As the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame festivities get underway in Las Vegas, it’s never just a celebration of the women who made a lasting impact on the sport. In a lot of ways, it’s a history lesson, a revelation of times that never got any real attention from the mainstream media, or even the diehard boxing public.

“Obviously not everyone understands, but I think people who care about the sport and understand the sport do know and appreciate that what my generation did,” said Caples. “So that's good.”

That general apathy about what these ladies went through to compete in a sport that they loved is sad enough. What’s worse is that they were even abandoned by technology, with little footage existing of most boxers who made their bones in the 1990s and early 2000s. Thankfully, one of the members of the IWBHF Class of 2025, Yvonne Caples, has plenty of her fights available on YouTube for fans to see just how good she was.

“It gives me credibility, honestly, because people always look at my fights and they're like, ‘Oh, wow.’ And that's really helpful, especially as I get older,” said Caples, who still coaches up and coming boxers in North Carolina. “I was surprised that I was able to get the footage from North Korea of my WBC title fight. I just happened to ask the promoter. I was like, can you send me a copy of my fight? And he was like, yeah. And they sent it to me. So that was crazy. That's not very common. You can’t get any footage out of North Korea, and I think at my fight, it was the first time the United States National Anthem was played in North Korea, and I have that footage. It was like I made history.”

She did. Think about that, especially in the context of the state of the world these days. Caples traveled to Pyongyang, North Korea, in June of 2005 to face unbeaten Eun Soon Choi for the inaugural WBC junior flyweight title. North Korea. And though she lost a decision to Choi, that was almost a given, considering the location and fighting the home country favorite. That meant Caples would have to score a knockout to be given a draw. But oh, what an experience it was, not just then, but throughout a 22-fight career that saw her win an IFBA world title in 2003 and engage in a memorable battle with International Boxing Hall of Fame member Regina Halmich in 2002. Along the way, it was a series of tough fights, some bad decisions and scrapping for everything she was able to get in a wild wild west that was even wilder for female boxers.

“I think it was both exciting and frustrating,” Caples said. “I feel like sometimes female boxers today tend to be a lot less grateful of the opportunity that they have. They don’t know what we had to do just to get a fight, how we were treated sometimes when we walked into a gym, and now it's normal for there to be girls. Most coaches are accepting of women and excited to have women fighters in their gym. But like I said, it was exciting. I think the first time I stepped into King's Gym in Oakland, I just fell in love with it. And I was really fortunate. I was there at the time when 12-year-old Andre Ward was there, and 14-year-old Nonito Donaire and his 16-year-old brother, Glenn Donaire, were there doing high-level amateur competitions. And I sparred regularly with Nonito and his brother Glenn.”

For a native of India who came to the United States with her family to chase the American Dream, King’s Gym was home – perhaps an odd one for a woman with a degree in English from UC Berkeley, but home nonetheless.

“I feel like I was very fortunate to be at King's Gym,” Caples said. “It was a husband and wife, Charles King and Marsha King, who ran the gym and she ran the front office and she welcomed me in with open arms.”

Of course, nothing’s perfect. Caples recalls one coach telling her before her first amateur fight, “I’m going to make you a world champion, and I’m going to make you my wife.”

That was the end of that. Caples proceeded to drive from Oakland to Los Angeles with her friend and her brother to work her corner for that fight.

“A lot of times, in order to get the opportunity to fight, you had to do it by yourself,” she said. “I had to go to national tournaments without a coach because I couldn't afford to pay for my accommodations, plus a coach's accommodations, and I would just ask people at the tournament, ‘Hey, can you work my corner?’ Luckily, I found really great people. I had Gloria Peek work my corner when I went to my first national.”

This was clearly not what her parents expected from their daughter when they came to the States.

“I think it was really hard for my mom to accept,” said Caples. “She only went to one fight of mine, and that was my world championship in Costa Mesa. And after the fight, she told me that, ‘In between every round, I went to the bathroom and threw up.’ And I didn't really get hurt in that fight at all. My father was very supportive. And, honestly, my mother, she came here from India when she was in her late twenties, and I think she kind of disavowed a lot of the cultural sexism. She was a serious athlete herself, so she understood that aspect of it. It was just the whole boxing and getting punched that she had a problem with. And I think my father was just impressed that I did it. He said, ‘Hey, I always wanted to try boxing,’ but he had been too scared to do it.”

Caples won that fight in Costa Mesa in 2003, earning her world title with a near-shutout win over Mary Duron. It was the reward for all the blood, sweat and tears, more than most. And despite leaving that fight with a 7-6-1 record, never were such numbers so deceiving because from the start, Caples was fighting killers.

“For me, it was always just about the opportunity to fight,” she said. “When I turned professional, I would drive to gyms by myself to get sparring, and I felt like I had the background and the skill to fight anyone in my weight class. So I was just like, okay, let's do this. And I didn't have any sense of the business of boxing at all. I had a manager for a little bit, but other than that, it was just like, okay, there's this fight here. Do you want to take it? Yeah. I always said yes. I was never like, no, I'm not going to fight. Because I didn't really understand the business and I don't think there was much of a business for us as women. There were certainly a lot of women who were brought along and had these great records, but fought a whole bunch of bums, but they weren't any better off than I was really in terms of making money from it. So I feel at least I had just really great fights. I felt like I really fought some of the best women in my weight class. I think almost everyone who I fought was or became a world champion.”

So what’s the fight for the time capsule? Halmich in 2002.

“I think I had 10 fights at that time,” said Caples. “She was 39-1. I was working full time as a teacher, she brought over sparring partners from the U.S. to train for me, and I feel like I won that fight. I didn't get the decision, but I when I look back at that fight, I'm so proud of that fight, even though I didn't get the decision.”

Halmich-Caples is on YouTube, and it’s such a high-level display of boxing that it’s shocking that more people didn’t appreciate the sport back then. Caples lost a majority decision in Germany that night, but it was another reminder that it’s not always about the destination, but the journey. And despite boxing not being particularly kind to her, Yvonne Caples still loves it.

“It just feels like home for me, and so I can't imagine not being around it,” she said. “I had to step away from boxing for a few years when my daughter was really sick, but I can't imagine life without boxing and being a part of it.”