Mary Jo Sanders and the Holly Holm Conundrum Part Three: Heartbreak in Auburn Hills

 

Eager to relitigate the matter, Mary Jo Sanders wanted to personally put the lessons Holly Holm felt she took away from their first bout to the test. Sooner than later. And, ideally, not in Albuquerque.

A return engagement with Sanders was neither contractually mandated nor foremost on Holly’s mind, however. “Everybody kept asking, ‘When’s the fight with Mary Jo?’ This is it,” Holm retorted. “It’s over and I won, and it’s a big thing for me.”

A big thing indeed, as a post-fight overture had allegedly been made to Holly’s promoter Lenny Fresquez on behalf of Laila Ali. Remember, it was Mary Jo who had originally been considered as a likely candidate to lure Laila back into the ring for the first time since Muhammad’s daughter needed less than one minute to dispatch Gwendolyn O’Neil sixteen months prior to the Holm/Sanders showdown.

Sanders was within a reasonable weight range to Ali, who was fighting at super-middleweight, but evidently a less attractive option from a marketing standpoint now that she had lost to Holm. Moving up the scales to 168 pounds, or even meeting Laila somewhere in the middle at a catchweight was simply out of the question for Holly and, anyway, Ali was seven months pregnant at the time which made it all a moot point. Laila opted to focus on starting a family and never fought again.

Which made a Holm vs. Sanders rematch the logical conclusion, right? Not so fast. Fresquez was seriously entertaining the proposal of a unification fight for Holm with undefeated super-welterweight belt holder Giselle Salandy, who possessed the WBC, WBA, GBU, IWBF, WIBA, and WIBF straps. Failing that, backup plans were also under consideration that included Myriam Lamare and Anne Sophie Mathis. This was also more or less the case throughout the contentious negotiations leading up to the first Holm/Sanders bout when Fresquez made the ridiculous claim that Mary Jo was “afraid of Holly.”

Holm would eventually scrap with both Lamare and Mathis, eking out a narrow points win over Myriam in February 2009 and getting viciously knocked out by Mathis at the Route 66 Casino on her own turf in Albuquerque on December 2, 2011 before gaining revenge by way of unanimous decision at the same location six months later. She never did get to test herself against the 21-year-old Salandy, who fought for the last time the day after Christmas in 2008, decisioning Yahaira Hernandez in front of a home crowd in Trinidad and Tobago and was tragically killed in an automobile accident nine days later.

One month removed from their first fight, it was confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached between the camps of Holm and Mary Jo for a rematch on October 17, Holly’s 27th birthday, in Detroit. Despite the fact that they were conceding the home advantage to Sanders this time around, Holly’s trainer and manager Mike Winkeljohn pointed out that the formal contract had yet to be returned to them with Sanders’ signature. “So, we’ll see what happens,” he cautioned. During the negotiations, Holm attended the ESPY awards ceremony in Los Angeles where she was nominated as best fighter but lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The following month, on August 20, the rematch was officially confirmed with a slight change in venue. Rather than Detroit’s Cobo Hall or even the Pontiac Silverdome, the fight would now occur at The Palace of Auburn Hills, which was still situated well within Mary Jo’s comfort zone. Sanders had earned the reputation of being not merely a great fighter by the Metro Detroit faithful but a goodwill ambassador for her home state which, at the time, was more important than ever when taking into consideration how particularly devastated its citizens had been by the recent economic crisis.

Local business owner Chris LaBelle, who still operates LaBelle Electric out of Mt. Clemens, was one of four major sponsors who contributed toward the estimated $400,000 it took to host the rematch in Michigan, a morale boost to the entire state as much as it was for Sanders. He was happy to elaborate on the mutually beneficial relationship he had developed with Sanders dating back to her pro debut. “The uniqueness of Mary Jo and women’s boxing has created a lot of interest. Many of my clients have gotten hooked on her and won’t miss a fight. My sponsorship of Mary Jo has resulted in name recognition—made us more visible to the public—and provides an event to invite my customers and clients to,” he stated. “We get a lot of bang for our buck on our investment. We get an opportunity to sponsor a local athlete who is just an incredible person. It makes you feel good to see someone like her succeed. It has strengthened us as a company and individuals in some pretty hard times.”

A Dodge distributor who oversaw two dealerships, Al Deeby was another of Sanders’ proud financial backers. “The return on investment is tough to measure, but I know this: we’re involved with a winning team—the loyalty, the pride, we just can’t lose out,” raved Deeby, whose six-year-old daughter was far less interested in playing princess than she was pretending to be Mary Jo Sanders, walking around their house wearing the boxing gloves and little robe given to her by her hero. “Mary Jo has done herself, the city, and her fans proud. Her appeal stretches across Detroit.”

Cliff Lunney planned on going to the fight in the company of fifteen of his 600 employees from CWL Investments out of Ferndale which owned the most substantial franchise in the Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich chain. “We’re looking for Mary Jo to knock out Holm. We’re excited about the rematch,” Lunney exclaimed. “When Mary Jo does well, it reflects on the city. I want my store and my employees to share in that.”

Ric-Man Construction in Sterling Heights was responsible for the welfare of as many as 200 employees and was owned and operated by Steve Mancini, a lapsed boxing fan who had previously followed the career of the ‘Motor City Cobra’ Thomas Hearns. “We love her to death. My wife and I will be at The Palace to watch her win that fight,” said Mancini about Sanders, to whom he gave full credit for reigniting his passion for the sport. He had been enthusiastically sponsoring Mary Jo for the past three years. “She brings so much energy to her bouts. It’s the same energy that might just get this city back on its feet and turn this economy around,” he concluded hopefully.

As was the case with the first time around, the referee and judges would all be from neutral locations to help alleviate potential concerns over hometown partiality. Well-respected hall of famer Steve Smoger drew officiating duties for the rematch, replacing Kenny Bayless whose overly-cautious approach dictated the less than fan-friendly stop-and-go pace in Albuquerque.

Never one to openly criticize or speculate, Sanders remained characteristically quiet through the fallout from the first bout as well as the haggling over every minute detail leading up to the second. This, of course, was a different story from her voluble manager and trainer Jimmy Mallo, who had offered wildly differing evaluations of the first scrap.

“The fight should have been judged a draw. Holly did a very fine job, but Mary Jo threw the cleaner, crisper punches,” Mallo opined in the days before the rematch. “Mary Jo had a night off, and Holly got a gift.” This stands in stark contrast to earlier comments in which he stated that Sanders hadn’t looked like her normal self in that contest, jokingly suggesting that perhaps it had been a twin sister he didn’t know she had who stepped into the ring in her place. “The whole of Team Sanders was shocked. Mary Jo was shocked,” admitted Mallo. “When you’re in someone’s backyard, you can’t let them make early deposits. We just didn’t stick to our game plan.”

“This is going to be bigger than our fight in Albuquerque,” acknowledged Holly Holm. “Mary Jo will be a different person. She’ll fight with heart and aggression. She’ll get after me. I expect to hear a lot of boos, but I’ll use that as motivation.” Holm watched their first bout on a portable DVD player during the flight from New Mexico to Michigan while jammed into the middle seat between two other passengers in the back row of the plane. Though this was her third viewing, Holly had to excuse herself and get up to walk off the jitters coursing through her body, confessing that it was too “nerve-racking” to get through the entire fight in one sitting.

“I know Mary Jo is feeling the pressure too. As boxers, we are fully exposed when we climb into the ring,” said Holm. “It’s the unknown you face every fight. You gain a lot of respect for your opponent, and it’s mutual.”

Not until the day of the weigh-in did Sanders break her silence and was, unsurprisingly, in nearly complete agreement with Holm’s sentiments. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Holly. Her work ethic is great; she works very hard,” said Mary Jo. “If anything, she’s the one under pressure here. Detroit isn’t the kind of place you hit and run. They’ll boo you out of town if you do.”

Asked to assess her performance in the first fight, Sanders simply mentioned having been “so, so far off who I am, what I do” and more or less left it at that. “I don’t talk backwards. I don’t think backwards,” Mary Jo stated defiantly. “I’ve left Albuquerque in the past. I rely on my tools—my fists—and I’ve been taught never to run away.”

As content as Sanders and Holm were to carry on speaking of one another in congenial platitudes, their trainers were just as happy to continue to jaw with one another like kids trading verbal  barbs in a schoolyard. “People get disgruntled—they complain they can’t hit Holly, that she runs away. But they always walk away with black eyes themselves,” said Mike Winkeljohn. “Ok, she moves, but she hits hard. How many famous boxers have done just that? Why that’s a bad thing for Holly to do, I don’t know.”

Jimmy Mallo fired back by insisting, “She didn’t hurt Mary Jo. She didn’t beat Mary Jo.” About any adjustments which were implemented during training for the rematch, Mallo had this to say: “We tweaked a few things, and we saw a lot of vulnerabilities in Holly that we’re gonna capitalize on this time.”

Fight fans not attending in person would have to wait to see the return bout on a tape-delayed FSN broadcast, largely owing to the disappointingly lackluster pay-per-view buy rate for the first fight as reported by Holm’s promoter Lenny Fresquez. Banking on 10,000 purchases at $24.95 a pop, Fresquez was optimistically hoping for 15,000 which was more than twice what the number of national buys turned out to be—7,000 to be exact. He believed this had to do with the fact that the show had been an all-female card, concluding that he would be disinclined to pursue a similar venture in the future if there was no money to be made.

This bout was sanctioned by the IBA (International Boxing Association) which was putting its vacant super-welterweight world title up for grabs. It had first been worn around the waist of Ann Wolfe courtesy of a TKO win over Gina Nicholas back in 2001, and the belt had been unclaimed ever since she vacated it soon after. Sanders was the first to make her ring walk, bouncing on the balls of her feet and shadowboxing in her corner while Holm came barreling past the camera crew and proceded to pace and then jog from one side of the ring to the other during the pre-fight formalities.

Anyone who questions Holly’s intensity needs only to behold her stoic, almost grim countenance as she stares daggers at Mary Jo Sanders before Steve Smoger instructs, and finally commands, an apparently reluctant Holm to touch gloves with her opponent. Say what you will, Holm has always taken the hurt business very seriously.

Mary Jo didn’t need to concern herself with chasing Holm around the ring in the first round. After a tentative thirty-second period of reacquaintance, Holly was the first to instigate an encounter and, despite some of her trademark kinetic energy which was certainly to be expected, she was extraordinarily quarrelsome. Letting her hands go all the while, Holm bullied Sanders across the ring and into a corner with twenty seconds left of the opening frame. Mary Jo promptly punched her way out, but it was clear from the get-go that Holly came to Auburn Hills to prove that she was a fighter, not a runner.

One takeaway from their first skirmish was obviously that Sanders learned to throw leather while Holm was in the process of closing the distance. Even while being bumrushed into the turnbuckle in the first round, Mary Jo connected with an uppercut which was an arrow she would pull from her quiver on a consistent basis throughout the evening. As Holly tended to rush forth with her head down, the implementation of these adjustments would prove very effective.

If only Jimmy Mallo had worked with Sanders to step to the side when Holly would streak toward her rather than retreat in a straight line, opportunities would have presented themselves which may have precipitated a more advantageous outcome. Her right being her dominant hand, it would have served Mary Jo well to pivot to her left in such circumstances, forcing Holm to step to her own left and, theoretically, into a Sanders right hook she couldn’t see coming. Mary Jo had come up with some much-needed responses to questions left unanswered six months prior, but the enigmatic Holm would be bested only if all of the pieces were present and fit together perfectly. This trick may have been the gamechanger that Sanders and Mallo overlooked and left behind in the metaphorical puzzle box.

Sanders hit the reset button between rounds and emerged from her corner with three consecutive jabs followed by a straight right to establish control over the next two-minute stanza. In a repeat of what transpired in round one, Holm railroaded Mary Jo into the same corner but couldn’t take advantage of the situation as Sanders blasted her way out.

Unlike Kenny Bayless, Steve Smoger was more than willing to let the two combatants engage one another from close quarters, something which occasionally favored an aggressively driven Holm such as when she scored with a three-punch combination with her back to the ropes in the last thirty seconds of round two, though Mary Jo got the better of the very next exchange while also fighting off the ring strands.

Holly’s attacks were still unorthodox, but less frenetic than in the first fight when it often seemed as if she was devising her strategy even as it unfolded. Perhaps, though, that was part of Holm’s genius—making it appear as though not having a plan was her plan. Maybe her apparent unpredictability had actually been pre-determined and repeatedly practiced. With Holly, it was hard to tell, keeping you on your toes and second-guessing everything.

Nevertheless, Sanders had not only seen this movie before but been a co-star in the original six months ago. Privy to the intimate knowledge of how the plot was likely to play out, as well as the twists and turns it would take along the way, Mary Jo was no longer mystified by the unknown and the outcome of this action-packed sequel was in no way inevitable. By the middle rounds, Sanders was seizing the momentum and making it work for her.

Both getting hit more frequently and missing her mark more often, it was Holm who became visibly flustered, looking set adrift and lost at sea heading into the final three frames. But, make no mistake, she would find her way back to shore and into the thick of the action which intensified over the final six minutes in a give-and-take struggle for supremacy.

Exhibiting remarkable stamina to complement their gutsy performances, Holly Holm and Mary Jo Sanders delivered on the promise of a thrilling fight that went largely unfulfilled six months before. Naturally, each woman believed she had outworked her adversary to an extent sufficient to have secured the victory.

“I felt like I controlled the center of the ring,” said Holm. “I felt I did enough to win the fight. I was the aggressor.” During her post-fight remarks, Mary Jo had to admit, “She’s not a runner anymore. She came to fight. I told her she should be proud of herself.”

Judge Paul Smith was in agreement with Holm’s self-evaluation, scoring the bout 97-93 in her favor. His verdict was overruled by Marty Denkin and Steve Weisfeld, both of whom arrived at tallies of 95-95, regrettably deadlocking the decision. Both women were disappointed but neither one bitter. “I think I won, but Holly is a great girl. We’ll do it again,” vowed Sanders.

Holm was immediately agreeable to a third fight as well, but the rubber match in what would have been a memorable trilogy was, unfortunately, not meant to be. Instead, Holm would go on to defeat Myriam Lamare the following January, as alluded to earlier, before closing out 2009 by stopping undefeated Duda Yankovich in the 4th round and easily outpointing Terri Blair in Las Vegas.

With a third scrap against Holly Holm seeming less likely and a mega-bout opposite Laila Ali no longer a viable option, Team Sanders entered into talks with undefeated phenom Giselle Salandy toward the end of 2008. “She was such a young woman and a champion. It was a tragic turn of events,” lamented Mary Jo concerning Salandy’s untimely death in January 2009. “I felt sick.”

Having adopted a “never say never” attitude toward another fight, Sanders kept plenty busy as a personal trainer. In early 2011, she had been mentioned as a potential opponent for Canadian former WIBA world lightweight champion Kara ‘KO’ Ro who was likewise looking to make a comeback. This never materialized, nor did the opportunity to coach Team USA’s women’s boxing squad which was preparing to make its historic debut at the 2012 London Olympics. Mary Jo had reached out to offer her services, but her calls were not returned. What a shame, as this would have allowed Sanders to impart her wisdom onto the likes of Mikaela Mayer, Marlen Esparza, Tiara Brown and, of course, fellow Michigan native Claressa Shields.

“I asked my father how he dealt with that when he retired from football, how he dealt with not playing anymore,” reflected Sanders in March 2010. “He told me he had dreams for years about it, and that when he’d wake up, he was sure he’d played a game—smelled the turf, felt the hits. It’s tough to retire or think about it.”

Once a fighter, always a fighter, Mary Jo was among the Class of 2018 honored by the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame and entered the ranks of IBHOF inductees this past June in Canastota, joining Holly Holm in both esteemed institutions.

 

Sources:

Mike Brundell. Sanders: Sponsors Are Big Fans Too (Detroit Free Press, October 14, 2008)

Mike Brundell. Holm Ready For Sanders Rematch (Detroit Free Press, October 16, 2008)

Mike Brundell. One Ferocious Fight Ended With a Draw (Detroit Free Press, October 19, 2008)

Mike Brundell. Ring Star Sanders Wants to Stay Active (Detroit Free Press, March 3, 2010)

Mike Brundell. Sanders vs. Ro: Great Fight for Silverdome? (Detroit Free Press (January 30, 2011)

Rick Wright. Boxer Lovato a Hero in Her Hometown (Albuquerque Journal, October 1, 2007)

Rick Wright. Duke City Star Did Her Homework (Albuquerque Journal, June 15, 2008)

Rick Wright. Condit to Defend Crown (Albuquerque Journal, July 20, 2008)

Rick Wright. Holm—Sanders II Set for Oct. 17 (Albuquerque Journal, August 20, 2008)

Rick Wright. Holm in Hostile Territory (Albuquerque Journal, October 17, 2008)

Mary Jo Sanders/Holly Holm II (YouTube, uploaded February 10, 2009)

Mary Jo Sanders and the Holly Holm Conundrum Part Two: The Albuquerque Blues

 

“Did I bring too much emotion to the fight? Did I try too hard to knock her out? I even questioned if I’d pulled on the right socks,” mused Mary Jo Sanders when she allowed herself the time to properly reflect on her defeat at the hands of Holly Holm. “You think about every little thing. But you can’t let it drive you crazy.”

What undoubtedly did drive Sanders crazy was Holm’s herky-jerky maneuvers and catch-as-catch-can methodology. Just when you think you’ve done your due diligence and are ready for any variable that can be thrown your way, it is astonishing how quickly you can become unhinged by flesh and blood problems presented to you in the heat of battle that require immediate response and reaction and prove to be far more difficult to solve than you could have possibly anticipated. Holly Holm was the conundrum for which Mary Jo was seemingly at a loss to find a solution.

Looking to initiate a pre-emptive strike, Sanders vaulted out of her corner at the opening bell. Her plan was to cut off the ring and nullify Holly’s there-one-second-gone-the-next exit strategy. Easier said than done. Using lateral movement and awkward hop-steps, Holm had the uncanny ability to manifest an escape hatch where none was present the moment before and skip quickly away from incoming bombardments. After creating a safe distance, she might choose to spontaneously launch herself forward with her head down and fists flailing just as she first did to Sanders roughly thirty seconds into the fight and would continue to do so repeatedly.

Though the element of surprise was on her side in such instances, ambushes of this sort were largely ineffectual from an offensive standpoint due to the fact that the punches were being thrown while she was in motion and not from a set and planted position to generate maximum power. Some did land, however, and this would please judges who score on volume rather than accuracy or potency. To prevent against counterattacks, Holm would retreat just as hastily as she had surged ahead and, like the ocean tide, come rushing right back in again.

This made it incredibly difficult for Mary Jo to keep Holm confined and within easy striking distance like she had hoped. Instead, she spent the majority of the time pursuing the gazelle-like champion from pillar to post around the twenty-foot ring in an effort to trap her long enough so that she could get off more than one single power shot at a time. Again, easier said than done. But not for lack of trying.

Sanders attempted to work her way inside behind her left jab but would more often than not find herself in a clinch as soon as she was able to close the gap. Referee Kenny Bayless, as he was wont to do, continually insinuated himself into the action and made an aggravating habit of breaking Holm and Mary Jo apart with little provocation. Disinclined to permit fighting to occur at close quarters, Bayless presented the methodical and heavy-handed Sanders with yet another quandary while Holly, whose punch selection was predictably unpredictable, was given the advantage of conducting business at a frantic pace which was far more to her liking.

All of this is not meant to suggest that Holm was all flight and no fight. On the occasions that Sanders did manage to corner her, Holly would respond accordingly, punching her way out of these temporary predicaments and leaving Mary Jo with frustratingly little to show for the effort. Not until the waning moments of the fourth round was Mary Jo able to land anything of consequence, a straight right followed up by a left hook seconds later which forced Holm to backpedal away from further trouble. Sanders touched her with two glancing rights in the process before being tied up as time expired in the frame.

Mary Jo’s trainer Jimmy Mallo liked what he saw toward the end of the round and urged her to do more of the same as he applied Vaseline beneath her eyes during the rest period. Meanwhile, a bundle of inexhaustible nervous energy, Holm bounced up and down in her corner as if on a pogo stick like she did while awaiting the bell to signal the beginning of each and every round. It was Holly who came out swinging but Sanders who connected with the round’s first meaningful shot, backing Holm up with a right hook at the minute and a half mark.

Whether it was thrown straight down the pike or came in the form of a hook or uppercut, Mary Jo’s persistence in throwing the right hand was beginning to pay off more consistently. This may not have opened the door to prolonged momentum shifts, but things were looking much more promising for Sanders than they had to that point. Holm used her long jab to not only ward off her attacker but to tally points, occasionally popping Mary Jo with her mitt as she was encroaching upon Holly’s territory.

Holm’s game of cat and mouse carried on as the bout progressed. So too did Kenny Bayless’ penchant for separating the fighters at his fastidious discretion. These two variables certainly made initiating, much less sustaining, some sort of impactful offensive an irksome task for Sanders. Curiously, even in the clinches Mary Jo seemed to be willfully ignoring Holm’s midsection, targeting her head almost exclusively whereas Holly would take advantage of the chance to invest in body work when presented with it. This was a missed opportunity to take at least some of the wind out of Holm’s sails and potentially keep her more stationary in the later going.

Sanders had her best round thus far in the eighth, establishing herself as the clear aggressor by mauling Holly and shooting short uppercuts between her guard in the brief instances that the two were allowed to stand shoulder to shoulder. While Holm made the most of the ring’s entire circumference, it was no longer her exclusive domain. Mary Jo was noticeably gaining a little more ground with each elapsed stanza when it counted the most, down the home stretch. But was it too little, too late?

A slugfest broke out in the first twenty seconds of round nine until Holm catapulted forward to grasp Sanders in a clinch, her unwieldy momentum taking both combatants down to the canvas in a grappling maneuver which foreshadowed Holly’s future exploits in mixed martial arts. Mary Jo bore the brunt of the fall on her left shoulder despite tossing Holm aside in mid-descent to ensure that Holly didn’t land right on top of her.

Thankfully this did not result in an injury to either fighter, and the action picked up where it left off before the interruption with Sanders muscling her way to a slight advantage in a match which would ultimately favor the boxer with the more acute timing and precision.

Mary Jo threw and landed a beautiful straight right fresh off a clean break instigated by Bayless, necessitating another clutch-and-hold tactic from Holm just before the bell ending the penultimate round. Sensing either that she had Holm hurt or that the fight was too close to call and she needed to put the pedal to the metal, Sanders roared straight toward center ring where she let loose with a flurry. She undoubtedly took some to get some, namely a looping left hook from Holm in the last minute of the fight, but Mary Jo appeared to be finishing very strong.

With fourteen seconds left on the clock, Holly propelled herself upwards off the mat while spastically kicking her left leg out behind her in a truly bizarre display of graceless gymnastics. The look on Sanders’ face is priceless. Mary Jo tried to capitalize on this head-scratching moment by lobbing an improvisational left hook just as an off-balance Holm touched back down, but it came up short of the mark.

Holly wasn’t done with the weird theatricality just yet. She lunged forward moments later with a wild left hook, again crazily lifting her left leg in the direction of her backside at a 45-degree angle. A possible callback to her beginnings as a kickboxer as well as once more providing a glimpse into her UFC career still three years in the making, this maneuver is known in different disciplines as the “Superman Punch.” It just missed grazing Sanders’ chin and, with that final idiosyncratic flourish, the timekeeper’s bell tolled for the last time that evening.

Jimmy Mallo picked Mary Jo up and did a victory lap around the ring with her in his arms while Holly celebrated with Mike Winkeljohn, but the winner of the fight would be determined by the judges’ scorecards, not self-confidence or wishful thinking or best intentions. The verdict could conceivably have gone either way in a fight this difficult to appraise, so it’s hard to argue with the nod being given to Holly Holm and, truth be told, it was highly unlikely that Mary Jo Sanders was going to be the beneficiary of a fair and balanced decision in Albuquerque.

That said, the 98-92 tallies arrived at by both Joe Garcia and Jon Schorle were ponderous at best. Mauro Di Fiore only granted Sanders one additional round, scoring the bout 97-93. Nevertheless, Sanders gave Holm a congratulatory hug after the decision was rendered and her father Charlie stood and applauded in appreciation of the effort put forth by his little girl as well as the hometown champion who just beat her.

Having handed Sanders her first career loss, retained her title, and won the WBAN belt presented by Sue Fox, Holly did her trademark backflip at center ring before taking the microphone to tearfully acknowledge everyone who made the victory possible. “I’ve never dealt with anyone so professional,” she remarked about Mary Jo. “She’s a great person, a great fighter, a great champion, and I just want to give her all the thanks.”

As for her postmortem on Sanders’ performance, Holm said, “She’s not one of those fighters who throws real tight. She’d throw looping punches, so I just tried to counter her down the middle. I didn’t want her to get off and set her feet and throw all those combinations. And I noticed she wasn’t as good fighting on her heels.”

Holly would additionally reflect, “I’m going to learn a lot from this fight, because I still think I can do a lot better.”

 

Sources:

Mike Brundell. Sanders Hopes to Avenge Loss to Holm (Detroit Free Press, October 17, 2008)

Rick Wright. Holm Earns Lopsided Win (Albuquerque Journal, June 14, 2008)

Holly Holm/Mary Jo Sanders I (YouTube, uploaded November 27, 2009)

Mary Jo Sanders and the Holly Holm Conundrum Part One: More Than Just Their Fathers’ Daughters

“Some of the biggest fights will be outside the ring, but you know that from your life, and it’s tough. But you can do it,” Mary Jo Sanders encouraged Claressa Shields during a 2017 awards banquet sponsored by the Michigan Association of United States Amateur Boxing which was honoring the two-time Olympic gold medal winner from Flint.

This event provided the perfect opportunity for a momentous pairing of female boxing’s past and present. Shields was then only three fights into her professional career, and one month away from capturing her first two world titles on the same night by stopping previously undefeated WBC super-middleweight champion Nikki Adler, additionally claiming the vacant IBF belt.

Nine years removed from the ring as of that evening, Sanders was invited to be the keynote speaker as a former prizefighter whose renown in the sports world equaled, and arguably eclipsed, that of her famous father, legendary Detroit Lions tight end Charlie Sanders, who passed away in 2015.

Mary Jo inherited her dad’s natural gift for athleticism, winning a state championship as a member of Rochester High School’s girls basketball team while also excelling in track and field, gymnastics, and ballet. She dug ditches and poured cement on construction sites to help put herself through school at Oakland University and Baker College, the manual labor paying additional dividends as Sanders began to take up weightlifting.

After placing first in the heavyweight division of the 1998 Miss Natural Michigan bodybuilding championships, Mary Jo won three consecutive Detroit Tough Woman contests, as well as the 2000 open-weight world championship despite the fact that her opponent had a 90-pound advantage over her. Sanders had also begun kickboxing and soon after seriously turned her attention to the time-honored tradition of pugilism, taking home the 2002 Golden Gloves. With the Olympics still no more than a pipe dream for women boxers and little else left for Mary Jo to achieve at the amateur level, she consulted her trainer and manager Jimmy Mallo who urged her to go pro.

Just like after Charlie Sanders had caught a short-range pass from Bill Munson or Greg Landry, his daughter Mary Jo hit the ground running upon her entrance into the professional fight game in February 2003 and never took a backwards glance, steamrolling over anyone who got in her way. She floored the much more experienced but far less skilled Willicia Moorehead (2-11) twice in the first round of her paid debut before a home crowd at The Palace in Auburn Hills, forcing the referee to halt the bout.

The first six fights of Sanders’ rookie year all occurred within an equal amount of months, and she would extend her winning streak in very impressive fashion in early 2004 with successive victories over Layla McCarter and Chevelle Hallback, both being former and future world champions. Mary Jo collected her first piece of hardware by defeating Hallback for a secondary title in the form of the IBA Continental light-welterweight championship which she defended three months later with a ninth-round TKO of Lisa Holewyne, another former world titleholder who had fought, and is now married to, Christy Martin. Sanders and Holewyne would resume hostilities a year and a half later with Mary Jo pitching a flawless shutout.

Unlike Claressa Shields, who was fast-tracked to her first world title opportunity after only three fights, Sanders was made to wait until she had tallied sixteen unanswered wins on her ledger, beating the likes of Melissa Del Valle and Belinda Laracuente along the way. Headlining a July 30, 2005 show at Detroit’s world-famous Cobo Hall which featured what would be the penultimate fight in Thomas Hearns’ hall of fame career as the co-main event, as well as The Hitman’s son Ronald scoring a first-round knockout on the undercard, Mary Jo pounded out a unanimous decision over 1950s middleweight champion Bobo Olson’s granddaughter Eliza to capture the inaugural WBC super-lightweight world title.

Once she formally made her imprint on the landscape of women’s boxing, Sanders wasted little time establishing herself as a contemporary pound-for-pound great by becoming a four-division world champion in fewer than eighteen months. A southpaw fighting out of Trinidad and Tobago, Iva Weston would face off opposite Sanders for the vacant WIBA world welterweight title with Mary Jo winning on a third-round TKO.

Just four months later, back on top of the bill at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Sanders staked her claim to the vacant WIBA super-welterweight world championship previously held by Ann Wolfe courtesy of a clear-cut unanimous decision over then-unbeaten Tricia Turton. Appearing at The Palace for the second to last time on January 12, 2007, Mary Jo forced Gina Nicholas (11-5-2) to retire on her stool at the end of round two. Sanders improved to 23-0 and was awarded the newly-minted IBA world middleweight strap. Nicholas never fought again. Mary Jo made one successful defense of the IBA belt, defeating the always dangerous Valerie Mahfoud by across the board scores of 100-90 in the main event at Cobo Hall on March 30, 2007.

Because they both occupied the upper ranks of elite female competitors of the mid-2000s, the prospect of having Mary Jo Sanders and Holly Holm share a ring together had been a tantalizing one for quite some time. A tall, lanky, stick-and-move southpaw hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ had racked up a stellar 21-1-2 record by the time she and Sanders did get together. The lone blemishes could be accounted for by a pair of stalemates, with Stephanie Jaramillo and Angelica Martinez, and a TKO loss to Rita Turrisi when Holm’s corner threw in the towel due to the severity of a cut beneath her eye.

Holly had subsequently gotten the better of notables like Christy Martin, Mia St. John, Jane Couch, Ann-Marie Saccurato, and Chevelle Hallback, winning world titles in three divisions, which included a brief reign as undisputed welterweight champion in 2007.

In March 2008, Holm inked her name on the dotted line for the long-awaited showdown with Mary Jo Sanders in which she would defend her IFBA super-welterweight belt on June 13. Titled ‘Finally,’ their pay-per-view championship fight would headline a quartet of women’s bouts hosted by the Isleta Casino & Resort. Located in Holly’s hometown of Albuquerque, Holm had been featured there on eleven prior occasions, including her pro debut and nine world title fights. In fact, Holly had only just trekked beyond the borders of New Mexico for the first time in her career that February to take on Belinda Laracuente in Temecula, California.

Sanders, by contrast, was no stranger to being the visiting fighter. She had embarked on eleven trips outside of Michigan to that point, even putting in an appearance on a 2003 card held at the Playboy Mansion. Being that it was Holly’s title they were vying for, the Albuquerque native would once more be the beneficiary of home advantage. “Dad loved to play on the road,” said a nonplussed Mary Jo. “He always told me, ‘So, you have to bring a bunch of friends with you to beat me? Not likely.’”

The bout between Holm and Mary Jo was supposed to have taken place in January but had been scrapped the previous October when the deadline to respond to the initial offer made to team Sanders by promoter Lenny Fresquez, which he claimed was “generous,” came and went. With the financial negotiations at a temporary standstill, Holm had turned her attention to Miriam Brakache and Belinda Laracuente while Sanders stayed busy by notching a fourth-round stoppage of Veronica Rucker in a non-title match.

“You have two beautiful girls with soft voices. But somewhere under all that, they’re animals,” Sanders said in reference to herself and Holly at the press conference in Detroit to formally announce their long-anticipated contract signing. “It’s always about what you did on the field or in the ring. Fans are going to get what they paid for and probably more at this one.”

Mary Jo demurred, however, when asked to make a prediction on what round the fight would end. “I made the mistake of predicting the round once, and my dad got into me,” she laughed, with her father Charlie seated nearby. “He came into my dressing room before the fight and reamed me for it. I’d said I’d knock her out in the third round, and I actually KO’d her in the first. Dad wasn’t happy, though. So no need to make a prediction. It’s just going to be a great fight.”

Jimmy Mallo, Sanders’ manager and trainer, had no problem voicing his definitive opinion on the outcome. “She’s stronger, better than she has ever been. It’s not going to the scorecards,” Mallo boasted. “We just hope Holly will bring her boxing gloves and not her dancing shoes.”

As for the soft-spoken Holm, she would rather her performance do the talking. “I don’t make predictions either,” she offered, deftly sidestepping the matter. “I go into training to fight all ten rounds. I’ll take the fight round by round.” Her tune changed not once throughout the publicity tour, which remained cordial between the two fighters. Their handlers, not so much. “I think we’re a lot alike in that we just want to get in the ring and fight. She’s really not a talker and I’m really not a talker,” Holly maintained at the Las Vegas presser. “I mean, I know she wants to knock me out, but every fighter wants to do that. We respect each other.”

After trading insults with the more combative Jimmy Mallo, in addition to agreeing to a not-so-friendly $3,000 wager between the two, Holm’s coach Mike Winkeljohn assessed the situation in a manner that was complimentary and critical toward Sanders at the same time. “This is an easier fight for Holly than some of her others, even though Mary Jo is by far the most talented fighter she’s fought,” he began. “Sanders isn’t going to run and cover and keep her hands up high (a probable allusion to the crafty Belinda Laracuente, with whom Holly had just tangled). She’s gonna throw a lot of punches, and that’s going to leave her chin open for what Holly has to offer.”

Holm had to admit that handing Mary Jo the first loss of her career would be a game-changing achievement. “You get known through that,” she said, “and I think that can catapult my career.”

It’s debatable whether one was necessarily looking past the other but, in any event, the gameplan was for Mary Jo Sanders to leverage a victory over Holly Holm into a lucrative mega-fight against Laila Ali in 2009. She, of course, took a tactful, pragmatic approach to this scenario whereas Jimmy Mallo was treating it as a foregone conclusion. “It’s going to happen,” he insisted. “But we are not going to get ahead of ourselves.”

To precondition herself to Albuquerque’s climate and high altitude, Mary Jo slowly increased her road work over the course of an especially tough training camp and swam laps for weeks. “We have to be prepared for anything. Hometown decision, the crowd all cheering for Holly,” said Mary Jo. “We wanted a sparring partner who could duplicate her moves but was much, much stronger.”

Mallo hired Damian Fuller, a 30-5-1 Detroit-based lightweight world title hopeful managed by Jackie Kallen, to mix it up with Mary Jo for 30 to 40 rounds per week. Standing five-foot-eight, Fuller was a lefty known for his fast hands and fancy footwork and could therefore be counted on to mimic Holly Holm both physically and stylistically.

“Mary Jo has unloaded her heavy metal on me,” exclaimed Fuller shortly after a sparring session in which he had his mouthpiece jarred loose by a Sanders right hook. “She’s a class act. She takes boxing as seriously as I do. She’s got a great right hand and good uppercut. She’s going to stop this lady.”

Three of Sanders’ and Holm’s six mutual opponents came forward to share their perspective on how things might play out, with each choosing Mary Jo to win. More or less. “I don’t think Holly would do so well against Sanders,” surmised Tricia Turton, who dropped unanimous decisions to both women. “When Holly ducks, Mary Jo will make her pay. Holly is not going to knock anybody out.” To be fair, Holm did have six knockouts to her credit thus far, just two fewer than Sanders in fact, but was certainly neither known nor feared for her displays of brute force, as attested to by Chevelle Hallback.

“Holm fought a great, smart fight. She doesn’t have any power, but she’s hard to catch,” said Hallback, referring to their 2007 scrap. Besides having fought both women, Hallback would be featured in the co-main event on the Holm/Sanders undercard. “Mary Jo’s got much more power. I think Mary Jo will take her if she doesn’t let the movement get to her.” Chevelle walked her endorsement of Sanders back a few steps by adding, “Either of them could win. I just wish them both the best.”

Pittsburgh native Shadina Pennybaker wasn’t quite as diplomatic about it. Despite lasting the four-round distance with Mary Jo Sanders on two occasions, separated by just a matter of weeks early in their careers in 2003, and having more recently been the victim of a technical knockout at the hands of Holly Holm, Pennybaker summed up her viewpoint very matter-of-factly. “Mary Jo’d whoop Holm’s ass,” she stated. “Easily.”

Naturally, Sanders accepted the forecasts with her usual grace and humility while Holm relished in the fact that she was being underestimated, giving her the chance to prove her doubters wrong. To Mike Winkeljohn, it was all just a case of “girls” who “couldn’t hit Holly” striking back the only way they knew how—verbally.

Mary Jo and her team arrived in Albuquerque six days early so that she could acclimatize and participate in fight week press junkets. Sanders was still working out so intensely in the days ahead that Jimmy Mallo had to caution her to dial it back so as not to leave it all in the gym or on the side of the road. Regardless of the elevation gain and 90 degree heat, Sanders was feeling good and promised that it would be Holm who would be suffering from oxygen deprivation come fight night. “I’m going to starve her of breathing room,” said Mary Jo during the final media event. “I’m going to take it to her. I’m going to cut off the ring and bang!”

Holly, on the other hand, opined, “I think a good boxer is someone who can utilize power while they’re moving and boxing. Not every punch is going to be your most powerful punch, and not every movement is made just to be slick. You’re going to be trying to set up things.”

As was his tradition, Charlie Sanders was present to not only sit ringside for his daughter’s bout, but attend the previous day’s weigh-in. “He’ll be here for the fight, and he’ll probably be nervous,” Mary Jo assured the reporters. “He’ll say something like, ‘Shouldn’t you have your mean face on?’ Dad worries more than anyone else.”

Both women stepped on the scale comfortably below the 154-pound super-welterweight limit. The challenger was 152 ¼ while Holm, the defending champion, came in at 150 ½ which was exactly eight pounds more than she weighed for her previous fight. Sanders is thought to have rehydrated to approximately 160 pounds while Holly remained right around 150 in order to maximize her greatest assets, speed, and agility.

Besides Holm’s IFBA super-welterweight title being at stake, Sue Fox was on hand to present a ceremonial belt honoring the winner as the best pound for pound female boxer recognized by WBAN.

During the pay-per-view broadcast’s ring introductions, an onscreen graphic misidentified Sanders as “Mary Jo Hallback,” an obvious and careless blunder mangling the names of Mary Jo Sanders and Chevelle Hallback. The action-packed co-feature had just seen Chevelle gain custody of the vacant IFBA world lightweight title by narrowly outpointing Jeannine Garside, putting even greater pressure on Sanders and Holm to deliver a fight to remember.

“I don’t really know what she’s going to do coming out. That’s why we prepared for everything,” Sanders had pondered in a pre-fight interview. “She could try to feel me out a little bit or she could come out with that straight left hand. The few tricks that she has, we’ve got it covered. The work is done, it’s just reaction and going out there and doing what I’ve been working for.”

This is all well and good except for the fact that when confronting a fighter who has a style as uniquely confounding as Holly Holm, pre-conceived strategies often have to get left by the wayside. Success ultimately hinges on the ability to adapt and improvise. No amount of rounds sparred or time spent studying and scrutinizing tapes can fully prepare a boxer for the challenge of adapting to, and improvising against, your opponent’s distinct brand of unorthodoxy or becoming a victim to your own exasperation with their quirks and eccentricities.

 

Sources:

Mike Brundell. Title Bout Promises Sparks (Detroit Free Press, March 13, 2008)

Mike Brundell. Sanders: Boxer Toughens Training Routine For Next Fight (Detroit Free Press, June 7, 2008)

Mike Brundell. Sanders Hyped For Title Fight (Detroit Free Press, June 13, 2008)

Marvin Goodwin. Shields Learns From Sanders’ Stellar Career (New Haven Register, July 27, 2017)

Rick Wright. Holm Drubs Hallback (Albuquerque Journal, May 24, 2007)

Rick Wright. Holm—Sanders Pay-Per-View Bout a No-Go (Albuquerque Journal, October 27, 2007)

Rick Wright. Holm Wins By a Unanimous Decision (Albuquerque Journal, February 2, 2008)

Rick Wright. Two Daughters to Duke it Out (Albuquerque Journal, March 22, 2008)

Rick Wright. Holm Unfazed By Forecasts (Albuquerque Journal, June 11, 2008)

Rick Wright. Holm, Sanders Vie Tonight (Albuquerque Journal, June 13, 2008)

Mary Jo Sanders Biography (WBAN—accessed at https://www.womenboxing.com/biog/mjsanders.htm)

boxrec.com

Holly Holm/Mary Jo Sanders I (uploaded November 27, 2009—accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429vq4_z7lE)