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Marlen Esparza
Professional Boxer, 2012 Olympic Bronze Medalist & World Champion
Marlen Esparza
Professional Boxer, 2012 Olympic Bronze Medalist & World Champion
Biography
Marlen was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in a family that adored the sport of boxing. Her introduction to the ring came at age 11, when she started babysitting her younger brother while he worked out at a local gym. Marlen was soon begging her father and the gym’s trainer to let her try the sport. They were hesitant, but soon gave in under one condition: She had to behave in school. Marlen kept her end of the bargain and by her senior year she was named class President and graduated with a 4.6 GPA. Although, she had won two Women’s Boxing U.S. National Championships (2006, 2007) and captured bronze at the 2006 World Championships, Marlen was ready to quit the sport and go to Rice University, where she had been previously accepted.
All of that changed in 2009 when the International Olympic Committee announced that women’s boxing would debut at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Soon after this announcement, Nike, Coca-Cola, and CoverGirl signed Marlen to sponsorship deals. This was huge for Marlen because she was able to quit her job – she had been working as a dental assistant- and her focus on training became even more intense for the only title left for her to win.
Marlen went on to win the 2009, 2010, and 2011 U.S. National Championships and qualified to the Olympic Games at the World Championships in China. This would clinch her spot in history as the first ever American female boxer to ever compete in an Olympic Games.
In the debut of women’s boxing at the 2012 London Olympic Games, Marlen brought home the bronze medal. Her original plan was to leave the sport after the Olympic Games, but after bringing home the bronze she realized she wasn’t quite finished with boxing.
Marlen kept her U.S. National Championship winning streak alive by taking the title in 2013, 2014, and 2015. She also took home the Gold medal at the 2014 Women’s World Championships for the first time in her career.
In 2017, Marlen turned pro, signing with Golden Boy Promotions and becoming their first ever female boxer. She dominated her pro debut on ESPN and is currently 14-1 in her professional career. She won her first WBC World Title by unanimous decision and became the unified WBO, WBA, WBC, and Ring Magazine Flyweight Champion of the World.
In January 2019, Marlen welcomed her first child, Saint Diego Figueroa.
She is passionate about creating a voice for women’s sports and inspiring young girls to go after their dreams, whatever they may be.
Speech Topics
Going for Gold: My Journey to the Olympic Games
As a little girl, speaker Marlen Esparza passed up Barbies and Polly pockets in favor of a slightly more unusual game: boxing. Watching it on television with her dad and brothers and accompanying them to the gym to watch them practice, she developed an irreversible passion for the sport. But it came with a serious challenge: her father and coach told her she couldn’t box because she was a girl. Undeterred, she started training—and winning—proving them all wrong. In this keynote, Esparza shares her story of fighting obstacle after obstacle in order to achieve her goals—from being taken seriously as a female boxer to competing in the Olympics.
Fiercely Latina: Inside & Outside the Ring
As the first Latina boxer—and the first to have top sponsors such as CoverGirl, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Nike—Marlen Esparza hopes to open the door to future generations of Latinos, encouraging them to compete in women’s boxing and all sports in general. In this keynote, she discusses how Latinos don’t have to fall prey to typical stereotypes, such as not graduating from high school, and instead should feel empowered to pursue their dreams. She shares her story and her plans to go back to college as a pre-med student while training for Rio 2016 and working on launching her own beauty and fashion line. Her message is simple but powerful: if you can dream it and believe it, then you can do it.
The Future is Female: Making History Beyond the Olympic Games
Speaker Marlen Esparza was the first US female boxer to qualify for London 2012 in an Olympic sport that didn’t even allow women to compete until 2009. A pioneer in the industry, Esparza not only opened the door to all other women wanting to get into boxing, but as the first US female boxer to medal with a bronze, she proved that they could excel in the sport. Esparza shares her journey—candidly admitting that it wasn’t always easy and glamorous, as there were days when she simply did not want to train and had to drag herself out of bed—and motivates all women to follow their dreams, no matter how daunting they might seem.
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