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03/12/2006 Archived Entry: "Rita Figueroa: 'I'll Be Ready for Whatever She Brings!'"
Rita Figueroa: 'I'll Be Ready for Whatever She Brings!'
By Juan C. Ayllon
Photos courtesy of Rita Figueroa
Rita Figueroa, flanked by "Macho" Miguel Hernandez on the left and
trainer Sam Colonna on the right
CHICAGO – One doesn’t have to look too deep to get the sense that loyalty, family and sports are important to upbeat female boxer Rita Figueroa, who wears a tattoo of her promoter, 8 Count Productions on her right bicep. Born and raised here, she has grown up playing volleyball, basketball and softball, and has remained close to her roots.
Following high school, she went into banking by day and played softball in evening adult leagues. Since then, she has been with a phone company for 17 years, where she works in ATM switch customer billing.
Figueroa hits the heavy bag
A second-degree black belt holder in karate, Rita is married to Mike Figueroa, a computer programmer who has a first-degree black belt. They have a teenage daughter, Sahara, 18, who is a brown belt and, along with them, studies martial arts at the Degerberg Academy, where both Rita and Mike also instruct. They enjoy riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles together on vacations as a family.
Interestingly enough, on March 31st, Mike will be boxing at a white-collar boxing event hosted by JABB Boxing Gym, an establishment co-owned by Dominic Pesoli, President of 8 Count Productions.
Rita Figueroa has always loved boxing, growing up watching it with her father on TV. Later, she attended martial arts school and through Oscar Bravo, who was a lead instructor, was introduced to the sport. Bravo, who is currently rated #10 in the North American Boxing Federation at super middleweight, started boxing and brought her along to Windy City Boxing Gym. And the rest, as she says, is history.
Undefeated with six wins and two knockouts in the light welterweight division, Figueroa will face Eva Lidia Silva, 3-4-0 this next Friday. Taking a few minutes following training and a trip to the Harley store, Rita granted the Cyber Boxing Zone’s Juan Ayllon this exclusive interview.
JUAN AYLLON: Can you describe a typical day during training?
RITA FIGUEROA: Get up at five; if I know that I’m sparring that day, I’ll get up at 4:30, jump on the treadmill for half an hour, get in the shower, go to work; leave work at four, go to either Windy City or Degerberg and spar or do bags and pads—whatever I have to do. And then, if I didn’t run in the morning, then I would run after that and then come home, we eat, and do it all over again. It’s a long day.
JA: How supportive is your family with your boxing? And how do you balance being a wife, a mom and a boxer?
RF: They are extremely supportive. If I didn’t have the support from them, I probably wouldn’t be doing it. They always pitch in. Like, if they know I’ve got to go train like this morning—they knew I had to go train—so my daughter started doing laundry, straightening up the house. So, we all kind of do it together. Without the help from them, it would be almost impossible.
JA: How has training been going?
RF: Good. Training’s been going really good. Matter of fact, I left the gym today, felt great, left at weight. So, I’m good!
JA: How do you break down training, as far as rounds sparred, hitting the bags and so forth?
RF: Sam’s been having me—‘cause I’m fighting six rounds—spar eight and then do six on the bags, jump rope for three or four rounds, you know, make sure I get that stuff in. And then, I still run. I do my three mile run. He’s had me pretty busy, which is good. So, whenever I go into a fight, I don’t have to worry about getting tired.
JA: Are you incorporating interval training in running?
RF: Yeah, I do. I do sprints; I’ll go up by like, half a mile an hour every minute, and then I’ll come down, and I’ll go back up and come down.
Sparring partners Miguel Figueroa (left) and Emmanuel "Manny" Hernandez with Rita
JA: Who have you been sparring with?
RF: The best sparring I’ve got has been with Emmanuel Hernandez, Miguel Figueroa—
JA: Your husband?
RF: No, no, no, that’s a guy from Windy City. Leticia Robinson worked with me the last couple of weekends; and then Nora Reyes, who’s been my sparring partner since I was fighting amateur. She’s great.
JA: For those who have not seen you before, what are your strengths?
RF: My biggest strength is I’ll go in there and I can box if I need to and I can fight I need to, but I’m never going to quit. That’s my biggest thing, is I’m just going to keep going.
JA: And what would you like to improve on?
RF: Um, oh geez, there’s so many things. I think more movement, if I can get the movement better. Fighting a little bit smarter, rather than just thinking I have to go in there and just go straight at the person. You know, stuff like that. I mean, there’s always so many things to improve on.
JA: What can you tell us about Eva Lidia Silva, whom you’ll be fighting this Friday?
RF: Well, she’s supposed to be pretty tough. She just went six rounds last month. Didn’t get the decision, but going six rounds, I know that means that she’s going to be durable. I’m planning on being in a tough fight, so I’ll be ready for whatever she brings.
Figueroa (right) spars with Manny
JA: Do you have any concerns?
RF: No. I’ve done everything I needed to do in training, I’ve got a couple more days of training to go, and I’m confident in the work that I’ve put in. Going into the ring and fighting should be the easy part!
JA: What are your goals in boxing, as in one year, two years and five years?
RF: By the end of the year, Dominic and I talked about getting a title shot somewhere, whether it be a regional title or a WIBA Americas Title or something like that, and then stepping it up every fight and see what happens. I want to challenge myself, that’s for sure, and just keep going that way and see what happens.
JA: Can you tell us a little more about your relationship with Dominic Pesoli?
RF: Well, you know, my first pro fight, Dominic gave me the opportunity, and he’s been very good to me and my family, so I can’t complain there. He’s put me on shows when I wanted to fight and he’s looked out for me. So, I plan on finishing my career being an 8 Count fighter.
Figueroa works pads with Angela
JA: And can you tell us about your relationship with trainer Sam Colonna?
RF: Well, that’s another one. Sam’s been my coach—I do have another coach, Angela; she works a lot with me over at Degerberg. And, matter of fact, she helped pads for me today for 10 rounds. But Sam is my main coach and he was the first coach I ever had (in) amateur fighting and he was in my last coach that I have pro fighting. It’s the same thing: Sam will always be with me until I’m done fighting.
JA: What do you plan on doing after boxing?
RF: After boxing, I want to stay involved with it. There’s so many women out there that are great fighters—even the amateur people that are coming up. I’d like to stay involved and help them out where I can, maybe train, manage, whatever. If I can help people, because I’ve had so much help, then I’d be happy.
[Retired professional fighter] Rocky Martinez—who I’d like to mention, too—has been very good with helping me as well.
JA: Tell us about your experience as a female boxer.
RF: You know, I’ve got to tell you, everybody—all the guys at Windy City—have been wonderful. You know, “Macho” [Miguel Hernandez] is great, Mike Nevitt, all of them have been very supportive!
You know, I’m sure there’s some people that don’t like it, but everyone that’s been around in the gym has been just great. Freddy Cuevas, you know all the people, they’ve been just awesome.
JA: What are some things you can see needing improving in boxing and, more specifically, female boxing?
RF: You know, I think they just need to put competitive fights on TV.
When they put fights on TV, make them the competitive fights. There’s a lot of really good competitive fights going on, but not the ones that they’re showing, so it kind of turns people off.
Well, another thing, too, is the Olympics. They decided they didn’t want to have female boxing. I think that was a big blow to the sport.
I mean, women train really hard. There’s a lot of good women fighters out there. There’s a good fight coming up at the end of March with Anani and Terry Blair out in Indiana [for the IBA Welterweight Title]. That should be a TV fight. It’s going to be a great fight. So, we need more exposure.
JA: On a more personal note, tell us more about your hobbies. I know you mentioned that you were going to the Harley Store just before our interview.
RF: Yes, in the summertime, there’s nothing like it. Me and my husband—and my daughter, too—we are avid Harley Davidson riders! In fact, we’re planning a trip down to Florida in the summertime.
JA: You also previously mentioned moving out to the country eventually. Can you tell us more about that?
RF: Mmm-hmm! We’re going to move up towards Wisconsin. I would love to live up past the Dells in Wisconsin in the future. Maybe we’ll put up a gym. Who knows?
JA: Do you have any other thoughts you’d like to share with us?
RF: Well, for you, personally, Juan, I think it’s great what you do, not only for boxing, but especially for fighters in Chicago. You’ve really put us out there and I totally appreciate that and I think that’s awesome. Not to mention that we’re friends, so that’s cool, too!
And, just the support from everybody, because they’ve been really cool for me, you know, they go to the fights, they’re always cheering for us, and that means a lot.
JA: What’s your prediction for your fight versus Silva?
RF: Well, I hope it’s a good fight. I’m predicting that I’m going to win, but I hope it’s a good fight and the fans come out and support it and they’re happy with the show!
