Brightside

00 | hell's comin' with me

EDDIE "AKUMA" YAMAGUCHI: BEYOND THE ROPES

By Archibald Rigby

"I want to be the champion," Eddie Yamaguchi, 29, said, brushing a light curl out of her eyes.

Usually her hair is tied up in a tight bun as she enters the ring. The unusual walk-up song of Mr. Brightside by the Killers always gets the crowd pumped and ready, cheering her name. Her white robe with red lining says Akuma across the back—devil in Japanese, the caricatured tail stretched out from the A makes sure we know the translation.

Some would say she's past her prime, Yamaguchi would say she's just getting started.

"I think that the world thinks that women who aren't in their 20s are one foot in the [expletive] grave," Yamaguchi said.

"And I don't think that anyone should be told their dreams don't matter that early in life. The oldest world champion for female boxers was 48 when she won the title. Who [expletive] cares how old someone is? Nobody said that when [Tom] Brady retired and then unretired 1001 times. Nobody ever says that about the men. Why the [expletive] should it matter that I was born in 1994 and not 2000 like some of our other athletes? Our reigning champion is older than me, I don't know why these [expletive] think they can comment on our age as if they're not close to retirement at their desk jobs. [Expletive] off."

The anger likely comes from a recent incident with an announcer during her last match against Wren "Little Bird" Swiftwater, 23, which ended with Yamaguchi winning in the first round via knockout, and promptly spending the night in jail, also via knockout. The second was received by Giovanni Perez, 39, commenting on Yamaguchi after her win, which sealed her trip to a title fight against reigning middleweight world champion, Thema "Queen of the Nile" Sameh, 34, coming in November.

Though her hands were raised in the air in victory, Mr. Brightside playing once again, Yamaguchi still heard the comments.

Coming from the mouth of the silver-haired and not-so silver-tongued Perez who has refused to apologize and claimed that the comments were taken out of context, the following was recorded during the broadcast.

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: "With the knockout, Yamaguchi beats Swiftwater for the third time in their history of fights. What's not a knockout? That bloody nose, those black eyes. It's not a shock that Yamaguchi has not retired to get married—" Perez is cut off by Yamaguchi pushing through her celebratory crowd and jumping over the ropes. She draws her fist back and punches him in the nose. Perez is taken away by the doctors on standby, Yamaguchi is taken away by security and later police.]

"I regret letting him get under my skin, I regret getting a night in jail on my criminal record, and I regret that this made us postpone the fight against the Queen [Sameh]. But I do not regret my actions as long as [Perez] does not apologize for his comments," Yamaguchi said. "Additionally, I would like to say that a spouse, marriage, kids, because I'm sure that's what he was about to say next... they're not on my radar. Right now I want the title. That's it. That's what I'm working toward."

When Yamaguchi entered the WBA five years prior, there were many people who doubted her ability. Most women in their first years in the circuit were in their late teens, early 20s, Yamaguchi was not. Even with the recent incident, with which Sameh and many other boxers have backed Yamaguchi on, Yamaguchi continually shows what an outstanding person she is in the ring and outside it.

Donating toward charities run by family friends—most notably Kingston's Kids, a charity for deaf or hard of hearing children to help access care and equipment needed for them—and other athletes, Yamaguchi may have a hard exterior, but there is no denying the heart of gold. It is reported that her one phone call during her night in jail was to an event coordinator to say that she couldn't make her appearance the day after where she was meant to talk to kids about her job.

"Sometimes people seem to forget we're human beings," Yamaguchi said. She ran her hand along the sleeve of her WBA hoodie, aged, worn out, but still hanging together. Under it hides the shimai symbol tattoo that shines in the ring lights during a fight on her shoulder; Yamaguchi's sisters have the same tattoo, all done by celebrity tattoo artist and their sister, August Yamaguchi, 32. Shimai means sisters in Japanese.

"And I think that they put so much pressure on us not to age, not to exist. Like... okay, hear me out. So I was in lecture when I still went to school, right? And, in this film class, we talked about Rebel Without A Cause one week. During the teenage rebellion era of film. My teacher brought up James Dean's untimely death. Then went onto more recent ones, like River Phoenix, Selena. The list doesn't matter, it goes on. Anyway. We're talking about teenage rebellion, and because actors and singers die young, they're kind of forever young. They're immortalized in the Hollywood Golden Age, but they'll never be older than they were. You know?

"With that comes the idea that being young is the only way to live. None of us are old, per se," Yamaguchi continued, "but none of us thus far are forever young either. People have this fear of—of aging, of being old, of not reaching their potential. And I think it's because there are people immortalized. Marilyn Monroe is one of the most well known celebrities to ever exist, and in six years, I'll be older than her when she died. That doesn't feel like enough time. Maybe we'll never have enough time to be someone. But we need to stop telling people that because they haven't reached some societal expectation that they're over the hill when they're still trying to climb up it."

[PHOTO: Yamaguchi, moments after her win, and moments before the incident. A smile dresses her face, her eyes sparkle in the lights of the ring. Her red shorts shine like the rising sun on the Japanese flag, her arms are extended like Nike herself is awarding her for her victory. Yamaguchi has never been anything less than a star.]