Belinda Laracuente
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Belinda Laracuente (born 1980) is a women's boxing competitor who hails from Puerto Rico. Also an assistant in a quiropractor's office, Laracuente hopes to become the second Puerto Rican world champion in women's boxing, after Ada Velez. Her older brother is also a professional boxer. Her nickname is Brown Sugar.
Laracuente's debut as a professional boxer came against Karen Nye, whom Laracuente beat. Soon, she would fight former world champion Cora Webber, but she lost that fight.
She got back into the winning track until, on October 10, 1999, she had to settle for a draw in four rounds with Jeanne Martinez. After winning her next fight, she went to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where she got arrested the night before the fight for gambling before reaching that state's legal age for that activity. She spent a night in jail, and to make matters worse, lost a decision in ten rounds to Denise Moraetes.
In hr next bout, Belinda beat future world champion Daniela Somers by a unanimous eight round decision in Miami. After Somers went on to win the world title by beating Leah Melinger, Laracuente asked for a rematch but with the world title on the line, but was denied by Somers' management.
She went on to win three more bouts in a row, and then she faced Zulfia Koutdoussova, losing a ten round split decision to her.
Next came Belinda's first world title try. Faced with world champion Christy Martin at the Félix Trinidad-David Reid Pay Per View undercard, Laracuente lost a decision in eight rounds, in a bout that HBO Boxing commentator Jim Lampley said that he personally thought Laracuente should have won it by 78 to 74 on his unofficial score.
After losing one more fight, she retired, but in December of 2002 she announced she had plans to return into the boxing ring, with hopes of getting a new world title chance.
On May 14, 2005, she finally returned, losing an eight round decision to Mary Jo Sanders, in Kinder, Louisiana.
On July 8, she fought Italian-American Linda Florentino on short notice, losing a six round unanimous decision to the unbeated prospect.
