Ana Julaton - The Hurricane

Luciana “Ana” B. Julaton was born on July 5, 1980 in San Francisco, California. She is first Filipino American boxer to win the Women's WBO Super Bantamweight and IBA Super Bantamweight titles. Nicknamed “The Hurricane,” she is also one of the “quickest” boxers ever to win a world title, having fought only five other professional bouts before winning the IBA Super Bantamweight title.

Early Career

 

Despite her father making her train in martial arts when she was little, she had no interest in boxing whatsoever. It was only while working as a bok-fu instructor at the West Wind Martial Arts and Boxing School in Berkeley, California, that Julaton was introduced to boxing through a lecture session organized by her now trainer-manager, Angelo Reyes.

Amateur Career

 

Her amateur boxing debut in 2004, managing to win a silver in the San Francisco Golden Gloves despite having officially trained for only two weeks. After delivering a good performance at the National Golden Gloves in 2005, Julaton would be taken under the wing of two-division world champion Carina Moreno and trainer Rick Noble, further improving her craft.

Year 2007, she was ranked as second among all female amateur boxers in the United States, and took part of the unsuccessful campaign to include women's boxing in the lineup of events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Professional Career

 

Julaton decided to turn professional and approached veteran trainer Freddie Roach. Impressing Roach with her work ethic even sparring against male fighters, Julaton eventually became part of Roach's large stable of boxers, alongside Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and former world champion Gerry Peñalosa.

She was about to make her professional debut against Hondi Hernandez as part of the undercard of the Pacquiao-Barrera rematch in October 2007, but her fight was canceled when Hernandez failed to make the weight limit. Julaton instead fought and won against Rita Valentini one month later. This was followed by several other successful fights, culminating in her first title win against Kelsey “The Road Warrior” Jeffries last 12 September 2009 for the vacant International Boxing Association super bantamweight title in women's boxing.

Now trained by Nonito Donaire Sr.,father of boxer Nonito Donaire Jr., Julaton followed up that win by defeating Donna Biggers and becoming the first female World Boxing Organization Super Bantamweight champion on 4 December 2009.