16 Facts About Graciela Casillas

Graciela Casillas was born on 1957 and is an American former boxer and kickboxer who competed in the bantamweight division.

Graciela Casillas is considered a pioneer of women's combat sports.

Graciela Casillas was inducted into the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020.

Graciela Casillas was born as one of eleven children to Mexican parents in Oxnard, California.

Graciela Casillas took up taekwondo at the age of fifteen when the church she attended began offering self-defense classes.

Graciela Casillas pursued a different career route when she decided to go into the counseling department at Oxnard College.

Now, Graciela Casillas is the Counseling Dept Chair at Oxnard College, and occasionally teaches courses in the PE Department.

Graciela Casillas has spent the years following her retirement from competition developing her own eclectic martial art of Shen Chun Do, "the way of the warrior spirit".

Graciela Casillas trained under Grandmaster Angel Cabales and became the first woman instructor for Cabales Serrada Eskrima.

Graciela Casillas later studied Jeet Kune Do under Sifu Dan Inosanto and Arnis under Grandmaster Bobby Taboada and her husband Sensei Ernie Boggs.

Graciela Casillas has been President of the United States Sport Jujitsu Trade Association and an assistant coach to the USA Jujitsu Team.

Graciela Casillas was awarded Black Belt Magazine's and Inside Kung-Fu Magazine's "Woman of the Year" in 1989 and inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Graciela Casillas has been credited as the designer of the Boxing Skirt.

In 1996 Graciela Casillas designed a knife known as the Ladyhawk, manufactured by Masters of Defense as a collaboration with Microtech Knives and marketed as a self-defense knife designed for women.

Impetus for this design came after Graciela Casillas stabbed one of two attempted rapists, using the thug's own knife after disarming him.

Graciela Casillas has appeared in the films Full Impact and Fire in the Night.