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Jolene Blackshear, a hard-hitting
4'11"
flyweight/junior flyweight from San Diego, California, began boxing
professionally in 1996 and rose quickly to the IFBA Flyweight world
title.
In 2009, after a nine-year layoff, she returned to competition for the
love of the sport and unfinished business. Her “new” team (of the past
9 years) has been Kalina Fernandez as trainer and manager, with Tony
Contreras as the assist.
Under this team, Blackshear has retained the drive and passion that
previously put her atop the women's boxing world. In her first comeback
fight in May 2009, Blackshear defeated Melissa McMorrow in San Jose by
UD4 after dropping her three times in the 2nd round.
Jolene graduated with Honors
from Sonoma State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology. She
also excelled in collegiate sports, earning all-Conference Honors in
fast pitch softball as well as track and field. She originally began
boxing as a challenge and a continuation of her competitive nature
while in school. Her fast, aggressive and exciting ring style would
give Yvonne Trevino, Anissa Zamarron. Delia
Gonzalez
and Margaret Sidoroff
all they could handle!
Jolene began her pro boxing
career on June 10, 1996 at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz,
California when she knocked down Rebecca Cesena of Sacramento, CA three
times en route to a KO in the fourth round. Cosena fell to 0-2 with the
loss and from that point on Blackshear sought tougher competition.
On May 17, 1997 Jolene (113
lbs) fought Yvonne Trevino
(112 lbs) of Arizona in the first IFBA all-women's card at the Fantasy
Springs Casino in Indio, California. Jolene knocked the heavily-favored
Arizonan down twice early in the first round of the contest but both
knockdowns were ruled slips by the referee. Later in the same round,
Jolene was deeply cut under her right eye by a strike from Yvonne's
elbow. The doctor rules that Jolene could not continue and the fight
was ruled a TKO win for Trevino ... to a storm of protests - from
Yvonne, from both corners, and from many in the crowd! Unfortunately, as much as
both fighters were not pleased with the outcome of this fight, the
rematch that seemed inevitable at the time never took place.
On October 4, 1997 at the Lady
Luck Casino in Lula, Mississippi, Jolene (108 lbs) won the IFBA
flyweight championship with a ten-round (99-93, 97-93, 96-94) decision
over Anissa Zamarron
(110 lbs) of Austin, Texas in a war that was easily the best fight on
the pay-per-view card. Zamarron's nose was broken but she still gave
the aggressive Blackshear a tremendous battle. Both fighters received a
standing ovation at the end of the bout.
The fight was named IFBA Fight of the Year for 1997.
On June 30, 1998 at the Trump
Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Jolene (110 lbs) retained the
IFBA Flyweight title with a brutal fifth-round TKO over Sara Hall (109
lbs) of Chesterfield, England, a 5-0 kickboxer who was making her pro
boxing debut. Jolene went right at Hall from the opening bell
and ate some hard right hands but got the better of most of the
toe-to-toe exchanges with the English fighter. Late in the fourth
round, as she pounded Hall against the ropes, Blackshear
emitted a loud grunt reminiscent of Monica Seles. "It comes
from the bottom of my heart, the bottom of my toes,"
Blackshear said after the fight, adding "that's my spirit
coming out." Hall suffered a broken nose and
broken jaw and could not answer the bell for the sixth round.
On September 17, 1998 at the
Grand Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi: Jolene (111 lbs) successfully
defended the IFBA Flyweight title against the veteran Delia Gonzalez (109
lbs) of Chamberino, New Mexico with a unanimous ten-round decision
before an estimated crowd of 1,200. Judge Paul Cita had Blackshear
ahead 96-95, Freddie Steinwinder III had the bout 98-93 and C.B.Jenkins
scored the bout in favor of Blackshear by 97-93. Blackshear got off to
a fast start as usual but Gonzalez began a comeback in the fifth, using
her jab to keep Blackshear off balance. Jolene had to come on stronger
in the ninth and tenth to secure the win.
Blackshear praised Gonzalez
after the bout, saying "This was the classiest fight of my
career. Gonzalez fights clean and is
a good technician." Gonzalez fell to 10-3-2 with the loss.
On February 11, 2000 in
Kenner, Louisiana, Jolene (104 lbs) lost the IFBA Flyweight title to
Canada's Margaret Sidoroff
(108 lbs) by a hard-fought ten-round unanimous decision that was
televised live on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.
Although Blackshear had been out of the ring for over a year, she
showed no ring rust as she won the first two rounds and tagged Sidoroff
repeatedly with her hard-charging aggressive style. However, Sidoroff
improved the timing of her counter lefts in the third and the fight
turned around in the middle rounds. Sidoroff showed great head movement
and superb reflexes to slip Blackshear's punches while landing her own
busy and effective combinations. As Blackshear fell behind on points,
she escalated the pressure and the final round was a war with both
fighters taking and dishing out significant punishment. Sidoroff rose
to the challenge and was backing Blackshear up as they went toe to toe
to end an exciting, skilled and heart-filled bout.
The scorecards recorded a
unanimous (98-92,98-92,97-93) decision for Sidoroff ... but the real
winner may have been women's boxing in the USA as the live bout drew
non-stop praise from the ESPN2 Friday Night Fights
commentators. Sidoroff advanced to 7-0 with 3 KO's while Jolene fell to
4-2 (2 KO's).
Unfortunately for fans of the
best in women's boxing, this classic battle with Sidoroff, who won
three world titles, would be Jolene's last pro fight for more than nine
years.
On May 7, 2009 at "Fight Night at the
Tank" at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, Jolene (105½ lbs)
came back to the sport in "fighting fit" style when she took on the
talented undefeated Melissa
McMorrow of San Francisco, California The two
boxers did not disappoint the fans, and went toe to toe with each
other. Blackshear dropped McMorrow three times in the second
round and kept up the pace with her devastating straight right hand.
McMorroew displayed great resilience by fighting back well after the
three-nockdown round, however, and the rest of the fight was almost
even. Blackshear had been deducted a point for hitting McMorrow after
the younger fighter was down in the second but a shocker came at the
end when the four-rounder was declared a majority draw but. It was
later realized that a scoring tabulation error had been made
and the correct tabulation was a majority decision (37-36,
37-36,36-36) win for Blackshear. McMorrow, who
had been the
junior flyweight silver medalist at the USA Boxing Nationals in 2007
and a two-time regional Golden Gloves champion, fell to 2-1 with her
first pro loss. Jolene improved her own pro record to 5-2-0
(2 KO's).
On October
15, 2009 at Songdo Convensia in Incheon
City in South Korea, Dan-Bi Kim (4'11", 103 lbs) of Anseong, South
Korea won a 10-round unanimous (97-94,96-94,96-94) decision over Jolene
Blackshear (104¼ lbs) for the
vacant IFBA Mini-Flyweight belt. In a statement sent to WBAN on October
17, Judy Kulis of the IFBA wrote that “The
IFBA will file a
formal
protest on behalf of Jolene Blackshear and Lisa Brown over the
questionable outcomes delivered by judges after their respective bouts
on Oct. 15 in South Korea." On October 27, 2009, Kalina
Fernandez of Team Blackshear sent WBAN a copy of an official
protest of the decision detailing numerous infractions by Dan-Bi Kim and
challenging the scoring of the fight.
Since 2011, Jolene has been training with
James
Thomas (head trainer) and Jose Cital (manager / co-trainer).
On October 25, 2012 at Las Pulgas in
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, Jolene (105½ lbs) returned
to the ring and TKO'd
unbeaten Lili Barajas (107 lbs) of Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico at 0:47 in
the first round of a scheduled four-rounder. Blackshear broke Barajas's
nose with a straight left that sent the Mexican to the canvas; the
fight ended when the referee judged that Barajas was unable to
continue. Barajas fell to
3-1 (3 KO's) with the loss.
On
January 30, 2013 at Las
Pulgas, in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, in the semi-main event,
Jolene Blackshear (107 lbs) won a six round unanimous
(58-56x3) decision over Linda Soto (5'3",
105¾ lbs), from Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico.
Blackshear improved her
pro record to 7-3 (3 KO's) while Soto fell to 5-2 (3 KO's).
On July 26 2013 at the Doubletree Hotel in
Ontario,
California, Jolene won an eight-round split (74-75,76-74,76-74)
decision over previously undefeated Sindy Amador of Riverside,
Caifornia for the interim WIBA Junior Flyweight title. Amador dropped to 10-1
(1 KO).
On December 6, 2013 at the Chumash Casino
in Santa Ynez, California, undefeated Maria (Maggie) Suarez of Santa Maria,
California moved her record to 7-0-1 (0 KO's) with a six-round
unanimous (60-54,60-54,59-55) decision over Jolene Blackshear who
fell to 8-4 (3 KO's).
On April 4, 2014, at the Four Points Sheraton
Hotel in San Diego, California, Kenia Enriquez
(107½ lbs) of Tijuana, Mexico won the vacant
NABF Junior Flyweight title when she TKO'd Jolene Blackshear (107 lbs)
at
1:26 in the seventh round of a scheduled eight. Enriquez used her
jab well to keep Blackshear at a distance in the early going while
using
every opportunity to land countering combinations. Enriquez became more
aggressive in the second half of the fight and her nose was bloodied in
the fifth by one of Blackshear's hard rights. The sixth and
seventh were harder fought and Enriquez won with a decisive flurry of
left
hooks in the seventh to earn the stoppage. Blackshear
fell to 8-5 (3 KO's) while Enriquez improved her pro record to
11-0 ( 6 KO's) with the win.
Blackshear vs. Susan Reno
On September 4, 2014, in San Diego, California in a
light flyweight six, Jolene Blackshear 9(4)-5(2) won a first round
KO over Susan Reno 1-3(1)-1.
"Boxing takes
athletic prowess, skill coordination, hard training and profound
dedication," said Blackshear, who trains four hours a day to
keep in shape for her fights. "It's not street fighting or mud
wrestling or Jerry Springer, and it's not something you just step into
the ring and do. You have to be really dedicated to succeed."
Jolene is a complete fighter with
passion, drive, and a great team behind her as she aims to
make her "second time around" even better than the first.
Page
last updated: Friday, May 3, 2018
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