Empowerment Through Boxing
Believe it or not, I got into boxing because of a college course in 2014. The communications course was all about creativity and, while most people decided to paint, learn an instrument, create videos, etc., I decided I wanted to try boxing. After persuading my professor this could count as a creative process (especially since Suzy what's-her-name was doing choreography for a dance routine), I decided I would go to the boxing classes at my gym and ask to be trained like a competing fighter.
Sunday Morning Mass
That Sunday, bright and early, I got up and put on the toughest-looking gym clothes I could find and drove myself to Boston Sports Club (BSC) to join the class. I was nervous as heck and got there early so I could talk to the coach and let him know that I was new and wanted to be trained like a serious competitor. He smiled and immediately taught me the basics: stance, hand wrapping, breathing techniques, body movements – you name it.
Lenny (a.k.a. Old Spice) is still my coach to this day and we box nearly every Sunday (weather-permitting). We’re no longer at BSC, but we still meet in a parking lot with a group of female boxers. He even gave me my own boxing name: Kobra, because I hit hard and fast like a snake bite and am beautiful but deadly (his words, not mine). But after training for a few months with Lenny, he wanted to teach me how to coach and help him assist with mitts and speed bag training (speed bag is my favorite). And so began my life as a boxer, coach, and lover of the sport.
Boxing Benefits
I have gained so much from boxing, aside from the best workouts of my life, I felt strong, empowered, and supported by Lenny and a community of amazing women (not unlike the WOTC LN) who enjoyed it just as much as me. I’ve met some of my best friends at boxing too, they became coworkers, roommates, confidants, and so much more.
One of the friends I made was Stephanie Ballesteros. She was this beautiful, strong, personal trainer at BSC and, honestly, I was very intimidated. However, after our first-time boxing together with Lenny, I knew we would become fast friends.
I still remember the first time we went to Golden Gloves and fangirled at all the powerful pugilists in the ring. Little humble brag here: but it was also the first time I met Micky Ward (the boxer who the film, The Fighter, was made about), we would later run into him at many a boxing event and trained with him at Box2Burn in Westford, MA (he told me I hit hard, and I will NEVER forget it).
Women Empowering Women
After years of boxing, Stephanie now has her own gym, In Your Corner Boxing, and her and a group of our female boxing friends started a nonprofit for girls ages 3-16 called GIRL Boxing Club . The free classes are available in both MA and CT and require no experience or equipment. The whole reason we wanted to create GIRL was to empower other young women and help them build their confidence, strength and sense of pride while creating friendships and a supportive community through boxing – just like we have.
The First Lady of Boxing
In honor of today being the last day of March, and March being Women’s History Month, I researched one of the most impactful female boxers in history, Christy Martin, “the first lady of boxing,” and wanted to share some highlights about her exceptional life and boxing career to keep the inspiration going:
1) She started boxing on a dare from friends in college and knocked out her opponent in her first fight
2) Her boxing name was the “the coal miner’s daughter” because she grew up in coal-miner country and was the first female fighter legendary boxing promoter, Don King, met and promoted in 1994
3) Mike Tyson put her on his undercard for the first women’s pay-per-view fight which had 80 million viewers
4) In her first pay-per-view fight, she put women’s boxing on the map and had “the most lucrative bloody nose in the history of boxing”
5) Christy was the first female boxer on the cover of Sports Illustrated
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6) She also fought Laila Ali, daughter of icon Muhammad Ali, who started fighting, not because of her father, but because she saw Christy's first pay-per-view fight?
7) In 2010, Jim stabbed Christy numerous times, fought her, and shot her with her own gun – but Christy still survived! Jim is now in prison for his actions and attack on Christy
8) After that she asked her former cut man, Miguel Diaz, to be her trainer and with a bullet in her back she was already back in the gym
9) In 2011 Chirsty was back in the ring against Dakota Stone, she knocked her down for the first time in her career and fought with a broken hand that took seven hours of surgery to repair
10) Christy later married former ring rival and world champion boxer, Lisa Holewyne, in 2017 and now is the CEO of Christy Martin Promotions, a boxing promotion company, and is the founder of Christy’s Champs, an organization that supports victims of domestic abuse.
Resources
About GIRL Boxing Club
About Christy Martin
About Women of the Channel Leadership Network