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SaddoBoxing had the opportunity to visit the training camp of up-and-coming featherweight Jennifer “The Bolivian” Salinas before she faces Jessica “Goodnight” Mohs this Saturday night, October 21 on a card put on by local promoter Donofrio Boxing at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hill, Michigan
I park my car at the corner of Fort and Council in Lincoln Park. Michigan and walk down to St. Henry’s Rectory. A black Land Cruiser zips past me with a quizzical-looking woman glancing in my direction before turning down a narrow alleyway. I don’t know where to go and after gazing both ways down the street looking for Casa de Boxeo, I chance following the vehicle, walking between the rectory and a broad, squat, white building that could virtually be anything from its lack of signage. The overhanging trees ahead droop, further obscuring the place but the farther I walk, the more I realize I’ve found the place.
The Land Cruiser is parked in front of the building and across the alley an older gentleman, whom I later learn is Rene Nuñez, is on a cell phone, sitting on a landing on the side of the rectory. Jennifer Salinas comes out in an all black, Bebe sweat suit on her 5’3” featherweight frame with double white stripes down the legs. Grace is apparent in every bare footstep; she dances across the gravel floor to retrieve something from the rear of her truck.
We introduce, and the first thing I note after large, yet serious dark hazel eyes is a firm grip, perfectly aware of how much power it has. Her hair is different from the pictures on the website; shorter, with blonde highlights. She says the difference is part of a new attitude; a change in training as well as exterior.
I follow her into an anteroom with a table, a few chairs, trophies and a closed-circuit television showing the ring in the next room. I meet Mrs. Nuñez and Angel, the Nuñez’s son and Jennifer’s co-trainer. Rene follows shortly after and once we are all introduced, I have a glass of water while watching him wrap Jennifer’s hands.
In the training area Jennifer goes through her stretching routine, skips rope and does “dots, an exercise that improves balance and foot-eye coordination. There are posters all over the walls of boxing heroes past and present, world famous to locally popular. She then straps on 16 ounce gloves and climbs in the ring with Rene. He goes over punches with her, wearing pads for four rounds before she puts on full protective gear and spars with Angel.
I asked Angel, “What’s her best punch?” He holds up his right hand and shakes it and answers, “Right; She’s got some sting.” That becomes apparent in the first round when his nose begins to bleed after a curt right uppercut. She punches with abandon; the broken right hand a ghost of a memory in her lone loss against Heather Percival over two years ago. She explains later the break was actually a re-fracture after she had broken it in training. She admits she has felt pain in it since, but that it has never stopped her from continuing.
Angel shows Jennifer how to slip off the ropes, pivoting around her easily. After backing her onto the ropes a few times she understands and spins away from him. On offense, Jennifer is constantly stalking, cutting off the ring. Her face is a diamond-sharp mask; her chin tucked and her shoulders hunched. Her punches look good, especially the right hook to the body and by the end of the fourth round, both of them are covered in a sheet of sweat and breathing heavily.
Jennifer is red, from exertion rather than blows to the face, but once back on the floor she starts working the heavy bag. Angel explains that it isn’t a matter of what you do right; a trainer’s goal is to make a fighter better. He sees something I don’t see; Jennifer isn’t turning her hand under in just the right way. It’s an impressive-looking shot to me, but she’s frustrated with the punch.
“I’m a perfectionist,” she tells me.
And it shows. She continues wailing away at the heavy bag, trying to get it “right”. After a while, Angel points out what she’s doing is good, but he wants to make it better. Rene tells me he’s having her work the heavy bag in the protective gear as a means to make her used to the additional bulk.
She prepares the same, regardless of opponent, she tells me later. The only real difference is if the woman is left-handed. She runs two miles a day and also does plyometrics.
After the heavy bag she heads over to the treadmill. Rene tells me she will run at top speed in two minute increments, four times, to prepare for the four, two minute rounds; ideally how a fighter should prepare to have stamina for an entire fight. Angel mans the controls, slowly increasing the machine until it’s at full speed. She cruises through the first two, talking and laughing with us, but after the third it seems like she’s had enough. But instead she digs deep and grinds through a fourth round.
Lastly, Jennifer goes to the speed bag. She effortlessly switches from right to left, maintaining a steady rhythm. By now. she has to be exhausted, but shows no signs of collapse. Her will appears iron, though only the ferocity of her last outing at The Palace was seen. I was there for the thirty-second trouncing of Heather Green, who had not previously fought professionally.
She expresses regret having taken that fight. She didn’t learn much; it was just for another W on her record and to keep the rust off. Her upcoming fight will be anything but tame in opponent Jessica Mohs, a seasoned veteran with 19 fights. And Jennifer is putting herself through the fire at Casa de Boxeo and she will be ready on the 21st this month at the Donofrio Boxing Event. If all goes well, Salinas could become an exclusive fighter for Donofrio, a successful outfit, and fight for a title sometime in the next year.
