#virginia fuchs

[theanticool]

Former USA boxing captain Virginia Fuchs making her pre debut right now on ESPN+ against Randee Lynn Morales (4-3). You ever want to see the difference between a professional athlete and someone who does this in their spare time, this is the fight. Fuchs is built like a tank at 110lbs and Morales looks like some random woman you’d see jogging in the park. Kind of feels irresponsible.

[theanticool]

Team USA guaranteed themselves 3 medals today at the women’s boxing world championships!

Virginia Fuchs, Danielle Perkins, and Naomi Graham all won their quarterfinal bouts to advance to the semi-finals, guaranteeing all three at least a bronze medal finish!

Edit:

Krystal Dixon still has to go later today. A win for her would guarantee the US team four medals this year!

My bad looks like Dixon competed in the first session of day 6. Dropped a decision to the Chinese boxer. :(

[theanticool]

Ginny Fuchs vs Randee Lynn Morales

A fight where you have to sit there and think, how'd this fight get sanctioned?

Former USA Boxing captain Ginny Fuchs (2-0, 1 KOs) is trying to make a quick run up the division in an effort to face off with former teammate and world champion Marlen Esparza. She's going to have to build up her resume though. That effort continues with her next fight this Saturday (July 17) when she faces Indeya Smith (6-7-2) on the undercard of Prograis-Zorrilla.

[theanticool]

Ginny Fuchs vs. Randee Lynn Morales

Olympian and former USA Boxing captain Ginny Fuchs (1-0) will continue her pro career. Currently competing at super flyweight, the experienced amateur vet will take on Gemma Reugg (5-4) this Saturday (Oct. 15).

[theanticool]

Ginny Fuchs vs Randee Lynn Morales - 4/9/2022

Former USA Boxing captain Ginny Fuchs (1-0, 1 KOs) made her pro debut earlier this year and looked all the parts of a standout amateur fighting someone with a fraction of the experience. Fuchs will continue with her pro career on the undercard for Shields-Marshall this Saturday (Sept. 10) on ESPN+. She faces off with Gemma Ruegg (5-4).

[theanticool]

2018 USA Boxing Team for the AIBA Women’s World Championships

The 2018 AIBA Women’s World Boxing championships is almost upon us. From November 15-24 the top amateurs from all around the world across 10 different weight classes will converge on New Delhi, India to determine who the best is in each division. With the explosion of women’s boxing on television and streaming in recent years, we could be seeing the next wave of talent that to follow former amateur greats like Claressa Shields, Nicola Adams, Katie Taylor, Chantelle Cameroon, Mikaela Mayer, Marlen Esparza, and others who have gone on to find success in the pros.

So I present to you the 2018 U.S. women’s national boxing team.

48 KG: Jazzelle Rabago-Bobadilla, Oahu, Hawaii - Coming out of Hawaii, Jazzelle Rabago-Bodadilla is the youngest current member on the team at 20 years old.

Instagram: jaahhhzzelle

51 KG: Virginia Fuchs, Kemah, Texas - 30 year old Ginny Fuchs has among the more impressive resumes on Team USA this year. She owns wins over former Olympic Bronze medalists Marlen Esparza (USA) and Mary Kom (India). Unfortunately, she fell short of qualifying for a spot at the 2016 Olympic games. She’s now got her eyes set on her first international medal here in 2018 before the 2020 Olympic games in Japan. She’s also an LSU alum.

Instagram: ginnyfuchsusa

Twitter: @GinnyFuchsUSA

54 KG: Christina Cruz, NYC, New York - 36 year old Christina Cruz has been out here hustling on the amateur scene for a while. While many of you who follow the U.S. National amateur scene may recognize her for being a multiple time U.S. National Champion, I know her at the 10 New York Golden Gloves champion. She also earned bronze at the 2016 women’s world championships, coming up short to the eventual silver medalist Stoyka Petrova.

Instagram: christinacruzbox

Twitter: @CRUZ_IN_NYC

57 KG: Rianna Ramos, Colorado Springs, Colorado -  The first of a couple ladies in uniform, Sgt. Rianna Rios is a horizontal construction engineer for 52nd Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team. She actually entered the U.S. elite tournament a wild card entry before eventually beating the #1 and #3 ranked boxers in her division en route to clinching a spot on the world team.

60 KG: Stacia Suttles, Bronx, N.Y. - The 24 year old fighting out of the Bronx is a relative newcomer to the sport, having only picked up the gloves back in 2014. She is, however, a blackbelt in taekwondo. It didn’t take her long to get a handle on the sport though, as she ended up winning the U.S. Nationals in 2016.

Tumblr: @stayshuh-bruh ​

Instagram: staciathenatural

Twitter: @StaciaSuttles

Youtube Vlog

64 KG: Amelia Moore, Alexandria, Virginia - A US and Women’s National champion, Moore actually got into boxing at 17 hoping to compete for the Naval Academy only to find out that the Naval academy didn’t offer a boxing program for women. She then took it upon herself to find a coach and 8 years later she’s going to be fighting for a shot at a world championship.

Instagram: 1moore_round

Twitter: @1MooreRound

69 KG: Oshae Jones, Toledo, Ohio - Jones comes from a boxing family. Her family owns a boxing gym in Toledo and her brother, Otha Jones III, is also a USA Boxing team member. The 20 year old will be looking for her first international medal. She won the 2016 USA Boxing Elite National Championship.

Instagram: oshaejones

Twitter: @oshae_j

75 kg: Naomi Graham, Colorado Springs, Colo. - Graham is a staff sergeant in the U.S. army. She also won the 2017 U.S. National championship at middleweight. She’s got some big shoes to fill as she’s taking the spot of 2x Olympic gold medalist and world champion Claressa Shields.

81 kg: Krystal Dixon, New Rochelle, N.Y. - Another New York Golden Gloves champion on this year’s team, Krystal Dixon has actually won the competition 5 times. She was the 2016 USA National Light Heavyweight champion and works as a teacher when she isn’t boxing.

Instagram: kaykrazy88

81+ kg: Danielle Perkins, Houston, Texas - Much like a couple of recent U.S. heavyweight amateurs, Danielle Perkins is a former basketball player. She’s also a 2x U.S. National Champion and another member of this team that has won the NYC Golden Gloves.

Instagram: chambers11221

[stiffjab]

Meet the US Women’s Boxing Olympic Trials Champions

Photos by Sue Jaye Johnson, Zackary Canepari, and USA Boxing

by Sarah Deming

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--Twenty-four women spent their Halloween in Memphis, boxing for the right to fight in Rio. Compared to the historic 2012 Trials in Spokane, this was a low-rent affair, overshadowed by a bigger men’s tournament and largely ignored by media.

The only thing better was the talent. Four years of Olympics inclusion had done its work, and all three weight classes now had strong contenders. 

The Flyweight Upset

Marlen Esparza was the odds-on favorite here. She came packing an Olympic bronze, a world championships gold, and scads of endorsements, but her diva swagger had alienated many of her fellow fighters. It made for fun headlines – everybody loves a heel! – but, in the end, the heel always falls to the babyface.

Enter Ginny Fuchs (above). When she lost Trials in 2012, the scrappy blonde southpaw was already punching above her weight. Her coach was a kind, tragic man who travelled with a breathing machine and trained her out of his garage.

She went home to Kemah and doubled down. A strength coach packed new power into her 5’4” frame. A new trainer drilled her in aggressive boxing behind the jab. A publicist kept her on message. 

Ginny came to Memphis undaunted by her 0-5 record against Marlen.

“I knew my day would come,” she said. “I just knew I was an all-around better athlete. My dad taught me to waterski when I was four years old. I won every kid’s fun run I ever entered.”

When Ginny and Marlen were in the ring together, the athletic disparity showed. Ginny’s long, ropy muscles twitched like a racehorse.

The right jab kept Marlen at bay, and the left scored. When then two women got close, Marlen’s flurries were smothered. The same week Nike launched its Marlen Esparza HyperJab boxing boots, the babyface was taking her title.

Claressa Shields congratulates her new teammate 

Ginny was used to bucking the odds. All her life, she has struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

“I want people with OCD to know they can still do great in life,” Ginny said. 

She laughed at the irony of her choice of sport, with its dusty warehouses and sweat-soaked gloves.

“I’ve gotten better. I think it depends on your life and how happy you are with what you’re doing, the happiness of just being yourself and finding out who you are. That helps the repetitive thoughts go away.”

The Lightweight War

Reigning national champion Mikaela Mayer (in red above) was the tall, classy boxer. She left her hippie dad in California to shovel snow in Michigan with Coach Al Mitchell. Mikaela’s boxing had the beautiful fragility of improvisation. She needed space to get it done, and she couldn’t always find it.

Rising youth world champion Jajaira Gonzalez (in blue above) was the brawler. She came from one of those mysterious boxing families whose unified front repels analysis. Her nonstop punching wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done thanks to her astounding conditioning. Per the fight doctor, her resting heart rate was 39.

Former featherweight world champion Tiara Brown was the beautiful boxer-puncher. Schooled by the D.C. Headbangers, Tiara was master of the half-step back and the brutal body shot, but sometimes her subtleties were lost on the judges. She was best at featherweight and could be outgunned by bigger girls.

“I trained for Tiara and Jajaira,” Mikaela said. “But mostly for Jajaira, because I had never fought her before.”

In their first fight, Mikaela squeaked out a hard-fought split over Jajaira, boxing on the balls of her feet and stabbing with the jab. She had been cut in her first fight of the tournament, and midway through her bout, the bandage fluttered to the canvas.

“I told the doctors I didn’t care if my nose fell off,” Mikaela said. “I just wanted to win.”

Tiara (right) took the split decision over Mikaela when they fought in 2013 

Mikaela had an easy time with Tiara in Memphis, winning one of the more decisive decisions of the pair’s five career meetings.

Tiara and Jajaira fought a thrilling close-quarter war in the challengers bracket. We thought Tiara might have edged it, but the judges gave Jajaira the split, sending her to the finals against Mikaela on Halloween, which was Coach Al’s birthday.

Al said, “My mother used to tell me, ‘Little Fred, I don’t know if you’re trick or treat."

It was not a happy birthday. Jajaira had learned from that opening round loss and was on his fighter like white on rice. Mikaela tried to get room for her long right hand, but Jajaira was always in the way, clubbing away at anything she could find.

“Jajaira beats you down,” Coach Al said. “She throws so many punches and she don’t mind getting hit, and she roughhouse. It reminds me of the old days in Philly, and I love that.”

Jajaira’s win sent the lightweight bracket into extra innings that I was secretly relieved to miss. I didn’t think I could stand to watch Mikaela lose again.

Al Mitchell woke up in the middle of the night, haunted by a look he’d seen in his fighter’s eyes – “It was like she felt she might couldn’t win it. She’s mentally tough, but it worried me” – and he decided to bring in Basheer Abdullah to help in the corner. 

But in the end it came down to Mikaela.

“The first two rounds were bad,” she said. “Then the third round something just came over me, and I said, ‘I’m gonna make her miss. I’m gonna roll her punches and then come back.’

“I would roll right and come back with a right hand, left hook. I would roll left and come back with a 1,2,3. And it was a beautiful strategy, and it worked.”

The Magnificent Middleweight

Claressa Shields came to Memphis 62-1 and left with four more wins, a commemorative guitar, and a Duckmaster pimp stick.

The reigning world and Olympic champion did not appear to be in peak condition for this outing, but it was enough to blow through the field. It was especially instructive to watch Ressa’s brutal dismantling of the game (both physical and psychological) of her chief rival Tika Hemmingway.  

Claressa on press: “After I won the worlds, I said, ‘The media doesn’t make or break me.’ I’m not perfect and I’m gonna live the way I want to live. If companies think I fit the criteria to endorse their products, that’s cool. If they don’t, that’s cool, too. 

“People love who I am, and they love the way that I box. But I think they love who I am even more than they love how I box.”

On being in the ring: “Those are the most stress-free times of my life. Just to be around other boxers who believe in me. For one week, the only thing that matters in your life is boxing. For one week, I feel like my life is in the perfect order.”

On social life: “For the last two years I’ve been adding and getting rid of people. Anybody who doesn’t make me feel like a good person, I get rid of.”

On retirement: “God forbid if something happened to me tomorrow and I could never box again, I know I would still find something to do.

“I would have water balloon fights. I would go to the movies. I would run from the cops.”

Afterwards

Marlen told the Houston Chronicle she thought she beat Ginny.

Jajaira and her coach told me they thought she beat Mikaela.

Tiara told me she thought she beat Mikaela, and so did her coach, and so did her mother.

“This shit is filled with disappointment, and some people will do anything not to feel that,” said Ernesto Rodriguez, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Judge. 

We were eating oatmeal together in a squalid banquet room at the Crowne Plaza.

Ernesto said, “How you deal with disappointment is what shows your character, and the friendships we develop go beyond winning and losing. The end game is not that important.”