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Now we’re talking, Main Event on Telefutura! Holly Holm v. Victoria Cisneros!

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Now we’re talking, Main Event on Telefutura!  Holly Holm v. Victoria Cisneros!

>>>UPDATE!  HOLM TAKES IT 

Holly Holm (L) defeated a game Victoria Cisneros in the "Solo Boxeo Tecate" Main Event broadcast on Telefutura on 6/10/11. Photo: Pat Vazquez-Cunningham/Journal

After an exciting 10-round competitive bout Holly Holm improved her record to 30-1-3 with an impressive win over Victoria Cisneros.  Holm won by unanimous decision with all three judges rightly scoring the bout 100-90.

In the audience watching the fight was none other than French fighter Anne Sophie Mathis (23-1-0, 20 KOs). Promoter Lenny Fresquez, also announced a long anticipated Holm-Mathis battle scheduled for December 2, 2011!

Victoria Cisneros (L) and Holly Holm, Photo: Chris Cozzone

In an ask and you shall receive moment … the “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” card will be broadcast tonight, June 10th on Telefutura featuring the “Duke City” rematch of Holly Holm  v. Victoria Cisneros.

Holly Holm v. Victoria Cisneros, 2009

Holly “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holm (29-1-3, 9 KOs) will be fighting Victoria “La Reina” Cisneros (5-11-2, 1KO) in the 10-round main event rematch promoted by Fresquez Promotions at Legends Theater, Route 66 Casino, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cisneros is a late replacement for the Holm’s original challenger, Cindy Serrano who suffered a fractured nose during training.  Other promoters for the Solo Boxeo fight card are Golden Boy Promotions and Don Chargin Promotions.

Cisneros had been a very late stand-in in their first meeting, filling in for Melissa Hernandez who pulled out of the fight at the last minute due to a dispute with Holly Holm over Holly’s hand wraps — Hernandez’s camp had not observed Holm’s hands being wrapped and while Holm offered to have them rewrapped, Hernandez pulled out of the fight.

As part of the promotion for the main event bout, if you’re local to New Mexico,  you can vote for the fighter in the main event who displayed the most character in the ring by sending a text message to 55333. Voting will be open through the end of the weekend.

The other woman’s bout on card Brandi Montaya (0-1) also saw her opponent bow out and is waiting to see if she will have a replacement.

The full card roster with the weigh-ins is as follows:

Holly Holm 141.5 vs. Victoria Cisneros 137
Joaquin Zamora 158.5 vs. Elco Garcia 158.5
Fidel Maldonado 136 vs. Eddie Ramirez 137
David Proa 126.5 vs. Willie Villanueva 127.5
Marc Selser 140.5 vs. Joel Vargas 145
Martin Gonzales 136.5 vs. Antonio Garcia 136
Brandi Montoya 110 vs. TBA


A couple of upcoming Women’s Boxing Bouts!

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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.

 

Working out in the heat!

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Working out in the heat!

We’re talking 95 degrees fahrenheit today people and 98 tomorrow … in New York City!  That means summer is full on upon us and time to think about working out in the heat.

Personally, I love working out  when it’s hot. My muscles have an instant lube job and after a while the cascading sweat is like a cooling shower!  There are, however, some good tips to keep in mind, especially as the humidity begins to rise along with the questionable stuff in the air.

1.  You’ve probably guessed this one! Drink PLENTY of fluids, not so much that you’ll drown, but as a constant flow so that you keep hydrated.  You should also avoid caffeinated drinks and remember to drink some water 15 or so minutes BEFORE you get started.

2. Don’t forget you need to eat in the heat!  They don’t have to be huge meals, but small little tastings will more than suffice — especially salads and fruits.  They’re delicious, nutritious and will help keep you hydrated.

3.  Realize that if the humidity is high, you are that much more susceptible to suffering from overheating and other symptoms of heat stress such as nausea, light headedness, dizziness and so on.  That means you need to drink even more, and recognize your own limitations — before you get started.  So don’t plan a 5 mile run in the middle of the heat of the afternoon if you’re not used to running in the heat!  You could well end up with heat prostration in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge!

4.  Get acclimated to the heat before full-on exercising.  At Gleason’s Gym, while there are exhaust fans and overhead fans that keep it fairly cool (no A/C — its a boxing gym!), it still gets pretty hot on 90 degree + days.  Given that we’ve not had a lot of warm days in the gym, it’s likely a good idea to take it slower than normal to get your body used to performing in the heat and humidity.  A couple of weeks ago we had a pretty hot day — and my problem was the air quality.  Between the high ozone and the pollen I found I actually had to stop a few rounds earlier than planned — so be flexible, and know your body.

One trick is wearing a wet sweat band and throwing water on your head between rounds — I find that helps me a lot.

5.  Be careful not to get caught in extreme temperature changes.  If you’re planning a run and you’re coming out of your really c-o-l-d apartment into the heat, take a few minutes to get used to it.  Conversely, if you’re in the high heat and hit a frozen gym — do the reverse. Acclimatize before hitting full on into a workout.

6.  Wear sunscreen, replace your electrolytes and S-T-O-P immediately if you’re feeling any of the following: dizziness, nauseous, shortness of breath.  You’re going to want to cool down and remember it’s okay to seek medical attention if you really need help.

Enjoy the heat!

June.

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June.

June crept up out of nowhere it seems.  Places like Cadman Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn are a riot of late spring color as flowers pop of everywhere and the heavily laden trees already feel like July from all of the rain.

Last night we sat outside till dusk at the Greek Festival held every June in our neighborhood.

The food was amazing and the deserts that much sweeter when mingled with the early June air.

While not exactly Greece, it felt warm and comfortable to sit outside under the gathering darkness with hints of Greek music underscoring the lively talk of the people sitting around at the festival’s many outside tables.

As as schoolgirl, June was always my favorite.

I counted down the days till the end of the month when school would let out and was forever being chided in the class room for looking dreamily out of the window.

I have that feeling now — wanting nothing better than to don shorts and a pair of flops from here on out.

That and to head on over to the gym to workout in the heat and sweat some more.

 

Why I’m a Christy Martin Fan!

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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?!?!?).

Working out, working in

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Working out, working in.

So much of a workout is about working in.

By that I mean facing down whatever inner demons are lurking about to wreak havoc with the flow of your energy at any given moment as you push out from yourself to pound the pavement, pound a heavybag or work through the defenses of an opponent.

Often that process means letting yourself get out the way of what it is you’re trying to accomplish so that you can do it at all – analogous to someone in your corner shouting “let your hands go,” only in this case it’s yourself screaming from within impeding your ability to let loose until something snaps and you can.

That knot, that little twist that seems to kink things off can be the difference between gaining and losing.  Finding your way to moment-to-moment accomplishment versus feeling choked off from where you want to go.

Where it hurts most is in the ring.  Rather then feeling your opponent to know how best to move your body — as brilliant an improvisational pas-de-deux as ever one could hope for — somewhere the knot kicks in to stultify movement and telegraph the huge boom of the ego that is the difference between sensing your opponent’s weaknesses so that each movement flows to a perfect place and landing on the canvas because you’re looking for things rather than doing things.

I’m not sure if I had one of those days or not — or why this comes to mind; probably it’s because I’m finding myself getting closed off  for unaccountable reasons, which when I stop and let go, flow out of me so that I’m in a place of calm again.

Whatever it is — letting it go can be as easy as just getting out of one’s own way by doing something to jolt the system; say singing out loud or maybe throwing on some salsa to dance part of the night away.

Friday Night Fights – of our own!

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Friday Night Fights — of our own!

Okay … so when was the last time Friday Night Fights had a women’s bout???  Hmm.

Not in the mood for the non-stop “pithy” banter of Teddy and friends?

I say … how about some Friday Night Fights of our own!

Well here goes … with special, special thanks to the diehards out there that take the time to post these remarkable women’s bouts on YouTube!

Bout #1: Great boxing!  Ana Maria “La Guerrera Azteca” Torres vs. Jackie “La Princesa” Nava!   (From 4/16/2011) Ten rounds of pure non-stop action!  (Shown in two parts)

Bout # 2:  Jr. Middleweights! Layla McCarter vs. Cimberly Harris in Colorado (From 2/12/2011)

Bout #3:  Yesica Bopp vs. Romina Alcantar.  From April 2011. Action starts about 6:00 in. (From April 3, 2011)

Women’s championship boxing in South Africa!

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Women’s championship boxing in South Africa!

In a first for women’s boxing, South African women’s boxer Noni “She Bee Stingin” Tenge (10-0-1, 8 KOs) will be challenging the IBF Women’s Welterweight current champion belt-holder and New Zealand’s own, Daniella “The Diamond” Smith (10-1) on June 11th at the Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa.  According to promoter Branco Milenkovic, this will be the first legitimate women’s championship fight to be staged in Africa — not to mention South Africa.

Tenge, 29, is undefeated and also holds the WBF Women’s Welterweight crown — though the thinking goes that the IBF crown is the bigger “jewel.”

Smith captured her world championship belt this past November when she defeated Jennifer Retzke.  In an article on May 20th in New Zealand’s The Northern Advocate newspaper,  Daniela Smith, 38, is quoted as saying “It’s the first time that I’ll be fighting at altitude and so that’s going to be different but hopefully it won’t make too much of a difference.” (Click here for link.)

Smith has also noted that there’s not a lot of footage on Tenge, so she is preparing for everything and anything for her upcoming bout.

For a preview of the upcoming action, check out the video footage of Daniella Smith in her bout against Jennifer Retzke.  No word yet on the media outlet for the South African championship duel.

Kaliesha West – prepping “360-style” for her upcoming title fight.

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Kaliesha West – prepping “360-style” for her upcoming title fight.

Boxer Kaliesha West (13-1-2, 4 KOs) has her own reality TV show on YouTube in advance of her upcoming fight on June 18th.

Kaliesha will defending her WBO Female Bantamweight title at the Pico Rivera Stadium in Los Angeles as the main boxing event for promoter Red Scorpion Promotion’s International Fight Showdown.  Entitled IFS8: Mass Destruction, the fight card will also feature MMA and Muay Thai bouts — not unlike Ana Julaton’s fight card in Riverside, California earlier in the year.

For those who are unfamiliar with Kaliesha “Wild Wild” West — she started boxing at the age of ten and never stopped. She had a huge amateur career, winning a total of 98 amateur bouts that included the National Golden Gloves in 2003.

Kaliesha turned pro in 2006 and continues to train with her father, Juan West. In a recent interview, Kaliesha said, “Since the beginning of my career, my dad has always handled the when, where, and with whom I fight. I just train for whatever is lined up next. I am thankful to have my father as my coach and manager, because I know he is looking out for my best interest.” (Link here.)

BTW, Kaliesha’s also made David Avala’s top dozen pound-for-pound female fighters list. (Link here.)

Check out the first installment of Kaliesha’s reality-TV show here:

Women’s Boxing from around the web

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Women’s Boxing from around the web


Over at The Sweet Science, David A. Avila has one of his periodic pieces on the pound-for-pound best women’s in professional boxing, entitled, appropriately enough, “Avila’s New Female Fighter Pound For Pound List.” 

As a the chief everything of a blog devoted to women’s boxing, I probably shouldn’t admit to the fact that I don’t feel sufficiently up on every women on the list to opine … suffice to say it was good to see the likes of Holly Holm and Mariana Juarez who just had a great on May 21st, not to mention Melinda Cooper and Ana Julaton.  If you’d like to add your opinions head on over to the site to voice them in the comments or post them here.

To punctuate why Mariana Jaurez should be considered, here’s the first part of her recent bout with Gabriela Bouvier.

Next, check out Inspiring Women’s Sports for Niamh Griffin’s piece, “Why do we box?”    The link is here and is worth heading over to listen to some inspiring audio clips from “Christina McMahon, Australia Muay Thai fighter Kelly Simon and a few boys including Irish pro-boxer Willie “Big Bang’ Casey.”

The clips are from radio interviews Niamh did some time ago and finally put together for a piece.  Really … check it out!

Finally, boxer, writer and filmmaker Jill Morley also has a blog these days called appropriately enough, Fighting It. 

Jill’s written a truly gut-wrenching piece that is not only worth the read, but worth the time to think about what it all means in your own life.

The piece is entitled, “When Life Gives you PTSD, Turn it into Lemonblog,” and I urge you to give it a read.  The link is here.

UPDATE! Three cheers for boxing’s #1 female heavyweight: Sonya Lamonakis!!!

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UPDATE:  Three cheers for boxing’s #1 female heavyweight: Sonya Lamonakis!!!

Girlboxing pal and Gleason’s Gym’s own Sonya “The Scholar” Lamonakis has made it to the top of the list! Yep, we’re talking # 1 on WIBA’s World Ratings list of female heavyweight boxers!

With the loss of Gwendolyn O’Neil to Nigeria’s Ljeoma Euginine by unanimous decision after their six-round bout Saturday night in Stone Mountain, Georgia, the women’s heavyweight division has undergone an interesting change given the Ljeoma wasn’t even ranked on the WIBA World Ratings.

All we can say is congratulations to Sonya for her achievement in her first year of pro-fighting!!!

Let’s bring on a championship bout!

===WIBA World Ratings - May 17th 2011===

==HEAVYWEIGHT (over 175 lbs / over 79.4 kgs)==
World Champion
-GWENDOLYN O'NEIL (Guyana)
1. Sonya Lamonakis (USA)
2. Pamela London (Guyana)
3. Tanzee Daniels (USA)
4. Tiffany Woodard (USA)
5. Gigi Jackson (USA)
6. Yolanda Fagan (USA)
7. Sydney LeBlanc (USA)
8. Alysia Williams-Stevenson (USA)

Pointers for a Saturday boxing workout at the gym!

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Pointers for a Saturday boxing workout at the gym!

Boxing Stance Diagram

For those of us who can’t get to the gym as often as we’d like for a serious workout, watching boxing training videos, while no substitute for the real thing, can help us to pick-up some pointers ahead of the next visit to the gym.

The following videos from YouTube were kind of fun — demonstrating “Mayweather-style” defensive moves in the ring with Coach Rick, the “Mittologist” from Southern New Jersey. For more information his website link is here.

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

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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.

One reason to love boxing …

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One reason to love boxing …

There are a lot of reasons to take up boxing, and Girlboxing friend Lisa Creech Bledsoe over at The Glowing Edge has a great post on the 13 reasons women should take up the sport — but let me tell you, the number one reason has to do with the heart, and I don’t mean cardio.

Yesterday, I walked into the locker room at Gleason’s Gym to get ready for my Wednesday work-out when a young woman, all of 16 came in and started to sob.  I mean big tears with her head in her hands on the table.  I attempted to engage her without much luck, but then her trainer walked in and managed to get her up and talking.

This is where the heart part kicked in … the part of boxing where trainers and gym denizens help young kids whose lives are otherwise an absolute mess through no particular fault of their own. It’s the side of boxing that countless adults will tell you helped them through the misery of their childhoods into active, healthy adulthood free of the foibles of the streets, bad parenting, and “the system.”

In the case of this young woman, as her sobs abated and a small crowd of women sat with her, even I could feel the tough edges of love from her trainer and the women listening to her in the locker room.

She talked of of feeling overwhelmed by the elements of her life that felt unfair and difficult — and not like a spoiled kid bemoaning a missed call from a boyfriend, but from a place of real troubles that had us all nodding in a moment of acknowledgement that said, “yep, this truly is as bad as you say,” … but having no other life than the one she has, the women of the gym said just that as they washed her with the sort of advise and support that can see her through her tough times and into an adulthood that is productive, healthy and happy.

After a while, and as af to say, enough of the pity-party, her trainer then said, “okay ladies, it’s time to work out.” And off we all trotted out, even the kid with her tears dried into a smile, pushing aside her issues with social workers, mean girls, life in a group home and problems in high school — to work it all out on the bag.

Thinking of it now — thinking of all the countless young people that have made it up and out of troubled childhoods because of similar scenes in countless boxing gyms over the years is to know the truth about boxing:  at its core it is just a great big, mushy heart.  A human heart that beats and pushes out love and compassion from thousands and thousands of hearts that extend kindnesses day-in and day-out.

I also think that no matter the hype that surrounds “rumbles in the jungle” or who the best pound-for-pound fighter is — real boxing is all about sharing your love and your heart in the discipline of the work.  And while it’s fun to dwell on matching up fighter A with fighter B, or lamenting the chaos of professional women’s boxing … what really matters about boxing is how the discipline of the ring reaches out.

Now that is something wonderful to love about boxing.

Lovely morning.

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Lovely morning.

Daughter awake. Yoga routine finished. Kitty fed. Husband comfortably abed. Light full on in the sky. Warmish breeze at the window. In other words a lovely morning.

My work day is huge, to be followed by 12 lovely rounds of pounding on heavy bags, double-ended bags and the speed bag.

All is right with the world.

As for inspiration …

Lucia Rijker on the Speedbag!

Heavy bag – women’s training