They’re claiming Jolene Blackshear is just another opponent from San Diego
It’s Showtime at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario and the ladies, Sindy Amador and Jolene Blackshear are headliners alongside Artemio “The King” Reyes and Alex “El Principe” Theran.
On Friday night at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, they’ll have two ladies competing, Sindy Amador, (10-0, 1 KO) of nearby Riverside and Jolene Blackshear (7-3, 3 KOs) from far off San Diego. The ladies will be battling it out for the vacant, interim WIBA Jr. Flyweight World title in an 8-round bout.
Extra special is the fact that this will be the first championship fight for Thompson Boxing Promotions at the DoubleTree. Amador, who has a reputation for being a brawler, likes to keep pressing forward. As they say, “She’s never shy to take a punch in order to deliver two.” She tries to smother her opponents with these flurries of punches. Eventually, her opponent tires out and that’s when she scores her points in bunches.
“That’s what I intend to do to Jolene on July 26,” Amador told reporters at her press briefing. “Most of my opponents find it difficult to make in-match adjustments. We’ll see how Jolene handles the pressure.”
He we see Sindy Amador of Riverside, CA in action, delivering a straight left to the face of Mayela Perez (bottom left), then on the bottom right, a straight right to the face of San Diego’s Amaris Quintana of San Diego, CA. Photos courtesy of Carlos Baeza/Thompson Boxing
Being in the limelight, it seems everyone knows of Sindy Amador. She comes from a long line of boxers in the family. Uncles, her father, the pizza delivery boy, they’ve all put the gloves on and they all love boxing. Amador grew up in a gym and calls herself – “a gym rat”.
Among her conquests is San Diego’s Amaris Quintana and it just so happens that Quintana has been helping Blackshear prepare for Friday night’s contest. In Quintana’s match with Amador, back on May 11, 2012, Amador relied heavily on her relentless right and left hooks. As soon as the middle opened up, she came with the straight shots to the face. So, who’s this other gal from San Diego who thinks she can do better?
Analysts will tell you, she’s a 43-year-old matron and Marine Biologist by trade. Her chances of winning are slim to none. They suggest she should start looking for a comfy rocking chair. At the age of 43, at least in the world of boxing, you are officially over the hill. Plus, she’s already had her shot at the title. Almost four years ago, back on October 15, 2009, Blackshear fought the Korean champion, Kyung-Ha-Shin in South Korea and lost by a unanimous decision.
Well, au contraire! You unenlightened, pea brain skeptics! You couldn’t be any further off base. The gutsy, 43-year-old is coming for that championship belt, not unlike Archie Moore, George Foreman, Bernard Hopkins and Nicola Adams. Blackshear continues to defy time.
We added that last name to see if you were paying attention. Just the other week, a 30 year-old female boxer, Nicola “Nikki” Adams, defended her European Union amateur flyweight title by outpointing this young Bulgarian by the name of Stoyka Petrova. In August of 2012, Adams made history when she won a Gold medal in the first-time admittance of female boxers into the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Ever since that medal was placed around her neck, she’s not only become famous but rich from sponsors like the Hilton Hotels, Livingwell Health Club in Leeds and Mike Thorpe Properties. She even earns dough by doing these walk on parts on a TV soap opera called Emmerdale.
As the former IFBA Light Flyweight and Flyweight world champion, it’s been rare when Blackshear received any support and for a long time, she found herself traveling from one gym to the next, training on her own and searching for sparring partners. There were no sponsors waving money in her face.
Blackshear’s long, hard road
Back on May 17, 1997, the 27 year-old Blackshear (1-0) was fighting southpaw Yvonne “The Terminator” Trevino (5-1-1) in the first IFBA all-women’s boxing card at the Reseda Country Club. Their fight, the Main Event, pitted Trevino, the former kickboxing champion from Peoria, Arizona against the promising newcomer Blackshear, at that time living in Santa Rosa, California and going to school.
Back in the day, there weren’t that many female fighters and you’d often have to travel afar just to get a match like Jolene Blackshear did to get this match with the formidable kickboxer/brawler southpaw Yvonne “The Terminator” Trevino.
In the first round, Trevino, clearly surprised by Blackshear’s aggressive style, was knocked down twice. However, both knockdowns were ruled slips, even though you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would agree. Later in that first round, Blackshear was cut under her right eye by what appeared to be an elbow strike. The fight was then stopped in Yvonne’s favor to a storm of protests from both corners, to include Yvonne and many in the crowd. The promised rematch never materialized.
Soon after, Jolene successfully fought for the IFBA Flyweight Title, which she defended twice. Then came this gap of one year and five months before she fought the 27 year-old Canadian champion Margaret Sidoroff for the vacant IFBA flyweight title. Not only was Sidoroff taller and four pounds heavier, she was the more active of the two and in the end Blackshear lost her title by decision. She then went on a nine year and three month hiatus from the sport. Why? With her love of sports, she still visited the gyms, still worked out, but she faced family problems. Between 2001 and 2002 she became the primary caregiver for two of her terminally ill grandparents. Then, in 2005, after her mother became gravely ill, she again became the primary caregiver. This explains why she later gravitated towards becoming a hospice volunteer.
On May 7, 2009, in her first fight back, she faced the up and coming “Mighty” Melissa McMorrow at the time 2-0. McMorrow would later become the WIBF and WBO light flyweight weight champion.
For the Melissa McMorrow fight, Jolene Blackshear (black trunks) had Kalina Fernandez training her. Later, she went with Jose Cital (bottom right) who is currently training Blackshear. Being a local heroine, the local Boxing Promotions company, Bobby D Presents, had her present this plaque to a boxer at a recent Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Show. Photo: Jim Wyatt
After knocking the durable McMorrow down three times in the second round, Blackshear went on to defeat the much youngerMcMorrow by the thinnest of margins.
Then came this ill-fated, perhaps naive trip to Incheon, South Korea to fight Dan-Bi Kim for the vacant IFBA International Female Boxers Association minimum weight title. It came as no surprise that the three South Korean judges showed their partiality towards the hometown gal.
Along came another three year break, until Blackshear joined forces with trainer Jose Cital and nutritionist Brandy Augustine. At that point, Augustine started monitoring Jolene’s intake and with some suggestions had her training just as hard, but she wasn’t tiring as easy. Her lean body had become even more sculptured. If that’s possible.
Here we see the Jolene Blackshear entourage posing for a photo after her victory over the much taller Linda Soto at the Salon Las Pulgas in Tijuana on January 30, 2013. Photo: Jim Wyatt
And can she ever box. Just ask her last two opponents – both were a lot younger and now both have another loss on their record. Both Lili Barajas and Linda Soto were half Jolene’s age when she fought them. At this point, finding Blackshear an opponent has become a challenge in itself. Especially, after she broke one of her opponent’s jaws.
After Jose Cital, her new trainer, made several inquiries/requests to the Amador management team and then became sidetracked, he was surprised to finally get a call back and land this opportunity, especially since the ladies will be fighting for the title. Cital is so confident in his fighter that he predicted the fight with Amador will not go past the fifth round.
Believe me, this contest on Friday night is going to be a good one. The ladies are true warriors and their proficiency and dexterity will amaze you.
Jolene Blackshear poses for photos: top with boxer Antonio DeMarco, bottom with her coaches. Photo on right shows the adventurous Blackshear sailing across a great divide.
Fun to be around and always involved in some sporting event, Jolene likes to run in marathons, climb mountains and cross canyons, anything that tests her strength and endurance. She’s a big fan of those underdog movies especially Rocky, and loves the comedies like The Hangover, Bridesmaids and Identity Thief. Will she bring another World Boxing Title home to San Diego? Cital claims we won’t have to wait that long, but just to be a bit more prudent, let’s keep our fingers crossed. The tenacious Sindy Amador, born in Durango, Durango, Mexico and just recently turned 29-years of age, has an unblemished record of 10-0, 1 KO and she’ll be fighting close to home, less than 20 miles from her home in a match judged by officials that for sure know her.
