 Melinda Cooper – Pound for Pound
 By Thomas Gerbasi (May 11, 2005)
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Richard Steele wasn’t having this; not in his gym at least.
It was a scene straight out of the Oscar-winning film ‘Million Dollar Baby’ when trainer James Pena told Steele he was going to start training a female boxer.
“Man, we don’t want any women in the gym,” Steele told Pena.
But Pena persisted, telling the renowned referee, and manager of the gym, “Richard, I’m gonna train this girl.”
Pena then started working with his charge, teaching her the intricate ways of the sweet science so that one day she would be able to challenge for a world championship. This budding pugilist wasn’t a grown woman though; as Pena recalls, she was 55 pounds “soaking wet” and 10 years old.
Her name was Melinda Cooper.
That was ten years ago.
She’s a world champion now.
Yet unlike the usual MO in women’s boxing, Cooper didn’t train for six months, jump into the pro game and then by sheer attrition gain a meaningless belt. Instead, the 20-year-old Las Vegan paid her dues in the gym for ten years - along the way compiling a 37-2 amateur record that is practically unheard of in the women’s game, and a 14-0 (9 KOs) pro slate that she will put on the line this Friday night at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas against Susan Morales (4-2-1, 0 KOs) in a non-title six rounder.
And despite her looks and a rapidly growing list of sponsors (The Ultimate Fighting Championship's Dana White and Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, California-based production company Your Half Pictures) and endorsement deals (Mecca Femme clothing), Cooper is far from an overnight success. This is no ‘strike while the iron is hot’ type deal based on the success of the Clint Eastwood film that brought women’s boxing to a nationwide audience – this is a pro fighter with a legitimate career. And all it takes is watching her for one round to realize that.
Rome wasn’t built in a day though.
“When she first started, Melinda was just terrible, man,” laughs Pena. “She had no clue. But she had a lot of courage and she did anything you asked her to. That’s the difference between some of the male fighters that I dealt with and the females. A lot of the females that you train, they do anything you ask them to – they want to learn.”
Boxing was an escape of sorts for Cooper, who didn’t grow up in the greatest neighborhood, but who also had selfish reasons for picking up the gloves.
“I had five brothers, and I was always getting picked on, so I decided to learn how to fight,” she said.
Betcha they don’t do that anymore.
“Kinda,” she chuckles.
Even Steele was impressed the first time he actually saw her in the gym.
“She’s not that bad,” he told Pena, who had been training Cooper for just a month.
Those months turned into a year, and then two, and by 1998, the 13-year-old had won the 85-pound title in the prestigious Blue and Gold tournament. A national Golden Gloves title (in the 14-15 year old division) would follow in 2000, as well as a junior national championship in 2000 and a senior national crown in 2001.
With no one left to fight, Pena and Cooper had little choice but to enter the pro ranks. The move came as a surprise to Cooper.
“I wasn’t even expecting to go pro,” she said. “I just started training and trying tournaments out, and I enjoyed it. After I couldn’t get any more fights, James decided to turn me pro and I went along with it to see how I did. I said if I do well I’ll keep at it, and if not, I’ll just retire.”
There was just one little problem – Cooper was only 17 years old.
Pena describes her fistic progression, and his plan to get around the dilemma of her age.
“When Melinda had around six amateur fights, she trained with a lot of good kids that we had at the gym – all boys,” he remembers. “And it was funny because she started to tax a few of them and I thought ‘whoa’. So we put her in with a girl that had some pro experience and she (Melinda) beat her up. Melinda was only 14. When she hit 16 I told her, ‘sweetheart, when you hit 17, I’m gonna turn you pro.’ I think everyone thought I was playing with them and I went to talk to Marc Ratner and the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and they said ‘we know that she can handle it, she’ll be okay,’ and they gave her a license. She was only one of three fighters in the state of Nevada to get a license at the age of 17. Just for a woman boxer to start out in that way is a good thing in itself.”
Cooper made her pro debut in March of 2002 with a four round shutout win over Annalisa Middleton. But even though Cooper was fighting grown women as a professional boxer, the gap in class between the 17-year-old and her opponents was vast – and obvious.
“I think its lack of trainers more than lack of effort from some of these women,” said Pena. “These women have no clue and they see a sign that says ‘boxing classes’ and they go. Some of these guys have no clue what they’re doing and they take these women and get them physically fit and they go ‘oh yeah, my girl’s ready to fight.’ If you talk to any male trainer in the world, and he’ll say he has the best female fighter in the world. It’s unbelievable.”
Unfortunately it’s very believable at this stage of the female game, where fighters can turn pro with little or no amateur experience. Cooper is the exception rather than the rule, and she’s glad she entered the pro ranks with a solid amateur pedigree.
“It’s very important because most of the women today don’t even know how to throw a jab right, so I think that experience counts,” she said.
Thankfully, Cooper’s ascension has let aspiring female pugilists know that if you want to compete on the highest levels of this still growing sport, you’d better come with your ‘A’ game – that means paying your dues in the amateur ranks before stepping into the pro game. She’s seen the small strides made in this regard.
“We’re the next generation of women’s boxing,” said Cooper. “Most of the amateurs coming up will take it to the next level because they’ll have better experience and better skills.”
There’s still a long way to go though – something that is evident every unfortunate time a female bout is aired that pits two fighters with rudimentary or non-existent skills against each other. It can be downright embarrassing to watch sometimes. Cooper’s seen enough fights to make her cringe.
“Yeah, I have,” she admits. “Sometimes it’s because of the way their appearance is – their hair may be cut like a man’s, and a lot of times they just can’t fight.”
Cooper doesn’t have that problem, and her skills are so good that if not for the pretty face, you would forget you were watching a woman fight. Add a compact and well-schooled style, as well as the willingness to scrap when duty calls, and you’ve got a fighter that has barely lost rounds in her almost three years as a pro, let alone been truly tested. In January, against well-regarded veteran Anissa Zamarron, Cooper won the WIBA and IBA flyweight world titles via a ninth round stoppage. But she’s not satisfied.
“I want to take this as far as I can take it,” she said. “I want to win four world championships in different weight classes – I want to make history for women.”
But if a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it still make a sound? That’s the dilemma facing the quality female fighters in the business these days. Sure, Laila Ali, Lucia Rijker, and Christy Martin are fairly well-known to the mainstream and they can fight, but what about the Coopers, the Elena Reids, the Vaia Zaganases, and Mariana Juarezes – some of the top female fighters in the lower weight classes? Cooper believes the sport is “going up”, but will we ever see a female fight with the drama and sustained high-quality action of last weekend’s Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo bout?
“I do because a lot of women come to fight, and there are short rounds so they know that they have less time to do what they have to do,” she said. “A lot of women just come out there and brawl.”
A brawl is one thing – having two elite female fighters duking it out is another. Is there a fighter out there that can match Cooper in such a way?
“There probably is somebody,” she says sheepishly before adding, “but I haven’t seen her though.”
After Friday, the plan is to go after a WBC title at 115 pounds, where Cooper hopes to stay for a few fights before moving up again. As trainer and co-manager, Pena is confident, but he also wants to keep his fighter grounded as she rises through the ranks.
“We don’t consider Melinda Cooper the best – we just want her to fight the best, and we’ll let everything come from that,” said Pena. “When she beats everyone then I’ll sit here and say that Melinda Cooper is the best.”
She may already be the best, but this won’t be a certified fact until she cleans out the lower weight classes. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that is necessary if she wants to break through where other female fighters have faltered. And while being able to fight helps, these days a female fighter has to have the complete package. Wise beyond her 20 years, Cooper admits that being able to rip off a triple jab and follow up with a blinding four punch combination means little to Madison Avenue.
“It feels good because no women in boxing have them,” she said when asked about her recent endorsement deals and sponsorships. “I’m the first.”
Why Melinda Cooper though?
“Maybe because of my skills, and my appearance,” she says, and then pauses. “Honestly, my appearance mostly.”
She chuckles, but when you remind her that her skills are pretty substantial too and must have played a role in her deals, her answer is simple and to the point.
“I would hope.”
Hope and a token can get you on the bus, but won’t get you too far in the fight game. Luckily, Cooper won’t have to rely on pipe dreams to succeed in this game. She can fight, and with the right breaks, she could transcend the sport in the coming years. If she does it sooner, rather than later, she may have to thank ‘Million Dollar Baby’ for making it safe to follow women’s boxing.
“I thought it was good, but a little over exaggerated at the end,” she said of the film, echoing the sentiments of many in the fight game. But does she think the movie will help the sport?
“A little, because someone might be interested in trying the sport now. But then it might run away a lot of women as well because of seeing her (Maggie Fitzgerald, the lead character) get her nose broke and pushed back into place, and then falling on the stool and breaking her neck.”
Yet unlike the fictional Maggie Fitzgerald, Cooper doesn’t see boxing as the end of her journey, just a stop along the way, as she works on her college studies to one day become a dentist. Nice gig if you can get it – knock someone out and then offer to fix their teeth.
“There you go,” she laughs graciously, even though she’s probably heard that line a thousand times before. At least becoming a dentist will make mom happy.
“My mom is happy (about her boxing success), but she’ll be even happier when I stop,” she said. “She doesn’t like to see me get hit. She doesn’t even like to see me get tapped a little.”
Mom shouldn’t worry though, because her daughter has the skill and drive to leave a permanent mark on women’s boxing by the time she hangs up the gloves. In fact, that’s the whole point for Melinda Cooper.
“I want to become a role model and show that women can fight and have skills like a man,” she said.
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E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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