Ada Vélez

Ada "Ace" Vélez (born September 15, 1969) is a Puerto Rican female professional boxer from Dania Beach, Florida who lives in Miami. Vélez was brought into boxing by former women's boxing world champion Bonnie Canino.

Career

After a successful undefeated amateur career that included a national title, Vélez became the first native Puerto Rican to win a women's world boxing championship on January 19, 2001, when she defeated Kathy Williams on a unanimous decision over 10 rounds to win the IBA bantamweight title. Ten months later, she moved up in weight and challenged undefeated Mary Elizabeth Ortega for the WIBA super bantamweight title, again winning a 10-round unanimous decision.

Vélez won her first 10 pro fights before suffering her first loss as a professional, in her first defense of the WIBA title. On June 21, 2002, Melissa Del Valle decisioned Vélez in Waco, Texas in the featured bout on an all-women's card featuring world champions Ann Wolfe, Sumya Anani, Delia Gonzalez and Kelsey Jeffries.

On December 21, she bounced back to reclaim the IBA version of the world bantamweight title by decisioning Lakeysha Williams over 10 rounds.

Vélez has added the WIBA bantamweight title to her IBA belt on June 28, 2003, when she beat Gonzalez on a seventh-round disqualification.

Vélez traveled to Denmark to defend her WIBA bantamweight title against Anita Christensen. on January 17, 2004, Vélez lost a highly controversial 10 round split decision to Christensen. Vélez had knocked down Christensen in the 9th round, and looked to be the obvious winner of their encounter. The Danish press strongly criticized this decision, saying on record that Vélez was robbed of her title.

She fought Melinda Cooper for the vacant IBF super-bantamweight title at the National Stadium in San José, Costa Rica, on 31 March 2011, winning by split decision with two of the ringside judges scoring the contest 96-94 in her favour while the third had it for her opponent by the same tally. A rematch on 20 November 2011 saw Vélez retain her title by majority decision. One judge scored the fight a 95-95 draw but was overruled by the other two who scored it in her favour 98-92 and 97-93 respectively.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She now teaches kids, teens, and adults boxing at Velez Boxing and Fitness in Oakland Park, Florida. She makes them do exercise machines, running, strength and conditioning, and boxing.

Vélez was inducted into the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
28	Template:No2Loss	20–5–3	Jessica Rakoczy	UD	10	24 Jan 2013	Template:Small	Template:Small
27	Template:No2Loss	20–4–3	Katy Wilson Castillo	UD	10	24 Mar 2012	Template:Small	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	20–3–3	Melinda Cooper	MD	10	20 Nov 2011	Template:Small	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	19–3–3	Melinda Cooper	SD	10	31 Mar 2011	Template:Small	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	18–3–3	Mary Ortega	UD	6	10 Dec 2010	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	17–3–3	Stacey Reile	UD	8	27 Feb 2010	Template:Small
22	Template:DrawDraw	16–3–3	Kaliesha West	MD	6	21 Jan 2010	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	16–3–2	Kasha Chamblin	UD	10	24 Nov 2007	Template:Small	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	15–3–2	Jackie Chavez	MD	6	21 Sep 2007	Template:Small
19	Template:No2Loss	14–3–2	Jeri Sitzes	UD	6	10 Aug 2007	Template:Small
18	Template:No2Loss	14–2–2	Anita Christensen	Template:Abbr	10	17 Jan 2004	Template:Small	Template:Small
17	Template:DrawDraw	14–1–2	Lisa Brown	Template:Abbr	10	30 Oct 2003	Template:Small	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	14–1–1	Delia Gonzalez	DQ	7 (10), Template:Small	28 Jun 2003	Template:Small	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	13–1–1	Leona Brown	Template:Abbr	7 (8), Template:Small	29 Mar 2003	Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	12–1–1	Lakeysha Williams	UD	10	20 Dec 2002	Template:Small	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	11–1–1	Rolanda Andrews	TKO	4 (6), Template:Small	9 Nov 2002	Template:Small
12	Template:DrawDraw	10–1–1	Layla McCarter	Template:Abbr	6	18 Jul 2002	Template:Small	Template:Small
11	Template:No2Loss	10–1	Melissa Del Valle	UD	10	21 Jun 2002	Template:Small	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	10–0	Angie Bordelon	TKO	2 (6), Template:Small	25 Jan 2002	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	9–0	Mary Ortega	UD	10	16 Nov 2001	Template:Small	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	8–0	Jamillia Lawrence	Template:Abbr	4	29 Jun 2001	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	7–0	Kathy Williams	UD	10	19 Jan 2001	Template:Small	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	6–0	Linda Tenberg	UD	8	15 Dec 2000	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	5–0	Lisa Foster	TKO	2 (4), Template:Small	15 Nov 2000	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Pamela Opdyke	TKO	3 (6), Template:Small	18 Oct 2000	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	Jamie Chartrand	TKO	2 (4), Template:Small	8 Oct 2000	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Sue Chase	Template:Abbr	4	30 Jun 2000	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Jocelyn Fontanilla	Template:Abbr	3 (4), Template:Small	21 Aug 1999	Template:Small

See also

• List of female boxers
• List of southpaw stance boxers
• List of Puerto Ricans
• Boxing in Puerto Rico
• List of Puerto Rican boxing world champions
• International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame
• History of women in Puerto Rico

External links

• Template:Boxrec
• Ada Vélez - Profile at Women Boxing Archive Network

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