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.

IBF Mandates September 26 Deadline For World Bantamweight Title Fight Between Ebanie Bridges and Shannon O'Connell

 

You can put this one in boxing’s all too rare “well, that escalated quickly” category. 

“She’s a nobody and the people teaming up with her are just haters,” Ebanie Bridges responded to a question posed to her on Twitter by freelance sportswriter and obvious admirer Dan Kelly regarding fellow Aussie and mandatory challenger Shannon O‘Connell. “She’s desperate for attention and begging me for exposure but I won’t give it to her cos she literally offers me nothing. If she was somebody, I’d fight her. It’s that simple.”

‘Shotgun’ Shannon retweeted this exchange, adding the caption, “Hahaha. She’s embarrassing herself.” Besides disrespectfully and erroneously referring to Shannon as “a nobody,” it is very odd indeed that Bridges, considering her bra and panties approach to gaining followers, would accuse O’Connell of being the one who is “desperate for attention” and “begging…for exposure.”  

Thankfully their war of words on social media will be settled by a war of attrition inside the ring at a date and time soon to be determined. Shannon had grave doubts about being given her rightful opportunity to face her brazen nemesis when I chatted with her about the prospect of an all-Aussie world bantamweight title fight for a story I wrote on the topic ten days ago.

Team Shotgun was initially informed that Bridges was not due to make a mandatory defense until March 2023, and the newly-crowned champion showed little interest in the prospect of clashing with O’Connell. Nor did Ebanie’s promoter Eddie Hearn. Talks between the Matchroom Boxing mogul and Matt Rose of No Limit Boxing, who represents O’Connell, had been contentious and unproductive.

Over the weekend, however, news broke that the IBF is ordering Ebanie Bridges to defend her world bantamweight belt against O’Connell by no later than September 26, with negotiations to be finalized within the next thirty days.

It makes perfect sense for the tussle between Bridges and O’Connell to be staged on Matchroom’s inaugural Australian boxing card which will be occurring on the Gold Coast in September. Whatever the time and locale end up being, one thing is certain. With an inevitable showdown with Shannon O’Connell looming just two months away, Ebanie Bridges is going to have to train her focus on much more than what she will be wearing, or not wearing, at the weigh-in.

Especially with a fired up ‘Shotgun’ Shannon vowing to “punch holes through her.”

Mandatory Challenger 'Shotgun' Shannon O'Connell Takes Aim at Ebanie Bridges, Discusses Potential All-Aussie Title Clash

 

Australia is an absolute hotbed of women’s boxing, and has been for quite some time. Look no further for proof of this than the significant achievements of Diana Prazak, Susie Q Ramadan, fighter and writer Mischa Merz, Cherneka Johnson, Kori Farr, Avril Mathie, Beck Hawker, Bianca Elmir, Taylah Robertson, Louisa Hawton, Caitlin Parker, and Skye Nicolson to name just a handful.

Differentiating oneself as more than just a face in the crowd amongst these noteworthy female fighters is quite a formidable task. And yet Queensland’s ‘Shotgun’ Shannon O’Connell (23-6-1, 11 KOs) has spent the last eighteen years doing exactly that.

Kicking off her amateur career in 2004 at the age of twenty-one, O’Connell claimed the top prize at the AIBA Oceania tournament that same year. She would go on to ascend to the upper tier of the medal stand at the 2005 Arafura Games and Oceanian Championships (which Shannon would win again in 2010), as well as fight her way to becoming the Australian National Champion in 2009 before turning pro two years later.

Having scrapped her way to a world title shot in only her ninth professional fight, O’Connell was just barely edged out on the scorecards by defending (and still to this day, even if her reign has been “massively cherrypicked” as Shannon asserts) WBA featherweight champion Hyun Mi Choi in May 2013. Six weeks later, Shannon would win the WBF portion of the 126-pound crown with a seventh-round knockout of Gabisile Tshabalala, who had to be conveyed from the ring on a stretcher and spent two years on the inactive list.

A reversal of fortune befell Shannon in her next bout when she was floored twice and ultimately stopped by WBC world featherweight titleholder Diana Prazak. In subsequent years, O’Connell would win the WIBA world title at super-bantamweight and pick up a secondary WBC belt in the same division which she would successfully defend on two occasions.   

2017 was a rough year for Shannon. Though she battled her way into contention for Marcela Eliana Acuna’s IBF super-bantamweight world title, O’Connell lost a purse bid to bring that fight to Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on the Manny Pacquiao/Jeff Horn undercard. Forced to travel to Argentina rather than appear on a high-profile show in front of 55,000 Aussie fight fans, Shannon gave a far better account of herself than the hometown judges’ scores would indicate, but was outpointed by the vastly more experienced Acuna.  

Worse still, O’Connell faced off against world title challenger Helen Joseph in a bounce-back fight a mere month and a half later and was stopped in the second round, knocked out cold by the Nigerian ‘Iron Lady’ courtesy of a hellacious left hook delivered during a heated exchange. She would turn things around before the year’s end, however, powering her way to a first-round TKO of Sumalee Tongpootorn.

O’Connell currently remains unbeaten in her last eight bouts, notching yet another first-round stoppage victory on June 29, this time opposite rising prospect Sarah Higginson. And after recuperating from two surgical procedures on her left shoulder, no less.

“The big part of my recent eight-fight winning streak came after I fell pregnant and had my baby boy. I guess having that bit of time out gave me time to sit back and analyze everything,” Shannon theorized in our recent conversation. “I also trained hard and not necessarily smart. I still do that, but not with boxing. I run hard and my strength and conditioning is hard, but my boxing is more about practicing little things and learning. My baby is now three and I haven’t had a loss, so I guess he’s my little lucky charm.”

Her successes have not gone unnoticed by two of boxing’s major sanctioning bodies. “I first became ranked #1 in the WBA by beating Cherneka Johnson, who was 13-0, on her coach’s promotion in early 2021,” O’Connell confirmed for me. “I then won the Commonwealth title in probably one of the harder Aussie vs. Aussie fights I’ve had against Kori Farr. Someone who I knew from thousands of rounds of sparring that was better than her record and just never on the ‘A’ side when it came to promoters. That got me ranked in the IBF.”

Now rated as the top bantamweight contender by both the WBA and IBF, ‘Shotgun’ Shannon is locked and loaded for what would undoubtedly be an all-action showdown with another female fighter from Down Under whom I have deliberately yet to mention. Namely everyone’s favorite cheeky Aussie (pun very much intended), Ebanie Bridges. Well, not everyone. O’Connell is neither amused nor impressed by Bridges’ antics, referring to her as “trash.” The disdain, for what it’s worth, appears to be mutual. Which Shannon is fine with.   

“She talks like she doesn’t know my name, etc. But of course she does. If she didn’t know my name, she wouldn’t feel the need to put me down every chance it gets mentioned,” said Shannon. “I think she forgets that she was a fan years ago.”

Despite the fact that O’Connell was installed as the WBA’s number one contender at the time, she was completely overlooked for a crack at their vacant bantamweight title last April. Instead, Ebanie Bridges and Shannon Courtenay, with only twelve fights’ worth of professional boxing experience between them, were given the nod. I couldn’t help but ask Shannon, who described the slugfest as looking like ”two novice girls just having a brawl,” how that was allowed to happen.

“Well, the WBA fight that I had (the title eliminator against Cherneka Johnson) was organized by my opponent’s trainer/promoter and, well, he’s not Eddie Hearn,” she chuckled. “So he managed to get both us bypassed so that Shannon Courtnay and Ebanie, who were both ranked lower than both of us, got the fight over us.” Meanwhile, things were reaching a boiling point between O’Connell and her own team, members of which it seems didn’t have her best interests at heart.

“I had a few management issues in my next fight prep and came to realize there were some things going on behind my back. Contracts not being mentioned to me for fights, including that IBF world title that Bridges ended up getting, and promotional deals. So I split with my manager and had no choice but to move on to a new coach,” she pointed out to me. “It turned out to be the best thing possible in both ways, coaching and management. Right from the get-go, Glen Jennings (Team Tszyu 2) and No Limit Boxing were on the hunt to get things moving and were trying to get the mandatory position locked in for before she (Bridges) even won the title. So it’s been months of behind the scenes pushing all while I was recovering from major shoulder surgery.”

Just last month, Eddie Hearn officially announced his plan to take Matchroom Boxing’s show on the road to Australia for the very first time in September. Headlined by a twelve-round super-lightweight bout between unbeaten contenders Liam Paro and Brock Jarvis, the card will also feature undefeated heavyweight Demsey McKean as well as former Olympian Skye Nicolson, who will be fighting in front of a home crowd for the first time as a pro.

Surely an all-Aussie bantamweight title clash between newly-crowned IBF champion Ebanie Bridges and her mandatory challenger Shannon O’Connell would be a no-brainer for inclusion as a chief support bout. Not so fast, submits O’Connell.

“Matt Rose (No Limit Boxing) has had contact with Eddie Hearn and he has no intention of putting her in with me, which is sad really because I’m sure he knows I at least deserve a shot at proving the belt should be mine,” Shannon asserted. “Eddie is a business man though at the end of the day, and I think he knows I’m the biggest draw to put her in against before she loses it anyway trying to unify because every one of those girls (Yulihan Luna, Jamie Mitchell, Dina Thorslund) beat her.”

Assuming the fight doesn’t take place in September, how confident is O’Connell that Bridges and Hearn will honor their obligation to her when or if the time eventually comes?

“We were told only a week ago that I am her mandatory, but she’s not due a mandatory defense until March 2023,” Shannon informed me. “We still pushed for the fight because, well you know, wouldn’t a champion want to challenge themselves? Apparently not all of them. I highly doubt the fight will happen because she knows I beat her.”

The scraphappy yet technically proficient O’Connell is confident that Bridges’ often reckless aggression is a style tailor-made for her to capitalize on. “To be honest, I really think it’ll be a good entertaining fight. She comes forward and that suits me perfect,” avowed Shannon. “She’s tough and so am I, but I have a lot more skill and knowledge. I think my experience and ability to adapt will definitely show.”

Nothing has ever come easy for Shannon O’Connell in or out of the ring. But something tells me, when it comes right down to it, she wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, the things in life most worth having should never be come by effortlessly. Having opportunities dropped into your lap or being gifted decisions does nothing but give the recipient delusions of grandeur and a sense of entitlement.

“Go figure,” Shannon laughs, having been around the block a time or two dozen by now and made to concede to her fair share of the fight game’s partisan repudiation. “It’s not what you’ve achieved, it’s who’s paying the bills.”

Ramla Ali: The Belle of the Brawl Continues Her Quest for a Crown

 

It might seem incongruous to some for a boxer in her early thirties to consider herself a work in progress. Ramla Ali, however, isn’t terribly concerned by other people’s perceptions of her, with the obvious exceptions of her family, friends, husband, and coach. It wasn’t always like that. But with tireless persistence and a work ethic equal to her desire to smash down barriers and initiate change, Ali moved past her insecurities to chase her dreams.

Free from the temptation of sneaking peeks into the rearview mirror, Ramla focuses on the here and now with careful consideration also given to the next bend in the road along what has already been a remarkable and fruitful journey. Navigating life’s blind curves is what keeps our minds alive, our reflexes sharp, and our hearts open to all possibilities.

Complacency is a fatal flaw which should be avoided at all costs as it prevents everyone, the prizefighter and average Joe or Jane alike, from fulfilling our potential. None of us should think of ourselves as finished products until the day our time runs out. To accept perfection as a reality is to betray the sense of how far we have come and capitulate to how much further we desire to push ourselves.  

Ramla Ali’s quest toward greatness has taken her from war torn Somalia and overcrowded refugee camps to appearing on the covers of the most posh fashion magazines, advocating for civil rights, and representing her homeland in the Olympics. A lot has happened even since then.

In the past year alone, Ramla embarked on a three-fight tour of the United States, published a memoir, inked a promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, was brought under the representation of the managerial team headed up by Anthony Joshua, and began training with the renowned Manny Robles. All things considered, the foundational building blocks are being put into their proper place in due time to allow Ali the continuation of her forward progress and upward mobility.

Step by step, Ramla climbs the rankings with the goal of world title contention inching ever closer to her reach. 6-1 Agustina Rojas, an aggressive 23-year-old Argentine with a walk-forward fighting style, presented Ramla with her latest and most substantial challenge this past Saturday at London’s O2 Arena on the undercard of the Derek Chisora/Kubrat Pulev rematch.

Ramla personally sold 1,000 tickets for her first eight-rounder, with her Somali brethren accounting for 800 of them. This was something for which she was particularly proud, especially since among them would be her entire family. With the exception of her youngest brother Yahya, none of them had ever seen Ramla box live and in person. Indeed, for many years she had to keep her pugilistic exploits secret from her mother, whose devout adherence to Islamic law forbade such activity.

Establishing a comfortable rhythm by throwing combinations behind a double or triple left jab proved very difficult for Ali in the early going. Rojas would consistently close the distance with a quick and effective jab of her own, successfully timing straight rights or looping hooks over Ramla’s receding left hand on multiple occasions. Ramla got in the last word of round one by landing a straight right just as the bell sounded.  

The shorter, stockier Argentinian gave Ali problems aplenty through the first few stanzas by bullying her way past the protective perimeter and clipping Ramla with left leads and right hooks on the way in. Ramla attempted to halt her advances with body shots and counter rights, but was menaced nevertheless by the scrappy and tireless Rojas.  

Spurred on by chants of “Ali! Ali! Ali!” emanating from her many Somali supporters, Ramla made adjustments in the middle rounds recommended by Manny Robles, such as mixing in uppercuts during the exchanges contested at close quarters, that permitted her the opportunity to control the pace and style of the fight more to her liking. Perhaps a little too much so, as Robles sternly advised her to quit admiring her work and stay busy throwing punches.      

Dutifully she obliged, increasing her offensive output and finding her target at a more successful rate. Ali also employed better use of her footwork and head movement to evade the vast majority of Rojas’ incoming shots, which were being thrown with less frequency and determination as time ticked down.

A tiring Rojas was now being forced to fight off the backfoot and went down to the canvas toward the end of the sixth, though not as the result of a punch. Ramla maintained command of the bout until the final bell, pitching a clean shutout over Rojas by the 80-72 tally arrived at by the lone scorekeeper, referee Chas Coakley.        

Potent and prudent in their shared approach as teacher and student, the team of Manny Robles and Ramla Ali appear to make a winning combination. Given Manny’s strict attention to detail and Ramla’s studious dedication to improving her technical skills, it is simply a matter of when, not if, they reach the summit together and see Ali claim yet another distinctive accomplishment by becoming boxing's first Somali world champion.