Community Post

Queen Underwood: Looking Toward the Future

SONY DSC

    Queen Underwood, born and raised in Seattle, Garfield graduate and Olympic Boxer, shares her story with Cappy’s Boxers. Queen started boxing at the age of 17 and began her amateur career at 19. The Olympian is also a six-time USA National Champion, the 2010 World Championships bronze medalist and the 2013 Continental Champion. For Queen, participating in the 2012 Olympics was an overwhelming experience. There was a lot of pressure going into London. Not getting the results she had hoped for, Queen is hungry to continue training to get the Gold in the 2016 Olympics. Queen’s latest competition was the 2013 Continental Championships in Venezuela. She fought four matches with stylistically different boxers. In her first match, she fought an unfamiliar opponent from Brazil. Initially, Queen thought it would be an easy match, but her opponent threw a lot of punches. Queen used her quick movement to diffuse the punches. By the end of the first round, she had a strong 8-point lead. Her second match was against Canada. Queen had reviewed footage and found her opponent to be awkward and rangy. Queen knew that she had to either commit inside or use lateral movement and make adjustments. The key to winning this match was to not get caught being flat-footed. Queen’s toughest fight was her third, against Puerto Rico. She had faced her opponent before and lost by decision. Queen’s opponent was a Southpaw, but she had worked a lot with Southpaws at the training camp. So that was not a problem. Queen mimicked her opponent’s style, was explosive and showed intent behind every punch. It was a close match, but Queen won in the last round by a slim margin. Her last match was against Argentina. Argentina has a reputation of good boxers with good movement. Her opponent was tall, slender and had good range. Queen used a lot of faints, moved in explosively, countered and ended her combinations with a jab. The key in this match was to be active and throw punches every 3-4 seconds.

The journey for Queen Underwood continues. As her motto goes: Can’t stop, won’t stop. Queen will continue representing Team USA in the coming year. She aims to train and gain experience in preparation for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Follow Queen on Facebook and Twitter (@queenunderwood) for updates. To contact Queen, email her at [email protected].

One thought on “Queen Underwood: Looking Toward the Future