By: Rich Bergeron
"You walk in, and it just has this old time feel," she said about the gym. "I just feel like Muhammad Ali is in the gym, the ghost of him, even though he's still alive. When I get tired, I look up at the wall, and I see him smiling."
Ali's daughter Laila also trains at Broadway, and Nguyen has even sparred with that big name she aspires to be one day. Lamon Brewster, and a few other famous fighters also used Broadway Gym to further their careers.
Nguyen first found herself in a boxing ring by sheer coincidence. "I wanted to learn self defense, and I wasn't a Martial Arts type person, but I thought, 'If I wanna fight, I need to learn how to box.' I'm not from the city, so I got a phone book out, and I went into the city." She traveled to LA Boxing where a trainer showed her around and showed her the boxing ring. "I fell in love, and I've been in love ever since," she said.
"He asked me to do a couple things in the ring, and at that time I didn't even know any terminology," she said. "I had watched Ali on tape, and I knew how a boxer was supposed to look, but I didn't know any other terminology. He said, 'Throw a jab,' and I said, 'What's that?' I spent two hours there. He showed me a jab, and I threw it, he asked me to try some footwork, and I did it easily. He asked if I was tired, and I told him no. They kept giving me different movements, and I did it all. Once the session was over, I went to the restroom, and when I came out Kevin Morgan, who was my trainer for the first three months and also Laila Ali's trainer, stopped me. He asked if I was there for exercise or to be a boxer. I said, 'No, I'm just here to exercise and learn boxing moves for self-defense. He asked, 'Do you wanna box?" I said, 'What do you mean, be a real boxer? What does that entail?"
He told her boxers have to jump rope and run, and work on conditioning and sparring. She was back the next day to start her training. Morgan told her to go to www.Womensboxing.com, and she got her first glimpse at the world of female boxing she said she "knew nothing about" at the time. She researched a few major fighters and became intrigued. "I heard of Laila Ali, but I never seen her fight, and I found her online, and I was fascinated," she said.
She calls her support team The Knights of The Round Table. On her Myspace site, she explains why:
"My good friend is Jackie Kallen (who the movie Against the Ropes is based on) and she is an advisor to me. She is the person I can talk to about anything in the world. She also has a unique ability to relax and focus me. She can make the rest of the world go away when I need to work. My manager is Steve Foss. He specializes in working with top female athletes. He is widely known and respected in the track and field industry. My head trainer/chief second is Dub Huntley. He is in the Hall of Fame. The book Million Dollar Baby was dedicated to him. He was also a middleweight champion during his amateur career and he fought professionally. He trained Laila Ali (who is the champ of our weight division) and Julio Gonzales who was the former light heavyweight champion. My cut man is Cassius Green. He keeps us all looking good! He protects us from swelling and bad cuts. He handles cuts for Laila Ali, Sugar Shane Mosley, and a lot of well-known boxers."
She added that she gave them the unique nickname because all of them are much older than she is. "They all come together to help me out on my quest for the WBC super middleweight Championship," she said. "Jackie's been with me the longest."
After emailing Jackie while training before her first match, she began corresponding daily with the living legend. "She came down to the gym, and we clicked. She's been with me ever since," said Nguyen. "She gave me advice on how to market myself, how to deal with promoters and how to deal with all the negativity that goes on, and the jealousy. Not just for women, but in the sport itself. She helped me sidestep all that and still remain focused. I really learned that lesson in my first fight. I lost, but not because I was in trouble in the ring. It had nothing to do with my opponent. It was because of the business end of boxing. Now that I know that, and I don't want that repeated, I just came up with a better way of dealing with that side, and I haven't had any trouble since."
Kallen, who has made a name for herself in all kinds of boxing circles, also works with battered women in addition to managing fighters. She has been a pioneering force over the years, and Nguyen treasures her experience. "It is fabulous. I call her mom. Because we email each other every day, and talk on the phone," she said about her mentor. "I communicate with her more than I communicate with anybody. When a fight comes on, she watches, and I watch it, and my trainer and manager, too. We all watch and ask each other, 'What do you think, what did they do wrong, what do you think that fighter needs to do differently?' I watch the fights for excitement, but I also have to study. It's constant teaching. Jackie has just been an angel for me. From the business end to training, to just my overall progress. How I adjust with having to sign autographs and be a role model and have kids asking questions, and looking up to me. She makes sure that I do it the right way, and my image stays as a champion."
When Nguyen's fans kept asking for a MySpace page, Kallen got the ball rolling. "Right now, I've been on two months, and I have over 1,600 friends. They've left comments saying they are happy to be my friend and thanking me, telling me good luck on my career, and asking me to let them know where the fights are," she said. "My friends there are from all over the country as well as in California. I have 3,600 profile views already. People have responded in tremendous fashion. They message me, and I try to answer back."
People are constantly asking her where the closest gyms are to them. She said that the lack of knowledge out there is part of a systematic problem in the sport. "It's not on our minds every day, it's not advertised every day. You don't hear it on the radio. It goes in one ear and out the other," she said. She points to La Habra Boxing Gym and says that more youth centers are cropping up like Oscar De La Hoya's, which she's been to and calls it "beautiful."
Getting more kids, and in particular more women involved in boxing, is going to take a huge effort, she reported. "Exposure, simply just exposure to the sport," she said about the real answer to the problem. "When I speak to kids and when I interact with fans, it's almost like I'm the first female boxer that they've ever met, which is exciting for them. One observation that I've made is that the people who control boxing, the boxing promoters, it's almost like they have tunnel vision when it comes to the fans. We think outside the box. We direct our attention to the fans, put me in front of the fans, and the fans are always like, 'When's the fight, we're going. Let me know when the fight is!' Promoters believe women won't buy tickets to fights, but that's absolutely not true."
Since first stepping into the ring to learn how to defend herself, she's become a dedicated fighter who trains six days a week and spars with professional male and female boxers. Trainer Dub Huntley took her under his wing after her professional debut in October, 2005 against Trudy Mayes. She lost the bout, but it didn't discourage her from participating in the sport. Huntley has worked with her to improve every aspect of her game, and she is currently in negotiating stages for her next professional fight, which she expects to happen in February.
Although she said she had no real role models growing up in the sport, she always loved Muhammad Ali. "I just love watching top athletes perform, whether it's in the NBA, WNBA, or the NFL," she said.
As for which weapon she enjoys using most in the ring, she reported that it is her jab she cherishes above all other punches. "It's a physical chess match, and the jab is the queen," she said. "The jab sets up everything. Done right and effectively, the jab will win you the fight."
Fight night is like another holiday for her. "I love fight night. It's like Christmas. It comes one day a year, and I train, train, train, train, and in my mind, it's all for fight night."
Asked what she would change about the sport, she points to the inequality that plagues boxing. "Sexism that is controlled by the promoters," she said. "Not just in boxing. Racism or sexism happens in all sports. All discrimination sucks."
Her ultimate goal is "to become the new face of women's boxing, a household name." She values her support team for "working very hard to get me that."
She has weathered the ups and downs well. "The best moment for me was actually being in a professional fight," she said. "My worst moment was realizing the dog eat dog world that truly exists within the sport. I have a bachelor's degree in Economics, and I had a traditional, orthodox way of thinking, but when I entered the sport and found out how it's run on the business end, I was very disappointed. It's kind of like a shady way of doing business. I didn't expect that. Now that I know, I've adjusted my thinking, and I'll still get to the top."
Outside the ring she calls herself a "proud parent." She has two daughters, aged 13 and 11. She also cross trains in soccer and has a bunch of soccer friends. "I spend time with my family and friends, I have a husband, and I live a full life," she said. "Lately I've done some speaking at Boys and Girls clubs, and at a few elementary schools. I love that, and I'm going to be doing some more work. Jill Diamond is organizing that for me, and one of her functions is going to be happening soon. I love giving my time, and it's fun when the kids see me, and I sign autographs and take pictures with them. I love that part, and it's totally exciting." Jill Diamond is the Chairwoman of the NABF women's division and holds a position on the WBC female championship committee. She's been working with Nguyen to get her name out there and further her career.
"The fans have really responded well to me, and I appreciate that immensely," said Nguyen. "I don't take that for granted. Even with male boxers, we'll be out somewhere, and people won't shake their hands or take their pictures. With me, they all want to take a picture or get my autograph. It's nice to be a celebrity so early in my career, and I appreciate that, and I work even harder for it."
Though there are only 16 middleweight fighters listed in the www.boxrec.com rankings, Nguyen said there are a lot more women in the division. "I fight middleweight and super middleweight," she said. "I fought my first three professional fights at 159, although I'm a true super middleweight fighter. My manager was brought in so we could address the issue of finding more possibilities. Now that I'm flying in my opponents, we no longer have to pull just from the women in California. Now we're scouring the country, whether it's me going there or them coming here. When you get that opportunity, doors open up, and I'll be a lot more productive."
The details are still being hammered out for her next contract, but she knows her next opponent won't be a local. "She won't be from California, but we don't know who it is yet," she said. "I know her record is going to be slightly above mine, and I want to fight girls that will give me a challenge. I understand that especially with men, they give them easy fights to build their records, but we are not trying to do that with me. I know who my competition is, at the top. We're not trying to get me in the ring to give me something less than a sparring session. I need to improve myself, and I definitely wanna do that. I'll hopefully be fighting someone that has been training and is good. Number one, that's the person I wanna fight."
Asked if she wanted to add anything else, Nguyen was gracious. "Thank you, Rich for the interview, and the opportunity for even more people to know who I am and listen to what I have to say. Thanks to all of my fans who come see my fights. I train hard every day for them, and I can't wait to see you, so bring cameras. I love taking pictures and giving out shirts, and I appreciate my fans. I wanna thank them from the bottom of my heart.
