Mioshia Wagoner throws a hard right and then a left, stares down at her feet and does it again. She meticulously analyzes her footwork, tirelessly repeating the sequence. Sweat pours off her brow onto the mat, but she doesn’t seem to notice. She’s trying to perfect her footwork in order to throw a punch worthy of an Olympic gold medal.
To accomplish her goals — boxing on the first women’s Olympic boxing team in 2012 and becoming one of the best Native-American athletes to come out of Haskell Indian Nations University — Wagoner’s footwork will have to be flawless. To reach both goals, Wagoner, 27, will have to work harder then she has ever worked before.
“Billy Mills, John Levi, Charles Baster,” Wagoner said. “They all did something. I want to be part of the Native American Hall of Fame. It’s a really big honor.”
Wagoner, who started boxing two years ago, is on her way to accomplishing just that. In 2008, Wagoner — better known as “Yosh” — was a national champion and represented Team USA in the World Championships in China.
She is currently training for boxing nationals in July.
Yosh, a member of the Navajo and Chickasaw nations, left her home on an Indian reservation in New Mexico to become the first in her family to finish college. She graduated from Haskell with a degree in American Indian studies and is now pursuing a master’s degree in conflict management and dispute resolution at Baker University.
Yosh’s success in the ring has earned her the respect from her peers and given younger female fighters someone to look up to. Many of the university’s boxers identify with Yosh, the first female professional boxer to come out of Haskell’s gym.
Marisa Chavez, a junior at Lawrence High School and aspiring boxer, said she saw Yosh as an inspiration.
“She motivates me to keep going,” Chavez said. “The coaches guide me, but Yosh helps me feel confident about everything and helps me bring it all together.”
Confidence was initially hard to come by for Yosh. When she first stepped into Haskell’s boxing gym she couldn’t tell the difference between a south paws stance and righty stance, the two stances of boxing. What she lacked in confidence she made up for in drive.
Even though Yosh couldn’t see it at the time, Haskell head boxing coach Erick Riley, a former professional boxer, knew she had something special the first time he felt her punch.
“One day we were sparring back and forth,” Riley said. “Then she caught me with a punch that sent me back a few steps into the wall. That’s when I knew.”
Yosh’s trainer, Haskell Boxing Club assistant coach Darren Jacobs, said he also knew early that Yosh had the potential to become a champion.
“It was pretty easy to see once she started hitting the bags; she had all the natural ability,” Jacobs said.
Well beyond the point of self-doubt, Yosh has stood toe-to-toe with the best female boxers the world has to offer and knows she is no fluke. She describes her mentality in the ring as fearless and determined.
“It’s either I am going to knock you out, or you’re going to have to knock me out because I ain’t quitting,” Yosh said.
Yosh said quitting wasn’t in her nature.
“I just want to be an example to the people in my reservation that you can do anything you put your mind to,” Yosh said. “Let the kids know education is so important; it’s how I found boxing, you know? Just be a living example that anything is possible.”