Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Isabel Garcia, an elite boxer from Clovis, goes through a workout routine. She competed over the weekend at USA Boxing' Summer Festival in Lubbock.
Isabel Garcia of Clovis said she is not discouraged after returning from Lubbock in defeat Saturday from Boxing USA's Summer Festival in Lubbock, where she fought as an elite boxer.
"I'll keep getting into the ring," she said.
Her 34 bouts more than adequately qualify her as an elite boxer, since one only needs 10 fights to earn that status.
Her record is about "half and half," she said. But those matches include the finals in the Golden Gloves competition in 2018.
"I fought a pretty well-known opponent" in the Golden Gloves, she said.
At age 22, Garcia has been boxing seriously since she was 15, inspired by her father, she said.
Her father, Joe Garcia, who coaches the Bobcat Boxing Team based at Clovis's Roy Walker Recreation Center, has a definite opinion about the decision that sent his daughter home on Saturday.
"We were robbed," Joe Garcia said. "She lost the first round, but she won the second round and dominated in the third."
The decision to hand the fight to Isabel's opponent, a Californian named Carson Crawford, was unanimous, however. All five judges gave Crawford all three rounds.
Scoring rules make it difficult to determine how close the match might have been.
Isabel said growing up with her father's involvement in boxing was her inspiration.
"I feel like I've been around boxing all my life," she said. "We used to watch boxing all the time," she said.
While staying conditioned for boxing, she has earned a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice at Eastern New Mexico University, and she's looking for work as a police officer.
"I want to be a detective," she said, "but you've got to be an officer first."
The competition in Lubbock was sponsored by USA Boxing, which works with the U.S. Olympic Committee to choose athletes for the U.S. Olympic team.
Male and female boxers from the ages 8 to 39 were scheduled to compete. The Lubbock event, combining the Summer Festival and U.S. Junior Olympics, began on July 7 and is expected to continue through Saturday.
In a news release, USA Boxing said 1,100 athletes competed in the Lubbock event, which involved athletes from all over the nation and was broadcast on national television.
