(JULY 13)
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – With her neon green boxing shoes, it's
hard to miss Danyelle Wolf in the ring.
Otherwise, it might be hard to find USA Boxing's No. 1 ranked
Welterweight. That's because the San Diego native, literally,
trains in a garage there.
Wherever she does her work, it's paying off, most recently
Saturday night in Ft. Lauderdale with a 2014 National Golden
Gloves 152-pound championship.
Wolf scored a unanimous decision over No. 3 ranked Fallon Farrar
to cap a night of 11 championship bouts. The lithe six-footer
has been boxing going on six years now, and was one of the
athletes recently featured in ESPN Magazine's Body Issue.
“Just staying busy, with multiple punch combinations” she said
when asked about the key to her win. “I wanted to work my jab
and stay on the outside.”
Following are the rest of the results from Saturdays 2014
National Women's Golden Gloves championships:
106 Elite Open – Alexandra Love, a 2014 USA Boxing national
championship, now has a national Golden Gloves title to add to
her resume.
Love was her ringmanship and skills to score a unanimous
decision over Jennifer Amato of New Hampshire. She has been
boxing for five years and is part of the U.S. Army World Class
Athlete program at Fort Carson in Colorado.
“I just wanted to be myself, and use my experience,” she said.
Love, ranked as USA Boxing's No. 2 light flyweight, scored a
knockdown in the final round.
Amato repeatedly pressed the issue, trying to get inside on
Love, something she had to adjust to quickly.
“It throws you off, you don't really train for that kind of
style, you train more technical,” she added. “so it's a little
harder to fight, and she had a big heart. I had to keep moving.”
112 Elite Open – Times are changing for Marlen Esparza, and it
shows.
The bronze medal winner at the 2012 London Olympics, Esparza,
who trains at the Olympic boxing gym in Colorado Springs, has
changed her style a bit since amateur boxing scoring has changed
as well.
She landed several big blows, and scored a standing eight count
against the game Lambert, ranked No. 5 by USA Boxing in the
flyweight division, in the second round.
“I changed my fighting style with the system,” she noted.
“Before when it was just points, I didn't hit hard at all. But
since they changed it to the 10-9, I throw the same punches, but
I toned down my balancing and added that energy to my punching.”
Lambert's stick-and-move style was not enough to slow Esparaza
down.
“She'll throw when you're in her pocket so I just made sure I
found my distance before I moved in,” the veteran of 13 years in
the ring said. “So if I would ever just leap in, she would
exchange with me.”
119 Elite Open – It was the best of the best at 119, and No. 1
ranked Christina Cruz scored a unanimous decision over the
nation's No. 2 ranked fighter, Amanda Pavone.
Cruz also is at the Olympic boxing training center in Colorado
Spring, and hails from New York City.
She is a nine-year veteran of the ring.
The two have boxed before, so Cruz said she had a game plan
going in, which included her height and reach advantage.
“She has become my rival, so I kind of knew what I was going
against,” Cruz said. “I thought she would be a little more
aggressive, she usually is, but my game plan worked out fine, to
box her and keep her at bay.”
She is looking forward to the world championships late this fall
in South Korea, and is hoping to move down to 112 for a chance
at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
125 Elite Open – Rianna Rios still has some work ahead of her as
the No. 4 ranked USA Boxing featherweight, but a national Golden
Gloves title should be a good stepping stone.
She scored a unanimous decision over the No. 8 ranked Ashleigh
Moore of Virginia. Rios, like Love, is part of the U.S. Army
World Class Athlete program at Fort Carson in Colorado, and has
been boxing for about nine years. She is a native of Alice,
Texas.
“I just boxed a little, let her through her right hand, and step
to the side and countering,” she said. She scored a standing
eight count against Moore in the second round. “I love to
counter punch, and tonight I was able to do that. I didn't
really have a strategy because I didn't know her, but after the
first round, everything just kind of fell into place.”
132 Elite Open – The rankings might indicate it was an upset,
but Los Angeles' Mikaela Mayer, ranked as USA Boxing's No. 3
lightweight, outslugged No. 2 ranked Melissa Parker to earn a
split decision win in the fight of the night.
Mayer, who has been boxing for seven years and currently
represents the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern
Michigan University, had an especially impressive fourth round
when she repeatedly scored with her punches, even though Parker
appeared to land more heavy blows, just not enough of them.
“She's a southpaw, and really aggressive, so I knew I needed to
throw in combinations, and I think I executed that the best in
the last two rounds, just the straight right and coming back
with the hook” she said. “With a southpaw, you can't back up, so
you tuck your chin and meet her (punches).”
141 Elite Open – Even Meghan Karcher was surprised.
The Tavares, Florida, fighter who's been boxing for five years,
scored a third round stoppage of Ohio's Alycia Baumgardner, to
win her Golden Gloves national championship belt.
“My first TKO, I'm excited” she beamed, after scoring four
standing eight-counts, which means an automatic stoppage of the
fight. She boxes out of the Unique Boxing and Fitness in
Tavares.
“She was a tough girl, but our goal for this whole tournament
has been pressure, pressure,” Karcher said. “The left hook and a
right, that's our two punches.”
141 Senior Open – Monayah Patterson will return home a champion
to a gym quite used to them, the Kronk Gym in Detroit.
Patterson, who has been boxing for eight years and is aiming for
a spot of the USA Boxing 2016 Olympic team, scored a unanimous
decision over Meri Stewart of Minnesota in the finals.
“My corner was telling me to stay on my toes and work the jab,
and go to the body” Patterson said. “My strategy was work hard
because I was not going to lose.”
119 Senior Open – Shannon Renteria hopes one day to have an
Olympic medal hanging from her neck, but for now, she is happy
to settle for a gold from the 2014 finals.
Renteria, who has been boxing for about three years, too a split
decision over Samantha Salazar of of Texas. She boxes out of the
Madison Boxing Gym in Phoenix, Ariz.
“Definitely setting everything up off the jab,” she said about
the key to getting the close win. She did some good body work,
especially late, which might have paid off. “Most definitely.
Kill the body and the head falls off,” she added.
112 Senior Open – Jacquelyn Cuddeback credited a conversation
with a fellow female fighter the night before her championship
bout. Of course, it wasn't just any boxer, it was a chat with
Lucia Rijker, who was in town as part of the inaugural class of
fighters inducted into the International Women's Boxing Hall of
Fame.
Cuddeback rode Rijker's advice to a unanimous decision over
Katie Durgin of Massachusetts. She fights out of the Cedar
Rapids Boxing Club in Iowa, and has been serious about boxing
for only about two years now, while also practicing mixed
martial arts.
“I wanted to get an idea of where I wanted my head to be, and
she told me it's all about being positive, that if you get in
there and what you're doing isn't working, rather than focusing
on it, accept it, and figure out a way to work with it,” she
said.
112 Senior Novice – Letrial Soloman has only been boxing for
about seven months, but she already has a national title,
defeating Felicia O'Brien of Massachusetts by a close split
decision.
Soloman fights out of ATT Legacy/World Class Boxing in Port St.
Luice Florida.
“The key to the win was to just keep my jab out there and say on
her, keep the pressure on her,” Soloman said. She hopes to turn
pro once she finished her amateur days.