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5′ 8½″ junior welterweight Chris "Bombon Asesino"
Namús was born Christian Ariadna Namús
on October 3, 1987 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Namús participated in numerous combat sports from
the age of six She did a few months of karate (to red belt), seven
years of Tae Kwon Do (from ages 6 to 14, compiling a 14-0 record mainly against
Argentinian girls), and kickboxing (from ages 14 to 15).
She briefly gave up sports
(and put on weight)
but returned
after about a year with an increased interest in hard contact competition.
Although she originally found
boxing unappealing and "ugly" she
was inspired by watching the
Karen Kusama movie ‘Girlfight’.
At age 16, she was spotted by trainer Antonio Canedo
while working a bag in a gym
where her boyfriend also trained.
Canedo became Namús's trainer
despite
early
doubts: "She turned up one day accompanied by two boys. She asked me how
much I charged for boxing lessons and whether I taught women. I said 'Yes' or,
rather, 'I don't know', but secretly I thought I'd be wasting my time. A week
or so later, I was up there in the ring with two pupils and I saw her standing
there with her purse. I signaled to her to wait a minute, finished up, went
down and took her to my office. I asked her whether she'd decided, she said
'Yes' and I looked at her with that divine face of hers and said: "Why don't you
wait a bit?" No, no, no. "Totally decided?" Yes, yes. And it reached the point
where I had no alternative because otherwise she'd have begun asking: "Why does
this man not want to accept me?" So I enrolled her and she began to learn, and
she learnt everything, she was a really quick study, she learned everything,
more or less, and began to train, and train and train. In the end, I was really
enthusiastic and wanted her to turn pro."
"He refused to
take my money because he said I wouldn't last out the week", recalls Namús.
"I
tried to convince him that he was wrong, but he wouldn't listen. When he noticed
that I was still coming, he gave up."
Before long
Namús found herself in the ring in the Parque Hotel facing Ana Martínez in an
exhibition bout. "It was scheduled for three rounds," remembers
Namús, "but, without meaning to, I knocked her out in the third round. I had
a considerable advantage in weight; but then, she'd had seven years of training
to my three months."
 On 24 November 2006
at an
evening of boxing at the Palacio Peñarol in
Montevideo attended by the President of Uruguay, Namús
won the first of four "Uruguay vs Argentina" bouts by a second round
stoppage of Nara "La India" Mastandrea. The scheduled four-round amateur
bout was
described as follows: "The Argentinian was
tough, according to Boxeo Uruguayo, but Namús had the beating of her, and began
tightening her grip in the second round. The signs of despair at her own
impotence and the effects of the pounding she was taking could be seen by all as
Mastandrea received her second protective count of the round, and with the
crowd, sensing the imminence of the first Uruguayan victory of the night, now
willing her to victory, Namús, unaffected by the euphoria at ringside, responded
by tightening her grip still further – coolly, as though tightening a noose –
increasing not the tempo but the accuracy of her punching as the big girl's
resistance grew feebler, and finishing her off with forensic precision and a
succession of clean shots to the face that obliged the referee, Martín Carnevale,
to stop the fight (RSCH Rd. 2)".
A scheduled three-round exhibition
between Namús and Erondina Tabárez at Club Colon on 12 March 2007 was
stopped by the referee. As
reported on boxeouruguayo.com, the taller Namús bobbed
lightly around a rival anxious to close and exchange blows. Both displayed good
technique but Namús's punches were more accurate and began to leave
their mark on Tabárez's face. In the second round, Tabárez opted for
all-out attack but got the worse of the encounter. According to
other reports , Tabárez
lost her composure and began charging her tormentor
in the second round as though it were a bullfight. With her faster footwork and
quicker, harder hands, Namús was soon all over her, and referee Aníbal Andrade
was "forced to halt the massacre".
 With
just three amateur fights behind her, Namús (at left in photo) made her professional debut on May 18, 2007 at Palacio Peñarol in
Montevideo. She weighed in at 140 lbs and won a four-round unanimous
(40-38,40-36,40-38) decision over Maria Eugenia
López (139 lbs) from Buenos
Aires, Argentina. Uruguayan press
reports
said that "Namús opened the
first round with combinations of two, three or four punches, as the occasion
required, while the Argentinian relied on the classic one-two. López was forced
to clinch once or twice in the second round and hurt near the end of the round
by a tremendous straight left to the jaw. Gathering confidence, Namús began to
circle her opponent ... from her tight, crouching stance,
the 23-year-old Argentinian struck back, with no thought of surrender, bruising Namus with her right cross on several occasions as the final round opened."
This fight was closer than the 4-point margin given to Namus on one
scorecard, as WBAN
reported
at the time: "There are two
views of this fight and there's no reconciling them. To the judges ... as well
as to Boxeo Uruguayo, for whom the 19-year-old came very close to
breaking her Argentinian rival with three-punch combinations in the final
minute, it was a clear victory for the Uruguayan. To Jorge Savia, who covered
the fight for Ovación Deportes, it was a draw (39-39). Alberto
Zacarías, the trainer (inter alia) of Sergio Acuña, was equally adamant: "It's
a crying shame. Very clearly the Uruguayan girl did not win. But there's bound
to be a return before too long, and I have no doubt, based on what the two of
them showed us here tonight, that next time we see them in the ring together,
they'll be disputing a major title."
"My opponent was very tough. I was struggling a bit because I was used to
easier fights", said Namús. "Everyone was telling me: 'Don't get
over confident.' I'd only fought three women prior to that and stopped them all
in the second round. The stadium was full of people I knew. A whole coachload of
them came from La Teja to watch me"
On July 13, 2007 at Hotel and Casino Conrad, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Namús (140
lbs) won a four-round unanimous (40-37,40-36,39-38) decision over Silvia Fernanda Zacarias
(137¾ lbs) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This fight
generated less enthusiasm and controversy than Namus's debut. Namus came out
throwing more punches than her opponent in the opener, but Zacarias was more
accurate. The Argentinian caught Namús with several good crosses in the
evenly-fought second round. Zacarias performed better in the third round with Namús
against the ropes but Namús turned the tables in the fourth, forcing Zacaras to
defend against the ropes. Zacarias fell to 1-2-1 (0 KO's) with the loss (but has
continued to compete in Argentina, winning on points over Maria Eugenia Lopez,
but being KO'd in the sixth round by WBAN ranked junior featherweight Claudia
Lopez).
On January 19, 2008 at Hotel and Casino Conrad in Punta del Este, Namús (137½
lbs) won a four-round unanimous (40-36,40-36,40-37) decision over Juliana De Aguiar (140 lbs) of Rio Negrinho, Santa Catarina, Brazil, who fell to 0-2-0.
According to newspaper reports, De Aguiar controlled the center of the ring
while Namús moved in and out, striking and moving out of range again. The power
of Chris's punches gradually left their mark on the face of the Brazilian as Namús boxed to the win.
On February 4, 2008 at Hotel and Casino Conrad in Punta del Este, Chris Namús (139
lbs) won a four-round unanimous decision over Gullermina Fernandez (139 lbs) of
Buenos AIres, Argentina. The 48-year-old Fernandez, a favorite "opponent" for
Argentinan boxers, fell to 1-8-1 (0 KO's).
On May 17, 2008 at Palacio Peñarol in Montevideo, Chris (138¾ lbs) won a
six-round unanimous (60-55,60-57,60-55) decision over debuting 36-year-old
Maria Elena Maderna (5'7½″, 136½ lbs) of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Chris Namús (R) vs.
Perla Hernandez
On July 19, 2008 at Palacio Peñarol in Montevideo, Namús (139¾ lbs) TKO'd Perla
Hernández (5'4", 135¼ lbs) of Torreon, Mexico at 1:50 in the first round of a
scheduled eight-rounder for the WIBA Youth Junior Welterweight title.
“Namús only needed 1 min 50 seconds to annihilate
her opponent,”
wrote
Dani Alonso Jr for Lo Mejor del Boxeo, but those 110 seconds included a
standing count. Stunned by a left-right combination, the Mexican girl was caught
by an uppercut and a right to the temple as she tried to make for the ropes, and
the fight was effectively over. The Argentinian referee gave her a standing
count but, as the commentator pointed out, she was only semi-conscious. Namús
retired to a neutral corner (only for the referee to direct her to that of her
Mexican opponent) and stood there sucking air into her lungs. Within seconds of
the resumption, Hernández was in trouble again, staggering backwards, gliding
her hand along the top rope as though it were a banister, and this time the
referee brought the proceedings to a definitive halt. “It was an intense
fight from the start,” explained the referee. “I gave the Mexican girl
one more chance, but she was very groggy, which is why I stopped the fight. The
Uruguayan girl is very powerful and has very long arms.”
“He was right to stop it,” conceded Hernández. “She
hits really hard and I felt those punches. There was no way I could recover in
time.” Hernandez, who had been boxing since 2003, fell to 5-5-1 (1 KO) with the loss, while
Namús
became Uruguay's first professional boxing world champion at any level.
Rojo on the canvas as Namus looks on
Photo: El País
On September 13, 2008 at Palacio Peñarol, Montevideo, Namús (140 lbs)
KO'd
Leticia Rojo (5′7½″, 139¼ lbs) of Sao Paulo, Brazil in the sixth round of a
scheduled eight-rounder. Rojo had arrived in
Montevideo with an entourage and demanded a private gymnasium where she
could rehearse her fight plan safe from the prying eyes of the press. She had
also
said “I’m
going to impose my game plan on Namús from the get-go, she won’t be able to live
with me in the ring.” Rojo, who suffered a cut over her left eye
that required six stitches, fell to 3-4-0 (2 KO's).
On January 23, 2009 at Hotel and Casino Conrad in Punta del Este, Namús (137¾
lbs) won a six-round unanimous (60-56,60-55,60-55) decision over Maria Elena Maderna (137¾ lbs) in a rematch of their May 2008 fight. Maderna fell to 3-3-1
(0 KO's). Namus' clear margin of victory was questioned
by Edgardo Rosani on Argentinian
website Boxeo-Boxing.com: "Namús began badly and lost the first two rounds,
Maderna dominating with her left. Slowly Namús began to find her range, her neat
left jab and accurate three- and four-punch combinations that began to unsettle
a very worthy opponent. In my opinion, Namús won 58-56 and not by the huge
margin the Uruguayan judges gave her." An un-named writer on
larepublica.com
said of Namús: "She took a lot of
punches... - she needs to improve her defense. Sections of the crowd whistled
the result."
 On February 12, 2009 at Palacio Peñarol in Montevideo, Namús (140 lbs) won a
ten-round unanimous (98-93,100-88,99-94) decision over the unranked but well
tested Nicole Woods (5'8", 140
lbs) of Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA. Woods
was knocked down in round three, and received an eight count in round four
before coming back strongly in the sixth. Namús may have pushed too hard
for the knockout in the middle of the fight but her exceptional physical
condition allowed her to finish well despite
Wood's late rally. Namús improved her
record to 9-0 (2 KO's) while Woods fell to 7-4-0 (1 KO) with the loss.
Woods had belittled Namús before the fight
saying "I saw her fight with the Brazilian, Leticia Rojo, and the most recent
one with María Elena Maderna. I wasn't impressed." Woods had fought
Maderna herself in November 2008, winning an eight-round decision on a card were
she had originally expected to fight Namús,
who withdrew owing to an injury (sprained ankle).
The publicity surrounding the fight with Nicole Woods was intense and made
it clear that Namús has become a major sports
star in Uruguay.
According to an editorial in larepublica.com, "The fight between Chris
Namús and (Nicole Woods) captured the imagination of all sections of society -
at least in Montevideo. Someone who had to drive from Punta Carretas to the east
end of the city while the fight was on told us he didn't pass a single bar or a
restaurant that wasn't packed with people, all supporting the pretty and
well-spoken youngster."
 On
August 8, 2009 at Estadio Cr. Gaston Guelfi/ Palacio Peñarol,
in Montevideo, Uruguay Lely Luz Florez (135½ lbs) of
Monteria, Colombia stunned Namús (5′4½″,
139 lbs) and the Uruguayan fans when she stopped Namús with fierce combinations
at 1:44 in the first round of a 10-rounder
for the Interim WBC Junior Welterweight title. The aggressive Florez
repeatedly penetrated the taller Namús' defense with power shots that
immediately took their toll. Namús was reeling against the ropes before she went
to the canvas with about 30 seconds left in the round. Namús tried to struggle
back to her feet but instead teetered sideways and crashed to the canvas again,
so the referee stopped the bout. Florez improved her record to 14-3-0 (7
KO's) while Namús suffered her first loss and fell to 9-1 (2 KO's).
On October 30, 2009 at Estadio Cr. Gaston Guelfi/ Palacio Peñarol in Montevideo,
Chris
Namús (137¼ lbs) returned to the ring and won
a six round unanimous (60-54,60-54,60-53) decision over Maria Eugenia Quiroga
(133½ lbs) of Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, who fell to 2-4-1 (0 KO's) with the
loss.
On December 4, 2009 at Estadio Cr. Gaston Guelfi/ Palacio Peñarol in Montevideo,
Chris
Namús (140 lbs) KO's Juliana De Aguiar (138¼
lbs) of Rio Negrinho, Brazil in the first round of a scheduled six-rounder.
Aguiar fell to 3-4 (2 KO's).
On February 13, 2010 at Hotel Conrad Punta del Este Resort & Casino in
Maldonado, Uruguay, Chris
Namús (138½ lbs) TKO'd Adriana Salles (137¼
lbs) of Sao Paolo, Brazil at 1:23 in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-rounder
for the vacant World Professional Boxing Federation (WPBF) Junior Welterweight
title. Salles began the fight aggressively but Namus took charge after the third
round and forced two standing eight counts on Salles, who fell to 11-6-1 (5
KO's) with the loss.
On May 15, 2010 at Estadio Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Chris
Namús (139¼ lbs) won a TKO over Neris Rincón
(a.k.a.Nurys Rincón Zavaleta, 137¼ lbs) of Arjona, Colombia at 1:19 in the
second round of a scheduled eight rounder. Rincón offered little resistance to
Namus, did not throw many punches and spent most of the fight covering up.
Rincón, who had only fought three times since 2005, received two standing eight
counts in the second round and fell to 9-3-2 (3 KO's) while
Namús improved to 13-1 (5 KO's).
Namús says that she now enjoys the thrill -
the adrenaline rush – of fighting in front of a big crowd, but she did not at
first. She is also eager to disabuse the public of the idea that there’s
something unfeminine about boxing, which is why she
makes a point of staying
as far away as possible from the masculine stereotype of the boxer: “People
think of boxing as a violent sport and one for men. Up there in the ring, I may
adopt a male stance, but outside the ring I'm very feminine and like to look my
best”
The ring name 'Bombón Asesino' (Gorgeous Assassin) was given to her by
journalist Sandra Rodríguez. "My people had spent days trying to come
up with one and drawn a blank. I like my name 'Christian' even though people
keep telling me it's a boy's name. But Sarah gave me the name 'Bombón Asesino' ,
and because I appreciate her, and since it isn't that bad, I stuck with it."
Chris Namús has some boxing heritage, as her grandfather was an amateur boxer. "He's not too happy about
me fighting - he's overprotective with me - but I like it. Fortunately I
have the support of my parents and paternal grandparents as well. They're
afraid, like all parents, but I tell them if anything bad is going to happen
to me, it's more likely to be when I'm shopping or crossing the road."
 Namús gave up studies in forensic medicine to become a pro
boxer but she has said she is interested in becoming a physical education
teacher eventually. For now, such plans are on hold while she
dedicates herself to her boxing training. Her boxing career has strong support from the state. The
President of Uruguay, Doctor Tabaré Vásquez (a still-practising
oncologist), has been a driving force behind the growth of women's boxing in
the country. As well as being allowed to train from Monday to Friday
with Uruguayan commandos, she gets meals and travel expenses, clothes from
Reebok and a sponsorship from Oasis (ice cream). "I'm
young, I have time, so there is no need to hurry to make the decision". she says. Namús
has supported other Uruguayan female boxers, including Stefany Bizquiazo and
Adriana Herrera, by showing up for their fights (and by fighting an
exhibition bout in Decenber 2008 with Bizquiazo before Stefany turned pro).
Through her successful fights, media appearances and sponsorships, Namús
is on the way to becoming a national phenomenon in Uruguay. Even though
she has yet to be tested against top-class world competition, she is putting women's boxing on the map in her native country at a
time when the sport is struggling elsewhere.
Thanks to Ewan Whyte for researching and translating
many Spanish-language accounts of
Chris Namus's career used in preparing this
bio - Dee
Other Chris Namús links
To check out fight reports, complete up-to-date boxing records, with huge digital photos you can go to
the WBAN Records Member Site
Page last updated:
Monday, May 17, 2010 |
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