Luciano Gonzalez
03/20/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 03/20/2021 6:00 AM
When Alfredo Le Pera wrote in 1934 that of "feeling that life is a breath, that 20 years is nothing," almost no one thought that a woman could put on a pair of gloves and step into a ring.
A long time had to pass for women's boxing to be regulated in the country:
March 25, 2001
was marked forever on the national sports calendar.
Twenty years have passed since then.
Twenty years that were much more than nothing, in which Argentina consecrated 32 professional world champions and three medalists in amateur ecumenical championships.
But reaching that founding date for boxing was not an easy or short task.
Beyond some exhibition starring
Elvecia Cheppi
in 1926 in Tres Arroyos and reconstructed by the journalist
Julio Ernesto Vila
in his book
El boxeo y yo
, the history of national female boxing recognizes as a starting point the fight that
Marcela Acuña
lost on points to
Christy Martin
on December 5, 1997 at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater, 60 kilometers north of Miami.
That was the first rented match in which an Argentine boxer participated.
And it was conceived in a television studio.
La
Tigresa
was 20 years old in December 1996, when she decided to abandon full contact (the discipline she had started to practice at 7 and of which she was the South American champion since she was 14) to try her luck in boxing.
No less detail stood between the Formoseña and its objective: the activity, legalized for men since 1924 (after 32 years of prohibition in the Federal Capital), was not regulated for women.
The first skylight
, tiny, was opened in early September 1997, when Christy Martin, a planetary icon of the sport, traveled to Buenos Aires to promote women's boxing.
On Saturday 6 of that month, the American was at the All Boys club witnessing the evening in which José Rafael Sosa from Cordoba beat Dominican Rafael Torres for the WBO Latin flyweight title.
Acuña also attended, who managed to approach the champion and greet her.
Marcela Acuña, pioneer of boxing in Argentina.
Barely 48 hours later he was face to face with the woman who served him as inspiration: they had summoned her to make an exhibition with Martin in the program “Mediodia con Mauro”, which was hosted by Mauro Viale and was broadcast by America.
"They invited me because I was the only one who was going around on the radio and television channels saying that I wanted to box," admits the
Tigress
.
An impromptu sparring session was held in a rudimentary studio set-up ring.
What had been planned as a low intensity exhibition ended with
a strong exchange of blows and with the visitor indignant and with a bleeding nose
.
A few days later, Claudio González, the businessman who had brought Martin to Buenos Aires, offered Acuña a bag of $ 5,000 to travel to the United States to confront the pioneer.
Although he had never had a boxing match, she accepted.
After preparing for three months in Buenos Aires and gaining 10 kilos, the Formosa did a good job, she recovered from a fall in the 10th round, ended up listening to the cards against an opponent who had achieved 26 of her 33 victories by knockout and was brought congratulations from
Don King
.
Acuña returned to the country with the recognition not only of the promoter of the evening, but also of some media that were beginning to echo this news.
He also brought in his suitcase
a copy
of the Florida State Boxing Commission
regulations
.
With that document, he was presented at the headquarters of the Argentine Boxing Federation to open the debate.
In those days he met for the first time with Osvaldo Bisbal, president of the FAB.
"The bickering with Marcela Acuña began two and a half years before we reached the regulation," recalls Bisbal, who assures that at that time he was already in favor of the approval of the activity and that he had to push with the opposition of other leaders and specialized journalists.
“There were no arguments to support the ban.
I always wanted it to be approved, but I was not willing to do it in two days because we had to draw up a good regulation, "he explains.
The parsimony of the leader sometimes collided with the plight of the
Tigress
, who continued training without the possibility of fighting in the country appearing on her horizon.
That is why she decided to travel again: in September 1998 she returned to the United States to face the undefeated Lucia Rijker, a former world kickboxing champion, who had played Billie
The Blue Bear
, Maggie Fitzgerald's (Hilary Swank) last rival in the film
Million Dollar Baby
, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
The Dutch won by knockout in the fifth round.
A few months after that second experience, Acuña and Ramón Chaparro, her husband and coach, made a decision that, in the long run, would twist the course of their lives: they sold their house in the República Argentina neighborhood of the capital of Formosa, a motorcycle and some furniture, and they moved to Ezeiza (later they would move to Remedios de Escalada) together with Maximiliano (6 years old) and Josué (4), the couple's two children.
“In 1997 and 1998 we had traveled to Buenos Aires a few times to see how the regulations were coming and I had realized that things were not going one way or the other, the issue was dormant.
The best option was to come to live here and try to go to the FAB once a week to see how the process was going on and press, ”says the multi-champion.
Bisbal, meanwhile, assures that "there was never a war" with the Formosa, but a synergistic work between the two: "She met with me, we talked, I explained the situation to her and since then she has collaborated a lot with us.
She was the leader in this ”.
Marcela Acuña with her husband and coach, Ramón Chaparro, during a training session.
While the face and voice of the
Tigress
began to gain space in the media, an incipient and underground movement began to silently accompany her: small groups of women disembarked in gyms in Buenos Aires and other cities in the country to practice boxing.
One of those women was Valeria
Poldy
Saldaño, the eldest daughter of the legendary welterweight from Tucumán Horacio Agustín Saldaño.
He had started training at the age of 18 with Víctor Mastronardi at the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires and from there he had gone to the gym located in the basement of platform 14 of the Constitución railway station, where he worked with Ramón La Cruz, his father's former rival and coach.
A few months later, Carolina, her younger sister, followed.
Poldy Saldaño began boxing at age 18, when the activity was not yet regulated in the country.
“In Constitución I really started to learn because the training pace was different.
And I started making gloves with boys because there were no girls, ”says
Poldy
from Fuengirola, where she has been based for 16 years.
He went from the sparring sessions to the exhibitions in different parts of the country, although the lack of regulations led to quite irregular situations.
"Once I had a fight with La
Guapa
(María del Carmen) Montiel and she was carrying me like 10 kilos," he says.
At the time, his dream of representing the country in an international competition seemed like a chimera.
On February 19, 1999, the oldest of the Saldaño sisters sent a note to the FAB to request an amateur license.
The negative answer came 12 days later: it was argued that the Federation lacked “the duly approved regulatory norm for the practice of boxing by female persons” and that this meant that “the practitioner did not have the proper security ”.
The body recalled that only 12 of the 196 countries affiliated with the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) had regulated women's boxing and argued that this was due to “the tremendous legal, organizational, infrastructure, control, and security difficulties that the countries of the whole world find in this instrumentation ”.
Faced with the rejection,
Poldy
presented a note to the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (Inadi) to expose his situation.
In his search he was gathering support and support.
"The path of women to achieve real equality has just begun, but the former will have the satisfaction of opening the gap for their sisters," said the note that the Association of Women Judges of Argentina sent her in July 2000, chaired by Lidia Soto, member of the Oral Court No. 3 of San Martín.
Poldy Saldaño applied for an amateur boxing license in February 1999, but the FAB rejected her request.
According to Bisbal, the main reason for doubts to advance the legislation was the damage that blows to the breasts of boxers could cause.
“The AIBA was conducting studies.
We consulted medical specialists and we took two years to make our regulations because we wanted to take advantage of all the information that we could collect from international organizations to have a good base ”, argues the leader.
After months of waiting, work and uncertainty, the FAB called a press conference for Friday, March 23, 2001. At 7:20 p.m., Bisbal announced the regulation of women's boxing, which enabled women to apply for licenses as amateur or as professionals, and also to use the gymnasium of the governing body of national boxing, in Almagro.
The regulatory body established as mandatory requirements the use of a chest protector (in the country there were still no companies that manufactured these implements) and the presentation of a negative pregnancy test 48 hours before each fight.
Two days later, Marcela Acuña received license number one.
Because of that, every March 25 is celebrated the Women's Boxer Day.
For the
Tigress
, the real work began then.
“It was time to fight, to demonstrate and to convince.
We had convinced the leadership of the FAB and some media, but it was necessary to convince a large part of society about the reason for women's boxing.
I knew it was going to be a very difficult job, even more than regulation, ”he admits.
The first amateur fight authorized by the FAB was on March 30 at the Municipal Gymnasium of Santa María (Catamarca), where Nadia Sánchez beat Nancy Burgos on points in the featherweight category.
The professional premiere, which would star Acuña, was scheduled for April 21, but the evening organized by promoter Mario Arano had to be postponed for a week due to demands from the Municipal Boxing Commission of the city of Buenos Aires.
In the papers, the duel between the
Tigress
and the American Jamillia Lawrence was just one of the five that served as a complement on the card that had as a background fight the one that would star the Cordovan Ariel Nistal and the Nigerian Daniel Attah, eliminatory to the super featherweight title of the OMB.
But all the attention ended up resting on the Formosa.
“They are all watching the girls.
For me it's better, it takes pressure off me ”, Nistal acknowledged the afternoon of the weigh-in.
On April 28, 2001, 1,400 spectators and an unusual number of journalists came to the FAB stadium to see what had never happened in the country: a professional fight between women.
“I was not going unnoticed and that was already a battle won.
Many women told me that they identified with me, that we had to stand up and work for our dreams.
There was a change of chip in women, ”says Acuña.
That night, in a four-round duel in the featherweight division, the 24-year-old pioneer of Argentine women's boxing got her first win by beating 31-year-old Lawrence, who had fought 11 fights, on points. rented in their country (7 wins, 3 losses and 1 no decision).
The referee Luis Guzmán raises his right arm and Marcela Acuña celebrates her first professional victory in the country with her sons Maximiliano and Josué.
"She was very good, she came very fierce and her experience was noticeable," acknowledges the winner.
I had not competed for almost two years, but my heart was very big and that helped me win.
It was a tough and intense fight.
Obviously not all the things we had planned came out, but it was a good fight. "
The regulation of the activity in the country also opened the door for Argentina to have representation in the first AIBA Women's World Championship to be held in Scranton (United States) between November 27 and December 2, 2001. Those chosen to integrate this first selection were the Saldaño sisters, who trained in the FAB gym under the orders of Héctor Morales.
“They didn't want the men and women to meet in the gym.
They thought that could affect work because men were going to be looking at women.
So they let us use it in the last hours of the day, when no one was there anymore, "recalls
Poldy
, who emphasizes that he never suffered discrimination from a teammate:" Yes, at first, from a leader, but never from a boxer.
On the contrary, they always supported us ”.
With two months of training, but without having even been able to make a fight in the country due to lack of rivals, the Saldaños participated in the contest in which 125 fighters from 30 nations participated.
Carolina lost in the first round of the category up to 54 kilos with Canadian Wendy Broad.
Poldy
beat Chinese Li Bo in her debut in the 51kg division and then fell to Canadian Tammy DeLaforest.
"I was happy.
I had already fulfilled a dream ”, he highlights.
In October of the following year, the sisters were also part of the team that participated in the second World Championship, in Antalya (Turkey), in which Paola Casalinuovo won the bronze medal in the category up to 71 kilos.
Ten months after the regulation of the activity, Argentine boxing consecrated its first professional national champion.
It was Acuña, of course: he won the featherweight belt by knocking out Patricia Alejandra Quirico from Buenos Aires in just 14 seconds, who made her professional debut at the FAB that night at the age of 40.
La
Tigresa
was also the first world champion born in the country: she won the super bantamweight belt of the International Women's Boxing Association (WIBA) on December 6, 2003 with her victory over Panamanian Damaris Pinock Ortega at Luna Park.
It was the first of his seven fights at the Corrientes and Bouchard Coliseum (he won them all).
Marcela Acuña was the first Argentine boxer to obtain a professional world title.
Acuña was followed by 31 other women who also won world titles in these 20 years (eight are currently champions).
In these successes, Osvaldo Bisbal sees a reason for vindication of the work that was done before reaching the legalization of the activity: “Time proved me right.
Argentine women's boxing grew very strong from the start based on a good job and a good regulation that led us to obtain great achievements.
Argentina is today a very strong place for international organizations due to quality and quantity ”.
After his two appearances in AIBA World Cups,
Poldy
Saldaño stopped boxing in 2004, like his sister Carolina, when the selected one entered a waiting period.
In 2005 he traveled to Spain with the idea of trying his luck for a month and ended up staying, although away from the ring.
He returned to activity in 2015 to represent the Spanish team.
For this he had to lose 10 kilos in three months.
Poldy Saldaño became the national champion of Spain in 2015, after a decade of inactivity.
His first fight after a decade of standing was on May 8 with Olympic champion Nicola Adams ("She was like a tiny Mayweather," he says).
He lost, but he left a very good image.
Three weeks later, she became the national champion in the category up to 51 kilos, which projected her to participate in the European Qualifying Championship for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but the Spanish Boxing Federation opted for another fighter.
Then he definitely hung up the gloves.
For Acuña, boxing is still conjugated in the present.
At 44 years old, six world titles and 58 professional fights, the
Tigress
still has sane and wants to take advantage of his last year as an athlete to expand his legacy.
When she looks back and proudly reviews the road traveled, she does not doubt it: "If I had another life, I would do exactly the same thing I did because this is my passion and it is what gave meaning to my life."
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