Seniesa Estrada: “I want to go undisputed, and I want the biggest fights this year. I want every fight to be a big fight.”

Seniesa Estrada: “I want to go undisputed, and I want the biggest fights this year. I want every fight to be a big fight.”

It’s been a time of frustration, and no little worry for Seniesa Estrada. An injured hand stopped all her momentum. The WBA and the WBC minimumweight champion of the world was on the rise. Ambitions of going undisputed had long been the quest. Estrada had just impressively beaten Leonela Paola Yudica to defend her unified baubles in July of last year, before the euphoria of a famous unification victory turned into a six month long lay off due to the severe hand injury she sustained in the fight.

It’s been just over a year since I had last spoken to Estrada. As we connected again over Zoom, the impressive LA backdrop was visible from her balcony that demonstrated the Los Angeles skyline in all its full glory. The sun shining through. The smile of Estrada also. A fighter happy to be just a few weeks away from making her long-awaited return to the ring after her extended ring hiatus.

“The injury was very disappointing,” Estrada told me. “The fight before that I had won the WBC world title, and I had a sensational performance against a very good champion. But I ended the year with this hand injury, which was very disappointing, and I was out of the ring for the rest of the year. I tore a ligament in the second round, and when the ligament tore, it also chipped off a piece of bone. When I got the MRI and the X-rays, it revealed previous damage that was already in my hand. So I had arthritis and another fracture already. I tore my ligament, and I had another small fracture in the fight as well. It was like a combination of four different things. It wasn’t surprising that I already had damage in my hand because, for the last two fights in training and in sparring, I wasn’t able to use my right hand as much as I wanted to. I wasn’t able to punch with it 100% because it felt very uncomfortable. It was painful and would swell up a little bit after sparring sessions. So, getting the surgery was the best thing for me because it cured all the different things that were wrong with my hand. It definitely doesn’t feel the way it did before.”

The surgery appears to have been a success. But for Estrada, there were doubts if the hand would ever go back to how it was before the injury.

“I wasn’t sure how I would feel coming back to the gym and starting to punch on it again,” a now relieved fighter relayed to me. “It was a little unpredictable. But I am slowly starting to punch with the right hand again, and it feels great. It feels as good as new, so I am happy about that.”

Those doubts were heightened because Estrada felt her entire career was at risk. A unified world champion who, at the peak of her career, feared her boxing life could be over. Leaving her resume in incomplete and unfulfilled status.

“I really did fear for my career. The first couple of months when I was in my cast, I was so, depressed and sad,” a reflective Estrada told FightPost. “I didn’t know how my hand would feel or if it would ever be 100% again. I had a great Doctor perform my surgery but even he said I can’t guarantee it would be 100% again because you are a fighter and you will go back to impact and back to punching on it again and the pain that I felt before could come back again. But right now, it feels great. I am continuing all my therapy and making sure that I train smart and taking the steps I need to so I can throw my right with full power hand again.”

But all the worries and doubts are now behind her. A fighter now looking ahead instead of back. Estrada will get her chance to finally become undisputed. A fight Estrada has long craved. Yokasta Valle will finally be in the opposite corner when the two long-time rivals finally meet on March 29th at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, with all the respective baubles at their weight on the line.

“I am very excited for the fight,” Estrada says. “I am 25-0, and I feel as though I need to be undisputed. I have wanted to be undisputed for a long time. I have been trying to make this fight with Valle when I was signed with Golden Boy Promotions. I told them I wanted to fight her, and that’s why we reached out to them. But I am so excited to be undisputed. It will be such a great feeling to become undisputed at minimumweight. I definitely want to be undisputed at another weight as well. So I will move up to either light-flyweight or flyweight.”

There were initial thoughts of Estrada taking an interim fight before the undisputed showdown with Valle. But the Los Angeles native had waited too long to risk the fight slipping away once again.

“Coming off my injury, my team was talking about taking another fight before Valle just so we can see how your hand feels. That might be the smart thing to do, but for a month, it was really bothering me because I want to go undisputed, and I want the biggest fights this year. I want every fight to be a big fight. It’s a risk either way, but I feel very comfortable going into this fight. That time off was well-needed physically and mentally.”

The fight with Valle is not only about undisputed status at minimumweight. It’s a personal fight in many ways. The Valle camp has connections of old to Estrada. The previous promotional relationship at the core of the fight next month. Estrada has long chased a meeting with her rival champion.

“It’s definitely personal because in every interview she has been saying, I have been ducking her, which is completely false because there has only been an effort on our side to make that fight happen,” Estrada says of that long standing rivalry. “We are the ones who have been reaching out all these years to make the fight happen. But it is going to be such a great fight for women’s boxing.”  

Estrada is chasing history next month. The very first undisputed champion at her current weight. But you sense it’s only the start of her new beginning. At 31, Estrada is now entering her peak. The ambitions also. If she gets her way, one undisputed will be followed by another. Seniesa Estrada fully intends to make up for lost time.

Photo Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank