BRINGIN’ THE PAIN TO SPAIN: Bainbridge boxers prep for world title bouts

Published 4:24 pm Friday, November 6, 2015

After a big trip abroad, most people bring home memories, photographs and maybe a few fun souvenirs.

Laura Swanson and Josh Soliva will be bringing home bruises.

A lot of bruises.

And, hopefully, a world title or two.

The two tough islanders, undefeated nationally-ranked fighters with the Bainbridge Boxing Gym team, are traveling to Spain to compete at the World Kickboxing Association’s World Championship event.

Earlier this year, the Bainbridge team, coached and managed by Ben Little, traveled to the World Kickboxing Association’s National Championships, where Soliva claimed a spot in the 139.9-pound men’s bracket and Swanson in the 118.8-pound women’s bracket. Both fighters were then invited to represent Bainbridge Island and the United States in Benindorm, Spain as part of Team USA, a collection of the best fighters from around the country, at the largest amateur world kickboxing competition on the planet.

The team sought community support via an online fundraising campaign, and they raised more than half the total amount they were seeking — as well as a few surprise donations as well.

“We actually had somebody donate plane tickets to us, too,” Little said. “So we’re pretty much there.”

The road from Nationals to now has been a rough one for the fighters, he said, including a brutal 16-week training schedule and numerous injuries along the way.

“Their schedule is ugly,” he said. “They were running 5K in the morning and then that turned into interval sprints, so after that they were sprinting three miles. During the sprinting, they were doing strength and conditioning in the afternoons and then they went to class and did two hours of Muay Thai.

“We had injuries,” he added. “Josh got injured a couple of times, rolled his ankle, dislocated his arm. Laura had a head injury, a foot injury and then also passed out from an electrolyte imbalance.”

In the last two weeks before departure, the fighters were scaling back their training schedule so as to not overdo anything, Little said.

“Their camp was hard,” he laughed. “They’re out the other side now, so they’re tapering and they’re just loving life.”

To come home with a title, Little explained, the fighters must emerge undefeated after their five slated matches. There is no room for a do-over or second chance.

“If you lose one fight, you’re gone,” he said. “You’ve got to win every fight every time, and you’ve got to not be injured.”

Soliva, 20, said last week that he was excited and ready for the competition.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.

If he is able to go the distance and bring back to Bainbridge a world title, Soliva added, he hopes to move on to larger fight venues and possibly go pro.

After getting into trouble early in life and dropping out of high school, the former Bainbridge High student said he got his act together and got his GED, and the discipline of training that comes with boxing was a big part of that transformation for him.

Swanson, 32, said she also feels, “stoked” and ready to go.

“It’s definitely intimidating,” she said. “I have to do a lot of mental preparation to not psych myself out.

“Now I finally feel like I am ready,” Swanson added. “I have to kind of calm myself down and trust the process.”

Swanson said that she also has hopes of fighting professionally and an international win would help her get better promotions and be eligible for more prestigious venues.

For a comparatively young gym to have two relatively inexperienced fighters nationally ranked and undefeated is an impressive achievement, but one that Little said is a shared victory for the whole team.

“I don’t know that I can take credit for all of it,” he said. “A lot of it is just the drive of the two human beings I’m working with. I think it’s a lot of the drive in the individual and a lot of it is [due to] the benefit of Bainbridge Island. We’ve got this tight little nurturing community. There’s not a lot to do here, so you want to let some frustration out. I had a gym down on Eighth and Thomas [in Seattle], and nobody was this dedicated. There was not one single person, even the greatest fighters in there, were not this dedicated.

“It feels great to see them off on their goals and to see them succeed,” Little added. “I think it’s a huge testament to who they both are as people.”

Boxing is a cinematic sport, and the rough lives of up-and-coming fighters has been chronicled in dozens of silver screen stories. It’s a nice story with the right uplifting ending attached, Little said, but it rarely reflects the reality of a working boxers’ existence.

“It’s a tormented life,” he said. “Everyone’s life is tormented. The basic underlying factor of the human condition is suffering. We’re all suffering. We all have pain; we’re all dealing with it in our own ways. This gives you camaraderie and a light at the end of the tunnel, meaning, if you can channel whatever it is you’ve got inside you into this, you can make something out of whatever hand you were dealt.”

Boxing, he said, is delightfully real.

“You don’t have to be anybody you’re not,” Little said. “Whereas, a lot of other forms of success in life need you to be something else.”