Jennifer Lozano training at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center on Aug. 9, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Like many others before her, Jennifer Lozano got into boxing to learn how to defend herself.
“I started at the age of 9, mostly because I was overweight and I was bullied as a kid,” recalled Lozano, now 19. “I’d always come home beat up and stuff.”
Growing up in the border town of Laredo, Texas, with family roots in Mexico, Lozano’s first language was Spanish. That also made her a target.
The first boxing gym she went to offered little refuge.
“Back in the day, there was no female boxers, especially being from a border town,” Lozano said. “It was very machismo. Girls have to cook; women have to clean.”
Lozano finally found acceptance and a home at a second gym in Laredo, working under coach Eddie Vela at Boxing Pride Fitness.
“I started off in one of their teenage classes,” Lozano said. “I’ve been with them ever since. Any national titles, any wins and losses, I’ve been with them through it all, for sure.”
Lozano won USA Boxing Elite National Championships in 2020 and 2021. More recently, she won the gold medal in the 50 kg. class at the 2022 AMBC Continental Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, her first international competition.
“When I got gold in Ecuador, that meant everything to me because I was going through a kind of rough patch behind the scenes,” she said.
Where she was shunned and bullied in her youth, Lozano now wants to show the way for girls who are looking to work through their own early difficulties.
“I actually want to be the change,” Lozano said. “I actually want to do something for my city and the younger generations. I ended up going and speaking to schools.
“Whenever I saw a kid at the gym, I’d go up to them. I’d start talking to them, teaching them. I brought all my (championship) belts to the gym just so they could see you can get somewhere.”
Lozano wants to make sure younger boxers have an easier time and go farther in the sport than even she has.
“They won’t have to work the way I did,” Lozano said. “They won’t have that struggle being a woman in this male-dominated sport and then being shamed for it and actually getting the attention and recognition they need and want to get far in the sport.
“It’s never too late, and you can do anything you put your mind and heart to.”
