Tiara Brown, Marlen Esparza Dominate At USA Boxing Nationals
Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields. Photos by Raquel Ruiz
by Sarah Deming
SPOKANE, Wash.–Sometimes you can tell who’s going to win just by the way they stand. Olympic bronze medalist Marlen Esparza had a carriage of absolute dominance as she met Boston’s Katie Durgin at center ring. Tough gig for Durgin, who ate several huge right hands to the body en route to a fourth round stoppage. Esparza just keeps getting better.
The other flyweight bout paired southpaws Ayesha Green of Trenton, N.J. and Virginia Fuchs of Kemah, Texas. Green had improved since their last meeting, but Fuchs improved more. It was a boxing clinic from the long-armed Texan, who has not received her due in the past from USA Boxing’s judges. Here’s hoping they keep an open mind when she gets another shot at Esparza tomorrow.
Lots of boos from the crowd after Sharone Carter of St. Louis got the split decision over Ramon Cardenas of San Antonio, but I was distracted by a documentarian and cannot comment. In the other men’s bantam semi, Jarico O’Quinn kept Jesus Vasquez of Englewood, California off balance with his heavy-handed switch hitting, but O’Quinn’s open guard made him an easy target for counters. Both young men took too many punches in this rough bout, which O’Quinn won on a split decision.
Reigning bantamweight champ Christina Cruz kept Atlas Cops & Kids alive in the tournament with an ugly unanimous decision over the swarming yet ineffective Kathy McPherson of Mesa, Arizona. Cruz will face Amanda Pavone of Burlington, Vermont who took a split decision over Melanie Costa of Norton, Massachusetts.
Reigning world champion Tiara Brown (above) of the DC Headbangers continued her rampage through the featherweight class with a lopsided decision over Illinois’s Kristin Carlson, who had upset defending national champion Jen Hamann in the quarters. Californian Lisa Porter looked good in the other semi, beating Carmen Vargas of Houston, but it’s hard to see her giving Brown any problems.[[MORE]]
Jousce Gonzales of Glendora stunned Florida’s Charles Vazquez Vera a few times in a hotly contested lightweight bout. The other semi should have been the final. Genaro Gamez of San Diego pulled out a split win over Maliek Montgomery of Macon, Georgia in a thrilling bout that we thought might have gone the other way.
Gamez has always been one of our favorite fighters, with slick work on the inside and huge heart. Montgomery brought the fight, while his country corner yelled silly things like “you a baby gorilla” and “work it like a stripper pole.”
Efrain Estrada of Hillsborough, Oregon advanced to the light welterweight finals by pitching straight through the guard of Cleveland’s Thomas Mattice. Estrada is the only fighter here with a woman as his chief second, his mother Salud.
“I keep the mother and the trainer separate,” she said.
She seems equally excellent at both. Salud is here with all four of her darling children: Efrain, 19; Eric, 17, who reached the quarterfinals in the Youth Nationals in Reno; Diana, 15, who won the junior title in Reno; and Omar, 12, the Junior National Golden Golden Gloves champion. Who’s the most talented boxer in the family?
“It’s very hard for me,” says Salud, but then she points to Diana. “She’s the only girl, so she’s the best for me.”
Efrain will face Albany’s Abraham Nova, who defeated Alfonso Olvera of Tuscon.
Then it was time for the main event: Women’s lightweights, the unexpected glamor division of this tournament. First up was a battle of youth versus experience, when defending champion Queen Underwood (left) of Seattle squared off against rising star Rashida Ellis (right) of Lynn, Massachussets.
We had high hopes for the slick, gifted Ellis, who was named Most Outstanding Youth at last year’s tournament and seemed poised to be the lightweight heir apparent. But she looked underfed in her quarterfinal win, and her swagger started to seem like bluster when she claimed she’d skipped the Youth Worlds because, “There’s no point. It would have been too easy.”
No point in traveling to Bulgaria? In gaining international experience and representing your country?
It was a blowout for Underwood, who moved forward throughout, backing up the younger woman with hard jabs and overhand rights while her Olympic teammate Marlen Esparza yelled, “Shoulder roll!” and “Do you!” Ellis might have won the fourth, when she dug deep and went on the attack, but that was the only round that could have gone her way, and it was surprising that the judges only saw it as a split win for Underwood.
Afterward, Ellis’s trainer commented on Instagram, “You have to bring a gun to win in her hometown.” It’s this kind of attitude that will keep Ellis from learning from her mistakes and reaching her full potential.
The opposite bracket saw a rematch between California’s Mikaela Mayer (red) and New Yorker Melissa Parker (blue). Mayer is a sharp boxer with a classic style; Parker is an aggressive, bob-and-weave southpaw. When the two met at the PAL Nationals, Mayer got the nod in a close fight that we saw going the other way. Today’s match was another close match in which both women landed bombs, but Mayer’s bombs were bigger. We were happy to see her get the split decision nod.
Tomorrow’s lightweight final will be one to watch! Underwood and Mayer have met three times before, and all three meetings were examples of women’s boxing at its best. The first two fights were at the 2012 Olympic Trials. Underwood took a controversial first decision over Mayer. Mayer battled her way back through the losers’ bracket, only to lose again by a wider margin. This summer the two met again at the PAL Nationals, where Mayer had a triumphant win that has given her legendary status at Atlas Cops & Kids. We await Chapter Four.
In men’s welterweights, Tyson lookalike Chordale Booker kept the men of Metro NY alive with a win over Jeremiah Millett of St. Louis. He will face the tough challenge of defending champion Jose Alday of Odessa, Texas, who beat Timothy Lee of Las Vegas.
Next came another delicious moment for fans of women’s boxing. At long last, Claressa Shields (top) made her return to the elite women’s class after two years in the purgatory of the youth division.
Tho opponent was Raquel Miller of San Francisco, world silver medalist at welterweight. Miller is a woman of deep faith and a hardworking boxer who has made tremendous progress in a very short time. She kept it close, boxing behind a stiff jab and straight right, but the Olympic champion took the close unanimous decision with her superior punching power and ring generalship.
Perhaps it was a bit of an anticlimax. A woman at ringside was cheering loudly for Claressa in the first round. In the second and third, she became increasingly despondent at the lack of fireworks.
“Come on, Claressa,” she cried, “Show us who you are!”
Claressa always shows us who she is. Sometimes she’s a fighter winning a close decision. One of the unique pleasures of watching her fights is the sense of constant progress. She’s growing up before our eyes, and it is always an honor to witness.
Tomorrow she will meet her old frenemy Franchon Crews of Baltimore, who blew through Yonkers native Krystal Correa with a first-round stoppage.
The men’s middleweight bouts closed the show. New Yorker LeShawn Rodriguez beat Californian Bryan Flores, and Anthony Campbell of Covington, Tennessee won a split decision over Jonathan Esquivel of Anaheim, California, but it had been a long day, and a certain amount of free wine had begun to make its way back to press row, so that’s all I remember.