Boxing News : David Avila : Hamaguchi Battles Zaganas

Hamaguchi Battles Zaganas in Baltimore
By David A. Avila (November 4, 2003)

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When two female prizefighters step in the ring you can throw out their records. They usually don’t mean much. Take strawweight Deidre Hamaguchi for example. Though Hamaguchi (1-4-2) has more losses than wins, her opponent Vaia Zaganas (12-3-2) knows what to expect when the bell rings to commence firing punches at Martin’s West in Baltimore tonight.

“She’s tough,” said Zaganas, the current IFBA strawweight champion. “She’s one of those fighters who is much better than her record shows.”

Hamaguchi is a former national judo champion living in Harlem, New York who has made the transition from pinning opponents to punching them.

“It’s been pretty difficult,” said Hamaguchi who teaches physics at a high school in Manhattan. “Judo is the complete opposite of boxing.”

Hamaguchi, a graduate of Yale, said the typical judo stance places a person’s entire posture and focus on grabbing and pulling. In boxing, it’s about finding the right distance to hit and not be hit.

“In judo it was keeping my hands about shoulder length and wide apart. Totally wrong for boxing,” said Hamaguchi whose trainer is Lennox Blackmoore. “The concept of moving my head is completely different. In judo you want to keep your chin jutted forward. It’s harder for someone to take you down that way. Head is kind of forward but that’s the wrong posture to have for boxing.”

Though the Yalie did fight in the amateur level, it was judo that occupied much of her time in the amateur level. In 1998 she won the U.S. National championship at the 100-pound level. But to qualify for the Olympics she needed to go up in weight. Her weight class is not included in the Olympic level.

“The size difference was a little bit too much for me at that level of competition,” said Hamaguchi. “At a serious national level you have women diving down from 120 to 106. I’m just walking around at 106. The women were too big for me.”

Before winning the judo competition, boxing had intrigued her.

“It was pure curiosity. I had been doing judo for a long time. I wanted to try something different. I tried to take karate but it really wasn’t me, I needed something to compete. I’m just not into just forms,” Hamaguchi said recalling her entry into the world of boxing. “I had a friend who was a boxer a long time ago. He said go to the gym up in Harlem where Iran Barkley used to train. Owner was Connie Bryant who just passed away. He was one of Iran’s original trainers.

"I went there and started hitting the heavy bags. I met a boxer there that said go to Gleasons Gym, that there were probably some females there. There were about three in 94.”

Taking a liking to boxing, Hamaguchi saw an advertisement about the New York Daily News Golden Gloves tournament. No woman had ever been admitted to the competition so the judo turn boxer decided to send an application with her first initial and last name.

When she heard about the medical examinations, she called to see about an appointment but her voice gave her away. She was not admitted. Not giving up easily, she convinced one of the organizers to put it in writing that she could not enter.

“I made them put it in writing and took that to the ACLU and the attorney there she made the phone calls and made calls to the boxing organizations and I think that was an incentive to letting us in the '95 Golden Gloves,” Hamaguchi said. “This was the attorney that got women into the Citadel academy. She was responsible for that too.”

After a brief foray in amateur boxing, she returned to judo and won the nationals and decided to give boxing another try, but in the professional level.

It hasn’t been easy for Hamaguchi who soon discovered that women’s boxing has its roadblocks such as a lack of women fighters in her weight class and a scarcity of promoters willing to use female prizefighters.

“Promoters are just giving one female bout. At most its one. You’re not just competing against the women but the other men on the card because once that female slot is filled, its filled,” she said.

Since entering the pro ranks, Hamaguchi has fought some of the better-known fighters in her weight class. In her second fight, she was matched against someone three weight divisions heavier.

“We didn’t know who Yolanda Gonzalez was at that time,” said Hamaguchi about Gonzalez who fought as a junior bantamweight. “I’m never even past 106. I don’t have to diet to make this weight.”

With seven pro bouts under her belt and her first win against Stephanie Dobbs last June, Hamaguchi feels she is ready for her match against Zaganas.

“She comes forward like me. She is a little bit bigger but not much. Not as tall as Stephanie Dobbs, but she is a good boxer,” she said of Zaganas who she has fought twice. “She throws classic combinations and that’s what I figure she will be doing tomorrow unless she changes dramatically.”

Zaganas, who fights often, knows what to expect from Hamaguchi.

“She’s very tough. She never quits,” said Zaganas with a slight sigh. “But that’s why I’m fighting. I want to fight the best.”

Hamaguchi loves the competition, too.

“I think they’ll see I’m a crowd pleaser. I definitely come to fight. I don’t try to get away with as little punching as possible. I’ve seen some that have mastered that art. I come to fight,” she said.

Even if she never wins another fight in her career, Hamaguchi is a true champion to her female colleagues.

The fight card takes place at Martin’s West located at 6871 Dogwood Road in Baltimore, Maryland. Tickets are priced at $40 and the first bout is scheduled at 8 p.m. For tickets and more information call (410) 335-9507.
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