Tag Archives: postaday2011

Women’s Boxing and Women’s MMA

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Women’s Boxing and Women’s MMA

 

Holly Holm (right) in her MMA debut, Photo: D. Archuleta

 

I’ll admit to being fairly new to the MMA concept, but boxer Holly Holm’s announcement that she would switch gears from fierce women’s boxing competitor to MMA has been fairly stunning.  Well last night in her MMA debut, Holly proved herself more that able as she dismantled her opponent, Christina “Machine Gun” Domke, in the second round by TKO.

In the preamble to her debut contest New Mexico’s own fighter Holly said, “I’m passionate about wanting to learn and do this …”  And learn she did, applying her super-charged southpaw boxing power to her kickboxing roots to become a winner, ending the fight with just that, a disabling kick to her opponent’s leg.

The bout has drawn a fair amount of buzz, especially in the MMA community as Holm considered by many to be pound-for-pound the best women’s boxer out there may well be the type of fighter to help galvanize the women’s MMA sport.

As I am really new to MMA — I’ll appreciate reader feedback on the sport, as well as some education.

For some video footage of last night’s fight click here and here.

Women’s Boxing: Todas Contra México

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Women’s Boxing: Todas Contra México

Maureen Shea

The new Mexican reality TV show Todas Contra México to be aired from Chiapas, Mexico, will showcase women’s professional boxing at its highest level.  The premise of the show is to feature bouts between a team of Mexican women professional boxers against an international team featuring none other than Gleason’s own Keisher “Fire” McLeod-Wells.

Keisher "Fire" Mcleod-Wells

As noted in the Girlboxing piece Women Boxing Everywhere!, the show will be hosted by New York’s own Million Dollar Baby, Maureen Shea.

The New York Daily News published a fabulous must-read piece by reporter Tanyankia Samuels about the show entitled, “Boxer Maureen Shea, who trained Hilary Swank for ‘Million Dollar Baby’ tapped for reality TV show.”

As quoted in an extensive piece in Eastside Boxing.com, Maureen Shea said “This is a big moment for female boxing.”  Shea continued, “For a long time, the public ignored female boxing but there has been a shift in recent years in the perception of the sport.  Women in boxing are gaining more respect with the way they are being portrayed, and the sport is gaining in popularity among females due to the women’s empowerment movement. After this show, the world will have to take notice of female boxing.”

There is talk of finding an outlet for the series in the US, however, that has not been reported as yet.  Meanwhile, this exciting new showcase for women’s boxing will begin filming in Chiapas towards the end of March.

Congratulations and a huge Girlboxing shout out to Fire and Maureen!

Boxing connections

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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’s Boxing Everywhere!

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Women’s boxing everywhere!

Lately, when you type in “women’s boxing” on a google news search you’ll find tons of stories from all over the place: Upcoming title fights, Olympic hopefuls in Chicago, Manila and Northern India, and terrific stories about women boxers going on to new heights in the field.

Here’s a smattering from today beginning with my favorite from the Independent in Dublin, Ireland!

– The Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, Ireland this coming March 17th will be none other than Katie Taylor, Ireland’s first female boxing champion. Taylor, 24, is a boxer and soccer player who began fighting at the age of 15. Her latest prize was winning gold at the 2010 World Amateur championships in Barbados last year.  The full article is here.

– This weekend, young women from around Australia with Olympic dreams in their hearts will begin the first rung of fulfilling those ambitions by competing this weekend Melbourne in the Australian championships. For a sweet article on two young hopefuls from Manning River, Australia, courtesy of the Manning River Times click here.  A second article about women from Laurieton can be found here courtesy of the Camden Haven Courier.

– Not to be out done, the Chicago Tribune has a feature piece about boxer Kristin Gearhart who will be defending her Chicago Golden Gloves title in the junior welterweight division.  The three-time golden gloves champion is hoping to go on to the Nationals and beyond that has an Olympic dream of her own. The story by Chicago Tribune reporter By Jim Jaworski can be found here.

There is tons more to report, including a Girlboxing shout out to New York’s own Million Dollar Baby, Maureen Shea on landing a fabulous new gig as the host of Mexico’s women’s boxing reality TV show, “Todos Contra Mexico.”  Check out this piece in Eastside Boxing.

It’s raining dogs and cats

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It’s raining dogs and cats

Sometimes when you are working really hard at something, say writing a conference paper, training for your next fight or hitting your 47th non-stop morning at twisting your body in a pose, the goal still seems a million miles away from getting you anywhere.  More to the point, and not exactly a marathoner’s wall, your world will feel upside down and a bit backwards, because no matter the effort that sense of achievement feels illusive.

I think of it having run into a friend at Gleason’s on Saturday who is in the midst of training for a fight.  She looked strong, fit, and truly ready — and yet she also had that look that said, “wow, this is hard.” And is if her verbal constructions had hit into reverse, her far away gaze revealed the doubts that all of us feel when we are on the cusp of something.  I’d have given her a hug if I could, but it wasn’t one of those moments. Rather what she needed was a pause to acknowledge her efforts and struggle; something akin to a moment of breath, where she could intake slowly allowing for the catch in the throat before forcing it all out to begin anew.

And that is how it is sometimes. We work with tremendous effort on our goals, but feel caught in a backwards swirl of mind movies that have us see our world upside down before we can shake the tree enough to right ourselves again.

Call it a raining dogs and cats moment and then move on — because when you are working that hard, you really, really know it, and should trust that you’re doing what you need to do to achieve your that goal.

84th Annual Daily News 2011 Golden Gloves Week Seven Reminder and the start of the Quarter Finals!

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84th Annual Daily News 2011 Golden Gloves Week Seven reminder and the start of the Quarter Finals!

The full week’s schedule is:

3/1/2011 – St. Finbar Auditorium, 1839 Bath Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11214

3/3/2011 – C-Pac Center, 1020 East 48th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11203

>>>>>>>Quarter Finals!

3/4/2011 – St. Athanasius, 6200 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11204

3/5/2011 – Saint Patrick’s High School, 9511 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11228 (7:00 PM Start)

For more information click here.

PS – Fight Reminder for March 12, 2011

Sonya "The Scholar" Lamonakis

Gleason’s own Sonya “The Scholar” Lamonakis #1 ranked WIBA U.S. women’s heavyweight and four-time Golden Gloves winner will be fighting on the undercard of the Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez vs  Sergiy Dzinzinuk bout on March 12 @ Foxwoods to be broadcast live HBO.

For a limited time, Gleason’s Gym is offering tickets at $75 each.  (Purchasing through Gleason’s will save you the $12 service fee.)

Gleason’s advises to buy tickets now as they are going fast.  For more information contact Gleason’s Gym at (718) 797-2872 — you can also request information by email: info@gleasonsgym.net.

Gaining “umph” in “limp” mode

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Gaining “umph” in “limp” mode

Well I didn’t exactly have the greatest workout ever yesterday as my head throbbed from a pretty intense headache, but I did manage to eek out 10 rounds. The point was to “punch” through it as best I could  — and with Lennox’s help who slowed down to my level of crawl by the forth round of focus pads, I got through that part of my circuit and still managed to hit with some “umph”  as we worked on right-left hook-right and left-right-left hook combinations.

The great thing about getting to Gleason’s yesterday in “limp” mode was feeling the energy of everyone else’s work.  It is the true contagion of the gym and when one is feeling less than stellar getting there anyway is one way of pushing oneself to get over whatever ails — not to urge anyone to go to the gym with a 103 degree fever or anything that overwhelming, but when it’s fairly minor stuff, call it the “walking wounded” feeling, working out, even a truly modified one can help put a little extra something in your step on the way out the door.  In my case, all that sweat and effort helped ease the throbbing, and by the time I got home, my headache was pretty much gone.

One more thing, if your aren’t feeling all that well during your gym time, the double-ended bag can be a nice way of easing into your workout.  It is my preferred warm-up method after some gentle shadow boxing because it is a whole body work-out that can be paced.

And the winner is: Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton

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And the winner is:  Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton

Ana "The Hurricane" Julaton

Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton retained her WBO Super Bantamweight title last night in a main event extravaganza against challenger Franchesca “The Chosen One” Alcanter at the Craneway Pavilion in Riverside, California.  Broadcast live over Philippine television, the Filapina-American boxing superstar has captivated her home country at a time when Philippine boxing seems at an all time high after the “punch” delivered by Nonito Donaire in last weekend’s bout against Fernando Montiel.

With the exception perhaps of rounds 6 and 7, Julaton dominated the fight with her left jab and left-right-left combinations and managed to fend off Alcanter’s 10th round wake-up call to take the unanimous decision 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94.  Julaton improvee her record to 8-2-1, 1-KO, and as reported in the Bleacher Report may well look to stage her next title defense in the Philippines.

Reminder: Julaton v. Alcanter fight 2night!

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Reminder:   Julaton v. Alcanter fight 2night

The much anticipated Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton versus Franchesca “The Chosen One” Alcanter Women’s WBO Super Bantamweight title fight is this evening in Riverside, California. A streaming version of the fight is available on “The Hurricane Returns.tv“.  The fee is $9.95 to receive the streaming video feed live.

Bad Girls Boxing

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Bad Girls Boxing

Bad Girls Boxing

 

I came across a couple of videos for a group called Bad Girls Boxing out in Indio, California.  Bad Girls Boxing opened its doors 15 years ago as boxing club for young women from 8 – 35 and uses boxing as a vehicle for teaching empowerment while developing basic and advanced skills. In addition to individual and group training classes, the organization sponsors women’s boxing training camps with the likes of Laila Ali as a coach and mentor at those events. For more information about Bad Girls Boxing click here. You can also “like” them on Facebook here.

 

Cardio, cardio, cardio

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Cardio, cardio, cardio

I had my annual physical yesterday.  All looks good so far, though my doctor recommended upping my cardio.  It got me thinking how I would fit that in when I’m already at my max on time — not to mention the fact that I box on Saturdays which is about the best cardio I know!

Then it occurred to me that I wasn’t being consigned to an hour on a treadmill or the nordic trak.  I’m free to be as creative as I can while accomplishing the benefits in short spurts like climbing stairs in lieu of elevators (where possible), taking a faster pace when I walk and throwing in a few rounds of shadow boxing using my handy iPhone timer app whenever I can!  Dancing to three butt-buster songs from YouTube can also do the trick!  Or as my husband suggested going back to the idea of an evening “constitutional.”

The point is — once you reach a certain age you are pronounced an official medical grown-up which means it’s all about prevention!  And while strength is important for healthy bones, stretching for flexibility and stress reduction, the aerobics are necessary to keep your heart healthy.

Your moment, your time.

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Your moment, your time.

This is as good an early morning as any to admit that getting up before dawn to breathe deeply as I contort myself into poses my body has no way of holding is just plain silly.  Okay, well maybe not silly, but given that my eyes are at half mast and I’m drifting as I write there is the question as to whether I am hitting diminishing returns here.  Yes, I got the junk out of my bones as I stretched and released — with the added benefit of giving the cat a place to scratch as I attempted the right hand on my outstretched left foot pose (that’s the donuty looking one — great on the tape, ridiculous on me!).

The gripes aside — it being Wednesday after all when these sorts of doubts hit my consciousness — I got to thinking that it is still my little bit of quiet including all this baby-bitching. Yep, let’s face it, sometimes we need some time to complain. We need that arrrghhh growl. That “damn-it nobody changed the toilet paper” grumble. Or my favorite, the loud as I can be empty out the kitchen sink plate slamming session where the object is to make as much noise as possible with nary a scratch to any of the pots, pans, dishes or cutlery. Where I draw the line is with the mucked up sponge which in my world just gets tossed out with a few under the breath curses to the moron who left it there to soak in the overnight potpourri of bacteria languishing in their special stew.

The point is the moments that are yours don’t always have to be pretty. Let’s face it, why else would you want to hit things?  Punching a heavy bag does have its attractions after all. As does beating down a huge mound of clay, digging in the dirt to plant bulbs or running till your heart feels as if it is going to burst. And that’s okay. Release is not always a slowly modulated intake and outtake of breath kind of thing. Sometimes its messy and full of rage, and sometimes its plain old complaint city when for the 116th time in a week you plead, cajole and beg one of your loved ones to pahleasssseee open the hamper lid before stacking their dirty laundry.

Women in the ring and Week Six Golden Gloves Reminder

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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 – 2/20/21

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Women’s Boxing News Roundup – 2/20/11

Women’s IBF Bantamweight Championship

Suzie Q Ramadan, Women's IBF Bantamweight Champion, Photo: Alex Coppel, Herald Sun

Australia’s Susie Q Ramadan (20-0,KO-8) scored a decisive runaway victory last night to win the Women’s IBF Bantamweight Championship over America’s Terri Lynn Cruz (17-7-2, KO-8).  In commanding fashion, Ramadan scored 99-91 on all three judges scorecards as she routed Cruz in the fight on her home turf venue, the Reggio Calibria Club in Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.  Well publicized in her native Australia, Ramadan hopes to crack the American and European fight markets as well as to continue to bring honor to the sport of boxing for Australia. Article links here and here.

Laila Ali tapped as President of the Women’s Sports Foundation

Laila Ali, radiant in red and expecting her 2nd child in April, Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Former women’s boxing champion Laila Ali a board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation since 2007 has been chosen as the organization’s incoming President.  As quoted in a press release issued by the Women’s Sports Foundation, Ali said, “I’m thrilled to serve as president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, and help girls and women from all walks of life understand the important role of sports and getting active.”  Ali will also become a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation Board of Trustees during her two-year term as President of the foundation.  For more information about this important organization, click here.

Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton training with Freddie Roach!

Ana "The Hurricane" Julaton

Score another Philippine boxing champion for Freddie Roach’s corner as Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton (7-2-1) begins training with Freddie for her February 25th fight against Franchesca ”The Chosen One” Alcanter (18-9-1) in a fight night spectacle at Craneway Pavillion in Riverside, California.  Julaton who is the WBO & IBF Super Bantamweight champion had also recently indicated that she would drop her professional status to compete in the 2012 Olympics on the Philippine national team.  Meanwhile, her upcoming fight will be televised live on TV5, a singular honor for women’s boxing.

Girls to women, keeping it real

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Girls to women, keeping it real

Cassy Herkelman, Iowa High School wrestler

Joel Northrup, a talented young high school male wrestler forfeited his match in Iowa’s state championship tournament rather than face his female opponent, Cassy Herkelman, one of two young women who met the qualification criteria to participate in the tournament, the first young women to do so in the state’s history.  In a written statement quoted in an article from Bloomberg.com, Northrup noted that “as a matter of conscience and my faith, I do not believe it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner,” further stating, “It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.”   A more in depth account in the Des Moines Register notes that Northrup who fights for Linn-Mar High School had declined to fight Herkelman in a match on January 13, 2011, however, given that it was not a state tournament, the team put in a substitute to fight Herkelman.  Articles can be found here and here.

All right, so much for the facts, that include statements from the Herkelman’s father  saying that it “takes a lot of guts,” to follow religious convictions.  From where I sit, admittedly comfortably ensconced in my Brooklyn, NY living room — the entire episode is an outrage.

What, the first young woman to qualify in a state championship tournament gets the win ’cause her opponent thinks “combat” with a girl is inappropriate!  Yes, Cassy, you get the win, the first win for a “girl,” but  there’s also the tiny asterisk forever associated with that honor — won by forfeit.

Where are we living???  What year is this???  I’m sorry but as mother and the mother of A GIRL, I find this beyond the pale.  Forfeit??? I don’t care how talented Joel Northrup is or the depth of his convictions, the sport of high school wrestling in the state of Iowa is open to qualified boys AND girls and if that is too much for him, he SHOULDN’T PARTICIPATE at all.  That his coaches and his school continue to enable this behavior because he’s got some talent in the ring is no less outrageous.    What’s the message to the young women in that school and in the community at large — oh, it’s okay to dis’ girls in the name of some “holier than thou” convictions about a women’s place in the world?

Any if you read the news and the blogs on this story (just google the story under “google news”) the contortions to be all PC are funny if it weren’t really, really sad.  And let me repeat this is sad, a very sad statement on where we are when a young woman who has trained her heart out and fought hard to earn her place at the state level has to stand alone in the ring to the cheers and jeers of a crowd because her opponent can’t face her.  Give me a break.