Friday, April 21, 2017

April 21, 2017 at 09:57AM

Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes likes “combat” sports. When she was an exchange student at Plymouth South High, the native of Poland went out for the football team and wrestled. Then she discovered boxing, “my favorite thing in the world.” The 37-year- old, who lives with her husband in Marshfield, has become one of the world’s top-ranked female welterweights while working full time as a lawyer. Magdziak Lopes loves to win, but her April 7 fight was about family, and her preparation had been weighted with grief. Her husband and trainer, Wayne Lopes, had lost his son Manny on New Year’s Eve. The 32-year- old had battled depression and drugs. When fight night arrived, “I wanted to do well for Wayne,” Magdziak Lopes says. Her win in the match at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, came after eight rounds. As the referee raised Magdziak Lopes’s arm in victory, “for a split second” she felt “on top of the world.” And then she felt relief. Near the end of the evening, Manny, a promising boxer whose career was derailed by hand injuries, was honored by the promoter. Magdziak Lopes wept. -- By Craig F. Walker and Michael Fitzgerald/Globe Staff

Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes kisses her husband and trainer, Wayne Lopes, before the eighth round of her bout with Paty Ramirez at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, R.I., on April 7. The 37-year-old, who lives in Marshfield, has become one of the world’s top-ranked female welterweights while working full time as a lawyer. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)


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