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S SAMANTHA<br />
76<br />
SAMANTHA GUZMAN, 20<br />
REIGNING ILLINOIS STATE U.S. CHAMPION (FLYWEIGHT)<br />
HEIGHT: 5' 2" • WEIGHT: 101 lbs<br />
AMATEUR RECORD: 21–5<br />
HOMETOWN: OAK PARK, ILLINOIS<br />
GUZMAN EMERGES FROM THE LOCKER ROOM AT THE JABB<br />
BOXING GYM IN CHICAGO, AND THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE IS HER SHINING HAIR, WHICH SHE WRAPS<br />
DELICATELY INTO A BUN A FEW STRANDS AT A TIME AND THEN SECURES WITH A BUTTERFLY CLIP. THEN YOU<br />
NOTICE HER FINGERNAILS—LONG, PAINTED AND PERFECTLY SHAPED. SHE STUFFS HER HANDS INTO BRIGHT<br />
RED EVERLAST BOXING GLOVES, LACING THEM UP AS SHE WALKS PAST A WALL OF MIRRORS TOWARD THE RING.<br />
GUZMAN’S EYES, RIMMED WITH EYELINER, ARE PIERCING AND COLD, READY TO STARE DOWN HER OPPONENT.<br />
She steps into the ring with a sparring<br />
partner about her age—20 years old—<br />
and starts dancing lightly on the balls<br />
of her feet, then stepping quickly left<br />
and right. It’s that same movement<br />
you’ve seen time and again in footage of<br />
Muhammad Ali or Oscar De La Hoya<br />
or Rocky Balboa. She claps her gloves<br />
together, beckoning her opponent to<br />
make a move.<br />
Guzman is one of around 2,500<br />
female boxers in the United States whose<br />
future plans changed radically this past<br />
August, when the International Olympic<br />
Committee announced that women’s<br />
boxing will be a part of the 2012 Summer<br />
Olympic Games in London. Men’s boxing<br />
was added 105 years ago, and until<br />
August the sport was the only one in the<br />
Summer Olympics without a female<br />
discipline. Now Guzman and two other<br />
young boxers from Chicago, Tiff any Perez<br />
and Alicia Gutierrez, are considered<br />
top contenders to win the fi rst-ever gold<br />
medal in female boxing.<br />
After sparring a couple of rounds as<br />
her father and coach, Angel, watches<br />
closely and quietly off ers guidance,<br />
Guzman stands by a line of heavy bags.<br />
Weighing just a tick over 100 pounds,<br />
with limbs more slender than you might<br />
expect from a National Golden Gloves<br />
Women’s Champion, she is proud,<br />
confi dent, witty and full of opinions—<br />
not unlike Ali. A light rain is falling<br />
outside the wrought-iron casement<br />
windows. She says she’s no longer<br />
distracted by the things that rattled<br />
her when she started out. “I don’t think<br />
about the pain,” she says. “I think about<br />
the fact that the person standing in front<br />
of me in the ring wants to hurt me, break<br />
something, knock me down. Luckily,<br />
that’s when the adrenaline takes over.<br />
I open my eyes up as wide as I can. My<br />
ears are clear but I don’t hear anything.<br />
Everything goes silent.”<br />
Guzman’s career record is 21–5, and<br />
UNITED.COM<br />
DECEMBER <strong>2009</strong>
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