By Thomas Gerbasi
It may just be a six-round fight on the non-televised portion of Saturday’s Gennady Golovkin vs. Willie Monroe Jr. card at The Forum in Inglewood, California, but it couldn’t be any bigger for one of the participants in that bout, Seniesa Estrada, and it may be bigger than that for the sport of women’s boxing.
This is a statement by K2 Promotions, a company that has already shown their commitment to the ladies of the prize ring by joining forces with pound-for-pound queen Cecilia Braekhus. By putting a female fight on a Golovkin event, one that will be televised by HBO and watched by fans around the world, it’s giving women a platform they have rarely had, especially as of later. Tom Loeffler, Managing Director of K2, simply sees it as good business.
“She (Estrada) is very marketable, not only as a boxer inside the ring, but she’s very attractive and marketable outside the ring,” he said. “She sold a lot of tickets, she has a big fanbase here in Los Angeles, she has an exciting style, and it just made sense. I think she’ll bring a lot of people to the show.”
How many? At the time of our interview on May 13, Estrada estimates that she’s sold approximately 160 tickets for Saturday’s bout.
“We started off with 75 tickets, but the support was so great so we had to get 75 more and then we got more after that, so it was more than we expected, which was good.”
You hear it all the time, whether it’s Heather Hardy in New York or Shelito Vincent in New England, that female fighters sell tickets. So why not take them from the club scene and put them in the big room? Few promoters will, but Loeffler and company did with Estrada.
“It’s really our philosophy from the top of the show all the way down,” Loeffler said. “We decided to put Chocolatito (Roman Gonzalez) on the show and he’s created a lot of interest locally, and Seniesa as well. She’s got three fights but she’s got a big fanbase, and she definitely compliments the show when you also have great male champions like Gennady and Chocolatito.”
So in other words, K2 Promotions is actually promoting, giving fans who enjoy all different aspects of boxing something to show up to The Forum for. What a concept. And in the 22-year-old East Los Angeles native, those fans are going to be watching a fighter that they may see transcend the sport one day, look back, and say “I was there at The Forum that night.”
Of course, we’re talking about a fighter with a 3-0 pro record who has fought those fights over a space of four years. Such is the life of a female boxer, especially a talented one.
“Having such a good amateur background is kind of a problem now that I’ve turned pro,” Estrada, owner of a 97-4 amateur record, said. “When I was an amateur, it was great, but now that I turned pro, I see it as a problem because I can’t get a fight. So what I’ve realized is that I’ll have to take anything that comes to me.”
That means taking the opportunity of a lifetime against England native Carley Batey at 116 pounds instead of in her usual weight class.
“I don’t fight at 116,” she said. “I fight from 108 to 112 pounds, but women don’t get too many opportunities, so we had to take this fight at 116 pounds. I don’t want to stay inactive any longer. I believe in myself and I believe I can win, even though my opponent is physically bigger. I believe I’m a lot more skilled and talented and I can do it.”
Batey’s record currently stands at 4-4, but that’s deceiving, as she’s faced top talents Kaliesha West, Ana Julaton and Monica Lovato, losing split decisions to all three. The caveat about the 35-year-old heading into Saturday night? She hasn’t fought since 2008. So while you would assume this would be an early clash of who has the worst ring rust, Estrada is not concerned with such an issue, as she’s been in the gym throughout, and after scoring her first pro knockout over Blanca Raymundo in March of 2014, she’s remained by the phone, hoping for fights that never panned out. But this one did.
“I was just so blessed,” she said. “I’ve been patient and a lot of fights have fallen through. I was supposed to fight five times last year and that didn’t happen.”
Saturday night will happen though, and while Estrada was obviously happy to step onto the big stage, no one was happier than her father, Joe.
“He was very excited, and the first thing he told me was ‘I knew it; I knew something big was going to come,’” she said, noting how her dad saw how discouraged she was getting at the lack of fights coming her way. “He always told me ‘I pray every night and I know that God’s gonna bring you something bigger and he’s not going to let you down.’”
Faith is a big part of the Estrada family’s day-to-day journey. And though many sneer at athletes thanking God after every fight but living less than virtuous lives outside the ring, when you hear Seniesa Estrada talk about the role of faith in getting her to where she’s at today, you can’t help but listen and believe that maybe a higher power was at work in getting her to this point.
See, Estrada had every reason in the book to get lost in a world far removed from the one she’s in now. Caught in the middle of gang life, drugs and prison, Joe Estrada seemed destined for a bad end. Seniesa turned that around. Not just by being born, but by asking him to bring her to the boxing gym at the age of eight. Now the father had a reason to stay on the straight and narrow, as his now positive lifestyle kept his daughter from going down the wrong path.
Years later, it all makes sense.
“Now that I’m older and I can figure out how I got to this position, I think that it’s all because of God,” Seniesa said. “I think he put it in my heart and in my mind to want to start boxing because it would eventually save my dad’s life from prison and drug addiction, and at the same time it would make me the person I am today. That’s why I believe I got to where I’m at now. Boxing was the one thing that kept me and kept him together. I appreciate everything I’ve been through and I use it as motivation because if God can bring me this far with all those problems growing up, then I can’t give up now. That’s why I continue to try to do the right things in my career and try to go down a path where I’ll hopefully be successful, just like Ronda Rousey is in the UFC. That’s what I want to do for boxing.”
Rousey, the unbeaten UFC women’s bantamweight champion, was recently described on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the World’s Most Dominant Athlete. Not most dominant female athlete, but most dominant athlete. That’s a big deal for someone like Estrada, who, like all her peers, is peppered with questions focusing on her looks and / or the reasons why she would want to take up a sport like boxing. They’re queries male boxers don’t have to answer, and it is a sticking point – as it should be – with Estrada.
“It’s the most annoying thing I have to deal with, and I hate those kinds of questions because I want to be known for my talent and how skilled I am and not because of the way I look,” he said. “At the same time, it makes you have to worry about looking the part and looking good all the time, because people expect that from you, and that isn’t great. So that’s definitely a big, annoying obstacle, and hopefully the more people see me fight, they won’t have to ask those questions anymore because they’ll know why I fight. It’s because I’m good.”
As for Rousey, Estrada smiles at her fellow fighter’s success, because now she can see what is possible.
“She (Rousey) really inspires me, and seeing her do all this makes me believe that I can do it for women’s boxing,” Estrada said. “And her being called the most dominant athlete, that’s what me and my trainer (Dean Campos) always talk about. He says ‘I don’t want people to know you as the best female boxer.’ We want people to compare me to the men and say ‘she’s one of the best boxers, not just female boxers.’ That’s exactly how I want to be known.”
To be known in that way, it takes a perfect storm. Yes, looks do matter, as does charisma and ease in the spotlight, and Estrada has all those bases covered. But the most important factors are being able to fight against all comers, and win in the most pressure-filled situations possible. Estrada says she’s ready for it all, and it’s hard to doubt her.