months later. The lone blemish on her ledger since then was a majority draw against her old foe Marcela Eliana Acuna in May 2019. 

In a long-awaited showdown between two Mexican living legends, Jackie outpointed Mariana Juarez by wide margins last October 30. Juarez (55-11-4, 19 KOs), like Nava, is 42 years of age. A 24-year veteran and three-division world champion, she has hinted that her upcoming challenge of WBC super-bantamweight title-holder Yamileth Mercado on October 15 may be her last fight as well, which would pit Mariana against Jackie Nava once more three years from now–this time for a spot on the International Boxing Hall of Fame ballot.     

In the world of boxing, retirements can be as fleeting as the rest period between rounds, and the pugilist emeritus in question is often back in action no sooner than you can count to sixty. Whether Nava’s withdrawal from the sport is permanent or temporary remains to be seen, but with nothing left to prove inside the ring and a family to enjoy spending a hard-won abundance of leisure time with, not to mention some unsightly lumps to tend to after being repeatedly butted by Yancaqueo last night, the ‘Aztec Princess’ will hopefully lay down her scepter to be fought over by a new generation of women whom Nava played a most influential role in helping to inspire.