Selina Barrios vs Aida Satybaldinova Collide in Texas
By Tarrah Zael
Two women who come from completely opposite boxing roads will meet face to face in the ring to defend their lightweight status. Both are currently undefeated. One will have to go home with their first loss.
What better than to have two female warriors guaranteeing to fight each other toe-to-toe in the ring and not back down. That’s what you have in Selina “Aztec Queen” Barrios and Aida “Lady Sparta” Satybaldinova who meet at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas on Saturday July 7. It will be streamed on this web site live. (We will have a link up soon.)
Satybaldinova is known as the female “GGG” and Barrios as the female “Roberto Duran”, both fighters are aggressive, powerful and not afraid to fight.
“I like someone who can give me a good fight and will not run” says Aida.
As for Selina, “Aida comes forward and she likes to exchange. I’m not one to back down and let anyone do whatever they want to me”.
It’s warrior versus warrior.
Aztec Queen
Selina “Aztec Queen” Barrios (3-0, 1 KO) comes from a history of boxing in her family and impressive amateur experience, with 75 wins and only four losses. She has faced boxing sensation, Mikaela Mayer in the amateurs and defeated her.
Barrios began boxing at the young age of nine years old. Her parents took both her brother and herself to the boxing gym and they stuck with the sport. Her father Martin Barrios trains both Selina and her brother who is an undefeated super lightweight pugilist Mario “El Azteca” Barrios (21-0, 13 KO) at South Park Boxing Academy in San Antonio, Texas.
“I tried for the Olympic trials, but in the amateurs, its all politics. I am not a fan of amateur boxing”, says Selina Barrios. “I got discouraged”.
After some time has passed, her brother, Mario Barrios encouraged Selina to step into the ring again and make a name for herself, but this time in the pros. She confirms his words, ‘all these girls you beat in the amateurs are making a name for themselves. You can too”.
Finally, making the decision to pick back up where she left off, Barrios made her first professional debut in January 2017 with an impressive knockout win in the first round. She now currently holds the NABF female lightweight title and has an undefeated record of 3-0. What is she doing differently to get ready for this fight against her opponent?
“The only thing that changes is the intensity of my training. I don’t change anything,” Barrio says.
“She has a pro-style, she is more of a banger slash boxer,” says Mario Serrano, Barrios’ boxing publicist.
Her battle against fellow undefeated lightweight boxer, Aida “Lady Sparta” Satybaldinova, is scheduled this Saturday at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, in an eight round lightweight main event.
Lady Sparta
With her life savings in hand, Aida “Lady Sparta” Satybaldinova (3-0-1) took a chance on her dreams of becoming the first female Kazakhstan world champion. She moved from her home country to the United States on a temporary visa.
Formerly an Olympic competitor in power-lifting, Aida was introduced to boxing by a friend who told her, “you have power, you would be good at this”. When Aida checked out the boxing gym, she was surprised it was a sport that women could compete in and she instantly fell in love with boxing. Making the transition from a power lifter to boxer has been natural for Aida.
Most would consider joining boxing at the age of 24 a bit late, but Aida has excelled beyond most milestones that take other fighters years to achieve. As an amateur her record was 15-2 and she won the bronze medal for the Kazakhstan women’s national boxing team.
Not too many people know about Aida’s background: she does not come from a wealthy background, both of her parents passed away before she reached 15 years old and comes from a small town in Kazakhstan. For two years she worked three jobs and put her life savings into moving to the United States to compete as a professional women boxer.
Once in the states, Aida competed in two amateur fights then quickly turned pro with a timely goal of receiving a longer-term visa to stay in the USA and continuing fighting. Impressively, she fought three times in 40 days thus receiving the necessary visa.
“She came with the wrong visa. The chances of you becoming a champion is a lot harder”, exclaims Rodney Cruz-Hunt, Aida’s boxing manager.
Despite obstacles along the way, the Kazakh fighter has survived.
“If you don’t have money but you have dreams. You have to believe in yourself and your dreams. And work hard for it”, Aida says adding that in Kazakhstan, if you don’t have money, you have to learn how to protect yourself. So, she had to learn how to fight, boxing comes aggressively and natural to Aida. “This is all or nothing for me. There is no playing around when it comes to boxing. There is no other option.”
She plans on beating Barrios with her aggressive style and coming forward.
So what does she know about her opponent.
“She’s aggressive like me. She has the same style and great technique. We both are brawlers and this fight will definitely be a show to see.”
And what does Barrios expect.
“She is just as good as me. Im not one to bash the other opponent,” Barrios says. “I’m here to do my fight”.
Both are willing to accept adversity in the ring and put their undefeated records on the line, which not many boxers are willing to do so early on in their career. Both boxers hold titles, but they are not up for grabs this fight. Depending on the results of this fight, there is an option for a rematch for these two women, then, their titles may be at risk for one to be the reigning champion.