Mia St. John and Mary Kom: Female Boxers in the news …

Mia St. John and Mary Kom: Female Boxers in the news …

From barely a trickle of stories about women’s boxing, there is a fair amount of press — all over the world about women’s boxing.  Here are stories featuring American boxer Mia St. John and India’s great amateur Olympic hopeful Mary Kom!

Mia St. John has granted an exclusive interview to Jake Emen over at Proboxingfans.com on her upcoming June 19th battle against the great Christy Martin.  Here’s a smattering of the interview …

“You’ve been fighting professionally since 1997, so it’s been 15 years. How much longer will you continue to fight, and is there any way this is your last fight?

Mia: I have to fight Christy one more time after this! We have to do the rubber match! Other than that, I’m done. I’ve lived out dream and it was a hell of a ride.”

The article link is here.

India’s leading contender for Gold in the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games — with a eye first on winning a berth to the 2012 Women’s World Championships this coming May in China is none other than Mary Kom.  The five time amateur champion has recently upped her weight class to 51 KG  in order to compete.  She is currently a participant in the 6th Asian Women’s Boxing Championships being held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where she has advanced to the quarter finals.

This recent piece entitled India’s Mary Kom keeps proving doubters wrong is particularly revealing of her struggles to become a world-class boxing champion and is well worth the read.  Here is a brief preview …

“When I started boxing, people laughed at me and said, ‘What can women do in boxing?’” she said. “I took it as a challenge. If men can do it why can’t women? And I became a world champion before my marriage.

“When I got married, they doubted if I can win again after marriage. I took it as the second challenge and proved myself.”

The article link is here.

India Today also has a story on Mary Kom entitled Boxing: Mary Kom off to a winning start about her quarterfinal win.

Engaging in the ring on International Women’s Day!

Engaging in the ring on International Women’s Day!

I grew up in the sixties and well remember my father informing me at the age of 13 that since I was now “liberated” I could pay for my own lunch.

Bra Burning, Atlantic City 1968, Credit: Media Myth Alert

That was in the late 1960s and while I admit to some confusion when I watched images of college women burning their bras or heard about consciousness raising sessions where women would meet to talk about how to become “unoppressed,” I suppose I could say that I reaped some immediate benefits — well sort of …

When I was 17, I was literally chased around the desk by a lecherous office manager and subsequently fired for not being “friendly.” A woman at the unemployment office took pity on me and figured out how to “stick-it” to the company by giving me the unheard of sum of $75.00 per week for my troubles.

That was how my consciousness was raised: don’t get mad get even.

Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Lover Come Back, Credit: Leo Fuchs

With the blissful joys of late 1950s and early 1960s sex romps filling my head — those Doris Day and Rock Hudson gems which were “teaching” me how to get a man, you know, lie, cheat and don’t put out on the first, second, third or even fourth date, well a few kisses maybe but that was it — didn’t exactly prepare me for reaching my “womanhood” in the disco world of the early 1970s in NYC!

Not to mention, of course, that Rock Hudson was famously gay and Doris Day the victim of spousal abuse and a renowned animal rights activist beginning in the 1980s.

The point is we all change. Whether through “consciousness raising” or time, but when it comes to women, some things don’t seem to change.

We in the United States may assume ourselves to be “enlightened” when in comes to women’s rights — you know, we can drive, support our families, even box, and heck, there are more women graduating from architecture school than men these days so that’s equality, right?

Scratch that surface though and we find the political rhetoric of this year’s Republican campaign season attacking women’s health and birth control! Birth control?!?!? I mean really, what is up with that?!?!?

(Dare I mention that most women on birth control are married and that a good percentage take the pill for non-birth control reasons — despite what certain radio talk show hosts have stated!)

Women are also still assaulted in record numbers by spouses and boyfriends, trafficked for sex right here in the old US of A, and while women have made inroads in the Armed Forces, the “dark side” is the spate of sexual crimes against women — right smack dab in the middle of the theater of war where they proudly serve.

To my way of thinking, we are all in the ring all the time, duking it out for things like adequate child care for our children because let’s face it “choice” is not an option for most women — it’s work or starve — which brings up issues like maternity rights (nothing like leaving your 11 week old baby to go back to work, I know, I had to do it) and that old chestnut equity in pay (still!).

Ask ANY female boxer in the United States if she can earn a living as a fighter and she’ll give you a litany of jobs she has to have to “support” her professional boxing career. Oh, and then ask her about how much respect she receives for plying her trade … think Christy Martin who boxed in pink for years to seem more feminine and therefore a lot less threatening.

I could go on and on — but will end my rant by standing and raising my body into a huge cheer for Christy Martin and Mia St. John who will enter the ring of combat on June 19th for the WBC Super Welterweight World Championship.

To my mind this is the best antidote to feeling the blues about how much further women have to go: two f’n warriors giving it their all in a ring they claim as their own.

And at the end of the day, that’s all it’s about: what Virginia Wolfe famously coined, a place of one’s own to just be without all of the ugly crap that gets heaped on in piles pushing you down.

In the parlance of my childhood “rock on sisters!” — and have a great day!

Women’s Boxing and the Media

Women’s Boxing and the Media

Queen Underwood ahead of her Pan Am Games fight, Photo: Pat Graham/AP

With large kudos to CNN, ESPNW and even media outlets such at USA Today, women’s boxing has been hitting the media of late — and the perspective has actually been positive.

Case in point has been the skirts issues which has seen a surfeit of pieces in mainstream media running the gamut from BBC to Huffington Post.

There have also been lots of profile pieces of up and coming Olympic hopefuls alongside their sisters on the professional side of the sport, as well as pieces on the world-wide participation of women in boxing from Afghanistan to India to Uganda.

Here are some links to pieces.  Have a read and show your support if you can.  The more we advocate and respond, the greater the opportunity to keep the trend going — and maybe even find women boxing’s bouts back on ESPN, Showtime & HBO.  Hmmm, about time wouldn’t you say??

 

Skirts issue

Drawing a (hem)line in the sand by, Bonnie D. Ford, ESPN

Skirting the issue: boxing’s step backward, Kathryn Bertine, ESPNW

Skirts won’t make women’s boxing any more ‘womanly’, Christie Brennan, USA Today

 

Boxer profiles

Latina Olympic hopefuls (Marlen Esparza), Soledad O’Brien, CNN

Christy Martin a fighter at heart, David Picker, E:60, ESPN

Queen Underwood is fighting for a cause, by Meri-Jo Borzilleri, ESPNW

 

Women’s Boxing – World Wide

Afghan women strike blow for equality, Mike Thomson, BBC

Uganda’s women step into the ring, Nicole Dreon, ESPNW

Christy Martin on ESPN’s E:60 tonight!

Christy Martin on ESPN’s E:60 tonight!

Christy Martin will feature on ESPN’s E:60 tonight (10/5/11) at 8:00 PM.   The piece will trace her life, her boxing triumphs and the personal tragedies that led to her husband Jim Martin’s attempt to take her life.  Jim Martin was also interviewed for the piece.

If you can, do tune in!

All I can say is kudos to ESPN and CNN for putting these feature pieces on the air.  Now if only we can start seeing some televised bouts!

 

Christy Martin and the decision: Is a hand worth more than an eye?

Christy Martin and the decision: Is a hand worth more than an eye?

As has been widely report, in a 5-0 decision by the California State Athletic Commission, Christy Martin lost her bid to overturn her June 4th loss to Dakota Stone.  

Writing to question the Commission’s decision, Christine Lusey started off her August 16th piece by writing SAY WHAT > Did a Boxer lose a Fight to Sex Discrimination?  She also quoted directly from Christy Martin’s appeal which stated, “In my 22 years of experience as a professional boxer, I have never seen a fight stopped by a referee or a fight doctor because of a broken hand or because a boxer winced.”

Over at Boxing Insider.com, Jackie Kallen took another tack in her piece entitled, Should we have instant replay in Boxing?  Her take was to ask if the way around questionable calls is to add instant replay — especially since the issues in the moment may be more readily understood.  She also opined that Christy’s choice of *power* attorney, Gloria Allred  may have annoyed the Commission enough to turn Christy down for that reason alone.  Kallen’s other point was to talk about the general issue of bad calls and how they tend to even out.

What I was wondering is whether a broken hand is worth more than say a broken eye?

So let’s talk about another fight, the Pawel “Raging bull” Wolak vs. Delvin Rodriguez back on July 15th a mere 6 weeks after Christy’s 50th fight as a pro.

Wolak v. Rodriguez was the fight that had everyone watching Friday Night Fights going wild — including the commentators.  In fact, the fight was sooooo hot, FNF suspended commercials from the seventh round on.

This is what Pawel Wolak looked like in the 9th round!

That eye started getting big in the seventh round, and he kept fighting with it THROUGH THE END OF THE FIGHT!  And if you watched the fight you could see that it HURT, but he told the Referee Steve Smoger and the doctors he was good to go … and they let him fight on!  Not only that, but the commentators ALL agreed that the fight SHOULD CONTINUE AND THAT THE REFEREE WAS MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION IN LETTING IT GO ON!

Christy broke her hand in the fourth round and kept on fighting even rocking Dakota in the fifth.  It reminded me of boxing gym tales about the guy who won fighting with nothing but lefts ’cause he broke his hand — and was the reason my old trainer Johnny Grinage used to make me do at least one round of lefts on the heavy bag every time I trained.

All I can say is that Christy was living that old saw.  As she went on to fight in the sixth round she had NO intention of quitting and only winced after throwing a huge right.  As she shook off her obvious discomfort Referee David Mendoza called the fight.

When it came to pain, however, it seemed as if the real pain on her face was when Mendoza stopped the fight!

Yep, she broke her hand, but stopping the fight with one minute left to go in the bout wasn’t going to do *anything* to help her hand — it was already broken.  What it did do was deny Martin and Stone the opportunity for a real close to their fight.

A lot of things could have happened in that fight and the Ref owed it to Martin to let her finish it out.

Let’s face it, the Martin v. Stone fight was a war — not unlike the Wolak v. Rodriguez fight.  I’m all for stopping fights when it is obvious that a fighter is being badly beaten and damaged — or is no longer able to defend themselves.

Was this the case here?  In my estimation no because we’re talking Christy Martin, as brilliant a phoenix as has every graced the boxing ring.  Christy, a dedicated professional deserved the benefit of the doubt, much as Pawel Wolak was given the benefit of the doubt by Steve Smoger — and Dakota Stone deserved the opportunity to win or lose unhindered by what seemed like a very unfair decision by the Referee.

I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say that the call was strictly based on gender — but it sure wasn’t boxing.

Fighting like a girl …

Fighting like a girl …

David Haye and Vladimir Klitschko, 7/2/11, Photo Credit: Frank Augstein, AP

Did you all manage to catch the Vladimir Klitschko-David Haye fight last Saturday night?

I mean, what *was* that?  It certainly wasn’t a beer-fest because at least people would have been having fun!

From where I was sitting it was one of the most pathetic excuses for a prize-fight I ever saw and that is going some considering the caliber of some of the fighting lately!  A whopping 10 punches connecting in the first round for Klistschko and nine for Haye??  Everyone going wild on twitter because Haye threw three left jabs that actually connected in the third round!  Based on the comments, you’d think he’d been connecting like Christy Martin in her last outing, broken hand and all. Firing impressive double and triple jabs before landing an overhand right or an upper cut or two and bouncing back for more jabs.

No, I had the word right the first time. The fight was pathetic! No heart, no courage, no desire to fight with the kind of flat out determination we’ve come to love, admire and respect when women box … every time!

Consider the recent fight between Kaliesha West and Ava Knight.  We are talking ten hard fought rounds with no let up.  And because both fighters brought their best game to the match they fought to a draw.  In a way that’s about the best outcome you can have because it shows a terrific match-up — and the kind of commitment to the sport that brings on the highest caliber of fighting and heart that runs from the opening bell to the finish. And what you didn’t see was West or Knight feigning falls to the canvas for a respite. Nor did you see either fighter playing peek-a-boo or goading or any of the number of ridiculous feints that Haye used as his “fight” plan to actually avoid having to go toe-to-toe in the center of the ring.

Nope, from where I sit, it’s time to get schooled by some real fighting:  watching two high caliber female professional boxers having at it for ten rounds of fighting. Or for that matter, did you catch the recent US Nationals?  Or say any amateur or pro show lately where the action part of the card was the women’s fight?? Where are Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti when you need them?  I’ll tell you where, on the women’s card.

Klitschko and Haye promoted their fight as “The War.”  From where I sat, it was more like “The Wimp.”

Enough already, it’s time to fight like a girl.

Oh, and if you want to support a real fighter — consider joining the letter writing campaign being spurred on by Mark A. Jones and Amy Green to get the great Lucia Rijker inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.  Talk about a boxer with heart, she remains amazing!

If nothing else, show that your tired of the kind of hype that excuses boxing by writing to the IBHOF on Lucia’s behalf!  You’ll feel great afterwards!! (Letters can be sent my snail mail or fax!)

IBHOF

1 Hall of fame Drive

Canastota, NY 13032

FAX: 315-697-5356.

A couple of upcoming Women’s Boxing Bouts!

A couple of upcoming Women’s Boxing bouts!

There are a couple of exciting women’s professional boxing bouts coming this weekend that will be worth watching!

Oh right, not on television because they won’t be broadcast, but *hopefully* available by video stream — and thanks to the boxing fans out there, we’ll be able to catch some rounds on YouTube in the ensuing days following the bouts.

Detecting a mood?  Given that no less a bout than Christy Martin’s 6-round heart-breaker with Dakota Stone was relegated to Top Rank’s video stream (that inexplicably gave out at the beginning of the 5th round for some viewers), why should the fighters this week expect any different??  Ssshhhh.

1. Amanda Serrano fighting for the North American Boxing Federation Title @ Roseland!

Brooklyn-based undefeated Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano (9-0-1, 5 KOs) will be fighting to capture the vacant NABF super featherweight title against Jennifer Scott (2-3, 2 KO’s)  in an 8-round bout on June 11th!  As quoted on Saddo Boxing.com’s Boxing News, Serrano said, “This is my first fight in New York City as a professional boxer. I’m very excited to know I’m going to have a lot of family, friends and fans there supporting me. I want them all to see how far I’ve progressed.  It’s going to be a fun night.”

Serrano had wanted to fight former NABF champion Maureen Shea, however, the bout was turned down and Shea purportedly was stripped of the title for refusing to take the bout.

The Serrano-Scott fight will be part of the the Boricua Boxing II Card @ Roseland part of which will be broadcast on Showtime.  Given that Scott has lost her last three fights, I leave it to Girlboxing readers to surmise the likely outcome!

The full Saddo Boxing.com article can found here.  WBAN also has a piece on the fight here.

2.  As a reminder there’s great boxing this weekend in South Africa!

As a reminder, New Zealand’s own Daniella “The Diamond” Smith will be defending her IBF Women’s Welterweight title against South African Noni “She Bee Stingin” Tenge on June 11th at the Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The link to the earlier story is here.

 

Why I’m a Christy Martin Fan!

Why I’m a Christy Martin Fan!

>>>>UPDATE (Video Highlights below)

I watched the Christy Martin – Dakota Stone fight last night*.

Christy put on a F I E R C E performance, matching the much younger Dakota Stone and then some, not to mention putting her down on the canvas for an eight-count with a classic Left-Right combination that was letter perfect.

By now you likely know that Christy broke her right hand during the 4th round — and proceeded to fight much of the 5th round with her left — only to have the fight stopped in the 6th and final round after throwing the right hand once too often and absorbing some punishment as well putting her into a world of hurt.

At that point, the Ringside doctor called the Ref over who stopped the fight giving Dakota Stone the TKO and the win.  The shame of it was Christy was ahead on all three cards and would have won the battle.

What really wowed me was Christy’s TRUE warrior spirit.

She came out swinging and never stopped even as she took some punches in the 3rd round that clearly rocked her a bit. She also worked combinations through out, throwing jab-jab-rights and mixing them up with body blows, upper-cuts, overhand rights and more jabs.

There are a lot of younger, slicker boy-boxers that could learn a thing or two or three from Martin’s performance, not the least of which is old-school true grit.

I applaud Christy’s tenacity and spirit — even as I hand it to Dakota for garnering the win.

Whatever happens to Christy next, she can count this girlboxer as a friend and a fan for life — ’cause let me tell you, she earned it.

* I could only watch the first four rounds and the beginning of the fifth before the webcast signal died (subject for another night I think — Why aren’t women’s bouts being broadcast on television?!?!?).

Christy Martin’s back + a highly anticipated women’s bout 2night!

Christy Martin’s back + a highly anticipated women’s bout 2night!

Talk about a phoenix rising, the indomitable Christy Martin (49-5-3, 31 KOs) will be returning to the ring on June 4th in a rematch with Dakota Stone (9-8-5) @ the Staples Center in Los Angles.  The six-round light middleweight bout will be Christy’s first in two years — and with a little luck and a lot of boxing savvy will be her 50th win.  Check out the piece by Bob Velin in USA Today here.

Christy’s fight is on the undercard of two much anticipated bouts:  Julio Cesar Miranda’s (38-5-7, 5 KOs) WBO flyweight title defense against Brian Viloria (28-3, 16 KOs) and the battle for the WBC Middleweight belt between Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 KOs) and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (42-0-1, 30 KOs).

Great Women’s bout 2night!

Christina Hammer (9-0, 7 KO’s) will be defending her WBO & WBF middleweight titles tonight against the reigning WIBA & WIBF light-middleweight champion Maria Lindberg (5-0-2) in a ten-round bout to be held in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic tonight.

Christina Hammer, 20, hailing from Germany will be fighting Sweden’s own Maria Lindberg, 34,  in what will be an interesting bout given that Lindberg @ 5’5″ will be giving up 5″ in height & a weight class to the younger fighter.

No media outlet has been announced though I’d guess it can be found on streaming video.  The co-bout will be Lukas Koriechy vs. Hussein Bayram fighting for the WBO Super Welterweight Intercontinental Championship.

What’s up with this?

What’s up with this?

 

Rola El-Halabi (11-0, 6-KO), Lightweight Female Boxer

So what’s up with this:  “Female boxer shot before fight” !?!

The AP wire had it this way, “German female boxer Rola El-Halabi‘s career is in doubt after she was shot by her stepfather and former manager before a title fight on Friday. The undefeated 25-year-old was preparing to fight Irma Balijagic Adler of Bosnia for the vacant IBF lightweight title, when the 44-year-old man entered her dressing room and shot her in the hand, knee and foot.” (link here & link here)  Also shot were two security guards both of whom are expected to make a full recovery.  Rola El-Halabi had reportedly ended her stepfather’s role as her manager back in January.

As WBAN points out, this is the second shooting of a female boxer, following on the horrific assault Christy Martin endured late last year.  (link here)

Am I missing something here?  I know people get shot, but this is really too much.

Girlboxing sends heart-felt wishes to Rola El-Halabi for a swift and full recovery.

Here’s a great video of Rola El-Halabi and Mia St. John from last year.  This is really tragic.

Boxing connections

Boxing connections

While focusing on my prana breathing this morning the Yogic term for unifying the body through the energy of the breath, I got to thinking about how boxing seems to energize people in the same way. And yes, I was off in a mind movie about boxing, but figure that the “connection” on “connections” was all within the spirit of the breath!

So what do I mean — mostly that the community is small and practitioners from living room shadow boxers on through elite athletes, share a love for the sport, a passion for the practice and derive inner satisfaction from all of the hard work.  Not to say that every boxer would articulate it that way, but the community, especially among women boxers from 8-80 seems to derive a lot of strength from knowing that there are other women out there boxing their hearts out.

Case in point:  I do not know Christy Martin at all, but reading last night that a rib injury in the gym might sideline her from her March 12th PPV fight on Showtime really bummed me out.  (See Boxing Scene.com story here.)  We’ll know more today, and yes it will be news, but my relationship to it feels personal.  As if a close friend is at risk for a huge disappointment.  And I’m not talking as a fan per se, but as person that understands what it takes to step out in the ring and thus I feel a connection to what she’s been trying to achieve.

This blog is teaching me as well.  It’s connecting me to folks I’ve never met or spoken to, and yet through language and an evolving understanding of shared experiences, I feel it’s made me some friends, and “virtual” or not, whether I ever meet them face-to-face or not, working hard in the gym has a language all its own that you can share across huge divides.  Now I’m not going to get all sappy here, but the point is, the work has a language all its own that only needs the step of the doing to be a part of.  And no, I cannot share what it feels like to have the jitters before a championship match, but I can relate it to the experience of sparring for the first time, or putting gloves on for the first time and realizing that the itch on my nose would go unscratched unless I asked for some help.

The key perhaps is just that.  Boxing is not a solo experience.  In the end the connections are essential. Without them there’s no tango, no intricate dance whether between two fighters in the ring, boxer and trainer, or friends goofing around in the locker room.  So even if you are shadow boxing alone in your room, you’re still dancing with your shadow and that counts for something too!

 

 

Women in the ring and Week Six Golden Gloves Reminder

Women in the Ring

Christy Martin and Dakota Stone, September 3, 2009

Christy Martin:  Fighting back

Christy Martin, center, works out with assistant trainer Richie Sandoval, left, Miguel Diaz, trainer, right looks on. Photo: Julie Jacobson, AP Photo

AP’s Tim Dahlberg has a feature piece out about Christy Martin and her upcoming bout against Dakota Stone on the undercard of the March 12, 2011 Showtime PPV Cotto-Mayorga fight.

A money quote from Dahlberg’s piece with respect to women’s boxing is Bob Arum’s take on the sport:

“Ask promoter Bob Arum and he’ll tell you the biggest problem with women’s boxing is that men don’t particularly like to see women hitting each other, and women like it even less. Though the sport has a small dedicated fan base, women in the ring are generally treated as a side show by fans and boxing promoters.”  This article is really worth the read here.

Sonya “The Scholar” Lamonakis upcoming bout reminder!

As a reminder, the other great women’s bout on March 12, 2011 will pit WIBA #1 ranked U. S. Heavyweight, Sonya “The Scholar” Lamonakis (3-0, 1-KO) against Tanzee Daniels (4-0, 1-KO) on the undercard of HBO’s Martinez-Dzinziruk fight to be broadcast live from Foxwoods.

Tickets can be purchased online here or by calling the MGM Grand at Foxwoods at 1-866-646-0609, or in person at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods box office.

You can also contact Sonya Lamonakis for ticket information by calling Gleason’s Gym @ 718-797-2872.

84th Annual Daily News 2011 Golden Gloves Week Six reminder:  Women’s bouts!

At the aptly named, Justice Sotomayer Center on Wednesday night, February 23rd, the first women’s preliminary boxing bouts of the year will be held across several weight classes.

The full week’s schedule is:

2/22/2011 – Bishop Ford High School, 500 19th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

2/23/2011 – Justice Sotomayor Center, 1000 Rosedale Avenue, Bronx, NY 10472

2/25/2011 – Holy Cross High School, 26-20 Francis Lewis Blvd., Flushing, NY 11358

For more information click here.

Women’s boxing news roundup, 1/25/2011

Women’s boxing news roundup, 1/25/2011.

Women's boxing news roundup - 1/25/2011

Christy Martin, Credit: Casey Kelbaugh, NYT

For those who didn’t catch this over the weekend, the New York Times did a feature piece on boxer, Christy Martin as she readies herself for her comeback fight on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto v. Ricardo Mayorga bout to be aired on Showtime pay-per-view March 12th.  The article, written by Joyce Wadler, looks in-depth at Christy’s career and recent troubles.  The “money” quote of the piece is at the end in response to a snarky question if ever I heard one regarding Christy’s motivations for returning to the ring.   “You know,” she said, “I was a fighter before, so I’m just going back to work, and through my work maybe I can inspire other women, or give them strength to deal with situations and move forward.”   Way to go Christy!  The link to the piece is here.

Ana Julaton

Another great Philippine “Pac-Woman,” Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton has announced the “return of The Hurricane,” in her bout to be fought against Francesca “The Chosen One” Alcanter.  Of interest is the fact that the fight night will feature a mixture of Professional Boxing, Amateur kickboxing, as well as live music and comedy acts on three stages.  The event is set for February 25, 2011 at the Craneway Pavilion in Riverside, CA, and will be broadcast live in the Philippines.  For further information, check out the link here and here.

Flyweights, Ava Knight (r) & Gloria Salas

The Sweetscience.com is carrying a piece by David A. Avila, about Golden Boy Promotions’ recent efforts to support women’s boxing.  As Avila points out, “Golden Boy kept its word and female prizefighting was showcased on another fight card [this past Friday]. Working with Claudia Ollis, a new powerbroker in women’s boxing, the Los Angeles-based boxing giant Golden Boy has made waves in the boxing world. Now other boxing promotions are jumping on the bandwagon with female fighters included on their respective cards.”  This is great news for the sport and couldn’t come at a better time as we enter the countdown to next year’s debut of women’s boxing at the 2012 Olympics in London.  The article can be found here.

The new International Amateur Boxing Association’s (AIBA) is seeking to strengthen the position of women’s amateur boxing both before and after the 2012 Olympic games to include adding weight categories at future Olympic games.  As well, the association has set an agreement for the 2011 Women’s Youth and Junior World Championships to be held in Ankara, Turkey from April 28 – May 8.  For more information click here and here.

The lady is a champ

The lady is a champ

Christy Martin, The Lady is a Champ, Sports Illustrated

This story has been out for a few days, but in case Girlboxing readers didn’t see it, women’s boxing pioneer Christy Martin, 42 has been tentatively set to box March 12th in Las Vegas on the Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga undercard.

As quoted on Fanhouse.com, Christy said, “The deal is done.  I will finish my career being promoted by the best, Bob Arum, of Top Rank…”  Christy was pronounced, “healthy” and will train in Las Vegas with Miguel Diaz.  Given where she’s come from and where she is today, win, lose or draw Christy’s remarkable spirit is inspirational inside and outside the boxing world.

To read Lem Satterfield’s original article entitled “Christy Martin ‘Burning’ for Return to Ring,” on the Fanhouse.com website click here.

PS – Big fights coming up in NYC!  Alicia “Slick” Ashley on January 13th @ Brooklyn’s Masonic Temple. Keisher Mcleod-Wells at B.B. Kings on February 9th.  Tickets available at Gleason’s Gym — link for information here.

Sad story

Sad story

Championship boxer Christy Martin was allegedly stabbed and shot by her husband, Jim Martin on Tuesday evening and taken to a local hospital near her Florida home.  Known as the “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Christy is an important pioneer in women’s professional boxing.

The LA Times is reporting that she was shot in left leg and stabbed in her torso and is also reporting that the police had been called to their home earlier in the day on Tuesday.  The LA Times has the story here. Fox News has it here.

Our prayers should go out to Christy for her quick recovery.

Update:  More stories here and here.

For information on domestic violence click here.  And if you or any of your friends and family are victims of domestic violence, you are not alone — you can seek help from the many wonderful organizations that support women in their efforts to free themselves from abusive relationships.