Marlen Esparza: Going for glory
Marlen Esparza was tired when she arrived at Rudy Silva’s Elite Boxing Gym for her regular workout. I could see that right away. Weeks of training full-speed for a national bout, constant media attention, and travel had interrupted her normal routine and dampened her usual energy.
But, as soon as she got into the ring for a few rounds of shadow-boxing, the champion emerged with a flurry of faster-than-light punches. And I could see why she is a favorite to make the first US women’s boxing team.
This is the profile I did of Marlen for Fox News Latino.
Marlen Esparza, Six Time USA Boxing Champ, Wants to Make History at 2012 Olympics
By Monica Rhor
Esparza was still a slip of a girl, fresh from a growth spurt that had chiseled the once-chubby child into a skinny 11-year-old, when she first walked into a Houston-area boxing gym.
Stuck in the newcomer’s corner, she looked on with envy as Rudy Silva trained a group of young men, their punches sharp, their bodies honed, their minds focused. They are real boxers, thought Esparza.
And the young girl, whose cocky attitude and tendency to fight in class had landed her in an alternative school, was determined to be just like them. So, she marched up to Silva and asked him to train her.
Silva, a former four-time Houston Golden Gloves champ with a reputation for building boxers into champions, glanced at Esparza and replied: I only train men and I only train experienced fighters. Go back to the beginner’s group.
The next day, Esparza again marched up to Silva, and he again turned her away.
But Silva kept an eye on her. He watched Esparza swing hard in drills. He watched her pour every ounce of her small frame into punches. He watched her withstand workouts that wore down experienced boxers.
“It hit me inside. I thought, ‘This girl is tough. This girl has got heart,’” said Silva, who quickly conceded and promised to train Esparza under two conditions: He would push her as relentlessly as he did the male fighters, and she had to work to become a champion outside the ring, as well as inside the ropes.
After that, said Silva, “We never looked back.”
Today, Marlen Esparza is a household name in boxing circles.