By Dennis 'dSource' Guillermo
The 2012 London Olympics set the stage for female boxers to be finally included in the Olympic Programme. Naturally, a former Olympic hopeful herself, 3-time world champion Ana Julaton paid a close eye on the competition.
"It's no surprise that Women's Boxing was so popular in the Olympics! Women fight for everything we have," Julaton told this scribe regarding the impact of female boxers at the Games. "I've always said we have to perform ten times better than the men just to get equal attention. You saw that this year with the only USA Gold Medal coming from Claressa Shields. I loved watching her fight in the finals, she is good for boxing (I mean both Men and Women's)."
After fighting so hard herself to push for Women's Boxing to be part of the Olympics back when she was still campaigning as an amateur, and ever after she had already climbed the pro ranks, Julaton was unable to mask her emotions as she witnessed her fellow female boxers make history.
"It makes me proud to see how well all the Women Boxers were received in London and a special congratulations to all the medal winners," Julaton said, and added, "I hope now that the biggest stage in the world has seen how fantastic of a sport Women's Boxing is, let's hope it'll open up the USA TV Networks like HBO and SHOWTIME to realize not only is there an audience for our sport, but our ratings will be huge if given the opportunity much like NBC did with the Olympics."
We discussed many aspects of the sport, and Julaton expressed her frustrations in all the bye rounds given to some of the female competitors. I for one felt there could have been more competitiors added, so that more countries like the Philippines, were able to join in this historic event, as opposed to handing out byes to some of the fighters. "I am sad for Josie (Gabuco), Alice Kate (Aparri) and Nesthy (Petecio) that they did not get the chance to join in London," Julaton mentioned. I don't know what happened with the amateur program, but based on what I witnessed from being around those ladies, I felt the best chance of the Philippines winning a medal was through them. I hope they stick to the program and get an opportunity in RIO 2016," Julaton continued.
Julaton, who personally lent her hand to the Philippine National team when they visited San Francisco in 2010 felt that fighters like Josie Gabuco, who won the AIBA World Championships at 108 lbs., could have made the leap to 112 lbs. like some of the other representatives from the other countries did, and with a talent like hers, could have at least won a Bronze Medal for the Philippines.
In the division where Gabuco or Alice Kate Appari would have been placed, there were 3 bye's in the first round. Eventual Gold Medalist Nichola Adams (GBR), Silver Medalist Ren CanCan (China) and Bronze medalist Marlen Esparza (USA) all got byes in the first round and was guaranteed a medal after winning only one match. Had there been more countries allowed like the Philippines, they could have easily been one of the ladies standing in that medal stand. Mary Kom who earned her medal the "old fashioned way" by competing in every round to receive the Bronze medal, is one of the best in the sport and was a Julaton favorite to medal in the games.
"I am happy for all the medal winners as I know personally know how tough it is to get recognition in this sport. I don't believe anyone should criticize how they won the medal as there was a lot of work and sacrifices in order for all these boxers to get to London," Julaton said. "I think it's AIBA's failure to recognize how great female boxing has been over the past decade which may have played into why there were so many byes rather than allowing other countries to compete like the Philippines for female boxing. I hope they can remedy this in 2016, so that others can fill in those bye spots instead."
I asked Julaton about her Olympic dreams and what it felt like to be the only Filipina American to make it as high as being Ranked #2 in the nation by winning the Silver Medal in her final year as an amateur 2007 (only other to surpass this was Brian Viloria who competed for the USA in 2000). We also discussed the possibilities of her competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics, as there has been some rumors from AIBA about letting Pro fighters compete in those games.
"Dennis I don't regret my amateur career, I learned a lot about how Amateur Boxing works it's definitely different from being a professional fighter, honing my skills in the amateur games and getting a chance to be in the ring with some of the Best and accomplishing what I did in my 3 years as an amateur was humbling. It's just sad that so many of us were robbed of our chances for the Olympic Women's Boxing dream in Beijing 2008. If ever given an opportunity I would love to get a chance to compete in the Olympics," Julaton said.
Female fighters fight tooth and nail, and have a huge following in many countries outside the United States. It's the one sport, like soccer, where America is truly lagging behind.
As for now, Julaton is preparing for her next fight, which her promoter Allan Tremblay says could be in her hometown in Pangasinan in the Philippines. Julaton is on a quest to become a 4-time World Champion.
Dennis 'dSource' Guillermo is a prolific boxing writer. Follow him onTwitter, and for an archive of his work click here. You e-mail him at DennisGuillermo2@yahoo.com
