Fresh Meat: Misato Kamegawa
by Sarah Deming
NASSAU COUNTY, N.Y.–Here at DAS Fitness in Inwood, bantamweight Misato Kamegawa is quietly getting better.
Kamegawa became the first Japanese-born boxer to win the New York City Golden Gloves in 2011. Now she’s a three-time champ with a focus so intense that she often comes to the gym, works out, and leaves without saying a word.
“I’ve never talked to her,” says twelve-year-old Brenda Bravo, bobbing and weaving beneath a clothesline, “But I want to be like her. She’s really hard on herself. She doesn’t stop.”
Tito, a retired amateur who helps the kids with sparring, says, “Misato is the hardest working person in the gym. Look at her! She really loves boxing.”
Kamegawa shadowboxes for six rounds, moving lightly on the balls of her feet as she circles behind the jab. The right uppercut comes easily. Her work looks fluid and almost delicate, belying the tooth and nails battle I watched her win over Federica Bianco at the Barclays Center last April.
At thirty years old, Kamegawa knows time is running out. She plans to go pro and devote the next five years of her life to the sport she loves. After that, perhaps graduate school – she recently completed her B.A. in Psychology from Hunter College – and then a career in special education.
When I ask what she likes to do besides boxing, she replies, “Nothing.”
Kamegawa came to this country from her native city of Fukuoka at age 22, living first in Oxnard, where she was introduced to fitness boxing through a class taught by the legendary Graciela Casillas.
When she got to New York, she began training in earnest. At first she only planned to have one real fight, and to win a trophy. But opponents were scarce, and it took her two years and four fights before she got her first win. After that, she couldn’t stop.
I lean close to hear her soft voice over the blaring heavy metal. There is something restful about Kamegawa, but she is passionate when talking about the fighters she admires – Sergio Martinez, Salvador Sanchez, Hozumi Hasegawa – and the lessons she has learned from her sparring partners.
In this respect, Kamegawa is blessed. Her trainer Marcos Suarez has attracted a mighty stable of female boxers to this little Inwood gym, so good work is easy to find. Christina Cruz, the only boxer to win seven straight New York City Golden Gloves titles, has taught Kamegawa the science of boxing. From Nydia Feliciano, IWBF bantamweight champ, she has learned toughness under pressure. And the 5’8” Kiesher “Fire” McLeod rolls through periodically to frustrate her with reach.
“I want to see how far I can go,” says Kamegawa. “I don’t know if I will ever be satisfied. I want to have a fight where I say, ‘OK, this was my best.’”
Do her schoolteacher parents back in Japan approve?
“They support whatever I do. Since I graduated high school I’ve been a little crazy.”
She tells me about the biking, how she rode all around Japan, how she got to New York from Oxnard by biking cross country one summer, camping along the way. It took her 75 days.
Misato Kamegawa says she loves to bike because you don’t need money and you don’t need gas.
“Wherever I want to go, if I work hard that takes me there.”