Tag Archives: Daniella Smith

Women’s Boxing: The talk of Soweto, South Africa.

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Women’s Boxing: The talk of Soweto, South Africa.

South African Boxing Promoter, Mbali "Don Queen" Zantsi

Mbali “Don Queen” Zantsi is a female boxing promoter with a dream, and as reported by Bongani Magasela in the Soweto Live newspaper, she is about to realize it with her second all-female boxing tournament to be held at Kempton Park Civic Centre in Soweto on Saturday, August 27, 2011.

South African Women's Boxing coming of age.

The For Us (women) By Us (women) – For Women By Women tournament will occur during South Africa’s Women’s Month, an annual event each August — with this year’s tournament set to bring new talent into the fore of South Africa’s growing female boxing scene.  It should be noted that Women’s Boxing only became legal in South Africa in 2001.

It was just five years ago when Zantsi put on her first tournament in Durban. That event brought such female boxing luminaries as Noni “She be stinging” Tenge, Unathi Myekeni and Bomikazi Klaasto the ranks of professional boxing.

Noni Tenge (R) and Daniella Smith

Tenge went on to win the women’s IBF welterweight title with her fourth round knockout of Daniella ”The Diamond” Smith this past June.

This will be Zantsi first event after a two-year hiatus. As quoted in the Soweto Live paper, she stated, “We are back with a bang and we are going to rock the boxing world.”

The tournament will also feature an all female roster of referees, judges, time keepers and ring announcers.

Three great women’s boxing victories!

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Three great women’s boxing victories!

There’s been some exciting women’s boxing going on lately.

Amanda Serrano (L) v. Jennifer Scott

Saturday, June 11th, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano, grabbed the vacant NABF Superfeatherweight championship belt when she clocked Jennifer Scott at a 1:46 into the first round of her scheduled 8-round bout at Roseland Ballroom on the Boricua Boxing II Card. (Boxing News 24 has a nice piece here.)  With the win, Serrano improves her record to 10-0-1 with 6 KO’s.

The second big women’s professional bout over the weekend was South African women’s boxer Noni “She bee stinging” Tenge’s 4th round knockout victory over New Zealand’s own Daniella “The Diamond” Smith to capture the women’s IBF Welterweight Championship at the at the Carnival City inBrakpa, South Africa.  As the first South African woman to win a major boxing title,Tenge has entered the history books for South African sports.  The victory, however has also caused a lot of controversy due to the South African Broadcasting Company’s decision *not* to broadcast the fight as a live event.  Although SABC’s reaction was to say, “why is this SABC’s problem?” promoter Branco Milenkovic is quoted as saying, “If the SABC wants to call itself the national broadcaster, it should broadcast boxing.”  For more on the story from inside South Africa click here and here.

Not to be outdone, Holly “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holm defeated Victoria Cisneros on Friday night in her Main Event showing on Telefutura’s “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” series.

A big Girlboxing shout out to both fighters for putting on a G-R-E-A-T show that we hope will inspire other sports channels to headline more women’s bouts!

 

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.

 

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.

Recent press about women’s boxing

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Recent press about women’s boxing

Here’s five recent press pieces related to women’s boxing that might be worth taking a look:

1.  Winning Starts Before the Fight:

Seattle based 2012 Olympic hopeful Queen Underwood who recently won two title fights at the first Women’s International Dual Series held in Oxnard, California is profiled in this piece.  The article was written by Alan Abrahamson and is published on Team USA’s boxing site here.

2. At 63, It’s Time for a Career Move:

A terrific article about personal trainer Lada St. Edmund, who started boxing in her 50’s and is now getting ready to take her exams to become a boxing referee. The piece was written by Brian Heyman for the New York Times and can be viewed here.

3.  My life in Sport: Daniella Smith:

The New Zealand Herald has an article by Dana Johannsen about New Zealand’s boxing champion Daniella Smith who recently won a ten-round fight in Berlin, Germany over Jennifer Retzke to gain the vacant IBF women’s welterweight title.  The mother of two began boxing 12 years ago and turned pro in 2005.  The article can be found here.

4.  Charity uses boxing to help girls build self confidence:

This piece in the LA Times written by Nate Jackson is about the organization KnockOuts for Girls (KO4G), a not for profit “boxing charity that specializes in training, fundraising and providing scholarships for underprivileged girls.”   The group recruits amateur and professional boxers as well as active models with an interest in the sweet science to help support the organization’s many programs.  The group’s website is here. The article can be found here.

5.  Big Cards Missing a Women’s Touch:

Over at Maxboxing.com, Ryan Maquinana has a written an article on the dearth of women fighters on big-name fight cards.  Referring to WBO super bantamweight champion, Ana Julatan, Maquinana makes note of the fact that her half-time visit on the court of a recent Golden State Warriors-New York Knicks game caused pandemonium in the stands.  His point is if she is such a crowd pleaser, how come Julatan and other terrific women fighters are nowhere to be found?  This piece is well worth reading and talking about. The link to the article is here.