Mayra Rodriguez, of San Antonio, has a lot of titles: amateur boxer, model, ring girl, and now she's about to add one that is particularly important to her, professional fighter! She will be making her pro debut in her home city, on a Team Morones Boxing Card at the Freeman Coliseum on December 3rd. The card is headlined by NFL Legend Frank Gore and co-mained by one of San Antonio's favorite fighting sons, Rick Medina Jr.and will be streamed all over the world. The moment isn't getting to her as she insists she's ready for the moment " I'm Ready... It's a dream come true. I'm super excited about all this'', and she should be. She has prepared herself well as an amateur and won't get stage fright as a result of a successful career as a model and ring girl which has prepared her well for having all eyes on her.
The modeling and being the ring girl has prepared her in a sense she explained, "the opportunity to be a ring card girl came up, and I took it. It helped me get comfortable with the ring and with the people. I feel really good! It's fun." It helped her get over the little stage fright she felt in the first round of her amateur career. She described how she became a ring girl "I have a bestie, who did the ring girl thing and she asked me if I wanted to do it. I said but, I'm a boxer... are you sure? She showed them [the promotion] a picture, and they were like sure!"
Rodriguez got into boxing after she had her second daughter. She needed something to help relieve stress and boxing filled the need. "I was playing soccer at that time and the gym was around the corner, I had a friend that boxed and I tried it out and I really liked it." the San Antonian explained. She started from the absolute beginning and built herself up quickly. She retells a story of her first day in a boxing gym and her coach telling her to jab and she asked, "what's a jab? How do I do it? My coach was like man you hit like a girl... now he knows I'm good."
The model picked up boxing quickly, had a brief but successful amateur career, and decided it was time to turn pro. After fights got canceled during the covid pandemic and the gym was closed her amateur career got put on hold. When she came back from the layoff she knew it was time to turn pro, "I don't want to do the amateur things anymore. After COVID I had to get back on track. I couldn't do amateur boxing anymore I couldn't see myself doing that anymore. I'm ready!!
Now her time has arrived, she will do battle with Abril Anguiano of Dallas and enters the fight extremely confident when asked about her opponent Rodriguez said "I know she's a professional MMA fighter and boxer, and she's from Dallas. That's all I know, I've been training, and that's all I need to know. I'm ready!"
Rodriguez has excelled at every level and in everything she's done thus far. So it stands to reason that boxing at the professional level will be no different and she's definitely in the right city for a successful pro career. San Antonio has produced a list of elite-level women fighters, Selina Barrios had an excellent career, Melissa Houglin is a 14x US national champion and off to a 3-0 start in her pro career and the are other high-level female Alamo City fighters like "Mi Vida Loca" Brittany Ordonez, who will also be featured on the TMB card, however, none have gotten to the peak of the mountain top, none have gotten to a world title and Rodriguez seeks to become the first!
It's not every day that a ring girl and model have expectations like this to become a world champion. The Alamo City native explained that people often think she's different people, including a photographer who was in the same boxing class as her "there was this time I was doing boxing classes, just in my workout clothes. One of the guys that works out with us. He does the shoot for the ring girls. So I go to the shoot dressed as the ring girl, and he tells the coach that she kinda looks like the girl from the class." Not knowing the girl in the boxing class and the ring girl was actually the same person. She told of going to her weigh-ins for her fights and everyone thinking she was the ring girl, not the fighter.
When asked if Mayra the fighter and Mayra the ring girl gets treated differently she replied with the obvious "Yes. of course, as the ring girl you have to be super friendly, and very girly, it's all about what you're wearing, the makeup, as a fighter is the complete opposite. you're tough, you have a different following.'
As you could imagine Rodriguez will have a big crowd next Saturday at the Freeman Coliseum. However, she's not sure if perhaps her biggest fan will be there, her dad. She explains " My dad has been to all my amateur fights. My mom won't go to any. She'll tell me to take care and throw some chingasos! My Dad this time has not said no but has been putting some excuses on why he isn't gonna go. He doesn't want to watch me fight. I get it, I am his baby girl.
Perhaps after scoring a sensational victory on December 3rd at the Freeman Coliseum, as she is expected to do, her Dad will be a little more comfortable watching her daughter take care of business in the professional ring, just as she did as an amateur.
