Lutrick Battles Way to Gold Medal

There was plenty of flailing and even something that looked like sumo wrestling. But the second U.S Women’s National Amateur Championships also gave the announced crowd of 2,287 fans at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim its share of exciting, competitive fights and skilled boxers.

Maybe the most skilled was Denise Lutrick of Augusta, Ga., who won the gold medal at 139 pounds by stopping Jean Martin of Brooklyn, N.Y., with a barrage of sharp punches 59 seconds into the second round. Lutrick, who won the title in this weight class last year, had the best movement and best technique of the 34 women who boxed Sunday night.

“She fights like a man,” said Tom Morates, her trainer and fiancee.

Lutrick didn’t mind the comparison: “I love it. That’s the highest compliment you can get.”

Although many of the boxers threw looping arm punches, Lutrick came at Martin with short, straight power punches. In the first round, two of Lutrick’s combinations prompted the referee to give Martin a standing-eight count. In the second round, the referee decided Martin had taken enough punishment.

“She’s an outside boxer,” Lutrick said. “She left the middle wide open.”

Lutrick was also one of the few boxers to throw body punches. In the first round, she slowed down Martin’s momentum with two clean shots to the gut.

“Body work and slipping punches are two things you don’t see much of from women yet,” Morates said.

World lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez of Mission Viejo, who was on hand to present Lutrick her gold medal, said he was encouraged by what he saw Sunday night.

“It has a future,” he said. “[Lutrick and Martin] were going toe to toe until they stopped the fight. That’s something you don’t see much in men’s boxing. The excitement is there. They do lack in skills. Eventually, they’re going to settle down and get that type of technique they are lacking.”

Hernandez said some of his peers are not nearly as supportive of women’s boxing as he is.

“Men are very selfish,” he said. “They want boxing to be an all-male sport. But we have to give it to the women. They work just as hard as the men.”

Linda Carrillo, a former Miss El Monte, has been working toward winning a gold medal for three years. She achieved her goal Sunday with a 10-4 decision over Rashell Hansen of Murray, Utah, in the finals at 106 pounds. Hansen appeared to be landing the heavier punches, but Carrillo blocked them with her gloves. Carrillo kept her distance and scored consistently with her left jab.

“I feel like crying,” said Carrillo, a bronze medalist at last year’s event. “I’ve worked so hard for this.”

Krysti Rosario of Los Angeles battled nerves and Ngozi Messam of Washington to emerge with a 16-10 victory.

“She put me in a position I didn’t want to be in,” Rosario said of Messam’s awkward style. “I wanted to keep my range, but she wasn’t going along with my plan.”

Rosario, 32, said women boxers proved something to themselves and the crowd Sunday.

“We’re like men, except we started later,” she said. “Someday this whole place is going to be filled up.”

Kevin Neuendorf of USA Boxing, the governing body of U.S. amateur boxing, called the event a success.

“The crowd response was better than we get with our men’s events, and I think that relates directly to the quality of the fights,” he said. “I was a little nervous. From what I’d been hearing, I didn’t think we’d get 500 people here. This is more than we could have hoped for.”