The Sweeter Science: A Look at Women's Boxing

By Thomas Gerbasi

Award-winning boxing writer Thomas Gerbasi takes a look at the often unappreciated sport of women's boxing with this collection of stories featuring profiles of Christy Martin, Laila Ali, Lucia Rijker, Mia St. John, and Holly Holm, along with in-depth features on some of the most compelling athletes you may have never heard of. For fans of boxing and women's sports, this is an inside look into the sweeter science practiced by the ladies of the fight game.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Gerbasi
• Release date: Mar 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301604289

Thomas Gerbasi

Currently the Senior Editor for BoxingScene.com and Editorial Director for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Thomas Gerbasi has covered combat sports for various publications for over a decade. An award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, his work has also appeared in TheDailyBeast.com, Rolling Stone Australia, The Independent, YahooSports.com, ESPN.com, MSNCanada, Inked, and KING magazine. His amateur boxing record was 0-1.

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It’s open season on Christy Martin. The West Virginia native has fought 44 times in her long career, and yet the hardest shots she has taken have come from outside the ropes. It’s like any other thing, said Martin. You get built up and then they bring you down.

It wasn’t always like this for Martin, 32. At the beginning, because it was a new thing, it was a novelty, said Martin as she prepared for her next bout, a ten rounder with Sabrina Hall on the December 2 Trinidad-Vargas undercard. The big fight, of course, was the (Deidre) Gogarty fight under Tyson-Bruno. It was all bloody, and an action-packed fight, and everybody was great to me. The media was great; they jumped on the bandwagon, and were very supportive. Then it’s really strange how I get the blame for fights that aren’t made. When I’m begging for those fights to be made, but I’m ducking them. And I don’t know why it’s that way, because that’s not the case. I think the media’s turned on me. It’s not my fault that I haven’t fought the best fights. I want to fight the best fights but I’m just the fighter. If the promoter doesn’t put them together, my hands are tied.

Her promoter, Don King, has done nothing short of a brilliant job in bringing Martin and women’s boxing to the masses. Placing Martin on the undercards of Mike Tyson pay-per-view bouts gave her exposure that no other female fighter had received up to that point. And many fighters resent her for it. Personally, (husband and manager) Jim banned me from the women’s web pages on the Internet, laughed ‘The Coal Miner’s Daughter’. He just tells me that if you’re not reading your name, then where are you? They’re going to say those things about you because you’re at the top, and they all want to be where you are. They’re going to say and do all whatever they have to to try and take that spot.

And up until recently, Martin WAS women’s boxing. But now the Mia St.Johns and Laila Alis hog the headlines. Is Christy be thinking of packing it in? It’s tough, she explained. Since I was 21 years old, I kept saying, ‘this year’s going to be the last year.’ And of course, here I am, 32 and still going at it. We’re trying not to put a definite time clock on it, but Jim and I both agree that we’re nearing the end. Obviously there are some fights we’d like to have before the end. My contract with Don runs through next December and it would be nice just to finish it up about that time.

If she quit today, Christy Martin would be thought of as a women’s boxing pioneer (a moniker she’s never wanted), but an asterisk would also be found by her name because she never faced her fiercest rival in the ring. This rival’s name? Lucia Rijker.

Last March, while Martin held an open workout in Los Angeles to promote her bout with Puerto Rico’s Belinda Laracuente, an altercation between Martin and Rijker turned into an all-out brawl. Reports of the brawl vary, but objective observers have informed me that a Rijker left hook did not produce as much as a flinch from Martin. I have no idea what that woman is up to, Martin said, discussing the incident. It showed a lack of class to walk up to someone at their open workout when they’re not even looking, and sucker punch them. Come on, how much lower can you go?

She continues, The truth of the matter is we got into it, we went to the ground and then we got into it a second time and one of my guys swears up and down that I dropped her with a jab. Look, it was so crazy, I was so mad, I couldn’t tell you what happened. She hit me with a right hand-left hook, boom, and I just turned around. ‘Okay, now let’s go, let’s see what happens.’ So, of course I’m not worried about fighting her. She hit me bare fisted with me not looking. She had her plan. Next time, when we’re in the ring I’m gonna know she’s coming, and we’re gonna both be ready to fight. I’m not worried about it, I want the fight. I’ve asked Don for two years to please get me this fight.

But will it happen? Is it a money issue? I can’t even say. It has to be, said Martin. I know that I’m pushing hard for it on my side, but I think Don looks at it like Lucia hasn’t fought in over a year. How can she sit on her side of the table and demand anything? She’s not in the public eye. I was having breakfast the other day, and one guy came up to me and said ‘Christy, when are you going to fight Laila Ali?’ Then I get ‘When are you going to fight Mia St. John?’ No one ever asks me, unless I’m doing a boxing interview, ‘When are you going to fight Lucia Rijker?’ And we’re talking about the public, we want people who are going to buy pay-per-views. That’s how you make the money. She needs to get out there and fight.

For the sake of the survival of women’s boxing, a Martin-Rijker fight may need to be made. It is actually a legitimate matchup, not a circus act along the lines of Laila Ali-Jacqui Frazier. So all personality conflicts aside, what does Martin think of Rijker as a fighter? I think she’s very technically sound. I don’t think she has great handspeed and I would not classify her as a strong boxer. I would definitely not classify her as a slugger type. She’s a good fighter. Do I think she’s a great fighter? No. Do I see her hit people with one punch and them go? No.

Martin does have one punch power in her left hook, and one of the first things that attracted boxing fans to her was the fact that she threw her hook like a man. And she didn’t learn it taking AeroBox or Tae-Bo classes. She learned it in the gyms, real gyms, and by fighting, first in Toughwoman competitions and then on the club circuit. In other words, she came up hard to gain a boxing education. My whole thing has always been this: I came into boxing, a man’s world, said Martin. I don’t mind living in a man’s world. I wanted to fit in. I feel like I paid my dues. I fought for free, I sold tickets, fought for fifty dollars a round. They’re all the things that up and coming male fighters have to do. And now, women who have fought maybe two fights, they want to demand to Don King to be paid 20, 30, maybe even 50 thousand dollars to fight me. That’s ridiculous. In my opinion, they haven’t paid their dues to get that opportunity. Kathy Collins falls into that category. I know that she’s demanded so much money. Now I think she’s changed her tune and that this fight might possibly happen. At one point she was asking for over one hundred thousand dollars. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

So the other female fighters are demanding too much money, and Martin does have a fair argument about the lack of dues paying at the women’s level. But what about that famous Martin temper? I feel that I get a bad rap, she explained. Like at the press conferences and things like that, I had to try to sell it. If they want to say a few things about me, then I have to come back hard. I have to do what I have to do. And Don even pushes me to do that. You know Don, he wants you to sell it.

And sell it she has. Unfortunately, while selling fights, to many she has become the Mike Tyson of women’s boxing, a villain. But one man would say otherwise, husband, manager, and trainer Jim. But as Tom Hanks said There’s no crying in baseball, boxing fans say, There’s no love stories in boxing.

Or are there? This business can’t be easy on a relationship, can it? It’s coming up on ten years now, and we’re getting better at it, said Christy. In the beginning it was tough because we got together through boxing. It was tough to separate boxing and home. But now we do a great job at it. I put my two cents in and he takes it or leaves it. And it doesn’t matter to me really, I throw it out there and if he takes it, fine, and if he doesn’t, then at least I said what I thought, and he’ll go on and make the best decision. But he’s done a marvelous job. He negotiates all the deals with Don and I have a great contract, I can’t complain. He has done a great job with my career.

And when it’s all said in done, the best part of boxing for Christy isn’t the knockout or when the check clears. The best part is after the victory to have Jim there in the corner. And when we win, we win together and that’s the best part. After every fight I usually jump in his arms, he lifts me up, and it’s like we did it, we did it one more time.

On December 2, Christy Martin will look to do it one more time. And while her boxing journey may be nearing its end, she still has the same fire which made her boxing’s darling in 1995. I’ve been very fortunate, said Martin. I get up for every fight because every fight is a big fight for me. If I stumble a little, it’s going to be a huge setback."

The Coal Miner’s Daughter Looks to Strike Gold Again

August 2003

It’s been said that tough times make even tougher fighters. Christy Martin would probably agree with that statement, having taken the road less traveled to her pay-per-view bout with Laila Ali on August 23.

In fact, when Ali was just 11 years old, Martin was fighting it out in towns like Bristol, Durham, Ashville, and Punta Gorda, and doing it for little, if any, pay. These were the days before female fighters were the norm on most cards, before a quality amateur program was instituted, and before the mainstream was ready to accept women punching each other for the sake of sport.

There were some tough times, remembers Martin (45-2-2, 30 KOs). I would change in janitor’s closets. I changed once in this little room that had a couple inches of water standing in it, so I was bouncing from chair to chair. It was a situation when there was totally nothing going your way, but when you get out there to fight you have to put on the greatest show because every second of every round you have to throw punches and be entertaining so you can convince the promoter to bring you back.

They kept bringing her back, and as the wins and knockouts piled up, the girl with the pink trunks and hellacious left hook became more popular than the men that headlined over her. That type of appeal was not lost on Don King, who signed Martin up and made here a fixture on his pay-per-view cards, where she became a star.

I had the world’s greatest promoter in Don King, and I have the greatest trainer in my husband (Jim), says Martin. Don gave me wonderful opportunities. He put me on all those huge pay-per-views with (Mike) Tyson, (Felix) Trinidad, and (Evander) Holyfield. I was on all the major cards. And Jim just had me ready. He had me ready to do business whenever I went in there. And I fought everyone they put in front of me. There were several people that they really thought would knock me off, and it didn’t happen. I was able to stay in there. It shocked a lot of people.

It was never easy though, and there were always critics. Unfortunately for her opponents, it was that type of skepticism that fueled The Coal Miner’s Daughter, and that is firing her up for her bout with Ali.

I’m the kind of person that if you tell me that I can’t do something, then I’ll tell you that I can, says Martin. And that even goes for this fight. A lot of people are saying I can’t deal with that size or that speed. All right, keep telling me that; that’s fine. It’s just going to make me work that much harder.

But can the 35-year-old Martin (whose recent performances have been spotty) turn back the clock against the 25-year-old Ali, whose skills have grown in leaps and bounds since her 1999 debut, and who will hold substantial height and weight advantages over Martin come fight night?

I’m always giving up height, says Martin. So the height isn’t going to be a big deal. I’m not sure how much the weight is going to be a big deal. It may work against her as we get into the later rounds. Maybe she’ll get tired being the heavier fighter. I know she tries to be really busy, so that may work against her.

What may also work against Ali is that she’s a heavy favorite who is expected to dispatch of her older and smaller foe with ease.

In this particular fight, I have no pressure, admits Martin. That’s why I think in the past a lot of people have fought really great against me because they came in in a win-win situation. I’m a 2 ½ to 1 underdog for the first time in my career. I think that alone is going to have me more relaxed and having a little more fun.

With the Ali fight, and to a lesser extent her decision victory over Mia St. John last December, Martin is on a farewell tour of sorts, lining up the big money fights before she rides off into the sunset, secure in her place in the development of women’s boxing (truth be told though, Martin still hasn’t been paid for the St. John bout).

That doesn’t mean she’s gotten the respect she deserves from her peers or female boxing enthusiasts. It’s been the male fighters and male fans who have rallied to Martin’s defense, while the West Virginia native’s reluctance to wave the flag for her fellow fighters has led to some resentment from the fairer sex.

When I came into boxing 14 years ago, I just wanted to fit in, says Martin. I didn’t want to make waves, I didn’t want any special treatment. I just wanted to come in and prove that, hey, I’m a woman and I can fight. I think that upset a lot of women. They wanted me to put them on my shoulders and carry them through, but I couldn’t do that because we didn’t all have the same understanding of the sport or the business. I think that’s why they were upset with me. Plus no one wants to see someone on top for too long. And the truth is, I’ve been up there a long time. I’ve had a pretty long run for my 15 minutes of fame.

And even though Martin isn’t ready to abdicate her crown as the queen of women’s boxing, she does feel that after her fight with Ali, the kingdom she presides over is pretty shaky. Her success may even hold a lion’s share of the blame.

For me personally, I paid my dues like the guys coming up, says Martin. I fought for free, I sold tickets to fight, and I fought on little club shows in Nowhere, USA. Some of the women after I had the 96 fight with (Deirdre) Gogarty, they thought that was my first fight. They didn’t realize that I had almost 30 fights at that point. So then for a couple of years it was like a big boom, all the promoters were using women fighters and then they started to out price themselves. They don’t understand the sport. I think there was a high in 96-97, but I think women’s boxing is in a decline right now. And I believe that after this fight happens, other than a rematch, I really can’t think of another good fight. Women’s boxing is definitely in a major decline.

One big fight that may have lost its luster after a number of starts, stops, and failed negotiations is a fight between Martin and unbeaten Lucia Rijker, though this good old-fashioned grudge match still may be the best matchup for casual fans of the sport.

I hope I get to fight Lucia before it’s all said and done, says Martin. A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘why would you fight Lucia after she’s terrorized and stalked you?’ Why let her make a payday after all the hassle that she’s caused me. She sent me into the fight with Belinda Laracuente with a broken finger on each hand. I shouldn’t give her a fight; she doesn’t deserve it. But the athlete in me says I gotta do it.

The athlete in Martin has also led her to Ali, who is young, strong, fast and who wants to put an end to Martin’s run at the top. In family tradition, Ali is looking to make The Coal Miner’s Daughter her Sonny Liston. This has led to some serious bad blood, and this was never more evident than at the press conference announcing the bout, where the two tangled in a short melee that made the rounds on SportsCenter throughout the following week.

It was definitely real, says Martin when asked if the brawl was real or staged. I have a baggie full of my hair on my mantle at home. I’m going to give it to them since they wanted it so bad. They pulled my hair, both her and her husband. You just have to show me some respect. I’ve been in this business way too long, I’ve done too much and accomplished too many things to be disrespected at this point in my career. I do deserve respect and neither her or her husband want to give it to me. That just gives me more fire and fury for the 23rd.

It’s a comfortable place to be for Martin, who enters this fight with no expectations other than giving her customary 100 percent. And if she wins, she has shocked a boxing world that considers her far removed from her best days.

When we take care of Laila, I think that puts a big stamp on my career, she says. There are a couple of more fights I’d like to have. I’d like to get to 50 wins and call it a day.

And when it’s over, for all the acclaim, the knockouts, the Sports Illustrated cover, and the pay-per-view appearances, her boxing highlight is one that would make the old-timers smile.

Number one was being the Grand Marshall for the Boxing Hall of Fame weekend in 96, she says. Jake LaMotta was there, Archie Moore. Archie Moore actually was in the gym with me that year and he held the heavy bag for me. How many fighters, male or female, young or old, could say something like that? Carmen Basilio, Gene Fullmer – to meet these guys and to know them now on a personal basis is really something that is very special for me.

Could she see herself with a plaque in Canastota?

"I guess every fighter has a dream about that, but