Beyond The Ropes: Jasmine Artiga

Beyond The Ropes: Jasmine Artiga

On March 22nd, Jasmine Artiga will enter the biggest fight of her career to date. After thirteen fights, Artiga heads to California to take on Regina Chavez with the WBA super-flyweight title on the line.

“I was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, and I am of Cuban descent,” Artiga tells FightPost of her early life. “My family on my dad’s side is native to Tampa, and my mom is from the island of Cuba. I grew up in a tight-knit family with my two siblings. My younger brother and year older sister. They are my best friends.”

Before boxing found Artiga, the early years were very active for the future world title challenger.

“I grew up involved in taking dance lessons as a young girl, including tap, jazz, and ballet,” Artiga told me. “I followed dance in my early teenage years. I played competitive circuit tennis all through high school, and I picked up playing basketball and flag football in my later high school days. After high school, I proceeded to play for the LFL Football League, being the youngest girl to make the whole league.

“After high school and during playing football, I decided that football wasn’t going to be forever. I grew up in a boxing household. My father, who is my trainer, always had fights playing on the weekends and a heavy bag in the garage. I grew up hitting a heavy bag, but women’s boxing was never a huge deal. Sure, there were women’s fights but none on television. But we had local fights which I attended. One day, my dad just decided to train me and put me to spar, and from there, he told me he could make me a world champion, and we never looked back.”

“Boxing is just in my DNA. I’m a fighter at heart, and I always have been.” Artiga says of her sport of choice. “Life,” Artiga simply added when I asked her what does boxing give her. “This is my life and my career, and I dedicate my life to my craft.”

The run in the unpaid ranks was brief, Artiga told me. “My amateur career was limited. I only had ten fights. But I did a lot of my learning, sparring on a regular basis twice a week for years without missing.”

Artiga quickly grew a following as a professional. With each win, her support kept growing. “In my first few years as a professional, I fought on local shows and sold a great amount of tickets. But it got to the point where we outgrew the local scene and knew we needed to make a move on a larger scale outside of local venues and getting the right people behind me. Peter Kahn fitted the bill and was a great fit for what me and my dad and I were looking for to take my career to the next level and onto the world stage. He was the right man for the job, and it’s with great honour to be part of his stable.”

“I wouldn’t use the word excited, but I am serious and ready for the task I have ahead of me on March 22nd,” Artiga says of her upcoming world title fight. “I have a game opponent in the number one ranked Regina Chavez, and I know she will not be a pushover. She is gonna be a game-tough Mexican warrior who’s gonna come to fight.”

“With my god-given athletic ability, disciplined hard work, and relentless nature and undeniability mindset to go along with a very knowledgeable father in my corner with a perfect blueprint it should be pure domination if executed correctly,” was how Artiga answered when I asked her how she would emerge victorious next month. “This win puts me at the top of my division, where I can then look to unify the titles and eventually become undisputed. Also, it makes history in my home city of Tampa. Where a major world title has never been won before in 138 years of existence. So, to be the first and only native of Tampa to do so means the world to me.”

Jasmine Artiga is only thirteen fights into her professional journey. A resume that has only an early draw that slightly blemishes it. But if she beats Regina Chavez, it would begin the next stage of her career for a fighter who seems intent on leaving a lasting legacy behind.

“I want to be remembered as a role model to the youth who reached the highest mountains the honest way with patience, determination and hard work anything can be done.”