Tag Archives: YouTube

Tiara Brown is a boxer

Tiara Brown is a boxer.

Super featherweight Tiara Brown signed with DiBella Entertainment on May 21, 2018.

Since she first put on the gloves at the age of 13, there isn’t a day that has gone by when she hasn’t thought about the sport of boxing. Now, at the age of 29 and after nearly 17 years in the sport, the former amateur USA Boxing National Champion and AIBA World Champion has a 4-0 professional record with two KOs. She is also on the cusp of making another leap forward in her boxing career.

Today, that next level will begin with the announcement that she has signed with DiBella Entertainment, joining such female boxing stars as Heather Hardy, Raquel Miller, Alicia Napoleon, Amanda Serrano, and Shelito Vincent.

Lou DiBella made the announcement on Twitter today.

A police officer with the Washington DC police force where she works in community policing, Brown also has new representation with Preeminent PR and has begun training with DC-based trainer Buddy Harrison to complete her transformation from an elite amateur fighter to that of a fearsome professional.

As she works with her new team, her first challenge will be her upcoming main event performance in a six-round battle against boxer Carla Torres (5-5 1-KO). Not only is Brown going up in weight from featherweight where Boxrec ranks her 6th in the USA, but in fighting Torres, she will be stepping up her competition to that of a boxer who has fought such fighters as Ronica Jeffrey, Olivia Geruda, and Amanda Serrano.

Brown is well aware of the challenges and as she works with her trainer on making adjustments to her fighting style to include the basics of old school fundamentals and learning how to read her opponent in the ring, she says, “I am here and I deserve to be here.”

And in stepping up in weight to super featherweight, she is also beginning an ascent that will eventuate in challenging fighters at lightweight.

More than anything, Brown is clear that a year from now she wants to say, “I am a 7-0 fighter with a title belt.”

Anxious to make a statement in boxing, she looks to such female boxers as Ann Wolfe, Katie Taylor, and her former USA Boxing teammate Raquel Miller for inspiration.  From Ann Wolfe, she is learning how to place her punches with precision and explosive power and from Katie Taylor, she is emulating her ability to use combinations and angles to cut off an opponent’s ability to answer back.  And from Raquel Miller, a true sister of the ring, she derives strength from watching Miller’s poise, balance, and strength.

When she isn’t fulfilling her duties as a police officer or her many extracurricular activities mentoring teens, Brown is in the gym, working alone or with a trainer. Back at home, she watches fights on YouTube or wherever she can find them, whether it’s figuring out how to adapt Lomachenko’s mastery of angles and footwork, or checking in on the competition as she looks to climb her way up to winning championship belts.

As she says, “I am a fighter,” and given her talent, her drive, and her spirit, she will meet the challenges ahead with fortitude and perseverance.

Time marches on …

Time marches on …

Mayan Calandar, Credit: Shamangene.com

We are almost at the solstice which this year is also the alleged end of the Mayan 5,125 calendar cycle. To the “end of the worlders” out there this means an apocalypse of one kind of another marked by the end of time on December 21st and the ascendance of a lucky few on alien space ships among other things …

Oy …

Meanwhile back in normal space/time, gym or no, 100 sit-ups or no, writing a chapter or no, there is no pause button that allows us to step out of ourselves to la-di-da around until we’re ready, willing and able to rejoin the day-to-day.

The Traveler and Wesley Crusher, Star Trek TNG

I for one would love just such a Star Trek type of device–or heck, have The Traveler, Tau Alpha C, come teach me how to freeze time the way he instructed Wesley Crusher.

While not quite ready for another oy, the point is, there is no such device. Time moves on anyway.

The beautiful thing about the season we’re in is that we are entering the time of renewal. Come the solstice our days will grow longer again, and even though we haven’t felt winter’s wrath as yet in any appreciable way, those February snowstorms happen in the light of day. Okay, sure, the cynic might say, “great, just what I need more daylight to shovel out my car from a snow drift,” but heck, why not, Spring will come, eventually.

There’s also the joy of YouTube to keep alive so many of our memories as timeless interludes … or time-wasters perhaps when we are enjoying our past and not making our future?

Hard to say, but since, I am lately a charter member of the procrastinater’s club, I’ve got to err on the side of excellent device for mimicking the pause button even as the calendar marks down the days as painfully as a Chinese water torture … you know, the one that goes drip, drip, drip.

Meanwhile, Ravi Shankar died yesterday. He is another icon of my childhood that my very young, bohemian mother played on our Victrola ad infinitum along side of her Dave Brubeck and John Coltrane albums in the early 1960’s.

It puts me in mind that whatever our magical thinking time doesn’t stop. We move forward whether we’ve made our deadlines or not.  The trick is to get everything done without causing too much damage along the way!

 

Great Women’s Boxing: Ann Saccurato v. Erica Farias, WBC Lightweight Title Fight, 8/6/11

Great Women’s Boxing:  Ann Saccurato v. Erica Farias, WBC Lightweight Title fight from 8/6/11

First off, thank you Argentinian television for broadcasting Women’s Boxing — and for actually believing in the brilliance of the sport!

That confidence paid off in a great show of boxing at the Estadio Socios Fundadores, Comodoro Rivadavia in Chubut, Argentina.  And if you listen to the crowd, you’ll hear a boxing mad group of fans out in force to cheer on some fabulous boxing.

The American fighter Ann Marie Saccurato (15-6-2, 6-KO) from White Plains, NY defended her WBC Lightweight Title against Argentinian challenger Erica Farias (11-0, 6-KO) and lost the bout after the fight was stopped in the 8th round due to an accidental headbutt in the 7th.  To say she was disappointed was the understatement of the night, yet she fought admirably and hopefully will have the opportunity for a well deserved rematch.

The judges scored the bout  79-71, 78-73 and 78-72 in favor of Farias after the stoppage.

Both women were highly skilled and in great condition, though Faias had the edge through out with her lethal left hooks and brilliant combinations, not that Saccurato was by any means out of the fight, she fought tough and hard and working to tie Farias up.  Truly women’s boxing at its best.

The complete fight has been uploaded to YouTube (plus commentary in Spanish and post-fight interviews).  Action starts at about 11:00 in, though the entrances are worth watching.