Jayli Fimbres: My Story

Jayli Fimbres: My Story

I got into boxing when I was 16. I was really interested in martial arts as a child I would watch a lot of Bruce Lee shows and boxing with my dad and my grandpa. I was really into martial arts and my brother was originally the one who boxed and he went to the state tournament here in North Dakota. I went along to support and watch and I saw that there were girls fighting. So I said that’s something that I could do. I was 16 but originally my little brother was my inspiration. So I wanted to try it out also and because there were a lot of outsiders on our reservation I wanted to learn how to defend myself as well.

I was always really competitive growing up as well. I loved sports growing up and I thought boxing would be the hardest sport to do. The first time I boxed I actually only had three days of practice. I’d never fought a day in my life, my coach was an old-school veteran, a Vietnam vet as well. We trained old-school as well, I had nothing but heart and he taught me how to hit hard and be strong and brawl basically. He said I think you’re a natural I think you are ready for a fight.

So after just three days of training, we go to the state tournament and he had me go in with this girl who was about 30lbs heavier, but he said I’ll think you’ll do just fine. I knew nothing about the sport but it was something I wanted to try, something I wanted to do. I hop on the scales she’s like 155 I am 118. And then we get in the ring and it was so exhilarating, it was the type of environment I always wanted to be in. I was basically like a bunny rabbit I had no technical skills, it was all adrenalin, all heart. I was lucky I was an athlete and fast because she was out for the kill. She was trying to shove me through the ropes, she had heavy hands. I might have got a bit of pitter-patter on her. My nose was bleeding I got the whole experience. I lost on points but her family came up to me after and said I did really good for the first time and they told me to keep going and see where it takes me. Some people get scared away being thrown to the wolves like that but I got a real adrenalin rush from it and I got a real love for the sport after that.

In my next few fights after that, I got some back-to-back wins after I got some more experience. But there were not a lot of boxers in North Dakota so I was always fighting the same girls. But again I was kind of thrown the wolves again my coach said I think you would do good at these National Tournaments. My first was the Golden Gloves in Florida in 2010 and I fought in the novice division and got runner-up. I was still very inexperienced, I fought a lot of the same fighters, and I only had one sparring partner. I didn’t get to travel for sparring I was still training very old school with no technical work. But the minute I got some technical work was when things started to turn around for me. I had to travel about an hour and I would do four hours in the evening, then travel home and then go for my run. It was a lot.

Boxing was kind of on and off. I had cross-country, basketball, and track. So I was doing cross-country training and going straight to my boxing training, or basketball practice to boxing practice. I was pretty active I was all over the place, with too many irons in the fire. Looking back now I wish I had focussed on boxing a little bit more. I couldn’t really do without either sport, if one stressed me out I would go with another one and I’d find relief in another sport.

In 2011 I went to my first US National Tournament. That was an experience. I go there knowing nothing and this is the year the women are trying to go to the Olympics for the first time for boxing. I show up and see Claressa Shields, and Mikaela Mayer and all these women are now really big and world champions and I am weighing in with these women not knowing this is potentially what I could have been. It was a cool experience to get in the ring with those types of fighters and be around them.

I didn’t fight Mayer or Shields, I got a bye in the first round and then I fought Iskika Lay in the quarter-finals and that was the hardest I have been hit in my life. I was still learning a lot and these women were so technical and their boxing IQ was so different from mine. I am just this little kid from the reservation with all this heart and love for the sport. I just get in there and she is just smirking at me. But I come from a place where we are brave warrior people and I go and face all my challenges like that. I had just lost my grandpa and I was still in mourning. I didn’t have any family there only my coach. But I really felt my grandpa there. The light shined in the ring, I wasn’t afraid I just did what I knew how. I had pitter-patter against her cannons. My nose was bleeding she caught me with two really really hard right hands. I just kept throwing my jab as fast as I could. But somehow I come out one point over her. I was shocked, this girl was on the US Team and she had just the ideal physique for a boxer. I was just so shocked by that win. The next day I go up against N’yteeyah Sherman, and that was a good little wake-up call to the level of fighter I was facing and where I was. I lost a contact lens in the 2nd round, and again, these women are hitting hard. But my coach called the fight off because I couldn’t see.

But then I say right, I know what National material is, I can work at this and I can get there. I just got to find the right training and the right gym. Sherman went on to fight Queen Underwood who went on to represent America in the Olympics and she had a lot of fights with Katie Taylor, and she was one of her toughest rivals as an amateur. I got a taste of that world level and it sparked something in me that I could get in there with them, and that I could work at it.

But after that, I was still distracted by all the other sports, so I was kind of on and off with boxing. In 2013 was the last time I boxed before my really long break from boxing. I go to the Ringside Championships the best I have ever prepared, I was a lot more technical. I fought a Canadian who was the number 3 seed, and she went on to win the tournament. I was really discouraged and I kind of had some different things going on at home and I had a lot of distractions. So I decided that I was just going to focus on basketball for a while. I took a two-week break that turned into 9 years.

What I always wanted to do was get established in my community with language revitalisation and cultural preservation and spend time with my others here on my reservation. I went to a lot of events in my community, and I am really active in them. I did language classes and there was finally a programme in my community where I could learn from others because our fluent speakers are kind of dwindling. So culture and language have always been my top priority. I work a lot with food sovereignty and traditional gardening. I am kind of in between a mentor and an apprenticeship for language. So then I start thinking I am kind of set with everything now and I can start to do the things I love to do now. And I had all these regrets about not balancing my time better. I honestly thought I was done forever. I started to fill the void of boxing with all these other sports. But there was nothing that really satisfy the hunger the way boxing did. There is nothing that could measure up to it and I feel I still had something left in me. Even now after my recent fight where I suffered that traumatising loss. I don’t know what it is, it has some kind of magnetic force that keeps driving me back to it.

I hadn’t played basketball for about a year because of Covid. But I was playing it for 3 straight days and I was really stiff, and I didn’t have time to warm up and I tore my Achilles. I always knew that was my biggest fear, that would be the worst thing to happen, it was a complete rupture, same-day surgery. It was a very humbling experience and made me realise all the things I could have done and I thought of all the things I may not be able to do again including boxing and that one really hit. All these sports were my coping mechanisms. I struggled with my mental health and if I don’t do these things I struggle mentally. And I thought I am going to do everything in my power to get back to where I was. Even before I was hurt I never thought I would ever crawl back through those ropes, and a year after my injury I was back in the ring. That was my goal to just get in the ring again.

So gradually I got back to running again, riding again and doing basketball again. And I thought you know what I can still do everything I used to do. I just had this newfound gratitude for all the things I used to do. I thought I can take this further I want to box. My dad had said women reach their athletic peak when they are 32, and I had just turned 30. About a week or so later I got a call from my old trainer saying there will be a pro card and would me and my brother want to be a part of it and have our pro debut. I had never really said it out loud, it’s part of our tradition to never say anything unless we really mean it, words have a lot of power to us, but I said I am going to go through with this. That was in April when I found there would be a pro card in my hometown on our reservation. I had about 5 months to prepare.

Last December we went on a family vacation to LA and we went to visit the Wild Card Gym to get some merchandise. When I went in I hadn’t realised it wasn’t exclusive, you could go in there and pay $5 and go and train there. All my favourite fighters used to go and train there. That was what really stoked my fire again. going in there and hitting the same bags as those fighters. I was a 160lbs from my injury and still kind of limping around. I sign in, and I am just in awe. Freddie Roach is standing right beside the door. I literally started crying, I couldn’t even talk. I was just in shock I don’t even remember what I said. But I started asking him about Manny Pacquiao, and Freddie said Manny didn’t like it up here so I made a new gym for him downstairs. Freddie took me downstairs and I was crying the whole time. My childhood dreams were coming true at that moment. It was so surreal. It made me realise I want to do this still. I thought I need to train there. So in June, we went back again for a family vacation and it was like I was meant to be there.

I felt going into my fight, I didn’t do quite enough in training, the technical stuff, the strength training. I didn’t check all those boxes. But I still have so much more to offer and so much more to give. After the fight, my old trainer reached out. He was kind of disappointed with the match-up, but I knew what I was getting into. He said I’ll come to you, I’ll find another gym and we will do it right this time and I’ll get some fights for you. I just can’t end on that note.