I Gave Up on Boxing, Not on This Boxer

I flinched when Seniesa Estrada took a shot. When she twisted to evade a jab, I found myself twisting, too. When she plowed a left hook into the jaw of her Argentine challenger, Leonela Yúdica, I hoped such aggression would lead to a knockout.

As Estrada defended her World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council mini flyweight titles on Friday in front of nearly 2,500 fans at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, I watched her fight from the stands for the first time in 18 years.

In the early 2000s, when I was a city reporter for The Los Angeles Times, I’d been impressed by the long list of champions from East L.A. Oscar De La Hoya was the greatest of them, and I searched for the next…