Opinion

Solomon: Esparza not your typical boxer

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LONDON - Join me inside the head of Marlen Esparza.

Boxer.

This lovely young lady isn't your typical fighter. (Note, I didn't say she isn't the typical female fighter.)

In a sport that is the ultimate test of will and willpower, fearlessness and fortitude, Esparza's motivation to be great, her desire to achieve, grows on a distinct and rare branch of the competitive tree.

Most fighters want to punish foes. Esparza, 23, wants to humble them.

The first woman to make a U.S. Olympic boxing team would rather see you throw in the towel than go down for the count.

Pain is a significant element of the sport, but Esparza's desire is to deliver an emotional knockout far worse than a straight right hand to the jaw or a left hook to the temple.

Demoralization, not demolition. A blow to the heart as much as the gut. (Though she delivers those, too.)

"My favorite thing about boxing is when you're in there, it's like you're beating somebody as a person," Esparza said. "They're trying everything. They're trying their speed, they're trying their strength. They're trying to be smarter than you. They're trying to figure things out before you figure them out.

"Every time you beat somebody, it means I was just better than you as a person. I have more heart than you. I'm smarter than you. I'm stronger than you. I'm quicker than you. Everything you got … I'm better. That's the beauty of it."

Despite having options in the sport, flyweight Marlen Esparza says she will quit boxing after the Summer Games and concentrate on other pursuits. Despite having options in the sport, flyweight Marlen Esparza says she will quit boxing after the Summer Games and concentrate on other pursuits. Photo: Smiley N. Pool Photo: Smiley N. Pool Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Solomon: Esparza not your typical boxer 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Beauty? Girl, please.

No quarter given

What's worse, getting taken out by a punch that landed in the right place at the wrong time, or seeing evidence via your opponent's footwork, hand speed, endurance and gamesmanship that you're just not good enough?

I'd take the former. At least then you could pick yourself up and convince others that you just got hit with a good shot.

"She wants to beat you in the weeks and months leading up to the fight, not just in the ring," said her coach and trainer, Rudy Silva. "She always wants them to know that she was better, and not by a small margin, but decisively. That's just the kind of fighter Marlen is."

Esparza eschews listening to the standard hard hip-hop or blaring rock anthems before fights; instead, she jams Christmas hymns. Peaceful. Soothing.

Esparza, who was valedictorian of her graduating class at Pasadena High School, wants to be smarter, not angrier.

"I never get angry - unless they hit me really hard - but I never go in the ring angry," the six-time national champion said. "It's more like I want to show them that I am way smarter, way quicker and way more able than they are."

Most fighters like to talk. Esparza likes it when her opponent doesn't even speak English.

"I just like to get in, we don't even speak the same language, get out and then boom, on to the next fight," she said. "I just love to do it."

A boxer could learn more about herself in a few rounds than a basketball player might in an entire season. Esparza has done more teaching than learning since she hit a heavy bag for the first time at 11 years old.

Monday, she will enter the ring in the Olympics, fulfilling a dream she held for many years. A victory in her first fight would guarantee her a medal. Two wins and she'll be in the flyweight division gold-medal bout. She will be a solid favorite in her first fight, probably a heavy underdog in the second one.

With sponsors such as McDonald's, Procter & Gamble (CoverGirl), Coca-Cola and Nike, Esparza could make a good deal of money as a professional fighter, especially if she adds an Olympic medal to her résumé this week.

Life decision

Regardless of what happens here, she would again be a popular figure, the face of women's boxing, if she remained an amateur chasing Olympic gold four years from now in Rio de Janeiro.

But Esparza says as soon as she arrives in Houston after the Olympic Games, she will say "No mas."

"As soon as I get off the airplane, I'm done," she said.

Of course, for every boxer who said that and never fought again, there are a few thousand who returned to the ring, again and again and again.

It isn't easy to replace that thrill one gets from "beating somebody as a person," but Esparza has done that enough times to know the stuff of which she is made.

She isn't your typical fighter.

"I'm lucky because I started boxing really young for a girl, but at the same time I've been doing it really long for a girl," she said. "This is all I know; this is all I've ever done. I'm kind of ready to start school and do the other stuff in life. It's time for me to do something else.

"I'm blessed. It's sometimes hard for people to figure out what they're good at. I learned it at an early age."

Marlen Esparza. Boxer.

jerome.solomon@chron.com twitter.com/JeromeSolomon

JEROME SOLOMON