IBF Rejects Ebanie Bridges' Mandatory Exemption Request, Enforces Shannon O'Connell Showdown

To be the best, you have to beat the best.

You would think that this is a pretty simple, cut and dried thought process adopted by a valiant competitor looking to back up their tough talk by testing their mettle and proving his or her worth like any true champion should. Think again.

Anyone with the most fleeting familiarity with the fight game knows all too well that among the many who spout this mantra, some will go to far-flung lengths and personal expense to avoid facing the most credible challenge to their perceived supremacy.

Case in point, Ebanie Bridges. The IBF bantamweight titleholder was informed by the sanctioning body in late July that she was being given no option but to face mandatory challenger ‘Shotgun’ Shannon O’Connell by the end of September. At the end of last week, Bridges filed for an exemption, requesting that she first be permitted to make a voluntary defense against a handpicked opponent. But the IBF has stood its ground and announced late last night that they have formally refused Ebanie’s appeal.

Thankfully for O’Connell, her persistence and sacrifice have paid dividends, and the hugely anticipated all-Aussie IBF bantamweight title showdown with Bridges will happen come hell or highwater.  

Ebanie’s views on the matter have been evasive and shifted perceptibly from day to day, the cagey champion giving contradictory accounts to different news outlets. First, Bridges defiantly stated that Shannon is “a nobody” and that accepting the challenge does nothing for her own career advancement. Then came a complete turnaround, the ‘Blonde Bomber’ saying that she is more than willing to take the fight, when it became quite clear that it was inevitable anyway. Only for Ebanie, and her promoter Eddie Hearn, to reverse course yet again.

“They also said that I said I was happy to wait until March (the IBF’s original deadline for Bridges to make her mandatory defense),” declared O’Connell, “but I said that before they ordered the fight, so that’s just irrelevant.”

With September 6 deemed by the IBF to be the stop point of the negotiation period, if Eddie Hearn and No Limit Boxing’s Matt Rose, who represents Shannon O’Connell, cannot come to terms by day’s end, it goes to a purse bid from there.  

“It’s just hard to know at this point with it all so up in the air,” sighed Shannon. In the meantime, she is training like a woman possessed and rallying behind the fact that there is now more reason than ever to remain optimistic. “I love that things aren’t going to plan for them.”  

Theresa Kibby vs. Lavonne Ludian Las Vegas Rubber Match Was First Nationally Televised Women's Fight

 

Theresa Kibby was looking to turn things around after having her formerly flawless record tarnished twice over by roller derby sensation turned professional pugilist Diane Syverson. After first dueling to a four-round draw with the skating ‘Slugger Queen’ from Canada, Princess Red Star lost a disputed decision in their rematch three weeks later, as the ominous cloud of a death threat hovered over the Olympic Auditorium.

Courtesy of casino owner Milos ‘Sharkey’ Begovich and matchmaker Bill Dickson, the Indigenous trailblazer would receive her opportunity to add another notch to her win column, not to mention a guaranteed $400 purse, by squaring off against first-time boxer Lavonne Ludian during the 1976 Bicentennial weekend. This would be a return trip to Las Vegas’ Silver Slipper for Kibby, having outpointed Gwen Gemini in the Slipper’s upstairs ballroom two weeks prior.

The inside of a casino was hardly unfamiliar territory to Ludian, a resident of Lake Tahoe who was locally renowned on the talk show circuit as a popular cocktail waitress, blackjack dealer, and aspiring prizefighter. “My goal is to get enough money to buy a ranch,” said Lavonne, who performed in rodeos on weekends. She also played coy when asked about her age. “Jack Benny was 39 for years,” she quipped. “Why can’t I be 29?”

Ludian had run a scouting mission at the Silver Slipper by sitting ringside for Princess Red Star’s win over Gwen Gemini, formulating a game plan to fight Kibby in close and be relentless with her offense. With a two-inch height advantage, it may have better suited Ludian to stick and move from the outside so as to not smother her punches.

“That gal was tough. She had a hard right hand and she kept coming,” conceded Princess Red Star’s adopted father, manager, and trainer Dave Kibby Sr. “But Theresa outboxed her. I felt beforehand that anyone of that caliber could be outpunched and outboxed.”

His estimation proved to be right on the money, and Theresa pounded out a relatively easy unanimous decision victory over four rounds. “We thought they’d stop it in a TKO in the fourth but the bell saved her,” concluded Dave Sr. “The referee stopped the fight three times to check Ludian’s condition.”

Even Ludian put up no post-fight resistance to the validity of Kibby’s command over her. “Theresa, I never knew you could move so good and hit so hard so many times,” she later offered in a congratulatory locker room meeting.

Lavonne went back to serving drinks and slinging cards, but was in no way deterred from further pursuing the fight racket. Walking to the ring in a hooded robe the same color as her ring moniker ‘Snow White,’ Ludian rattled off a multi-fight unbeaten streak in the aftermath of her debut loss to Princess Red Star.

An injury to her index finger prevented Lavonne from throwing her right hand while training under the tutelage of former bantamweight Mario ‘Mo’ Macias, which serendipitously resulted in the development of a left jab that would literally turn heads. “I think the jab is going to win for me every time,” surmised Ludian. “Most of the women fight like girls with a big round hook. I hope to counteract it by fighting like a man.”

By contrast, though, Ludian admitted that “it’s important for a woman to look nice in the ring, even though we’re fighting in a man’s world. We have to retain some femininity.” Sportswriter Steve Sneddon of the Reno-Gazette Journal, for one, seemed smitten by Lavonne’s “Miss America smile” and the fact that she “answers question like Bert Parks was quizzing her.”

Seven months after their first encounter, ‘Snow White’ would once again cross paths with Princess Red Star at the Silver Slipper. For Theresa Kibby, it would mark her first time entering the ring without her father Dave Sr. by her side. The beloved Kibby elder died suddenly and unexpectedly at a Crescent City hospital on February 9, 1977. Fortunately, Theresa’s brother Roger Buckskin was available to step in and work her corner.    

A sellout crowd of 800 fight fans crammed shoulder to shoulder inside the Silver Slipper ballroom on March 9 and were treated to a bell to bell brawl. Ludian used her left jab to great effect in the first round to jump out to an early lead, but a buoyed Kibby bloodied Lavonne’s nose in the next frame, and was believed by ringside spectators and unofficial scorers to have established and maintained control throughout the rest of the bout. To the surprise of pretty much every eyewitness, the judges declared the fight even after four rounds and their dubious verdict was booed lustily by those in attendance.   

“I had a feeling it would be like that,” wept a melancholy Princess Red Star. Her brother Roger, equally devastated by the decision, resigned himself to the unfortunate fact that, “You can’t beat a hometown girl in her hometown.” To add to her wounded pride, Kibby took home a mere $400 while Ludian was guaranteed a $750 purse plus a percentage of the gate, netting her a $1,300 payday.

All was not lost for the Kibby and Buckskin clans that evening. Darlene Buckskin improved to 2-0 by virtue of a four-round decision in the show’s curtain raiser over San Pedro’s ‘Baby’ Jane O’Brien. Additionally, while Theresa was still brooding in the locker room after the fight, she was offered a return bout against Ludian to take place on April 16 at the Aladdin Hotel.

The fight would pay both Kibby and Ludian $2,500 and be broadcast across the country live on a major television network, a historic first for women’s boxing. This overture, however, came with strings attached. Strings which would essentially tether Princess Red Star like a marionette to Top Rank’s puppet master, Bob Arum.

Dated March 16, 1977, Arum’s official letter to Princess Red Star spelled out the terms of a proposed three-fight contract worth a total of $15,000 ($4,000 for the first bout, $5,000 for the second, and $6,000 for the third) to go into effect following the grudge match against Ludian at the Aladdin. For one additional year extending past this agreement, Arum would retain the right to first refusal for promoting her fights during this time frame, as well as being the sole beneficiary to exclusive radio and television deals. Top Rank agreed to pay expenses covering round trip transportation, hotel accommodations, and meals, and would determine the venue and date of Theresa’s bouts as well as the opponents, who she would at least get to agree upon.   

Arum offered Sue Fox the same deal as Kibby, assuring both women that, if they signed with Top Rank, they were guaranteed to be paid the $15,000 even if none of the three fights occurred within the stipulated twelve months. Although they weren’t contractually bound to one another, manager Dee Knuckles accompanied Fox to her lunch meeting with Arum, during which Sue wisely refused to “sell my soul,” as she put it, until she could have an attorney review the contract.

A poorly mentored thus underprepared Fox had been TKO’d by Theresa Kibby in her pro boxing debut and fought to a controversial draw with Lavonne Ludian back in March, in which Sue says she knocked ‘Snow White’ around so hard in her own hometown that “she saw the lights of Las Vegas” and was lucky to make it out of the first round. Fox was paid $300 and flown into Nevada on April 16 as a stand-by substitute for either Kibby or Ludian should the need arise. But both Princess Red Star and ‘Snow White’ were present and fit to fight before 1,500 spectators at the Aladdin, not to mention in front of the TV cameras which would transmit this groundbreaking event across the airwaves for that afternoon’s edition of CBS Sports Spectacular.

Dee Knuckles suggested that, since Fox was already on site and prepared for a possible bout anyway, she could lace up and take on Princess Red Star’s sister, Darlene ‘Bluebird’ Buckskin. Because the 175-pound Darlene had a significant weight advantage over the welterweight Fox, they agreed that the fight would be strictly put on as an exhibition.

Even so, Sue recalls going to the weigh-in with silver dollars stuffed into her bra and pockets at Knuckles’ urging to make up some of the difference. All of that being said and done, Fox was astonished when an official verdict was rendered after the final bell of their four-rounder, with Buckskin given the nod by split decision.

Princess Red Star, who admitted she “wasn’t in the peak of condition” and “didn’t move much” in her last bout against Ludian, was far more ring-ready this time around thanks to a solid week of tough sparring sessions in Stockton with her sister Darlene and their brother Roger, as well as Marsha Cruz, that kicked off right after Easter Sunday.

Ludian was never a factor in the fight, with Theresa expertly “bobbing and weaving” and “slipping punches,” according to Sunday’s writeup in the Times Standard out of Eureka, California. With her back to the ropes in the fourth and final round, Ludian caught a hard right hand from Kibby that nearly put her away and undoubtedly solidified the unanimous decision victory for Princess Red Star.

“She was the hometown favorite,” said Kibby, “but in the second or third round they started hollering for me.” The win earned Theresa not only her guaranteed $2,500 purse, but the Nevada State Women’s Welterweight Championship.

Headliner Earnie Shavers tuned up for a September meeting with heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden by dispatching 16-1 Howard Smith in the second round, while Olympic gold medalist Michael Spinks brought his ‘Jinx’ to the big time by making his pro debut with a first-round stoppage of Eddie Benson. Besides getting to pose for photos with Ken Norton and Jerry Quarry after sticking around for the main event, Darlene Buckskin got to make the acquaintance of “The Gambler” himself.

Whether or not he played a few hands of poker in the Aladdin’s casino beforehand, displaying his proficiency at knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, Kenny Rogers had attended the fights. During a recent reunion with Sue Fox, Darlene recalled that the country/western crooner introduced himself to her and expressed his admiration for the skills displayed by the women on the card. He then invited Darlene and her group to his concert that evening where he gave them the VIP treatment—their own private table, free food, an autographed record album, and a special acknowledgment during his performance. 

Not everyone shared Kenny Rogers’ enthusiastic response to the women’s fights, however. Princess Red Star and Sue Fox were informed not long after that the televised bout between Kibby and Ludian had been poorly received by a majority of the press and general public, meaning that the one-year, $15,000 deals Bob Arum had laid on the table for each of them just last month would remain there, unsigned and disregarded.  

After deciding to take a well-deserved rest for the remainder of April, Princess Red Star had a May 4 fight lined up by promoter Bill Dixon. Ultimately, though, her win over Lavonne Ludian at the Aladdin would prove to be the final time Kibby would compete in the prize ring.

Ludian boxed for another four years, but never again had her arm raised. She hung up the gloves in 1981 after falling victim to a technical knockout at the hands of Cat Davis, having previously been stopped inside the distance by Dulcie Lucas, Gwen Gemini, Julie Mullen, and Cora Webber. Besides being a blackjack dealer, rodeo rider, and professional prizefighter, Lavonne was also a police officer, physical therapist, scuba diver, skier, and springboard diver. She is alive and well, living in Grass Valley, California.  

Theresa Maxine Kibby-Buckskin sadly passed away in Brookings, Oregon on September 4, 2021 at the age of 68. A mother of three, she was said to be the loudest supporter of her grandchildren whom she loyally cheered on from the sidelines during their soccer scrimmages, basketball games, and track meets.

Princess Red Star spent the last two decades of her life working with the Tolowa Dee Ni Nation, first as a receptionist and eventually as an enrollment specialist. She was remembered fondly as being “warm, strong-hearted, generous, friendly, easy to talk to, stubborn, feisty” and for enlivening countless conversations with “a distinguished sense of humor and laugh that will live on in our memories.”

She and Darlene Buckskin will be honored at a special ceremony during the 2022 International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame inductions in Las Vegas on October 22.

Sources:

Sue Fox. Theresa Kibby vs. Lavonne Ludian in Rematch on National Television (WBAN—accessed at https://www.wbanmember.com/april-16-1976-theresa-kibby-vs-lavonne-ludian-in-rematch-on-national-television/)

Steve Sneddon. Snow White Ludian Fights Like a Man …and Wins (Reno Gazette-Journal, October 6, 1976)

Steve Sneddon. Fight Fans Boo Draw Decision (Reno Gazette-Journal, March 10, 1977)

Don Terbush. Princess Notches 7^th Pro Ring Win (Eureka Times Standard, July 4, 1976)

Don Terbush. Princess Hits Jackpot (Eureka Times Standard, April 24, 1977)

Indian Princess Red Star in Special Event (Mason Valley News, July 2, 1976)

Modesto Gal Loses (Modesto Bee, April 17, 1977)

Obituary for Theresa Maxine Kibby-Buckskin (Redwood Memorial Chapel—accessed at https://www.redwoodmemorial.net/obituaries/Theresa-Maxine-Kibby-Buckskin?obId=22364376#/obituaryInfo) 

Woman to Box on TV (Modesto Bee, April 16, 1977)

Part I: Sue TL Fox Travels to Crescent City, CA to Meet Up with Pioneer Boxer Darlene Buckskin (YouTube, July 16, 2022—accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoxBZogUjaE)

Ramla Ali Smashes Down Barriers As Well As Crystal Garcia Nova in Saudi Arabia's First Ever Women's Boxing Match

 

“Being the first in anything is quite scary because no one’s done it before,” Ramla Ali confessed in the lead up to her historic involvement in ‘Rage on the Red Sea’ on Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Certainly no stranger to smashing down doors to achieve firsts in the world of boxing, Ali continued, “You can’t think about those things because you don’t know who’s watching you. You don’t who you’re essentially inspiring.”

The Saudi Arabian royal family reached out directly to Ramla about participating on the hugely anticipated Usyk/Joshua 2 undercard in what would be the first ever women’s boxing match to take place in the Saudi Kingdom.

Accepting this offer is consistent with her personal mission statement and admirable moral code. “Keep striving for equality and through change we will continue to inspire our next generation of daughters,” Ali posted on social media in conjunction with the official fight announcement. The proposal itself represents a significant olive branch being offered by a regime which seems to want to walk back by debatable degrees its terrible track record of human rights abuses, particularly concerning women.  

As part of his Vision 2030 initiative to “eradicate the remnants of extremism” within the nation, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman relaxed some of the former restrictions against Saudi women. For example, they are now permitted to operate motor vehicles, obtain passports, and travel abroad. Gender segregation in public places has been largely abolished as well.

However, although Saudi women can now make the pilgrimage to Mecca without a male chaperone, they must do so as part of a coordinated group. Women must still seek permission from a male relative to marry, procure an abortion, undertake a business venture, or depart prison or a domestic abuse shelter. Dress codes continue to be enforced in the more conservative districts.

This has all led critics to denounce what bin Salman calls social reform as little more than smoke and mirrors-type propaganda. While baby steps appear to have been taken in the right direction, some women have bravely spoken out regarding the prohibitions that remain in place against them and paid dearly for it.

Just five days away from fight night in Jeddah, for example, Saudi women’s rights activist Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in prison for what the Kingdom’s Public Prosecution alleged was “providing succor to those seeking to disrupt public order and undermine the safety of the general public and stability of the state, and publishing false and tendentious rumors on Twitter.” First arrested in January 2021 and initially given a six-year sentence, al-Shehab was additionally forbidden from traveling outside Saudi Arabia for another 34 years beyond her prison term, for all intents and purposes making her a lifetime captive of the Saudi Kingdom.

Ramla, a Somali-born Muslim, defended her decision to box in Saudi Arabia by asserting that she believes it is transforming into a “very progressive country” and that she hopes her fight there would keep the momentum moving forward. Alongside Rasha al-Khamis, Saudi Arabia’s first woman to receive certification as a boxing coach, Ali was given the opportunity to lead a Thursday morning training session for women between the ages of 15 and 30 at Jeddah’s Waad Academy.

“It’s been wonderful to spend time with this group of girls today, and I hope they truly believe their ambition is limitless,” Ramla reflected afterward. The barrier-breaking Ali showed up for Friday’s weigh-in symbolically sporting a Jackie Robinson baseball jersey.  

Of course, it was not possible for Ramla Ali to write yet another chapter in boxing’s history books without a co-author. 22-year-old Dominican Crystal Garcia Nova was selected as the sister-in-arms with whom Ramla would skirmish in Jeddah. Coming into Saturday’s bout, Garcia had won ten of her twelve contests, all of those victories occurring inside the distance.

It’s worth noting, though, that none of those knockout victims boasted above .500 winning percentages. Their combined record was 30-107, with one opponent making her pro debut. Garcia was coming off a stoppage loss of her own, to Thailand’s still undefeated Phannarai Netisri on May 29 with the WBF and WIBF world super-bantamweight straps on the line.

With so much to say about the historic significance of the boxing match between Ramla Ali and Crystal Garcia Nova, there is far less to talk about with regard to the fight itself. It was all over in 49 seconds. 

Sitting down on a cracking overhand right that sent Nova stumbling backward and her mouthpiece skittering across the canvas, Ramla followed in hot pursuit and landed a hard left to the body.

Ali was already in the process of uncorking a right hook just behind the liver shot, but the fact that it grazed Nova was strictly academic as she was already descending to the mat where the fallen Dominican took a knee and a ten-count. And that was all she wrote for this chapter in Ramla Ali’s history-making odyssey. 

“It would be nice to get a ten-rounder in next, then fight for a title for sure. Let’s see what the future holds,” Ramla said during her post-fight interview. “My last two fights I’ve been training and competing with a fractured wrist and a fractured toe. So I really need to take some time off now. This was just a massive opportunity I couldn’t say no to, even though I was in a world of pain.”

Sources:

Celine Alkhaldi. Saudi Activist Sentenced to 34 Years in Prison for Twitter Activity (CNN.com, August 17, 2022)

Marco Ferrari. Saudi Female Boxers Take Part in Training Session Led by Ramla Ali (Al Arabiya News, August 18, 2022)

Week Staff. What Women Can and Can’t Do in Saudi Arabia (theweek.co.uk, August 25, 2021)

Theresa 'Princess Red Star' Kibby and Diane Syverson Fought 1976 Rematch at Olympic Auditorium Amid Death Threat

 

For prizefighting ladies of the 1970s, the matches they contested against one another were only half the battle. Before ever stepping foot inside the squared circle, women were first required to make an appeal to obtain a boxing license within the often unwelcoming confines of an athletic commission office or, in some cases, a courtroom.

Having acquired the right to fight, a formidable struggle unto itself, female boxers were routinely subjected to misogynistic scorn and ridicule. Widely regarded as sideshow attractions or novelty acts, women were laughed at, heckled, and made a mockery of for having the audacity to pursue a personal ambition which dared to transcend domestic servitude.

Many men made it crystal clear that they considered the opposite sex good for three things only—cooking, cleaning, and fornicating. Sadly, some still do. For them, there is absolutely no room for boxing on this list, and the majority of 1970s fight fans were all too happy to voice their displeasure at what they considered their exclusive domain being trespassed upon.

Boos and jeers were all but obligatory. Sexist insults? You bet. It appears as though men felt their paid admission entitled them to shout any crazy remark they could desperately conjure. But surely something so seemingly mundane as protesting the presence of females inside a boxing ring never escalated to the point where anyone’s life was potentially in jeopardy, right? Guess again.   

Three days before a return bout between Theresa Kibby and Diane Syverson scheduled for May 27, 1976, a letter declaring malicious intent in the form of bodily harm was delivered to the Olympic Auditorium. Specifically addressed to matchmaker Don Chargin, the death threat extended to promoter Aileen Eaton, as well as Kibby and Syverson.

Postmarked in San Bernardino five days prior, the missive was typewritten and badly misspelled according to information released to the press from the joint investigation being carried out by the Los Angeles police and U.S. Postal Service. Affixed to the envelope were three 6-cent stamps bearing the likeness of Dwight D. Eisenhower which had been out of circulation for several years.    

“If the women boxers aren’t taken off the card, people like you, for putting them on the card, and the women boxers will have to be killed,” reads the most chilling portion of the ultimatum directed towards Eaton, Chargin, Kibby, and Syverson. “This letter is by no means a joke.”

Needless to say, it was not treated as such. But, ultimately, the show would go on.

Fighting was a family affair for then-22-year-old Theresa Kibby. Managed and trained by her adopted father Dave Sr., Theresa was featured on the same bill as her brothers, Dave Jr. and Roger ‘Chief’ Buckskin, on multiple occasions. The three boxing siblings welcomed their sister Darlene ‘Bluebird’ Buckskin into the prizefighting fold in July 1976 when she made her pro debut with a four-round win over fellow novice Marsha Cruz on a show at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds in Crescent City that also saw Dave Jr. outpoint Bonnie Necessario, Roger drop a unanimous decision to Babilah McCarthy, and Theresa come out on top of a split verdict over Lady Tyger Trimiar.

Dave Sr. boasted that the 175-pound Darlene could punch like Jack Dempsey and said of Theresa, “I believe she hustles a lot more than a lot of male boxers I’ve trained. And she listens well.”

Members of Fresno's Mono Tribe, the Kibby and Buckskin clans shared a spacious mountaintop dwelling in Smith River, California that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. From the age of ten, Theresa would constantly tussle with her brothers, and later sparred with them, as well as Darlene, when she chose to seriously pursue boxing after watching Caroline Svendsen defeat Jean Lang in Portland, Oregon in October 1975. Kibby hoped that the opportunity would present itself for her to fight the 34-year-old Svendsen, who obtained her boxing license from the Nevada State Athletic Commission three months prior to her bout against Jean Lang, but Theresa would be left wanting in that respect.  

“I can keep up with my brothers now,” she said in 1976, although they were rough enough on her at first to make Theresa strongly consider quitting for a brief time. Theresa kept fit by playing basketball, softball, and volleyball to augment her regular training regimen which consisted of daily two-mile runs, skipping rope, and rigorous workouts with Dave Jr., Roger, and Darlene. “I’ve been around boxing all my life. Even if California hadn’t legalized it for women, I’d still be doing it just for fun,” she avowed.

Theresa, who wore glasses, objected to using contact lenses during her boxing matches, opting instead to remove the spectacles the morning of that night’s fight to give her eyes the necessary time to adjust. “Then I don’t have any problems with blurring inside the ring,” she insisted. There was nothing particularly restrictive in regard to her diet. “I just watch what I eat,” said Theresa. “On the day of a fight I eat steak and salads and avoid soft drinks.”

Steve Sneddon, a sportswriter with the Nevada State Journal, referred to Theresa as a “Quiet Killer” in the headline of his March 20, 1976 From My Corner column, which was dedicated solely to her. Though proposing that Kibby’s sobriquet Princess Red Star “smacks of big-time wrestling” and “sounds like a showman’s name,” Sneddon fully acknowledged that there was nothing about the softspoken Kibby that was at all suggestive of the garish aspects of the entertainment industry. More than just her ring moniker, Princess Red Star was the ceremonial name Theresa was given by tribal chief White Buffalo Man.

Most impressed by how focused she remained despite the boisterous atmosphere that permeates boxing, Sneddon cautioned to make no mistake about the fact that a killer instinct lurked beneath the surface of Theresa’s “polite, but not overwhelming” smile. After witnessing Kibby handily dominate Pat Pineda at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel for an easy points victory, the State Journal scribe surmised that “as a fighter, she may not have a woman equal in the United States.”

The Pineda fight had been Theresa’s third to that point. She debuted on February 12, 1976 by overwhelming and stopping fellow novice, karate black belt, and future women’s boxing historian Sue ‘Tiger Lilly’ Fox in the penultimate stanza of their four-rounder in front of 1,250 spectators at Portland’s Multnomah County Expo Center, the very same venue where Theresa had attended Caroline Svendsen’s win over Jean Lang three and a half months prior.  

Kibby and Fox both learned just before bell time that the rounds would be three minutes in duration and not two which was, and still is, the standard for women’s bouts. “When you plan on fighting two minutes, that extra minute seems like centuries,” remarked Fox. “I think we showed the public women can hit, and be hit.”  

Theresa was back in action the very next week, this time to hit and be hit by Johnnie Stanton at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. As in Kibby’s previous bout, her brothers Dave Jr. and Roger once again appeared on the same card and with mixed results. This was to be both Stanton’s first and last fight, in which she was beaten by Princess Red Star by point totals that added up unanimously in her favor.

Kibby’s fourth fight, held at San Jose’s Civic Auditorium on May 4, served also as the rites of initiation into the ranks of professional prizefighting for former roller derby sensation Diane Syverson. For the blonde-haired, brown-eyed Canadian known to roller derby aficionados as the ‘Slugger Queen,’ the transition from the skating rink to the boxing ring was not at all an unnatural one.

“Violence is the key part of the sport I’m in, so it’s understandable that violent I’ve got to be,” Syverson professed in the National Police Gazette while still active on the roller derby circuit in 1975. “I don’t know if I’m the toughest girl in the league, but I do admit I’m one of them.”

Born in Watertown, Ontario, Diane moved with her parents to Los Angeles where she excelled in track, baseball, softball, and volleyball as president of her high school’s Girls’ Athletic Association. Drawn to roller derby as a young girl, Syverson would study the mechanics of the skaters on television or at live events, and accumulated her fair share of bumps and bruises as she began to practice in preparation for enrolling at the Los Angeles Thunderbirds’ training school.

Before she had even completed high school, Diane was invited to participate in a summer tour of Australia with the Detroit Devils. Recognized as the squad’s most valuable defensive player in her rookie season, she would continue to skate with the Devils when time permitted as she finished school. Syverson began traveling with the Texas Outlaws the day after high school graduation for roughly one year before becoming a freelancer, skating for any team at any time as needed.

It wasn’t long before Diane was asked to rejoin the Devils for a longer tenure. At the age of 19, she became the youngest female to captain a roller derby team to that point and led Detroit past the rival Los Angeles Thunderbirds for the Devils’ first championship.  

Syverson later became an all-star with the Montreal Fleur De Lys, traveling the world while earning the reputation as one of the league’s foremost competitors, and one certainly not to be trifled with. During one especially heated contest, Diane and a nemesis by the name of Margie Laszlo were “into it hot and heavy at the rail,” in Syverson’s own words, when a fan intervened by yanking on Margie’s hair. Her personal disregard for Margie notwithstanding, Syverson spontaneously calculated this misguided assistance as a big mistake on the fan’s part. “I swung and clouted this dame,” Diane remembered. “Boy, was she shocked! She didn’t think I’d belt her, but I did!”

Syverson’s dedication to the sport paid off financially, if not romantically. By her own estimate, Diane and other elite roller derby girls took home as much as $50-75,000 annually for competing in roughly 300 games a year, perhaps as many as ten in a row without a night off in between.

“My owner is no fool, and has been paying me well,” she stated. “I’ve got no complaints.” Her love life, however, was a different story. “Not too many guys are chasing you because it seems they’re afraid of you,” Syverson hypothesized. “It’s an impossible way to keep a romance flourishing.”

After hanging up her roller derby skates, Diane had been studying Criminal Justice with an eye toward a possible future in law enforcement, and kept money coming in by working as a bricklayer. But she wasn’t done indulging her predilection for the rough and tumble sports world quite yet, only now as a professional prizefighter.   

Pat Pineda was the first woman to be granted a boxing license by the state of California, followed shortly thereafter by Kim Maybee, against whom Pineda would contest her second pro bout at the LA Forum, and Diane Syverson, who was asked to stand by in case either Pineda or Maybee missed weight or no-showed. That fight went off without a hitch, so Syverson’s debut would have to wait until a week later when she was matched against Theresa ‘Princess Red Star’ Kibby on May 4, 1976 in San Jose.

“I got to her in the fourth. I thought that may have won it for me, but it appears not,” a disappointed but not deflated Kibby said after the judges arrived at a deadlock on their scorecards and the bout was declared a draw. “I think I landed some good punches throughout most of the fight.”

Syverson concurred in part with Theresa’s postmortem. “There is no question about it, she had a good fourth round and that did it. She got in some good punches, but none of them really hurt me,” claimed Diane. Despite sporting a fresh shiner encircling her right eye, Syverson coolly assessed that “I’ve had worse in roller derby competition.” Furthermore, she admitted, “I didn’t think I was in as good shape as I should have been. That too may have made a difference.”

The spectators expressed their appreciation for the spirited effort put forth by both Kibby and Syverson, who not only received a standing ovation at the conclusion of their four-round stalemate, but were showered with coins thrown from the crowd.

Soon after, it was announced in the papers that their rematch at the Olympic Auditorium would take place on the 27^th, a mere three weeks removed from the first fight. “I’ll step up the tempo in the second round. In that first fight I held back. This time I’ll press more,” vowed an optimistic Kibby. “I have to mainly concentrate more on my punches in the future. I also need to work on my combinations.”  

Unfortunately, one other thing Kibby would have to concern herself with—not to mention Syverson, Aileen Eaton and Don Chargin—was the anonymous death threat issued three days prior to fight night.

“They are objecting to women fighting. They don’t want the fight to go on,” remarked Dave Sr., speaking on behalf of Theresa. “The letter was read to me over the telephone. But I’m not worried about that. We have a contract to fulfill and we intend to honor it.”

Dave Sr. doubled down on his defiance by saying, “I’m just sorry I can’t carry my bow and arrows along on the plane. Theresa is confident she is going to beat Syverson. She has been working hard for this night.”

Due to the Memorial Day weekend travel rush, the Kibbys were unable to book a direct flight from Eureka to Los Angeles, so Chargin somehow arranged for them to get there by way of Portland, Oregon and back to California again. “Theresa wanted an airplane trip,” laughed Dave Sr. of Theresa’s very first experience flying the friendly skies, “and she sure got one.”             

Theresa and Dave Sr. were met at the airport by boxing manager Mario Silva, who had fought as a heavyweight and served as the Kibbys’ escort and, ostensibly, bodyguard for the duration of their stay. This was just one of several preventive security measures put in place by Chargin and Eaton to ensure the fighters’ safety.

“They took good care of us,” affirmed Dave Sr. “Nothing occurred.” One thing that did occur was Princess Red Star getting jobbed by the judges. “It was the damndest thing I’ve seen in all my born days,” grumbled the Kibby patriarch. His daughter, Dave Sr. maintained, accepted defeat graciously. “Theresa went straight in, around and in back, and punched from the opening bell to the end. In the third round she rained punches on Syverson and had her so confused she didn’t know what was going on.”

Don Chargin made his disapproval of Syverson’s questionable victory known to Dave Sr. afterwards. “It was Theresa’s fight. Don’t blame me,” the matchmaker told Kibby. “They performed professionally. Sure, we’ll bring them back.” Promoter Aileen Eaton was also content with how the women handled themselves. “I’m happy and proud the way things turned out,” she said. “They were good, weren’t they?”

Eaton would later sing a different tune about women’s boxing, however. “People might come to see a novelty, but not hardcore boxing fans. I won’t say I wouldn’t use women again, but most likely I would not,” she responded in 1979 when asked if she would continue to promote female prizefights. “I didn’t like it to start with,” she contended irritably, stating that she had reached her wit’s end with women’s difficulty making the contracted weight and demanding more money. “There was a lot of curiosity at first when the California Commission approved women pros, but after a few times, it wasn’t that big a thing.” 

All things considered, Theresa Kibby refused to give in to death threats or capitulate to an overall discouraging lack of support, offering a much more affirmative and prescient counterpoint to Eaton’s bitter argument. “As more and more women get into it and improve,” said Princess Red Star, “the interest will mount and the purses will make it more attractive to more women.”

It appears that no record exists to verify whether or not the letter writer who issued the death threat was ever apprehended. As for Theresa Kibby, she never did get to avenge the pair of blemishes on her record put there by Diane Syverson, who, after losing two out of three fights to Lady Tyger Trimiar, quit boxing in 1977.

 

Sources:

Loretta ‘Little Iodine’ Behrens. The Toughest Girl in Sports: Diane Syverson (Derby Memoirs—accessed at https://derbymemoirs.bankedtrack.info/Syverson_Diane.html)

Dave Fielder. Sue Fox Loses By TKO (Vancouver Columbian, February 13, 1976)

Jack Hawn. Carlotta Hurts ‘Em, Heals ‘Em (Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1979)

Rich Roberts. Overheard (Long Beach Independent, June 2, 1976)

Steve Sneddon. Quiet Killer (Nevada State Journal, March 20, 1976)

Ben Swesey. Kibby Clan Likes It in the Ring (Sacramento Bee, September 12, 1976)

Don Terbush. Princess Red Star Eyes Next Battle (Eureka Times Standard, May 19, 1976)

Don Terbush. Death Threat Bout Went Off Smoothly (Eureka Times Standard, May 30, 1976)

Death Threat to Aileen Eaton (Long Beach Independent, May 25, 1976)

Death Vow Won’t Stop Kibby Gal (Eureka Times Standard, May 26, 1976)

Former Watertown Girl Stars in Roller Derby (Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, December 17, 1971)

Golden Boy's Poster Girl Marlen Esparza Retains Flyweight Titles in Spirited Clash With Eva Guzman

 

With the sudden but not surprising departure of Seniesa Estrada from the Golden Boy roster following an often frustrating four and a half-year tenure, Marlen Esparza is still a stablemate to a handful of female fighters like Arely Mucino, Anabel Ortiz, Sulem Urbina, and Yokasta Valle. But Esparza, having signed with Golden Boy in December 2016, no longer has to struggle against her sworn enemy for pride of place as Oscar De La Hoya’s favored promotional poster girl.  

A stellar 2021 for Estrada emboldened her to request a renegotiation of her contract, and the ongoing financial squabble between Seniesa and Oscar resulted in her sitting out the first seven months of this year, and counting. She was supposed to have returned to defend her WBA world minimumweight title this past Saturday in a rematch against the aforementioned Anabel Ortiz in the same Fort Worth arena in which ‘Superbad’ dethroned the former champion last March.

Obviously, this fight was scratched from the lineup when Seniesa jumped ship from Golden Boy to eventually climb aboard Bob Arum’s luxury cruise line. The vacant spot on the card was presented to Esparza, who will put her newly unified WBC, WBA, and Ring magazine flyweight belts on the line.

Estrada, who may not fight again until November according to a Top Rank press release, couldn’t help but have one last laugh at her arch rival's expense on her way out of Golden Boy’s door. “I won’t be fighting August 6^th in Texas,” she tweeted. “But you can still go and watch Marlen Esparza play patty-cake with her opponent.”

Estrada’s acerbic verbal jab notwithstanding, a seemingly credible and dangerous foe was selected for Marlen Esparza in Venezuelan southpaw Eva Guzman (19-1-1, 11KOs), the WBA’s top-ranked contender. Her record is somewhat deceiving though, as on just five previous occasions has Guzman run up against opponents who boasted winning records, a pair of whom she subsequently recycled through with mixed results.

After dueling to a split draw against future world title challenger Deborah Rengifo (6-1-0 at the time) in 2015, Guzman lost a unanimous decision in their return bout seven months down the line, accounting for the lone blemishes on Guzman’s ledger coming into the Esparza fight. In 2017, Guzman handed then-unbeaten Esmailen Colina (1-0-2) her first defeat, followed by another three months later for good measure. Colina has since lost twice more and hasn’t had her hand raised since her pro debut five years ago.

Guzman claimed a secondary world title in 2018 when she edged out a majority decision over Yaditza Perez (9-12-1) for the vacant IBA flyweight strap. An impressive performance against Isabel Millan (29-6-1) last June earned Guzman the WBA interim title and, along with it, a mandatory shot at the world champion. At the time, this was Naoko Fujioka, and had been for four years until she relinquished the belt to Marlen Esparza in their unification fight back in April.            

Saturday’s tale of the tape unfurled a lengthy list of advantages for the defending champion. Besides a weight discrepancy of nearly three whole pounds, Esparza had three and a half inches in reach on Guzman in addition to four and a half inches in height with her adversary measuring in at a mere four foot eleven. The feisty, petite Venezuelan was hoping to upset Golden Boy’s apple cart by proving that good things come in small packages.

Guzman put her penchant for mixing it up on display from the opening bell, although Esparza was able to bob and weave out of harm’s way and make beneficial use of her reach advantage by sticking her left jab in her challenger’s face, creating openings for straight rights and combinations, while also sneaking in uppercuts to the body once she had broken past her opponent’s barrier.   

Effective counterpunching became a key component to Guzman’s strategy, turning Esparza’s sometimes reckless aggression against her by peppering the champion with crisp pot shots to the head and midsection whenever Marlen would carelessly lower her guard or throw lazy jabs while attempting to barrel forward. Concerning Esparza, conditioning and stamina have often been legitimate question marks and it was becoming evident in round four that the momentum was beginning to swing ever so slightly in favor of Guzman, who was acquitting herself extremely well given how steep this step up in competition was for her. 

The later rounds saw Esparza flip the script on Guzman by deliberately allowing the Venezuelan warrior to dictate the pace, which was still accelerating at a good clip, then catching her with check hooks and body blows on the way in. Though many of her punches were coming up short, no pun intended, Guzman showed no signs whatsoever of letting up on her relentless attacks.

Esparza forced Guzman to stumble backwards and initiate a clinch courtesy of walking right into the path of a stiff left jab midway through the ninth frame. With the awareness that she needed a knockout to win the fight, Guzman came out swinging for the tenth and final round and got Esparza’s attention on two occasions, once with a nice right hook and the other by virtue of a particularly well-placed left to the body. 

In the final analysis, Esparza outworked the sprightly Guzman by scores of 99-91 and 98-92 (x2) to secure her thirteenth professional victory and retain her trio of title belts.

Esparza has laid out her future battle plan, audacious as it may be. The first bit of business is to clean out the flyweight division. This requires showdowns with newly-crowned WBO champion Gabriela Celeste Alaniz and longtime IBF titleholder Leonela Paola Yudica, both of whom are undefeated.

Assuming she can run the 112-pound championship gauntlet, Esparza ultimately envisions putting her undisputed title up for grabs against Seniesa Estrada in a grudge match that Marlen believes will be “bigger than Taylor/Serrano.”       

Sandy Ryan Digs Deep to Tunnel Out of the Dark and Emerge Into the Light For Rematch Victory Over Erica Farias

 

Sandy Ryan recently confessed to being in “a dark place” for quite some time following her loss to Erica Anabella Farias in Nottingham back in March. Coming up on the wrong end of a split decision against Farias was the first setback for the previously undefeated and highly-touted super-lightweight prospect fighting out of Derby. 

With Saturday’s rematch versus Farias being only her fifth outing, Ryan’s pro journey is very young still and growing pains are part of the process. These can be tough enough to endure without additionally being attacked on social media for undergoing personal and professional complications by people who know next to nothing about what you’ve been struggling through. Ryan admits that this threw fuel on the already smoldering fire of self-doubt and depression that have plagued her in the past. On occasion, she has been admirably candid while opening up about her struggles with mental health issues.  

“I was supposed to be the strong one. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, it can happen to anyone,” Sandy said in October 2020 while recuperating from shoulder surgery and still coping with the isolation of the global Covid lockdown which additionally forced the cancellation of that summer’s Olympic games in Tokyo. “Every person has setbacks in their life and gets down. Some people deal with things differently, it can affect people in different ways. You need to talk about it and reach out to people. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Ryan emerged from that particular bout with depression thanks to some tough love from her brother Dave, a former journeyman boxer who retired in 2016 with a 17-10 record and a Commonwealth belt to his credit. Prior to that, it was Sandy who had helped pull their father through his own mental health challenges.  

In an amateur career that began in 2010 at the age of seventeen, Ryan was victorious in 51 of her 70 bouts, winning a silver medal at the 2014 World Championships then advancing as far as the quarter finals two years later. A win over Rosie Eccles earned Sandy the 2018 Commonwealth Championship.

Nearly two years after her final amateur fight, Ryan debuted in the paid ranks last July with a six-round shutout of 3-1-2 Kirstie Bavington under the banner of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. A pair of stoppages followed in relatively quick succession to close out her rookie year—putting Aleksandra Vujovik (4-14-2) down for the count in the fourth round in Milan, and scoring a technical knockout of Maria Soledad Capriolo (7-13-4) at Manchester Arena.

Eddie Hearn took a risk by matching Sandy opposite the seasoned Erica Farias, a thirteen-year veteran and two-division world champion, for Ryan’s fourth pro bout on March 12. The 38-year-old Farias, however, was coming off three consecutive defeats, two to Jessica McCaskill (in which the Argentinian lost her WBC super-lightweight title and failed to reclaim it) and most recently to Mikaela Mayer, and was likely being written off by Hearn as little more than a trial horse in the twilight of her career ready to be put out to pasture by his young upstart. With many questioning whether this matchup was a case of too much too soon, Hearn’s gamble indeed proved to be a costly one for Ryan. 

Because she brought overconfidence and negative energy into training camp, Sandy was aware well before fight night that things didn’t unfold the way they needed to in order for her to be in the proper physical condition and mental head space it would take to execute the type of game plan necessary to contend with the likes of Farias. 

“I’ve got a much better boxing brain than this,” Ryan surmised as she watched highlights from the first Farias fight and cataloged her deficiencies. “Before the fight I got complacent and I’m thinking, I can beat this girl. So some of the stuff in prep I just didn’t do one hundred percent, and I think, what an idiot. What have you done?”     

The scrappy Argentine’s experience ultimately made the difference, and Farias was successful in making Sandy abandon her long range boxing skills in favor of being lured into a back alley brawl. This is not to suggest that Ryan can’t bang on the inside, but under the circumstances this roughhouse style played more so into the crafty veteran’s hands. That said, Farias emerged victorious only by the slimmest of margins on two out of three scorecards, despite having a point deducted for excessive headbutting, with the tally on the third giving the edge to Ryan.      

With the support of her team and trusted friends, Sandy was eventually able to push through the despair brought on by her first professional loss. Locking away her phone and turning her attention away from the toxicity spewed by keyboard critics, Ryan shifted her focus instead to the character-building aspects of assessing her previous performance so that she could set about making beneficial adjustments for the immediate rematch she knew she needed to pursue to set things right.

“I wouldn’t know what else to do if I didn’t do boxing,” Sandy acknowledged, emphasizing the existential validity she derives from the sport she loves. “It’s crazy because I’ve just been boxing all my life. I was on GB for nine years, so it’s literally all I know.”

Although it initially felt to her like the sky was falling down after the defeat, Sandy reasoned that if she managed to hang in there and nearly beat Farias operating at what she figures was roughly half capacity, not to mention fighting through the delirium caused by a perforated eardrum, the upside was imagining what she could accomplish by applying full-on determination next time around.

Carrying the tagline ‘Repeat or Revenge,’ Saturday’s return bout in Sheffield offered the winner not only bragging rights but ownership of the vacant WBC International super-lightweight title. No doubt Farias was hoping to leverage a second conquest over Ryan, as well as possession of the secondary 140-pound strap, into a potential opportunity to regain her former green and gold world championship belt which is currently worn around the waist of Chantelle Cameron. For Sandy, she had much to gain by avenging her prior misadventure and even more to lose if she were to go down to defeat for the second consecutive time in what she referred to as a “career defining fight.”

Not that Ryan could understand Farias’ taunts during the staredown portion of Friday’s weigh-in without a translator, but the Argentine mocked her as a “little runt” and promised to “beat you up like I did last time.” Just as in their first go-round, Farias started at a quick pace Saturday night, applying pressure and working her way inside where she would rattle Ryan with the left hook. 

Maintaining her composure and settling into a more favorable rhythm, Sandy soon began to establish a comfortable distance with her long left jab and fleet-footed lateral movement from which she lashed out with straight rights that connected with increasing frequency.

Neither fighter truly dominated the action, and the early rounds were difficult to score with any degree of accuracy, no doubt causing undue anxiety among Ryan’s seconds and supporters as to who held the advantage going into the home stretch. The fact that Farias is renowned for her stamina and ability to finish strong only upped the ante.

Exhibiting great tenacity, augmented by a maturity which must have been one of the primary takeaways from dealing with the fallout of the first fight, Sandy reached deep down inside herself during the championship rounds to outclass Farias and pull away with the unanimous decision by one eyebrow-raising score 98-92 and two much more reasonable tallies of 96-94.  

The difference in Sandy’s demeanor from the first fight to last night could not have been plainer or nicer to see. Having successfully chased the demons away, Ryan joyfully sidled up to the microphone for her post-fight interview and sang along to “Sweet Caroline” which was blasting over the arena’s PA system. 

“I’ve been a closed book for a long time,and I didn’t realize it myself until I broke down after my defeat,” she said. “Now I can speak about it and I can say, look, you just need to talk.” 

I know I am not alone in applauding Sandy's efforts in the boxing ring and in her personal life. Certain that she will have plenty to talk about from this day forward, I stand with her in solidarity and in anticipation of hearing every word of it.