Interview with Crystal ‘Choo Choo’ Delgado
 Interview by Vikram Birring, DoghouseBoxing.com (Aug 5, 2008) Doghouse Boxing  
Undefeated women’s boxing prospect Crystal ‘Choo Choo’ Delgado, who fights on the undercard of the Juan Diaz-Michael Katsidis mega-event in Houston September 6, took a few minutes to speak with DoghouseBoxing.com’s Vikram Birring.

Vikram Birring: I’m with ‘Choo Choo’ Delgado right now. She fights September 6 on the undercard of Michael Katsidis vs. Juan Diaz against an opponent to be named. She’s a big ticket seller in Houston. She’s 18.

Crystal Delgado: Yeah, I just turned 18.

VB: She’s going to school for web design.

CD: And art.

VB: What’s good?

CD: Hi. (Laughing) I really don’t know what to say.

VB: Somebody’s happy today.

CD: (Laughing)

VB: How’s training for your next fight going?

CD: It’s going good, it’s the best I’ve been, we’re taking everything slowly, step by step, you know, with the weights. When my dad comes back from Ringside amateur boxing tournament with my sister, I’ll start sparring again, start going six to eight rounds, three minutes, you know, start getting back in. So far I’ve been hitting the weights, and I’m feeling stronger, I’m really feeling stronger than I have ever felt before.

VB: How many rounds is this fight for, do you know?

CD: Four, but I know I could probably go six if I wanted to, or eight.

VB: So you’re trying to move it up one step at a time? Four, six, eight, ten, twelve?

CD: Yeah, if a fight comes and they want eight rounds, I don’t sweat it because I know I can do it. We train like we’re going to fight a twelve round fight, we always train like we’re going to fight a champion. We never underestimate anybody. We work hard, and if they come out of nowhere, “You want to fight a twelve round fight?” We’ll take it, you know, depending on the opponent.

VB: Do you know when you find out who your opponent is?

CD: Not sure, not sure right now. Next week we’ll figure out who I’ll fight September 6. We have a list of girls.

VB: After that, do you have any plans for the rest of the year?

CD: There are a couple of fights, a couple of people want me to be on their card, so we’ll have to see on the schedule. October is breast cancer awareness month, my grandma is a breast cancer survivor, two times. I want to fight for that cause. Leland Dean is holding a card for breast cancer awareness, I really want to fight on that, probably donate some of my check to that foundation.

VB: How do you mix up training with going to school every day?

CD: Stressful. In the morning, I get up at six, head off to school until twelve. Each of my classes are four hours, and I go Monday through Friday. I come home, and I need my nap (laughing). Then at 5:30, I head off to the gym and come home at 9. Doing homework, I’m up until 12, 1 in the morning doing homework. I skip my nap time (laughing) when I’m doing homework, you know, it’s just so much stress now. I kind of get scared because I don’t want to miss too many days of school because you can only miss so many, because of boxing. I plan to have a career after boxing, boxing is a hobby for me, I don’t plan to do it for the rest of my life.

VB: Do you ever invite your teachers and classmates to your fights?

CD: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I have a lot of friends who’ve been to my fights, really good friends who support me. I have teachers who never can make it because usually my fights are on weekdays, so teachers can never make it out. But they’ll support me, they’ll hang up posters for me, they’ll tell people at their other jobs or something. At my school, everyone really supported me, the principal, the assistant principal, it felt good, you know.

VB: What high school was that?

CD: Alvin High School.

VB: So I guess now you’re the second most famous alumnus after Nolan Ryan?

CD: That’s what everyone jokes about, that they’re going to have my statue next to his (laughing).

VB: When are you going to try to look into getting a minor title?

CD: Probably, in the next year. The IBA title, the youth title. Hopefully, in the next year, you know. Fights are coming at me fast. Usually, most women have four fights in six years. But me, I started last August, and it’s only going to be almost a year for me, and I already have six fights. That’s kind of fast for a female fighter. A title fight, in my future, most likely is going to happen soon. Most likely.

VB: Where did you get the nickname ‘Choo Choo’?

CD: My dad came up with it. I’ve always been a pressure fighter. When I was skinnier, like 115 and stuff like that, I used to box, but I started gaining weight, I started doing weights, my dad had me on creatine, but I never did the weights for it, so I just gained a whole bunch of water and never lost it. I became a brawler, all of a sudden, one Ringside, I fought and I lost, and that’s because I let her push me around, and it really made me mad. So, that made me change, I didn’t want to be pushed around, I was going to be doing the pushing around, and that’s how I am. I’m a pressure fighter, and I come at you like a train, and it’s hard to stop a train. So my dad thought, that train sounded too masculine, so he felt ‘Choo Choo’ sounded just right, and it clicked, and I fell in love with it, and it sounds good when you hear it in the crowd, ‘Choo Choo’ (laughing).

VB: There’s a song for that too, right?

CD: By Quad City DJ’s, Come and Ride It? That is my theme song (laughing). I guess that’s kind of weird that someone has a theme song, but I love that song, and it really gets me pumped up for a fight.

VB: How long do you look to box?

CD: Three titles. Hopefully go undefeated. If a loss comes, it would only be because the girl was better than me. I plan to do it for six, seven years. I’m not in a race to get into a career already, because I’ll always have a career. My college diploma will always be right behind me, no matter how long I decide to stay in the ring. Now that I think about it, I don’t want to give up the sport, my passion for it, I love it. I want to put boxing back on the map, because UFC and MMA are starting to take over, and I hate it, because they don’t stay in the ring long enough, to put on a good show.

VB: It must be hard to find girls to spar, so do you do most of your sparring with guys?

CD: Rarely guys, I still find girls to spar, but they’re like twenty, thirty pounds heavier than me. They hit hard, but I push them back, and I go to war with them, and we have a lot of respect for each other, because they’ll be trying to kill me in sparring, always trying to take me out, and I stand there. I take punches, and I give punches. So, a lot of girls respect me, because I can hang in there with them, and they’re like 150, 160, and I’m 125, 130.

VB: Where does that aggressive streak come from? I guess certain people, they just have it inside?

CD: My dad’s always pushed me, and he always gets me mad, when I do something wrong. He’ll point it out, and try to fix it, and I hate being corrected. That gets me mad. In the corner, during the fight, my dad says “You gotta do this, do that” and like “I’m trying! You don’t see me getting hit?” and he’s like “I don’t care!” He’ll slap me around in the corner sometimes, so you might see that, and that gets me mad, and that gets me in the ring in a rage, trying to prove my dad wrong.

VB: I work for my dad, so I know the feeling (laughing).

CD: (Laughing)

VB: Explain to the people that never box, they always find it the strangest thing that two people beat each other up for however long, and then after the fight they go and hug each other. That’s always been confusing for people that don’t really box. Can you explain that a little bit?

CD: It’s all good sportsmanship. When you show good sportsmanship, a lot of people will have respect for you. A lot of people will like that. Even though, they like that cockiness, that hater. Deep down, everyone is like “That person’s nice, we want to work with you.” Other potential promoters or sponsors see that. After a war, I’ll go to the other corner and say “Thank you, it was an honor to fight with you,” I thank the ref, everybody, I’m a humble person. People see that, they know that I won’t two time them, I won’t be a two-faced person because I’m not. I want to show people that you don’t have to be a cocky person in sports. Good sportsmanship. They do the same thing you do in the ring, so you have to show respect to get respect.

VB: Do you have any possible endorsements outside of boxing?

CD: Nope. I just have sponsors, local Mexican restaurants and stuff like that. Nothing much yet. People are calling, asking, want to sponsor, but nothing major. I’ll be a Monster, because I’m addicted to the Monster energy drink (laughing). Right now, we’re just living with what we got, doing what we can.

VB: Do you ever go out of your way to tell people that you’re Puerto Rican? The majority of the people, they hear Crystal Delgado, they just assume that you’re Mexican, and cheer for you.

CD: Almost every one of my fights, my dad comes out with the Puerto Rican flag, and he’ll have a Puerto Rican bandana or a jacket, and he puts a Puerto Rican and Mexican patch on my boxing trunks, so people get the hint, you know, she’s Puerto Rican/Mexican. Some people ask, “Are you Mexican?” and I’m like “I’m Puerto Rican/Mexican.” I like showing my Puerto Rican side more, that’s where I get my aggressiveness from too, because, most people know that Mexicans are hard-headed, they’re real bull fighters. Puerto Ricans have a lot of pride and heart, they don’t like giving up. And that’s me, I hate giving up, I won’t give up.

VB: So I guess the strategy is don’t fight against a Mexican boxer.

CD: I won’t fight a Mexican fighter, but if I did, it would be a war.

VB: It would be a war, but it would be the first time they won’t cheer for you.

CD: Regardless, if they know that I’m half Mexican, they’d probably cheer for me as well.

VB: Bring a Mexican flag too then.

CD: Probably for my next fight, we’re going to come with the Puerto Rican, Mexican, and American flag, hopefully.

VB: Did you get a chance to meet Oscar De La Hoya during the press conference?

CD: I did not go to the press conference, because that was the night of my fight, and I wanted to relax. I didn’t want to be in a press conference, and then rush home and get my stuff, and be stressed out. I wanted that day to relax. I ended up winning that fight, the Tammy Franks fight. So, I never got to meet him.

VB: Maybe one day.

CD: Maybe one day. Hopefully September 6, I’ll probably get to meet him, and that’ll be great, because that’s a legend right there.

VB: Is that your favorite boxer?

CD: No, my favorite fighter is Arturo ’Thunder’ Gatti. When I started boxing, I looked up to him, because he is the one that made me also show heart. When he fought Ward, those fights were awesome. I fell in love with him right away, right away. He had so much heart. You see how his face gets swollen and beat up.

VB: Sometimes, by the end of his career, it looked like it was swollen before the fight even started.

CD: He has a swollen face, and it gets worse, but he knows how to fight, and that’s what I want to do. He’s the only boxer that has sold out big arenas without it being a title fight. He’s just courageous, I love him to death, I want to meet him more than anyone. I like him, I like Miguel Cotto, he’s really good, I like Manny Pacquiao also. But Arturo ‘Thunder’ Gatti, I love him the most because of his heart and courage.

VB: Explain how your dad keeps you focused all the time, because he’s your dad, your trainer, your manager, everything in one.

CD: Sometimes, I’ll trail off, I don’t want to work out. Sometimes, you do the sport so much, you end up losing interest a little bit. Then a fight comes up and the adrenaline rush pulls you back in, you fall right back in love with it. The same thing happens with any other sport, you do it too much and you want to try something new. But my dad’s right there saying, “I know you’re tired, but this is your life, the gift that God’s given you, this is what’s going to make you big, I know it’s hard.” He’s always pushing and motivating me. He’s always been by my side when things go bad, when people talked down on me and said I wouldn’t make it in the sport. Now they’re coming back trying to be my best friend. My dad’s there, he keeps the word of God in my head. He’s always nagging on me.

VB: I’m sure he keeps the boys away too.

CD: My dad, he doesn’t really mind, he knows I’m old enough to make my own decisions now. Sometimes, I have some boy troubles, because boxing takes up most of my time and I don’t have enough time for them. “You’re always boxing, you don’t have enough time for me.”

VB: I’m sure they don’t bother them too much if they’ve seen you in the ring.

CD: Most of them are scared to break up with me because they thought I would beat them up (laughing). But now that I’m becoming more of a name in Houston, a lot of guys just talk to me because of that, because I’m making money. Now I’m finding out who my friends are, I don’t know who to trust anymore. That’s the hard part about the sport. You lose good friends, you can’t meet a right boyfriend. Right now, I can’t even focus on a boyfriend, I have school and boxing. I have the rest of my life for a boyfriend or husband or whatever.

VB: I read somewhere that you are very religious. Get into that a little bit.

CD: My grandparents dedicated their lives to God, they went to church ceremonies, the Holy Spirit, all of that. I believe in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. I know what God has given me is for a reason, it’s my existence. I want to box, because I want to show people, when I’m reading the Bible, that I put all my faith in God, he helps me win my fights. I know I’m crying right now, but it means a lot to me, and people see that, “Wow, you put all your faith and confidence in God?” To me, faith, putting everything in who you believe in, and then if you win, then it’s working. Telling people that, I know the devil hears that, the enemy, he’ll do anything to make me lose. I know that God is going to help me, and that he is by my side. I read my Bible and my boxing manual before my fights. My radio is always tuned to 89.3, the Christian channel. I try to stay as humble as I can in the sport. There’s no reason to be nasty, there’s no need to be nasty.

VB: If God is with you, nobody can be against you?

CD: If God is with me, nobody can be against me. I ask Jesus to cover me, and I’m blessed. I’m covered, no one can hurt, he is protecting me. I am doing all this to glorify him in the name of Jesus.

VB: Thanks for your time. We’ll see you September 6. Good luck in your fight.

CD: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Questions or comments,
e-mail Vikram at: vikram.birring@mail.utexas.edu

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