Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa
By Felipe Leon
Former WBA super middleweight champion Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa (12-2, 7KO) of Lindenhurst, New York, might have thought her toughest fight to date was her last. Last January, Napoleon-Espinosa lost a razor-thin decision against undefeated Elin Cederoos (8-0, 4KO) of Sweden live on Showtime.
The back-and-forth affair set the tone for 2020 with an all-out war waged in the ring in Atlantic City. At the end, Cederoos added the WBA strap to her IBF title with scores of 95-94 by all three judges. The difference was a second round knockdown Cederoos scored with a punch to the head sending Napoleon-Espinoza crashing down to the canvas.
“It is just boxing,” Napoleon-Espinosa said recently in an exclusive interview with the 2-Minute Round podcast about her most recent fight. “It doesn’t mean I don’t put everything into it but I think it is very important to see around the world that I can accept my situation whatever the outcome. I want the grace of God in me whether I win, lose or draw because that is my purpose.”
As far as the knockdown that led for Napoleon-Espinosa losing her world title, she was very candid with her thoughts. “My team, they had never seen me get knocked down. Elin caught me with a great left hook, I slipped to the left and then I went to slip back to the right to slip that punch and when I slipped that, I dropped my right hand. She caught me clean. Something I learned from that fight is that I have to tighten up my defense. I have great defense, I have great head movement but it is very hard to move fluidly and keep your hands up so I have been working on that.”
Just like the rest of us, Napoleon-Espinosa’s toughest test is surviving the current Covid-19 pandemic. Despite living on Long Island, the 34-year-old commutes into New York City every day for work as a personal trainer at a gym in Manhattan. New York City is one of the hardest areas hit by the pandemic reporting over 15,000 deaths because of the virus as of this post.
“It is pretty severe, it is pretty bad,” Napoleon-Espinosa reported. “A lot of death, a lot of long lines outside, everyone standing six feet apart if they have to go to the grocery store or Home Depot or wherever. It is strange, you see everybody covered up, everybody with gloves, everybody with masks, scarves, something around their face. It is a scary time, a lot of new things, new cultures you see arising. People parading around their cars, honking, holding up signs for people’s birthdays or people that have recovered from the virus.”
Despite the trying times, Napoleon-Espinosa does see the silver lining. “You do see the community staying together and getting strong. Where I live in Lindenhurst, Long Island, you see signs all over the place the town put together for the business and for the community saying we are in this together. Encouraging locals to still support local businesses, not to be scared, to still come by and pick up some food, something curbside. There are still a lot of communities that are trying to help. I think we are in the worst of times but it is bringing out the best of people. That is a good thing too. People are still willing to help one another.”
After participating in that hellacious battle against Cederoos back in January, now Napoleon-Espinosa recognizes the battle she is in now, trying to continue to lead a life as normal as possible and earn a living might be as difficult.
“That has hit very hard. I am so used to working five to six days a week. Before I would get up at four in the morning and I would travel into the city,” she explained. “I trained my clients, teach my boxing classes and then go from Manhattan to Brooklyn and train two to three hours in my training every day at least five days a week, sometimes six.”
“I don’t even recognize myself,” she continued. “I have gone from 100 to zero in a sense, it hit really hard. It was almost like a small depression and a fear when everything got shut down. My husband and I just bought a house in September. I asked myself how we were going to pay our mortgage. We can’t survive on only one salary, I lost my job, and he was still working, thankfully. God is good, being a faithful Christian has gotten me through this moment. I think it has gotten a lot of people through it. This is a time God says, ‘lean on me’. I’ve taken this time to be faithful, to lean on God, and things have pulled through. At Overthrow (The Manhattan gym Napoleon-Espinosa worked as a trainer), we are really trying reach out to our community and give people their fitness life still. We are doing online classes which I am grateful for.”
Also like the rest of us, for Napoleon-Espinosa’s 2020 seems as a never-ending one with her fight against Cederoos a mere five months ago feeling like it happened much longer than that.
“I would probably be fighting right now,’ she said with a sigh. “I fought in January and I would have had my next fight this year or I would be getting ready to get in the ring. That is discouraging in a way. I had a goal this year. I was on Showtime, Claressa (Shields) we’re going to fight some time down the line, there were talks of me coming back on Showtime and there were talks of facing Claressa. There were great wonderful things in the boxing world for me this year and next. This has slowed me down.”
Not only has it slowed down her boxing career but perhaps her personal life as well. Despite it all, the faithful Napoleon-Espinosa knows it will all work out at the end. “I really want to have some children soon. I was hoping to get a couple of years in (in boxing) and then start to slow down, have a family. Maybe go back in the ring after I have some kids. It definitely threw a wrench in my plans. God’s way is better than our own and I know somehow it will work its way out. Those big fights, those TV appearances, my children, will come in time, God’s time, not my own.”
Napoleon-Espinosa went pro back in 2014 and according to her; she has seen the female boxing world slowly get better.
“It is definitely on the rise, it is gradually going up,” she said of the current state of women’s boxing. “I am glad to see that. I feel eventually it is going to be equal. We are still not getting paid the same as men. What I got paid in this last fight against Elin (Cederoos), my promoter and even Showtime, they were so impressed, they were so happy.”
“I got a little bit more than I am used to,” she said of her purse that night. “Three years ago, I would have been like, ‘I can’t believe what I am getting.’ It is still not enough. It is not a fraction of what the guys are getting. It is sad because we put everything into the sport. We just want to be looked at as athletes; we want to be looked as equals. Women in general are anxious to be looked at equally and to be paid fairly.”
Back in 2018, despite being a natural super welterweight, Napoleon-Espinosa stepped up for the vacant WBA 168-pound title against Femke Hermans winning a unanimous decision. She defended the belt twice with her win over Hannah Rankin in her first defense being the most memorable win so far of her career.
“That was such a beautiful night, I was on my ‘A’ game that night,” she reminisced. “I feel I fought the best I have ever fought there. I just felt I glided through that whole fight with my defense. That was a pivotal moment of my career. That is when all my training and technique came together, I elevated to the next level as an athlete and as a fighter. It saddens because it wasn’t captured on camera, you can’t find that fight anywhere. If you were in the arena, that is the only time you could see such a beautiful performance and it is sad you cannot go back and see the footage. I am most proud of that fight, I loved it.”
One thing that is sure, when boxing resumes, whenever that is, Napoleon-Espinosa has her plans.
“I want a rematch, I know I can beat her,” she announced regarding her last opponent Cederoos. “I would love that opportunity to fight Elin again, I know Showtime wants it. That is something we are looking to do. In the meantime and before that is set up on paper once this pandemic is over, we did talk about fighting in my real weight class which is 154-160. Next fight probably will be around one of those two weight classes. When the opportunity arises I will go back up and rematch Elin and take my title back.”
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To listen to the full-unedited interview, please visit BlogTalkRadio.com/2MinRound