How a loss in the boxing ring became a gain in life for LI's Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa

Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa was certain about one thing in early 2020: She would be on a mission. She was determined to regain her WBA super middleweight title and, in the process, elevate the sport of women’s boxing.

On Jan. 10, 2020, Napoleon-Espinosa lost her title in a thrilling fight on Showtime. All three judges scored the bout 95-94 for her opponent, Elin Cederroos. It was Napoleon-Espinosa’s first nationally televised fight, and while the loss stung, she won thousands of fans in what clearly was the fight of the night.

That was the last time the Lindenhurst resident was in a ring.

"If I would have won that fight, I don’t know if I would have made the same decisions," Napoleon-Espinosa said. "I would have had more pressure on me to defend my belt and stay active as much as I can.

"Boxing is a short-lived career and I want to capitalize on it as much as I can. I would have been mentally in a different place. I think losing my title allowed me to let go and take myself out of a champion’s mentality for a moment."

Still, letting go didn’t come easily. Napoleon-Espinosa’s competitive instincts were hard to suppress, so she stayed in constant touch with her promoter about setting up another fight. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit by mid-March, New York’s boxing gyms began to close and things started to crystallize for Napoleon-Espinosa.

Every major sport was shutting down when she finally got a call from her promoter.

"I told her that 2020 was going to be a wash," Lou DiBella said. "The pandemic was going to be really bad for the sport of boxing and even harder for women in boxing."

That’s when the mission changed.

"I thought, if this year is going to be a wash, I am not wasting it," said Napoleon-Espinosa, 35. "I decided to get pregnant. And luckily, in June, we got pregnant right away. Originally, I wanted to finish out my boxing career and then start my family. But the pandemic completely changed everything for me."

Napoleon-Espinosa has been a pioneer on the Long Island women’s boxing circuit. She won the WBA super middleweight title in March 2018 at Barclays Center on the undercard of the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz heavyweight title fight. She defended it five months later at Nassau Coliseum and again at Foxwoods in 2019.

But the rhythms of boxing don’t provide participants with an offseason, making things like starting a family harder to accomplish.

"This is my offseason," she said. "And I wasn’t going to waste it. For us, this has been a blessing. I’ve been able to be home and rest and enjoy my pregnancy."

And by rest, Napoleon-Espinosa means:

"My first trimester, I ran every day. Every morning I was up at 6:30 running three miles a day," she said. "The second trimester, I would still run, but I was getting fatigued. So I started to whittle down my training. I started doing light weight sessions.

"By the start of the third trimester, my husband finished our home gym. He built a complete boxing gym in our garage. So I was finally able to punch something. I’ve been hitting the bag. I am definitely active, which is best for the baby anyway."

Napoleon-Espinosa and her husband, Roberto, will be welcoming a new daughter to their home, along with stepdaughters Brianna and Marizabel. In addition to training, Napoleon-Espinosa spends her days painting and writing journal entries to the baby. Her due date is March 26.

"What the pandemic has done is set back the careers of too many women boxers who deserve better," DiBella said. "But Alicia moved ahead with major life goals, it was a wonderful example of planning and she did the right thing for her and her family."

Resuming her career is something Napoleon-Espinosa is determined to do.

"I am 100% not finished in that ring," she said. "Now that I will have a daughter to be an example to, it’s just going to be so much sweeter the next time I win.

"So many people just assumed, once I got pregnant, I would stop boxing. It’s not just men, it’s women, too. I heard it from women all the time. They have to change their thinking.

"Sure, I can say I am done, but I won’t give in to that. That’s what society expects. But just because I am having a baby, it doesn’t mean I am hanging my gloves up. I will be back."

The perfect first lesson for her daughter.