Boxing great Graciela Casillas inducted into National Boxing Hall of Fame in California

OXNARD, Calif.-Fans and friends of Graciela Casillas said it was about time she was inducted into the the National Boxing Hall of Fame in her home state.

"She's a trailblazer, she is the one that made it happen," said Brenda Zaragoza.

Casillas said it all started with a self defense class at her Oxnard church.

"That is when I knew I was going to continue doing this," said Casillas, "That was 40 plus years ago."

She became a world champion in four sports, including  boxing and kick boxing.

The Oxnard native was also the first American, man or women, to become a world champion in two separate sports at the same time.

When she boxed in the 1970s and 1980s Casillas said she didn't get paid much.

"Today women are getting paid more, we didn't get paid more, today you can see that there are hundreds and hundreds and thousands of women boxing all over the world, whereas during the time I was fighting we couldn't even train with woman because there weren't any women to train with, said Casillas, " If you trained with a woman, most likely you'd be fighting her next month."

The bantamweight champ still trains in the mornings at Future Fitness in Oxnard.

Sometimes she trains with her daughter ,who boxes, too.

She also likes to keep her favorite move up to snuff.

"It is a straight right cross and I set it up with a jab and it is very narrow, it is not wide and pretty hard to stop. Out of 31 combined fights I had 18 knockouts and they were all with my right," said Casillas.

These days Casillas works as a counselor at Oxnard College where she is a mentor to many.