Champion Monrovian Boxer Clinches World Title

Rhonda Luna wants to be your hero.

Or she doesn't want to be your hero, but she realizes she inspires many people--especially kids.

Rhonda "The Natural" Luna is a female boxer who recently earned the Global Boxing Union Junior Lightweight World Championship. She's also a guidance counselor at Santa Fe Middle School in Monrovia. 

Luna is ranked first in the United States and eighth in the world in her junior lightweight division. And she's worked hard to get there.

Luna has been fighting for 10 years. She first began boxing as a hobby after she graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara and left collegiate softball behind. She took to boxing naturally, like she did many sports growing up-- hence her nickname--and eventually went professional. 

In her professional career, she's fought for three world titles, in 2005, 2007 and 2009 against opponents who beat her, but not because of skill, rather just biased judging, according to her manager and brother, Jacob Luna.  

"It's something that should have happened a long time ago," said Jacob Luna. 

But this was Luna's year. 

Luna went for 10 rounds against New York's Ela "Bam Bam" Nunez at San Manuel Casino in Highland on Oct. 28 and won each round unanimously.

"That night played out exactly how it was supposed to play out," Luna said. "And it was perfect."

Luna explains that it wasn't originally a title fight. It was partly luck that she had another opportunity to compete for a world title.

She said one of the male boxers in the main event got hurt a week before the event and couldn't fight. The promoters decided to upgrade Luna's fight to the main event instead of finding a replacement. And they raised the stakes by making it a title fight.

She said when she got the call from her manager that her fight had been promoted to a world title match, she was elated. 

"It was everything I ever wanted at my fingertips," Luna said. 

And Luna wanted it bad. Her workout and diet regimens say a lot about her immense dedication to the sport.

Luna explained that when she is training before a fight, she rises at 4 a.m. for a four-mile run, six days per week. She then goes to her job as a school counselor, and when she gets off work she trains for two or three hours in the ring in the evening. 

Her diet is the same everyday, consisting of protein, vegetables, fruits and minimal carbohydrates. 

"I'm saying no to this, no to that," Luna said. "I'm telling friends, I'm sorry I can't go out tonight … I have training in the morning. For me it's a lifestyle. It's not just showing up for the game at 3 p.m."

And besides good, old-fashioned hard work and dedication, Luna is a big believer in positive thinking.

The power of her positivity was evident as we sat in her counselor's office at Santa Fe Middle School.

"I love challenges. I just look at [boxing] like that," Luna said. "And I'm good at it.  It's an opportunity to do what I'm good at. It's the same thing like coming to work. I know I'm a great counselor. I'm proud to say that, it's not an arrogance thing. I'm good at what I do, and I love doing it."

But Luna doesn't sound superficially self-important. Her confidence comes from an inner strength. 

"My brother would say, 'God, everything you touch turns to gold,'" Luna said. "It's just when I set my mind to something, and I work hard for it, it just kind of comes naturally. It's hard to explain it without sounding like I'm trying to float my own boat."

Luna said she was always an overachiever. Even from the time she was four years old, she wanted to play boys' baseball instead of girls' softball.

"From a very young age, that's how I took on life in general … Nothing's going to stop me," Luna said. "Because of that I accomplished a lot, and that became empowering."  

Luna said that the opportunity to mentor kids has also been empowering. She said her career as a middle school guidance counselor kind of fell in her lap. She was supposed to be a lawyer like her brother, Jacob. But she's guided kids in many settings.

She's been a high school English teacher and softball coach. She's run special activities for kids in afterschool programs. And she realizes that she's a role model for the kids she works with at school. 

"I'm very responsible with the fact that people are paying attention, and mostly kids are paying attention," Luna said. "A lot of them don't have anyone to look up to … I'm definitely aware that I'm in that light to be something like that for them … That guides me."

"I accomplished what I accomplished for me," Luna added. "But I also know that it does serve a greater good sometimes especially with who is paying attention. And who wouldn't want that. It feels amazing to have that opportunity and to be that for somebody."