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Born: 1957
Birthplace: Oxnard (California)
Country: United States
Nationality: American
Nickname: The Goddess
Height: 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight: 53 kg (117 lb; 8.3 st)
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Style: American Kenpo Karate/Cabales Serrada Eskrima/Jeet Kune Do/Kickboxing/Kodenkan Jujitsu/Shen Chun Do/Taekwondo
Rank: 3rd degree black belt in American Kenpo
3rd degree black belt in Kodenkan Jujitsu
10th degree black belt in Shen Chun Do
Team: Olympic Gym
Trainer: Jimmy Montoya
Division: Bantamweight
Years active: 1976-1986
====================================== Professional boxing record
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Total 6
Wins 5
By knockout 2
Losses 0
Draws 1
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Kickboxing record
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Total 32
Wins 31
By knockout 18
Losses 0
Draws 1
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Graciela Casillas has earned international acclaim as one world's top martial artist and as teacher of the art of self-defense. She's longer then 37 years busy as student, instructor and is an former professional fighter who gave her an eclectic approach to the martial arts which she shares with students at home and abroad. She has dedicated herself to teaching Defensive Tactics to law enforcement personnel and women's self defense courses emphasizing the psychological and mental aspects of self-defense.
She was born as one of eleven children and has Mexican parents. She took taekwondo classes after the priest of the Catholic church offered self defense lessons when she was fifteen. She started the classes with her three younger brothers, but they stopped after losing interest in martial arts. She became obsessed of the Korean kicking art after her fist class, and started quickly climbing up the ranks. She stayed studying for a year until the class was discontinued by the church and she was the last gung-ho student. She convinced her parents to let her sign up at the local hwa rang do studio where she is trained in American Kenpo karate and hwa rang do. She started with kickboxing when it was introduced on her karate school.
She has heard about something totally news during the training: full-contact karate battles. Her school didn’t encourage to go compete at tournaments until she was approached in 1977 by someone who was looking for a girl for full-contact matches. She made her fight debut in 1977 and was forced to live a secret life: almost no one, including her parents, knew of her full-contact matches. Her sensei didn’t know what she was doing, until getting some local publicity because she won. He eventually found out but his attitude was: make a good name for hwa rang do. She competed in full-contact matches until she went to the University of California in Santa Barbara in 1979.
She studied taekwondo and full-contact karate and earned a 3rd degree black belt in Kenpo as well as Kodenkan Jujitsu. She's also trained in hwa rang do, kali, jeet kune do and started with kickboxing when it was introduced on her karate school. She trained under Grandmaster Angel Cabales and became the first woman instructor in Cabales Serrada Eskrima. She later studied Jeet Kune Do under Sifu Dan Inosanto and Arnis under Grandmaster Bobby Taboada and her husband Sensei Ernie Boggs. She has also developed her own eclectic martial art form named Shen Chun Do which means "the way of the warrior spirit", in the years after her retirement.
After training in several traditional martial arts, she began competing as kickboxer and became the first female fighter who hold world titles in both boxing and kickboxing, by winning the World Women's Boxing Association's and the World Kickboxing Association's bantamweight championships in 1979. Black Belt Magazine reported in may 1984 that she had won 27 boxing matches of which 15 by KO, although her Boxrec record is 5-0. She turned professional fighter in 1977 with a 6-0 record as amateur where she won all fights by knockout. After winning all of her first eight professional full contact karate fights, she made her boxing debut in the fight against Karen Bennett at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on june 13, 1979. She defeated her by unanimous decision and won the WWBA World Bantamweight (-53.525 kg/118 lb) Championship. Later that year on december 23, she defeated Irene Garcia in Las Vegas and won the WKA Women's World Bantamweight (-53.5 kg/117.9 lb) title. This made her the first woman ever, who hold world titles in boxing and kickboxing simultaneously. She is noted for her punching power and also as one of the first American fighters who used low kicks. Her fight career ended undefeated in 1986 when she retired with a record of 31-0 (18 KOs). She is also considered as pioneer of women's combat sports. She fought against Cheryl Wheeler in a controversial bout in Chicago on october 6, 1981. After the fight, was announced that Cheryl won on the judges' scorecards to take the WKA bantamweight title, but it was later overturned to a win for her.
Action Movie Career
She made her action movie debut as martial arts expert Terry Collins, whose father is struggling with his store, after getting problems with criminals in a small rural town in ''Fire in the Night'' (1986). She rejects the advances of town bully Mike Swanson (played by Patrick St. Esprit), and decides to challenge him and his men in order to save herself and her family store.
She plays an female kickboxer in this story about former cop William Arkaday (played by Kent Ducanon) who has become a professional bounty hunter in ''Full Impact'' (1993). He tracks down serial killer Jared Taskin (played by Gary Daniels) who kills with his bare hands. William is hunted down by the killer who learns that he is being tracked by him. Is he able to kill the murderer in a bloody martial arts showdown.
Action Movie Filmography
- Full Impact (1993)
- Fire in the Night (1986)
