Boxing national title lands C.R.’s Jacquie Cuddeback on U.S. women’s national team

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jacquie Cuddeback never considered herself much of an athlete.

Sure, she ran some cross country and played soccer at Cedar Rapids Jefferson. But any substantive athletic endeavors did not arrive until college with an unexpected passion for a sport of a much different sort – the 'sweet science' of boxing.

After several years of training, balanced with the struggle to find Iowa bouts against women in her weight class, Cuddeback stood tall on the national stage.

The 27-year-old light flyweight won three fights in three days and earned a spot on the USA Boxing Women's National Team with a Dec. 17 victory in the 106-pound title bout at the 2016 USA Boxing Elite National Championships in Kansas City, Mo.

'That's really the highest goal that I've had so far, and you can't reach the next level in boxing until you've reached this level,' Cuddeback said. 'I had a really good draw, really good bracket and I just knew I had put in all of the work. I didn't leave any stones unturned getting ready for this, so I went into it pretty confident that this was my year, my tournament.'

As a member of national team, Cuddeback will travel to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. this May. There, she will train under Team USA coaches and be exposed to state-of-the-art strength and conditioning programs. The month-long sessions will prepare Cuddeback for the Continental Championships, where she will see Olympic-level competitors from around the world.

At 5-foot-4, Cuddeback has a couple of advantages over other light flyweights.

'She uses her reach and her range really well,' said Bill Kamery, Cuddeback's coach at Cedar Rapids Boxing Club. 'She gets stronger every round. She's kind of a slow starter, but you can just tell that she breaks people down. She gets stronger as they get tired. By the fourth or fifth round, it's a huge gap in the fight.'

As a Coe College student several years ago, Cuddeback delved into language, literature and culture during a study trip to Southeast Asia. It was there, buoyed by the recommendation of friends, that she received an introduction to an entirely different subject – Thailand's national sport of Muay Thai kickboxing.

'I was in ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps), so all my friends thought I was a bigger badass than I was,' Cuddeback said with a laugh. 'I think that's really it. They just thought I was tough.'

Cuddeback returned to Cedar Rapids and aggressively sought opportunities to advance her burgeoning fight skills while completing political science and writing degrees at Coe. She met Kamery, a mixed martial arts fighter and coach, at the Valhalla Combat Club in southeast Cedar Rapids, which at the time housed both Hard Drive MMA and Apache Boxing Club. Kamery recommended boxing as the beginning path of development, and Cuddeback agreed to commit to a full year of training.

'I got into it and it was pretty fast that that started becoming more important to me than college even,' Cuddeback said. 'That was the thing that I wanted to go do every day. That was what I was structuring everything around.'

Cuddeback traveled to bigger tournaments out of state as a necessity for good competition, but managed to find good local sparring partners in 135-pound male MMA fighters. She also sparred frequently with Maureeca Lambert of Chicago, last year's 106-pound USA Boxing Elite national champion.

'She's one of the hardest workers I know,' Kamery said. 'She came in with a plan and we stuck to it. Continually improved, looked at the results for what we needed to change and made adjustments throughout the whole process.'

Given the newfound successes, Cuddeback's plan can now include a look ahead to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. To get there, she'll have to bump up slightly in weight class. While USA Boxing recognizes 10 differing weight classes, the Olympic Games are limited to three for women's boxing – 112 (flyweight), 132 (lightweight) and 165 (middleweight).

Cuddeback fought at 112 earlier this year and fell just short of competing in the U.S. Olympic Team Boxing Trials, where spots were earned for the Rio Olympics.

'From here, you get the international tournaments,' Cuddeback said. 'From here, you get training with the national team, with working with people that have a 100-plus fights. This is the best step towards getting more fights and more experience and that next level. This was an amazing deal for me.'

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