On “Q” Sports recently had the pleasure of speaking with on here upcoming fight, the female movement in women’s boxing and juggling being a single mother and boxer at the same time.
The 31-year-old is currently 4-1-2 and fights out of Saint Petersburg, Florida. She might be a full-time boxer, but she is also a full-time mother, who knows what it takes to be successful inside the ring and outside of it.
Rich: Noemi thanks for the time and giving us a couple of moments, so close to your fight. Let’s get into it.
Noemi: “My pleasure, lets go I am ready”
Rich: You have an upcoming Friday, your opponent has been named, correct?
Noemi: “Yes, Elizabeth Stevens from Utah. I know very little on her. I have tried to do some homework on her and I know she took some time off, no real videos of her, so I just have to depend on reactions and feeling her out right from the start.”
Rich: Interesting that you do homework on your opponents, I know many boxers stay away from that and leave that up to their team to handle.
Noemi: “Absolutely, yeah I like to go over strategy with my coach, not spend to much time looking at history, but I like to get a sense of their style, if they do something this way, than maybe I counter that way. If I have to stay on the inside, I will, on the outside, I will. I like to get a feel for them. This will be a four-round fight.”
Rich: Does your mindset change if you get an opponent on short-notice, does your training change at all?
Noemi: “No my team and I train as hard as we can every single camp no matter who the opponent is, when we spar, we spar hard. I do inside fighting and outside fighting and it is easy for me to adapt during a fight. I am very versatile, in some fights I throw hard shots. I like to box, and move my feet and then other times I will fight.”
Rich: How did you get involved in the sport?
Noemi: “In the non-traditional sense. As a young girl I played with the boys and was very fascinated with sports, I was wrapped up in the games, football, baseball and boxing and have been ever since.”
Rich: You fought as an amateur?
Noemi: “Yes, I was 19-6 and turned pro in 2012.”
Rich: You are 31-years-old. Reason I am asking is because it seems in female boxing you can be a late arrival to the party, you can start late in the game.
Noemi: “Yes, I notice a lot of girls they start lately because the Olympics are getting involved, so it not uncommon for them to start in their late 20’s or 30’s.”
Rich: Let’s go back to your last fight, you suffered your first loss as a pro against Kenia Enriquez. What happened in that fight?
Noemi: “Well, that was a risky fight, I was 4-0, she was 8-0, and she is definitely very experienced, hats off to her. She has my respect, I would like to see her in the future. We knew that losing was a possibility, and as a warrior you want to go up against someone like that, she is experienced and you want that type of bout and fight. She is best that I have been up against.”
Rich: How do you see female boxing going forward?
Noemi: “You know I am actually pretty enthusiastic with the direction it is going, slowly, but it is an upward slant right now. There is more recognition in the sport right now. All of us fighters are working so hard, and we are representing the sport in a positive way, we can fight, look at Ava Knight. She is so talented, there are so many talented boxers out there that people have never even heard of. We have been going against the grain, there is not a ton of promotion in the sport for us, like there has been in MMA. But look, I am proud of these girls, all these girls, we are making some noise.”
Rich: How active can we expect to see you be in 2014?
Noemi: “I like to stay busy, I had two fights in two weeks once, I like to stay busy, I could have a fight every month. Sometimes twice a month, as long as I do not suffer any cuts or stuff like that. I am a full-time fighter. I want to gain the most experience I can and that is staying busy. I am always in shape, I will take fights on short notice. Being active is the key for me, and I think any boxer.”
Rich: One fact about female boxing is that the pay is really not there, the purses are very small. I mean you can fight for a regional belt or title belt and really some girls I know have made a couple grand, when they should be making more. You think boxing overseas, where the sport is more popular can benefit you even more, especially from a financial standpoint?
Noemi: “Absolutely, one of my dreams and goals is to fight overseas. I do not have an extensive amateur background, so to go over there and fight would be huge for me. You have to be on your game plan, and yes, the money would be there, but you need to step up when you go over there and fight in Europe, or Mexico or anywhere overseas. The girls there are really getting it in and that would be great exposure and the fan support is a lot bigger there.”
Rich: Tough to basically market, promote and sell yourself every day as a boxer. How do you do and what advice would you offer young female boxers to help them from a promotional aspect?
Noemi: “I would like to see women investing more time promoting themselves, when I first started doing it, blasting it out on Facebook, people thought I was talking about it to much, but it got me recognition with sponsors and not the purse, that is where is the money is at. It is with sponsorship, so the more people buying tickets, the happier the sponsors and promoters are. We are helping them putting butts in the seats, and when you blast stuff on Facebook and twitter and just getting people talking, they will show up and support. More recognition, the more opportunity and yeah of course the more money to be made. But we have to do it, push forward, promote every bout we are on, work hard and then enjoy the rewards and play.”
Rich: One thing you can fix or change in female boxing what would it be?
Noemi: “All I want to see is one female bout on these cards consistently. Golden Boy, Top Rank, any of these promoters, just start putting out bouts on your cards especially for TV, we need that exposure. We can fight, we are talented, we can put butts in the seat. Let us show you all of our heart and sacrifice and talent that we have to offer. Women are professional and we are getting the support and we love the limelight, and people will see that, we are working as hard as the guys are, just one fight per card. I would love to see that. It will get people talking and they will be entertained.”
Rich: How do you juggle a career, being a full-time boxer and single mother at the same time? That takes a ton of sacrifice.
Noemi: “Man, are you kidding me, it is tough. I have a beautiful daughter Brianna, and she is the most beautiful thing in the world, she is a great daughter does so well in school and I am so blessed. I hustle, I am a personal trainer, I do massage therapy I do what I need to do. I am working at Tigers World Gym in Tampa and I just love staying busy. It is hard, but I am in love with life. Everyday I open my eyes, and see how blessed I am. I get paid to do my most favorite thing in the world, my family is the best. They know I can be a goof ball. I was not sure I would even be here but you now what, I am very proud of where I am in my life. I am very proud of that.”
Rich: You look at MMA, and let’s be honest some many of the female fighters are very talented but they have been able to parlay their beauty into endorsements and such. I say that with respect, we know to some degree sex sells. You model as well, so how do you balance that out? Meaning, how do you avoid people looking at you and saying she is just another pretty face and they forget you are a boxer?
Noemi: (Without any hesitation) “You win fights, that is how you do it. You market yourself and you win fights. You lose fights and have crazy pics floating around you will not be taken serious. But if you take sexy pics, which I like taking, but you are winning, then you are taking serious. It is that simple. Look, there are a ton of great female boxers right now that we will never ever hear of. I will not be one of those fighters. People just do not see the blood, sweat and tears that we put in, so let them think what they want, but watch when we win.”
Rich: Talk about what you have going on from a promotional standpoint and branding yourself?
Noemi: “I would love to endorse products, that is where you can make some money. You get involved in fighting but you always have to have a back-up plan. I am building relationships with sponsors I continue to work with because I know my shelf life as a boxer is short. I do not want to go back to a 9-5 job. I want to build and use my brand and that hype to help build my career and continue to work on other things. I am working with SFL Entertainment, they are a great group of guys, they help me find sponsors, but you have to hustle, that is what I do. I hustle and just keep having faith and move forward.”
Rich: What is your ultimate goal?
Noemi: “In life or in Boxing?
Rich: Well, both.
Noemi: “Every fighters dream is to be a world champ, not only a defending champion, but I think I speak for all warriors when I say that, well I want to be that. But I want to inspire people to believe in themselves, there was a time in my life when I was going in the wrong direction, but I am a different person than I am today than I was before. The way my life was going, it was just going in the wrong direction, but I want to write books, have a documentary done on me and my life, I have a story to tell. I just want to inspire the movement and my dreams are bigger than boxing. I can die and have a group of kids or girls who have been inspired by me and they are a certain place in their life because of something I said to them or did, than let me be that person. I would love to be that person.”
Rich: Thanks for the time and best of luck going forward.
Noemi: “Thank you so much, it was great, thanks again.”
Follow Noemi on twitter @NoemiBosques & Instagram@NoemiBosques
Rich Quiñones is an award winning broadcaster and the lead blow-by-blow Boxing voice for GFL.tv and Go Fight Live’s Boxing on Comcast. He has sat ringside calling the action with Monte Barrett, Brian Adams, Amir Mansour, Danny Garcia, James Kirkland, Mark Breland, Ronnie Shields, Teddy Atlas and Lou DiBella, while broadcasting over 125 bouts for GFL in 2013-2014.
Rich Quiñones is an award winning broadcaster and journalist. He is the lead blow-by-blow Boxing voice for GFL.tv and Go Fight Live’s Boxing on Comcast. He has sat ringside calling the action with Monte Barrett, Brian Adams, Amir Mansour, Danny Garcia, James Kirkland, Mark Breland, Ronnie Shields, Teddy Atlas and Lou DiBella, while broadcasting over 125 bouts for GFL in 2013-2014.
Rich is also a contributor to Ringnews24.com and he has also handled calling the action for Muay Thai and is exclusive lead blow-by-blow voice for CFFC MMA.
You can follow Rich on twitter @ https://twitter.com/RichQonQ and Tumblr.com @ http://onqsports.tumblr.com as well as LinkedIn.
