Live From USA Boxing Nationals In Spokane
Mikaela Mayer & Franchon Crews photo by Raquel Ruiz
(Editor’s note: Please welcome our newest contributor, author, trainer and boxing writer Sarah Deming, who will be covering the USA Boxing National Championships in Spokane, Washington for Stiff Jab all week long)
by Sarah Deming
SPOKANE, Wash.–We’re live here at Northern Quest Resort and Casino, among the 263 male and 60 female amateur boxers, plus the usual motley crew of trainers, referees, judges, USA Boxing staff, and – thus far – two press: myself and the sassy Colombian journalist Raquel Ruiz.
We’re here to get the first peek at contenders for Rio 2016, witness the impact of recent AIBA rule changes, and party with the sassy Colombian journalist Raquel Ruiz
The tournament got off to a rough start when my Cocktail Bitters Travelers Set exploded inside my luggage, drenching my black pencil skirt, but the corner did a good job of cleaning me up, and Raquel and I sashayed off to the general weigh-in.
Attendance seemed low. You can’t compare it to 2012, which was an Olympic year, but in 2011 there were over 500 competitors.
I was happy to see that most of the women from the Olympic Trials were back, including world gold medalist Tiara Brown, silver medalists Raquel Miller and Franchon Crews, and bronze medalists Mikaela Mayer and Christina Cruz. With the exception of Cruz (who is close to winning her record-setting seventh straight NYC Golden Gloves at 119 pounds), all these boxers will again contend at Olympic weights.
“I’ve gotta eat,” said reigning 152-pound champ Raquel Miller, hungry for the stipend attached to the 165-pound class. Rumor has it that Rio will feature five or six weight classes for women, but in the mean time the top women contenders are converging on fly, light, and middle.[[MORE]]
“The glory of being the first women Olympians is over,” said women’s boxing sage Christy Halbert. “What really moves me is all those girls from Trials, whose dreams were dashed just last year, showing up again. That’s a big deal, because boxing is hard. It can chew you up and spit you out. They’re back because they believe in themselves.”
Brackets for all the men and women are here.
The slight air of anti-climax that hangs over this tournament isn’t just the inevitable post-Olympic dip. New AIBA rule changes are slicing up the competition.
All boxers who are 17 and 18 years old must now compete in a separate “youth” division, which eliminates gold medalist Claressa Shields and PAL National lightweight champion Rashida Ellis from elite contention. Nobody showed up to fight Claressa, who wins unopposed; Rashida has one brave opponent.
The men’s youth division is a deeper pool but must seem like a step down for fighters like seventeen-year-old Erickson Lubin, who just won gold at the Independence Cup fighting grown Cubans. Maybe that’s why he didn’t show up.
Comic book fans will recall a similar dilemma when young Kitty “Shadowcat” Pryde was forced to step down from the X-Men to join their newly-formed teen offshoot, the New Mutants. Kitty whined until Professor Xavier moved her back up, but no amount of whining can move the AIBA powers that be.
The headgear thing makes it worse. The men’s field gets cut up into three divisions: youth, senior, and elite. Any man who wants the chance to represent the US in international competition must fight in the elite division, which means no headgear.
More on this later, but I’m not in favor of the change, nor do I buy AIBA’s contention that “research” indicates that headgear actually increases the chance of head injury. This was a marketing decision, pure and simple. The real research starts now, using live subjects.
I’m not just a degenerate writer who travels with her own cocktail accoutrements; I am also a conditioning coach for young boxers. One of my fighters, heavyweight Earl Newman, will compete this evening, his adorable head bare for the first time in his fighting career. Like most Brownsville boxers, Earl is slick guy and moves his head when he remembers, but sometimes he’s too brave for his own good. I was hoping to work the corner but ceded the spot to someone who can close cuts.