Mariah Bahe often watched her father train her four older brothers at their family’s Damon-Bahe Boxing Gym, the only boxing gym within the Navajo Nation. At the young age of 5, she told her dad that she wanted to be a boxer, too.
At age 8, Mariah Bahe began her boxing career, often having to compete against girls above her weight class to find an opponent.
Courtesy of the Bahe Family
Mariah Bahe, a 14-time state champion and seven-time national champion, trains with her father and coach at her family’s gym on the Navajo Nation.
Courtesy of the Bahe Family
“My dad and I would go into the gym when I was younger. It seemed like my brothers were always training," she recalled. “I would try to practice, but my dad wouldn’t let me because he didn’t want me to box.”
Mariah’s father, John Bahe Jr., admits initially he was not thrilled with the prospect of his little girl getting into the boxing ring to exchange punches with an opponent. He agreed to let her begin training but hoped she would eventually decide to get out of the sport. He remembers thinking, “One day she will run into a tough opponent, and she will not do it anymore and say, ‘I’m done.’” But that did not happen. Her persistence paid off, and Mariah started competing at the age of 8.
Starting a boxing career at such a young age may seem unusual, but Mariah Bahe is following in a long line of family footsteps. Her great-grandfather Lee Damon, who served in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, became an All-Service Boxing Champion in the Army. When Lee Damon returned home from World War II, he started the Damon Boxing Gym.
Her Navajo grandfather and Damon’s nephew, John Cal Bahe, began boxing in 1961 at the age of 15. When he was in his 20s, he acquired the Damon Boxing Gym from his uncle and renamed it the Damon-Bahe Boxing Gym. After moving it a few times, he settled in Chinle, Arizona, at the center of the Navajo Nation. Bahe’s three sons were among his trainees, including John Bahe Jr. In 2005, Bahe Jr. took over managing the gym.
Mariah Bahe said it was tricky to have a dad who was also her coach growing up, but she appreciated it. “It was different because I’m his only daughter and a big daddy’s girl. But I’m also his most accomplished boxer in the gym. We’re dad and daughter, but he also has that trainer side. If he sees me eating something I’m not supposed to or watching too much TV, he’s going to get upset at me,” she said with a gentle laugh.
Having so many Native boxers in one family is unusual since, despite the sport's longevity, not many Indigenous boxers have entered the professional ring. The sport of boxing is thousands of years old. Carvings on a 3,500-year-old Minoan vase found in Crete show helmeted boxers wearing hand coverings resembling plates strapped to their fists. A relief sculpture from the Egyptian Thebes dating to about 3,350 years ago shows images of not only boxers but spectators as well.
During the late 1600s, the British became known for fighting bare-knuckled. During the 1700s, competitors began to be classified and paired according to their weight, ranging from the lightest “minimum weight” division at 105 pounds to a “heavyweight” at more than 200 pounds. But in the 1800s, the British lost their dominance of the sport when Irish-born boxer John Sullivan became the first American to claim the heavyweight title in 1882. As he wore gloves, he influenced boxing to become a gloved sport.
People of color were not recognized as professional fighters until the early 1900s. Jack Johnson became the first Black boxing heavyweight champion in 1908. Notable Indigenous boxers have included Billy “The Indian” Wells, a Cherokee featherweight fighter during the 1920s. Many people cheered as Marvin Camel, a Black and Native boxer from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, defeated Mate Parlov in Yugoslavia and became the first Native American to win the title of World Champion Cruiserweight. Virgil “Quicksilver” Hill of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation was a five-time world champion boxer and silver medal winner in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Then in 2008, George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah (who is Comanche and Choctaw) defeated Johnathan Corn with a seventh-round knockout and became the Native American Boxing Council Super Middleweight Champion.
The Olympic Games first considered including boxing in 1904. However, whereas men’s boxing was accepted into the competition, women’s boxing was seen more as an "exhibition" sport and denied. Not until 2012 was women’s boxing recognized as an Olympic sport.
Both Camel and Tahdooahnippah admit being an Indigenous boxer can be a tough road, particularly for women, and offered words of encouragement to Bahe. Camel, a three-time world champion, said it’s all about frame of mind and striving to do better each day. “Hit the bag, hit the bag. If you can only go two rounds today, do more than what you did yesterday,” he said.
Tahdooahnippah said Native fighters may find competing difficult if they are in rural areas where monetary support and sponsorships to cover training and other expenses such as travel can be hard to obtain. “When you don’t have this support, the only support that you have is all within your heart. You’ve got to believe in yourself,” he said. “I’d advise her to keep riding that way and bring all the honor and all the glory for all our people because it’s a good thing. .... You can start seeing Native athletes coming [forward] now, but they can’t bring it like she brings it.”
Chinle is a small town, with a population of only about 5,000 people. So finding a girl in Mariah Bahe’s weight class to box against was challenging. She often trained by boxing with her brothers, and in competitions, she frequently had to fight older girls above her weight class.
This made her mother, Elvina Bahe, anxious. “One time, I was very nervous when she had to face an older girl. She had to go up two weight classes to box her,” she recalled. “Then, I saw her fight. Oh, man, it was one of the best times I’ve seen her fight. … She was moving—not standing, not brawling—just moving, punching and boxing. Wow. I was so impressed. After that, I was never worried about her going up against anybody.”
Since her early career, Mariah has had the support of her brothers. Joshua, who also has been training since he was 5 years old, said of his sister wanting to box, “I was all for it. We all liked it, and we were all pretty sure she would like it.”
John Bahe Jr. didn’t worry about his daughter fighting above her weight class. “For her to try to keep up with males like that, it is something else,” he said.
In 2018, while she was still in middle school, Mariah won both the Arizona State Junior Olympics title in her weight class and the 2018 Nationals bronze medal. Since then, she has won seven national championships and 14 Arizona state championships.
Though Mariah had hoped to join the trials for the 2024 Olympics, she opted to join the U.S. Marines this year and is currently training to join the Marine Corps Boxing Team. She and her father now have set their sights on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to go to the Olympics,” said Mariah. Her father is supporting her continued training through the Marines and looks forward to seeing her soar. “I want her to fulfill that dream,” he said.
Just like Camel, Mariah said she is striving to continuously improve. “I’ve been trying to step it up every day, to work harder than I did yesterday.”