Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
      • Subscribe
      • Close
    • Close
  • In Season
    • Basketball
    • MMA
    • Running
    • Soccer
    • Close
  • Pro
  • Olympics
  • College
  • High School
  • Youth
  • Coaching
  • Business
  • Title IX
  • Entertainment
  • Inspiration

Women Talk Sports

News, Commentary, Features about Women in Sports

You are here: Home / Books / Cuba’s only female boxer leaves

April 3, 2015 By Niamh Griffin Leave a Comment

Cuba’s only female boxer leaves

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32040924
Namibia Flores in action PIC via BBC

A few weeks ago I posted about ‘Boxedora’ a documentary on a woman who wants to box but she lives in Cuba where it’s stricly men only.

A reader (thank you!) sent me a link this week to an interview with Namibia Flores on her last day in Cuba. Yes, she is leaving her home – which by the way is the home of the sweetest male boxing style you’ll ever see – to train in America. 
I know there are many bigger problems in the world but this just doesn’t make sense. Men’s boxing in Cuba is revered. Their boxers have won more gold medals at the Olympics than any other country.  That means of course they have the best coaches and gyms, a depth of talent you simply won’t find anywhere else. 
American Meg Smaker made that powerful doco about Flores which caught global attention. In this clip from the BBC interview (below) Namibia says: ‘I always trained in the hope that someday they might approve women’s boxing.’ 
How good is Flores? She trained and sparred with the national youth (male) team and says: ‘I was the same’. 
Coming from Ireland this breaks my heart for an additional reason. The first female boxer here was Deirdre Gogarty, who left Ireland for America in the early 1990s. She left because women’s boxing was banned here, and having fought some ‘demonstration’ fights without earning any change in the system, she simply left. 
Deirdre Gogarty today PIC via Gogarty’s Twitter
I  met Gogarty at her old boxing gym when she was in Dublin in 2012 promoting her book ‘Call to the Ring’. Her most famous fight was against Christy Martin in 1996, clips from that are on her blog here. 
An inspiration to fighters like Olympian Katie Taylor, it’s sad that her battle continues to be fought today.
BBC: Cuba’s only woman boxer leaves to puruse her dream   (Produced by Will Grant, Alberto Moreno)

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Related

Filed Under: Books, Boxing, Film, Inspiration, Media, Olympics

Speak up! Leave a Comment: Cancel reply

Social

  • View WomenTalkSports’s profile on Facebook
  • View @womentalksports’s profile on Twitter

Women’s Sports News

Women disguised as men sneak into Iranian football match

April 30, 2018 3:00 am

The Future Of The National Pro Fastpitch League Looks Difficult — And That Is Not Surprising

February 7, 2018 10:43 pm

Three-time Olympian Erin Hamlin to retire after PyeongChang

February 6, 2018 5:38 pm

Smithsonian: A Brief History of Womens Figure Skating

February 6, 2018 5:34 pm

Pat Lamb, coach and champion of women’s sports at Carleton, dies at 83

February 5, 2018 9:48 pm

What’s Popular:

  • Things are (finals)-ally beginning to slow down
    Things are (finals)-ally beginning to slow down

Recent Posts

  • Things are (finals)-ally beginning to slow down
  • Jessica Mendoza’s new book “No Base Like Home” Makes a Great Holiday Gift
  • Women’s Empowerment: How to Invest in Your Career Development
  • As We Begin Week Five of WBB NCAA season………….
  • Scramble at the top of the NEC standings, but defending champs Saint Francis U and preseason favorite Robert Morris are struggling
Pretty Tough
TwitterFacebookLinkedinYoutubegoogleplus

Home · Legal · Contact · Copyright Women Talk Sports, LLC© 2019 · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.