For 15-year-old female boxer Mercedes Baca, it has been a
waiting game.
GILROY – For 15-year-old female boxer Mercedes Baca, it has been a waiting game.
The Morgan Hillian and Silver & Black Attack Boxing Club fighter has yet to step in the ring for her first amateur bout. Not because she’s not ready – but because there is no other young ladies around for her to fight.
“I was supposed to fight when they fought, but I didn’t get a fight,” said Baca, who attends El Portal School in Gilroy. “It was a little frustrating because I was training hard and dieting and then I was not able to get a fight.”
Well, Baca’s time has come.
The courageous young fighter is scheduled to square off with an opponent out of Sacramento on March 8.
“I’m kinda nervous. I’m just not going to let it take over,” said Baca, taking a break from her workout at the Gilroy Community Youth Center Gym. “I’m looking forward to this one.”
Baca took up boxing “because there are not too many girls doing it so it inspired me to do it.”
But it hasn’t been easy playing the waiting game. Baca said she nearly ended her boxing career before it began, but a conversation with World Featherweight Champion Kelsey Jeffries changed her mind.
“There’s been times I doubted boxing. She tells me to stick with it,” said Baca of Jeffries, who also trains out of the local gym on Sixth Street in Gilroy. “I kinda look up to her. We talk. We’re friends.”
