Becky Zerlentes, boxer
deb...@comcast.net
Golden Gloves boxer told her coach she was retiring after match
By Adrian Dater
Denver Post Staff Writer
Amateur boxer Becky Zerlentes, 34, of Fort Collins died Sunday from
injuries suffered in the ring Saturday night in the Colorado Golden
Gloves competition at the National Western Complex.
The Denver County coroner's office said Monday the preliminary cause of
death was blunt force trauma to the head. Results from an autopsy
conducted Monday were not immediately available.
Zerlentes, a geography and economics instructor at Front Range
Community College in Fort Collins, is believed to be the first female
boxer to die from injuries caused in a sanctioned fight in the United
States. USA Boxing lifted its ban on women's boxing in 1993.
According to Colorado Golden Gloves chairman Jesse Mora, Saturday's
fight against Heather Schmitz in the B-Class division was going to be
Zerlentes' last. Mora said Monday that Zerlentes had told her coach she
was going to retire after the fight.
"We're devastated over this," Mora said. "We've never had anything
happen like this. The most we've had is kids going to the hospital with
headaches."
Mora said no one from Zerlentes' camp or family wanted to comment.
At about 11:30 p.m., Zerlentes went to the canvas after being hit in
the head by a straight right from Schmitz, 32, during the third round.
Zerlentes, who was wearing headgear, never regained consciousness.
Mora said Zerlentes was administered aid within 10 to 15 seconds by
head physician Dr. Russ Simpson, who has volunteered his services to
the group for more than 25 years.
"They had the oxygen tank up right away, and as far as I understand she
was breathing on her own and all," Mora said. "Then the paramedics
came. The whole thing took anywhere from 15-20 minutes before she was
taken from the building to (Denver Health Medical Center)."
Detectives are investigating the death, as they do with all "known
dead," but it is not considered a homicide investigation, police
spokeswoman Teresa Garcia said. "Known dead" is a classification of
deaths that occur outside a medical or nursing facility.
"We are finding out what happened," Garcia said. "It's a sanctioned
sport, and we are looking into the circumstances."
Zerlentes, an accomplished triathlete, trained at Loveland's Hard
Knocks gym. She had an amateur boxing record of 6-4.
For the past five years, Zerlentes was an instructor at Front Range
Community College in Fort Collins and held a Ph.D. in geography from
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. According to her
biography on the FRCC site, she was married New Year's Eve 1999 to
Stephan Weiler, who is an associate professor in the economics
department at Colorado State.
"The USA Boxing family's thoughts and prayers go out to Becky's family
and husband," USA Boxing president Sandy Martinez-Pino said. "We are
deeply saddened by this loss."
She is the first boxer to die from injuries suffered in the ring in the
60-year history of the Colorado Golden Gloves. According to USA Boxing,
the most recent fighter to die in one of its events was in February
2001, when heavyweight Quinton Grier, 31, of Springfield, Ill., died
after a match.
Mora said there were three doctors on hand for all of Saturday's bouts.
All amateur boxers in the state are required to wear protective
headgear, and all participants are given pre- and post-bout physicals.
Schmitz, who trained at Boulder's Front Range Boxing Academy and who
was featured by The Denver Post in the March 20 Style section, did not
return calls for comment. Her coach, Dave Gaudett, said Schmitz was too
devastated Monday to talk.
"She would rather take a dive or not get in the ring at all than for
this to have happened," Gaudett said. "It's such an anomaly for this to
happen in amateur boxing. All I can say is Heather is a wonderful
person and this is the last thing she would have wanted."
In an interview on KCNC-4 after the fight Saturday, Schmitz said: "I
only hope she is OK. ... I feel horrible about how it ended."
Randy
wanting to know ...... and condolences to the Zerlentes family ---
please let us know what you would like us to do ......
Brigid Nelson
> Are there more problems with female fighters? Not being sexist --- just
> wanting to know ...... and condolences to the Zerlentes family ---
> please let us know what you would like us to do ......
>
The obit says that she's the first woman to die in the ring since the
women's participation was sanctioned in '93. That's 12 years, one dead.
I suppose it would be an interesting statistical problem. You'd need
to know how many fighters and how many bouts there were for both men and
women in golden gloves for the last 12 years.
Let me know what you find out.
brigid
Brad Ferguson
<irja...@comcast.net> wrote:
I still think there's something warped and twisted about women beating
the shit out of each other in the ring. Save it for the bars on Third
Avenue, where that kind of thing belongs.
Brigid Nelson
I have a problem with *any* two people beating each other up for the
entertainment of others. Unless the sport undergoes a radical shift
from the traditionally lower-class participants, towards corporate CEOs
and various heads of state - then I'm in.
brigid
David Carson
>Female boxer, 34, dies
>
>Golden Gloves boxer told her coach she was retiring after match
"We call it retirony" - Chief Clancy Wiggum