Jobette Nabarro would love to have a few more amateur fights, and get a shot to make the U.S. Olympic boxing team for the 2016 Games in Rio, Brazil.
Jobette Nabarro would love to have a few more amateur fights, and get a shot to make the U.S. Olympic boxing team for the 2016 Games in Rio, Brazil.
The 2003 Waiakea graduate is ranked fifth in the nation by USA Boxing, but she won’t get an invite to the last Olympic trials qualifier, scheduled for Sept. 8-11 in Maryland.
“They changed the number of amateur fights from five to 10 to qualify for the trials, and I couldn’t get grandfathered in,” she said. “I have seven amateur fights. I need three more to get into the Olympic trials.”
Nabarro’s last fight was in July at the Desert Showdown in Indio, Calif., where she won the welterweight belt with a second-round knockout. Her first opponent was a no-show, and that’s considered a walk over.
Too bad forfeits aren’t counted as fights. Nabarro would then be two away and have a puncher’s chance at scoring an Olympic trial berth.
In the 165-pound weight class, Kira De Morales, a 2008 Waiakea graduate, is expected to compete at the last Olympic trials qualifier. She lost a 3-0 decision to Krystal Dixon, of New Rochelle, N.Y., at the trials in June.
Nabarro knows what the best of U.S. amateur boxing has to offer. At the U.S. national championships last year, she lost to Danyelle Wolf, from San Diego, who’s a three-time champion.
“I lost by points and it was a good fight,” Nabarro said. “It was toe to toe.”
Her cornerman is Fred “Pops” Pereira, who started the Waianae Boxing Club. He’s tried to instill a killer instinct in Nabarro, whose compassion can be a road block.
“Pops told me not to be nice,” she said. “I would back away when my opponent was wobbly because I felt bad. He told me I can’t be nice and had to try and knock them out.”
Nabarro has also been trained by Maui’s Herbert Vierra, and the Big Island’s Joe Feliciano, a longtime boxing referee.
Her goals are to be an Olympian and turn pro. But a bigger one is to inspire youngsters who think they’re underdogs, and don’t dream big.
“I fight to inspire kids here. That’s my motivation. That’s what drives me,” she said. “I want to inspire them and let them know they can reach their dreams, even being from a small town like Hilo.”
Nabarro works with children with disabilities. She deals with the disadvantaged. But there’s nothing as rewarding when she shows her students a champion’s belt.
The window is closing on her to become an Olympian and pro boxer in short order. She’s 30 years old. The next Summer Olympics is 2020 in Tokyo.
However, Nabarro won’t limit herself to thinking age is an opponent. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is 38 years old, she points out. Her little ones wouldn’t let her forget her own message, anyway.
“I went to the Waiakea Rec Center and showed the kids my belt, and they got excited,” she said. “I wanted to get across to the kids that you can reach your dreams and be anybody you want to be if you work hard.”