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) 

Seattle’s Zinda Foster and Sharon Allbery Punch Their Way Into History in 1975

Zinda Kaye Dinish-Foster was celebrated as “a true daughter of Seattle” following her untimely death at the age of 68 on November 26, 2022. A selfless and well-loved human being, Foster was remembered as a committed wife of 47 years to her husband Donald, a loving mother to her daughter-in-law Michele and son Jacobe, whose passing sadly preceded hers, a volunteer for the Montlake and Garfield Community Centers, a track and field coach, a learning coordinator and student advocate during a 25-year career at Lakeside School, a devout worshipper at the First AME church, an outspoken social activist, an accomplished seamstress who handcrafted her own prom and wedding dresses, and an artisan who made jewelry and quilts.

One accolade conspicuously absent from the outpouring of Zinda’s many affectionate testimonials was her contribution to the world of women’s boxing. There was no mention of the fact that in 1975 Foster made history by competing in the first sanctioned female prizefight to take place not just in her hometown of Seattle, or the state of Washington, but the entire Pacific Northwest region.         

Despite making it something of an unspoken personal mission to always put the concerns and the happiness of others well before her own, Zinda declared, “I can’t dismiss that my life matters, because I was born a Negro, elevated to Black and co-opted to be a hyphenated African American.” Welcomed into the world on February 22, 1954 by her parents David and Gynell Dinish at King County Hospital, Foster grew up in what she referred to as “the historically African American Central District” with nine siblings.

Foster remarked that she was “educated in underfunded public schools” but, nevertheless, managed to become a teenaged overachiever both academically and athletically. An honor roll student who co-edited the Garfield High School yearbook, Foster was a varsity cheerleader and three-time track and field champion as a member of CAYA (Crestview Area Youth Association), running the 50-yard dash in 5.9 seconds during a state meet to set a new girls’ record. She also enjoyed skating in her free time, whether on ice or at the roller rink.

Now twenty-one, Zinda was putting herself through college by working as an account administrator and model for the Bon Marche department store. She was also a newlywed, having just married former amateur boxer Donald Foster Jr., who had won the Tacoma Golden Gloves among other regional titles. Washington state being one of several to see women beginning to lobby athletic commissions for professional boxing licenses in the 1970s, with only Caroline Svendsen of Nevada just recently successful in her pursuit to that point, the unassuming Zinda Foster would end up as a primary beneficiary of the pressure being applied to local politicians by female residents of the Evergreen State who had to fight the powers that be for the right to fight one another. The matter reached all the way to the desk of the state’s attorney general Ernest Furia, who ruled in the women’s favor, stating that “they’re entitled to fight.”

If for no other reason than they found themselves legally backed into a corner they couldn’t muscle their way out of, the Washington State Athletic Commission approved the addition of a women’s bout, consisting of 3 one-minute rounds, to the October 21, 1975 card at the Seattle Center Arena which would be headlined by 1972 Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Seales, a native of Tacoma who was then 26-2-1 as a pro and defending his Pacific Northwest middleweight title against Renton’s ‘Iron’ Mike Lankester. “I talked to the attorney general’s office about this and I’m told we can’t stop this. So I’m not going to,” commission chairman Jimmy Rondeau conceded as if in helpless surrender. “But,” Rondeau felt compelled to point out, “we look upon this as an exhibition.”

Joe Williams, whose Global Productions was promoting the show, wasn’t thrilled either about the recent turn of events. He disclosed that there were “about 15 (women) who called us wanting to be on the card,” some of whom threatened to picket outside the arena on fight night if Williams failed to comply. “So we chose these two,” he relented.

“These two” that Williams referenced rather dismissively were Zinda Foster and Sharon Allbery, a 34-year-old widow and mother of three who worked as an advertising executive for Seattle radio station KUUU, coached the Westgate little league baseball team in Edmonds, and had been a bronc rider in the rodeo. “My father used to box as an amateur. I’m not really a women’s libber, but I believe in equality in sports,” said Allbery. “I’ve been involved in sports all my life. My dad was very athletic and I’ve tried some baseball, basketball, scuba diving, you name it.” Although she had taught her 13-year-old daughter self-defense techniques, Allbery confessed that “boxing is something I’ve never done, except with my two sons around the house.” Sharon said that her boys were initially “excited” about the idea of their mom being a boxer, but were nervous about the possibility of seeing her get hurt.    

“We fight a lot at home. I’ve boxed with him. I know how,” said Zinda Foster of sparring with her husband Don. “I feel good. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. No, I’m not looking for a career in boxing. I’m sort of over the hill for that,” she admitted, even though she was only twenty-one. “But I may be able to open some doors for younger girls. I’ve always felt that women have just as much right in sports as men. If women have the capabilities, why not?”

With the more quiet and lowkey Foster taking everything in stride, Allbery seemed to be getting swept up in the fanfare. “The press conference Friday was quite remarkable. Everybody seemed to be all for it,” she offered. “We had no problem passing the exam. The commission just wanted to know if we could handle ourselves. They’re mainly concerned with basic boxing fundamentals.” The afternoon of the fight, a news crew followed Sharon to a local salon where she got her hair done for the occasion. Foster, meanwhile, was busy answering phones during her day shift at Bon Marche, which just so happened to be a designated sales outlet for fight tickets. Even if her employee discount applied, Zinda didn’t need to buy a ticket, of course. In just a few short hours, she would be punching the time clock at Bon Marche before heading to the Seattle Center Arena where she would be inside the ring punching Sharon Allbery.

Angelo Dundee, the legendary trainer of Muhammad Ali, Carmen Basilio, and Sugar Ramos to name a few, was in town to work the corner of Mike Lankester for his main event title fight against Sugar Ray Seales and had taken the time to offer Allbery some pointers. “He seems to be very serious about it. Right away I could see why he’s such a respected trainer,” Sharon said. “He’s very easy to understand and work with. Basically, he’s emphasized that I should come up with a good solid defense.” Sound advice, if only she had followed it.    

Weighing in at 133 pounds and wearing a sleeveless t-shirt tucked into a blue wrestling singlet, Allbery was fashionably late making her appearance to step between the ropes, causing the ring announcer to joke, “Isn’t that just like a woman?” Dressed in simple green running shorts and a white tank top, Foster was announced at 131 pounds. Both women sported knee-length tube socks fashionable at the time. Being made to wait through the prolonged pre-fight formalities notwithstanding, Foster wasted little time getting down to business, pumping her left jab in Allbery’s face and enjoying repeated success with right hand follow-ups, confirming that she indeed knew what she was doing.

Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for Allbery to abandon what she had been instructed to do by Angelo Dundee now that push came to shove, instead spending the majority of the fight’s three minutes in a bewildered survival mode, backpedaling away from Foster and throwing patty cake-type punches with both hands. The best shot of the fight was a right cross landed by Zinda over Allbery’s two outstretched and dormant gloves in the second round, sending Sharon reeling back into the ropes where she pawed at her bleeding nose. Referee Jack Ableman jumped between the combatants to momentarily stop the onslaught but got a little too close for comfort once action resumed. “I nearly got clipped,” Ableman laughed afterwards.

In a show of diplomatic goodwill, the bout was declared a draw to the dismay of the 4,641 fans who booed the decision, or non-decision as it were. “When you have two ladies with that much sincerity, what can you say?” commented Ableman. Foster and Allbery were both paid $350, “the minimum appearance fee for this sort of bout” according to one of the promoters.

“I’m going to retire. Go back to singing. It’s safer,” said Sharon Allbery between gulps of air while wiping blood from her nose with one hand and holding a bouquet of red roses presented to her by a ringside admirer with the other. “It was lots of work. More than I like,” she acknowledged. “She hit me once—hard. It made me see stars. It really did. I must have hit her hard at least once because I’ve a big bruise here on my right hand.”

Athletic commission chairman Jimmy Rondeau, who made no bones about the fact that he had given the greenlight to the women’s bout only under protest to begin with, didn’t hold back when asked for his post-fight reflections. “It made me a little sick,” he said melodramatically. “We were sort of forced into it by a recent court ruling, but I think I might let them sue me before we do it again.”

Ringside physician Alex Grinstein shared Rondeau’s dim view of the situation. “Sharon’s nose was bruised and banged up a bit. It was the silliest thing I’ve seen in the 40 years I’ve been involved in sports,” the doctor ventured. “There’s no sense to it. It’s repulsive.”

The contempt wasn’t strictly limited to the men in attendance. “A woman’s place is not in the ring,” rued one female boxing fan who made it abundantly clear she was just there to see the main event. “We aren’t made to be fighters.”    

Although Zinda Foster enjoyed the experience, she remained doubtful that there was a future in boxing for her. “I don’t know whether I’ll do it again,” she pondered. “I don’t think my husband wants me to be away from home that much.”       

Continuing her studies at Whitman College and Western Washington State University, Foster would eventually earn her baccalaureate at the University of Washington and a master’s degree from Seattle University. The year after her foray into boxing, Zinda tried her hand at acting and landed a lead role in a Black Arts West production of the Langston Hughes gospel play Tambourines to Glory. Foster found her calling as an educator and community leader who truly made a difference and touched many lives, whether it was by surprising students and colleagues with their favorite snacks after a long day or coordinating voter registration efforts that extended as far as Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. The way she saw it, the smallest gesture could reasonably be just as impactful as the grandest.

“She was the type of person who saw a need and filled it,” said her niece, Latasia Lanier. Even if it was for one fleeting moment in the life of a young woman in her early twenties who was destined to achieve many remarkable things for which she would be respectfully memorialized, Zinda Foster helped fill a need in women’s boxing that kept the wheels of progress turning.

“Statues will probably never be erected in honor of Zinda Foster and Sharon Allbery,” wrote Tacoma News Tribune sports editor Earl Luebker in 1975. “But they are pioneer women.”

 

Sources:

Stan Farber. Dundee Sees Seales Date as Crucial (Tacoma News Tribune, October 18, 1975)

Will Nessly. Women to Step Into Ring (Everett Daily Herald, October 18, 1975)

Stan Farber. Seales, Mike Tangle Tonight (Tacoma News Tribune, October 21, 1975)

Paul Miller. When Sharon Meets Zenda, Blows Will Be Struck For Women’s Lib (Everett Daily Herald, October 21, 1975)

Steve Kelley. Female Fighter Late, Then Loses (The Olympian, October 22, 1975)

Two Women Meet In Seattle Ring, Fight to Draw (Chico Enterprise-Record, October 22, 1975)

Will Nessly. She’s Hanging Up the Gloves (Everett Daily Herald, October 22, 1975)

Earl Luebker. Zinda, Sharon Pioneer Field as Ringwomen (Tacoma News Tribune, October 22, 1975)

Women Boxing—1975 (Footage World, uploaded to YouTube October 28, 2009)

Zinda Foster—2020 Artist Profiles, Winners: Black Lives Matter Artist Grant (Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 2020)

Obituary: Zinda Kaye Dinish-Foster (The Seattle Medium, December 21, 2022)

Samara N. What a Spirit: Celebrating Ms. Zinda Foster (Lakeside School Tatler, January 10, 2023) 

How the Unlikely Duo of Gladys Smith and Toni Tucker Achieved a First for Women’s Boxing in New York

The first known women’s boxing match that took place in the United States occurred at Harry Hill’s Theater in New York on March 16, 1876 when Nell Saunders engaged Rose Harland in a sparring competition officiated by Hill himself, who rewarded Saunders with a narrow decision and a silver  butter dish. Twelve years later, Hattie Leslie and Alice Leary participated in an illegal prizefight in a barn on Navy Island, located off Buffalo’s Niagara River, resulting in the arrests of both combatants as well as their seconds and financial backers. ‘Countess’ Jeanne LaMar had boxed exhibitions in New York and petitioned the state athletic commission for a professional license in 1922 but was denied, though she would obtain one from New Jersey the year after. African American trailblazers Emma Maitland and Aurelia Wheeldin brought their ‘Tea For Two’ stage act, during which they boxed one another for three rounds, to cabarets, ballrooms, and vaudeville theaters not only all around Manhattan but across the globe throughout the 1920s and 30s.

After four years of going toe to toe with the New York State Athletic Commission in grueling legal battles, Lady Tyger Trimiar, Jackie Tonawanda and Cathy Davis were simultaneously granted their professional boxing licenses on September 19, 1978. It would take another ten months for the first officially sanctioned women’s boxing match in New York state history to be contested and, curious as it might seem, none of the three female pugilists who fought so hard for so long to make it happen would be involved.

Lady Tyger had fought her friend and Job Corps coworker ‘Killer’ Diane Corum in an amateur bout at the Audubon Ballroom on May 1, 1974 and, five months later, sparred both future middleweight world champion Vito Antuofermo and Junior Olympic lightweight champion Miles Ruane during an exhibition in Little Italy but would never once box in her home state as a professional. Neither would Jackie Tonawanda, the self-proclaimed ‘Female Ali,’ who became the first women’s boxer to compete in Madison Square Garden on June 7, 1975, albeit in a mixed gender exhibition against kickboxer Larry Rodania. Among the triumvirate of original licensees, only Cathy ‘Cat’ Davis would fight in New York and not until April 11, 1981 when she knocked out Lavonne Ludian at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in upstate Poughkeepsie.

In Jackie Tonawanda’s only verifiable pro bout, she was beaten by Valerie Diane Clark, who fought as ‘Dynamite’ Diane, winner by six-round split decision over ‘the Female Ali’ to capture the WWBA light-heavyweight title and a $300 purse in Louisville, Kentucky on February 16, 1979. Two months later, Clark was scheduled to participate in New York’s inaugural women’s professional boxing match opposite Marge Golden at the War Memorial in Syracuse. Promoter Tony Graziano received the begrudging seal of approval from the New York State Boxing Commission to add the women’s bout to the April 14 card sponsored by the Canastota Boxing Club.

“Why would a woman want to get mixed up in this business?” grouched regional athletic commissioner Tom Rees. “The State Supreme Court told us we have to do this. I don’t really want to get into what I feel about it all. But I think you know,” Rees intimated to Bob Snyder of the Syracuse Herald-Journal. “We’ve got to make the best of a bad situation.”  

It was a situation which was obviously also disagreeable to Carmen Basilio. “I’m against it,” stated the Canastota born and bred two-division world champion, most famous for his pair of fifteen-round wars with Sugar Ray Robinson where they traded the middleweight title back and forth. “Everything’s equal rights nowadays. So why fight it? You’d just end up in the courts or in jail. But would you want to marry some woman who’s been punched in the head too many times?”

Twenty-six-year-old Diane Clark was born in Washington DC but relocated with her family to New York in her pre-teens, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School and going on to study nursing at John Jay College. Her cousin was an amateur boxer and Clark would spar with him at home. It was with his encouragement that, after a year spent working as a nurse’s aide, she began seeking out a gym where she could train. “The first five I called said they wouldn’t, that they don’t train women,” said Diane, who wound up at the more welcoming confines of Gleason’s Gym, located then on 34^th Street, where she was put through her paces three hours a day, five times a week.

When the trainer who had originally agreed to work with Clark suddenly passed away, she was taken under the wing of Lee Black, a middleweight journeyman who boxed in the mid to late 40s and twice fought Jake LaMotta’s manager and little brother Joey. “Women are very vicious,” insisted Black. “Once in the ring, they may be a better show than the men.” Starting off at welterweight and gradually working her way up to light-heavy, Diane had been competing professionally for three years, mostly in Canada where it was easier to get fights. She compiled an 8-0-1 record along the way, up to and including her recent win over Jackie Tonawanda when she had stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Lillian ‘Wonder Woman’ Wells.

“I feel like we’re special. Before my first fight, I was scared, nervous. I didn’t know how people would take me,” confessed ‘Dynamite’ Diane. “But after, they asked for my autograph. Now they tell me to stay with it. I want to make this grow. If I was embarrassed, there’d be no sense going on.” Clark was hopeful but realistic about her future prospects as a prizefighter. “The commissioner said women may fight until the age of forty,” she said. “With me, if boxing doesn’t go international, maybe I’ll fight to thirty. Then go back to school.”        

All of the commotion surrounding the April 14 Diane Clark/Marge Golden matchup became an anticlimactically moot point when Golden’s pre-fight gynecological exam turned up an unspecified irregularity. With no time to scare up a substitute, Clark was left on the outside of the Syracuse War Memorial looking in. Nancy Sciacca, New York’s only female fight promoter at the time, seized the history-making opportunity and signed middleweights Gladys ‘Bam’ Smith and Toni ‘Leatherneck’ Tucker to square off against one another at the 369^th Regiment Armory in Harlem on July 16.

As her nickname suggests, the 24-year-old Tucker was a three-year veteran of the Marine Corps where she learned to box mostly by sparring with men. She enjoyed her overnight shift patrolling the IND Eighth Avenue subway line from 8pm til 2am as one of over 100 members of Curtis Sliwa’s crimefighting outfit the Magnificent 13, the predecessor to his Guardian Angels, often teaching Kungfu to her comrades.

“Boxing has more contact. Kungfu is more self-defense. You very rarely get to use it,” Tucker reasoned. “The only time I used it was on 42^nd Street. The men over there, they bother young ladies. I was attacked by a man. He wanted to take me to a motel. He kept pulling my arm and wouldn’t let go. So I took his hand and I swung his arm around and pulled it tight, so that if I pulled any tighter his elbow would break. Then he left me alone. He knew I meant business.” Curtis Sliwa knew it too after Toni got a little carried away when the director of the ABC YOU program wanted to see the two spar for the cameras while filming a segment on the Magnificent 13. “I knocked him down and there was blood,” Tucker recounted. “The director yelled, ‘Cut! Cut!’” Rather than get upset, Sliwa was impressed and promised Toni he would be attending her fight.   

A 21-year-old mother of two, Gladys Smith had belonged to a gang in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, meaning that her taste for fist-fighting was first acquired and satisfied on the streets. Trainer Hilliard Edmund took Smith on as a student at his 8^th Street Gym which had previously welcomed through its doors Newark native Marvin Hagler, Saoul Mamby, and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, who at the time was still going by Eddie Gregory and, eight months away from unseating WBA world light-heavyweight champion Marvin Johnson, would be sharing the July 16 undercard in Harlem with Toni Tucker and Gladys Smith. Now that she was dedicated to carving out a better life for herself and her two young sons, Smith was optimistic that a victory over Tucker might inspire some of her friends still living the gang life to change their ways as well. Gladys’ good intentions notwithstanding, ‘Leatherneck’ Tucker promised, “I’m going to knock her block off.”

Dressed in camouflage pants, a white t-shirt emblazoned with the Magnificent 13 logo, and the organization’s trademark red beret, Tucker exhibited military-type punctuality by appearing for the weigh-in at the State Athletic Commission offices not one minute later than the appointed time of 11:30am, tipping the scales at 157 pounds. Her opponent, however, was missing in action and feared to be a no-show like she was for a fight in Nova Scotia a few months prior, an infraction that resulted, oddly enough, in the suspension not of Gladys Smith but her trainer Hilliard Edmund by the Nova Scotia Athletic Commission. Because of a mutual agreement between the two entities, the NYSAC would uphold Nova Scotia’s actions against Edmund and prevent him from working Smith’s corner, assuming she turned up at some point.

The suspense was brought to an end two hours later when Gladys finally materialized and weighed in at 160 on the nose. The gynecological exams performed on both Smith and Tucker came back clean and it looked like the fight was on. But no so fast. While Gladys Smith did indeed show up at the 369^th Regiment Armory, she left her mandatory breast protector back home in Newark. Without it she would not be allowed to enter the ring, so an anxiety-inducing round-trip from Harlem to Jersey was undertaken and completed with just twenty minutes to spare before bell time.       

2,500 fans filled the Armory to witness history in the making as Gladys ‘Bam’ Smith and Toni ‘Leatherneck’ Tucker stood in opposing corners, came to center ring for referee Billy Graham’s instructions, touched gloves, and commenced to swinging. Smith was the far busier, not to mention stronger, of the two from the outset, peppering Tucker with left/right combinations throughout the six 2-minute rounds. Surprisingly, fatigue seemed to set in rather quickly for Tucker, who could be seen rolling her mouthpiece around with her tongue from the second round on in an effort to clear passage for the intake of more air.

Her mouthpiece spilled out onto the canvas in the fourth and Toni fumbled around trying to clumsily pick it up and shove it back in with a gloved hand. Since referee Billy Graham neglected to call timeout to allow Tucker to get her bearings, Smith nailed her defenseless foe with three consecutive left hands. Tucker grabbed Gladys in a clinch, holding on for dear life in a desperate attempt to smother the attack. Admonished by the referee, who appeared to be on the verge of stopping the fight, Tucker protested to Graham, “All I’m trying to do is get my mouthpiece back.”

Tucker lasted the distance, but it was Gladys Smith who had her hands raised in victory, one of which grasped a small trophy that was presented to her after the decision was announced. “I have to get in shape,” admitted an overjoyed Smith, who also took home a $400 payout. “I want to fight again. I want to be the champion.”

Gladys’ trainer, Hilliard Edmund, opined, “For two girls, it was an even match. You never know until you get in the ring and now she knows she has to train harder.”

Jack Brami, the assistant matchmaker for Madison Square Garden, was on hand to conduct a scouting mission to find talent worthy of fighting in the world’s most famous arena. Asked whether he felt women qualified based on the bout he had just watched between Gladys Smith and Toni Tucker, Brami remained noncommittal. “Up until now, we have no interest,” he said. “What remains in the future, I don’t know.”

Only a clairvoyant could predict with any degree of accuracy that it would be seventeen years in the future before the Garden would host a women’s boxing match when Kathy Collins outpointed Andrea DeShong over six rounds on August 20, 1996.

To illustrate how far women’s boxing has evolved, we fast forward again to the present day in 2025 as Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano prepare to conclude their trilogy on July 11 right back where it started, at Madison Square Garden. Already having shattered MSG’s metaphorical glass ceiling by becoming the first women to headline the ‘Mecca of Boxing’ on April 30, 2022, this time they will be topping a bill of all-female bouts. 

 

Sources:

Female Boxers (New York Daily Herald, March 17, 1876)

Jackie Tonawanda To Defend Women’s Title (Macon Telegraph, February 15, 1979)

War Memorial Boxing Includes Female Debut (Binghamton Press and Bulletin, April 13, 1979)

Bob Snyder. Women’s Pro Boxing Bout KO’d by Physical Exam (Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 13, 1979)

‘Snyde’ Remarks (Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 14, 1979)

Aaron C. Elson. A Couple of Girls Ring in NYS History Tonight (New York Daily News, July 16, 1979)

Aaron C. Elson. Women’s Bout Nearly KO’d (New York Daily News, July 17, 1979)

N.Y. Hosts Its First Women’s Boxing Match (Central New Jersey Home News, July 17, 1979)

Aaron C. Elson. Bam Gets Nod Over Toni in 6 (New York Daily News, July 17, 1979)

Bob Straetz. It’s No Sport For Women (Poughkeepsie Journal, April 12, 1981)  

Julie Mullen: The 1970s ‘Girl Machine’ Who Manufactured KOs

Although she didn’t identify as a women’s-libber, power-punching welterweight Julie Mullen warned sportswriter Bill Conlin, who was preparing a feature on her for the Sacramento Bee in April 1978, “Don’t refer to me as a practitioner or a performer in the ‘Manly Art,’ because I know that’s one of your favorite expressions to describe boxing.” Conlin attempted to deflect Julie’s verbal jab by inquiring how she wished to be categorized. “Just say I’m ambitious and with a consuming desire to win the world championship and bring it to Sacramento,” Mullen countered. “I’m going for the title, and it will take somebody awfully strong to stop me.” Sporting a perfect record at the time this article was published consisting of six wins in as many months, with only two of those lasting until the final bell, it was a fool’s errand to argue with her. Julie Mullen had earned her assuredness in demonstrable fashion and in short order.

A self-defined “jock” since she was a young girl, Julie competed in track and field, softball, handball, and archery while coming of age in the old mining town of Virginia City, Nevada. Caroline Svendsen, the first woman to be granted a professional boxing license in the state of Nevada, also happened to call Virginia City home. Whether destiny or coincidence, it nevertheless set fire to Mullen’s imagination as to her own potential of becoming a prizefighter, and when Julie did decide to grab “a piece of the action,” in her own words, it would be under the guidance of Svendsen’s manager, Ted Walker.

The 20 year-old Mullen signed on the dotted line for her first fight on a card put together by renowned matchmaker Bill Dickson, who operated out of Gardnerville, to take place at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe on October 6, 1977. Julie dedicated her time not spent tending bar in Reno or pitching for a semi-pro softball team to boxing training, even benefitting from the opportunity to spar with junior-welterweight Harvey Arnold, who would be squaring off against Jose Hernandez in the ten-round main event. Phyllis Brueske, a 30 year-old “chip girl in a Gardena poker parlor” according to a newspaper writeup, was brought in by San Pedro-based boxing manager Dee Knuckles as a last-minute replacement for Julie’s original opponent, Dolly DuLove. Brueske was also a competitive runner, but there was nowhere for her to run from Mullen’s rocket launcher of a right hand which connected twice in quick succession within the first thirty seconds to put her down for the count administered by referee and former boxer Sammy Macias.

Mullen was back in action after a mere three weeks and she was intent on living up to her nickname, ‘Girl Machine,’ by making the turnaround time between her second and third fights significantly shorter than that. Forty-eight hours to be exact. First, Julie outpointed soon-to-be world junior-lightweight champion Toni Lear Rodriguez at the Carson City Community Center the day before Halloween to earn what the visiting fighter from Portland, Oregon complained was a “hometown split decision.” The 122-pound Lear wanted to prove herself so badly against the heavier Mullen that she later admitted to loading her pockets at the weigh-in to come as close to 140 as possible. “I had to take all kinds of chances,” Toni conceded. “You see, nobody in boxing had taken me seriously.” They would soon enough.

Nevada State Athletic Commission executive secretary Johnny ‘Mag’ Mangiaracina opted to waive their rule prohibiting boxers from reentering the prize ring less than three days after a four-round bout, clearing Julie to fight again November 1, this time opposite another Dee Knuckles protégé, the debuting Fonda Gayden, back at the familiar confines of the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. In his fight report, the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Steve Sneddon referred to Mullen as “the tomboy next door” who “combines an infectious girlish smile with a right hand which is almost lethal.” Like her sparring partner Phyllis Brueske before her, Gayden felt the full impact of Mullen’s hellacious right hand which detonated again and again on her chin for roughly three and a half minutes before reaching the conclusion that enough was enough and requesting that Sammy Macias stop the fight with a little less than forty seconds remaining of the second round.

“When I win, I’m happy. I’m full of happiness,” Julie told Sneddon when asked about her exuberant post-fight celebration. “When you get in the ring, you have doubts that you can win. When you hear your name announced as the winner, it’s the greatest thing that ever happened.” The fact that Ted Walker signed her to a three-year managerial contract extension earlier that evening may have also contributed to Mullen’s giddy mood.

“I know she can fight better than she has shown,” Walker commented on Mullen’s occasionally flailing offensive attack against Gayden. To demonstrate that he was in no way damning her with faint praise, Walker insisted that “what she does in the gym now is what she’s going to be doing in the ring later.” Accordingly, Julie spent more than a month working diligently with Walker to improve her technique. “In a year and a half, she’ll be the best of the welterweight girls,” enthused her manager, pleased with Mullen’s progress in curtailing some of her reckless tendencies without sacrificing her killer instinct. “She even realizes it when she hurts me in the gym,” Walker continued. “Even fighting guys in the gym, she jumps on them. She hears that oomph and she goes after them.”     

On December 6, 1977 the Hyatt Lake Tahoe would play host to yet another night of boxing. But this was no ordinary, run of the mill event. For the first time ever, more than two women’s bouts would be contested on the same card as confirmed by matchmaker Bill Dickson. For those keeping score at home, there were four. The women’s prelims would follow two curtain-raising amateur fights and precede a ten-round main event, all featuring male boxers. Squeaky Bayardo decked Karen Bennett on three occasions before their bout was halted in the fourth and final round, Toni Lear Rodriguez won on points over Baby Bear James, Shirley ‘Zebra Girl’ Tucker decisioned Fonda Gayden, and Julie Mullen notched her second consecutive stoppage (third in total) with a first-round knockout of novice Rochelle Johnson. After sending Johnson to the canvas for the second time with less than a minute elapsed, referee Curt Kinseth waved off the fight without the benefit of a count. “I knew my right hand was going to KO her,” boasted Mullen. “When I hit them with the right hand, I know I’m going to hurt them.”

Decorated amateur boxer and future world heavyweight champion Greg Page was in town to take part in the USA vs. Soviet Union Meet at the Las Vegas Hilton that weekend and sat ringside for fight night at the Hyatt. Unlike the majority of his teammates, Page was impressed by the women’s bouts and by Julie Mullen’s Sunday punch in particular. “A right hand on a girl like that. That’s something. I knew they could fight, but I didn’t know they had that much power,” said Page with Mullen standing within earshot. He then joked, “If she hit me, I would call the cops on her.”

Mullen’s January 12, 1978 scrap with Ruth Maynard, fighting out of Vancouver, Washington, was postponed when Julie came down with bronchitis and the makeup date was marked on the calendar for March 15. The setting? You guessed it, the Hyatt Lake Tahoe at Incline Village. Maynard’s only previous experience in the boxing ring was getting knocked out by Toni Lear Rodriguez back in December and she would fare no better against Mullen, preferring to remain on her stool after the third and penultimate round and have her lacerations tended to rather than come back out to absorb further punishment. She did manage to get in at least one good shot, however, according to Mullen. “She really rung my bell in that first round. It was a right hand counter that hurt me,” recounted Julie. “It shook my whole body. It made it tingle. That’s how I got this fat lip.”

Mary Kudla, a graduate student whose lifelong love of physical fitness dated back to happily performing childhood chores like milking cows on the family farm in Mosinee, Wisconsin, was next on Mullen’s agenda in the semi-windup bout at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe on April 4. Just one week earlier, Kudla had stepped in as a zero-hour substitute for Sue ‘KO’ Carlson’s originally scheduled opponent, bloodying the hometown favorite’s nose in the first stanza and capturing a four-round decision in only the second fight in Minnesota state history (Carlson had outpointed ‘Iron Maiden’ Bonnie Prestwood on January 23 at the Minneapolis Auditorium).

Mullen rocked Kudla with a pair of rights in the second round which typically signaled the beginning of the end for Julie’s adversaries, but a bloody Mary kept her composure and fought back admirably, turning the tables briefly in the third with a well-timed left hook. “That was a tough fight. That’s the first time I’ve fought somebody who really gave me a workout,” said Mullen, who indeed had her hands full fending off Kudla in a winning effort over four rounds. “She rung my bell two or three times, but I wasn’t going to give in.” This marked only the second time Julie had been taken the full distance and was described as a “wild battle” by the Nevada State Journal’s Steve Sneddon, who opined that Mullen and Kudla came close to upstaging the main event, an anticipated grudge match between super-lightweight rivals Jose Hernandez and Curtis Ramsey. A cut inside Julie’s bottom lip was severe enough to nearly require being sewn shut but not so much that it hindered her compulsive habit of chewing gum. She wouldn’t get off quite so lucky with her next medical mishap. And that one would occur not in the Hyatt Lake Tahoe ring, but in the streets of East Sacramento.  

Now ranked third by the WWBA in the welterweight division behind Dulce Lucas and Theresa ‘Princess Red Star’ Kibby and above Gwen Gemini and Sue Fox to round out the top five, Mullen decided on a change of scenery and relocated temporarily to Sacramento, intent on leveraging her record of 6-0 with 4 KOs into a title fight. In preparation, she worked out at the Sacramento PAL Gym at 3^rd and P Streets, sparring with local journeymen Babs McCarthy and ‘Pistol’ Pete Ranzany, who nearly made the 1972 Olympic squad but for a loss to eventual gold medalist Sugar Ray Seales in the semifinal round of the Trials. Like Ranzany and McCarthy, Julie was trained by Herman Carter, whose clientele at one time or another had also included the celebrated likes of Sandy Saddler, Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, and Monroe Brooks to name a few.

Things were looking up for Mullen and she was booked for a match against newcomer Shirley Emerson of Watts as part of the July 3 Cow Pasture Boxing Festival in Gardnerville, Nevada. Fate, as it often does, had other plans. A baffling newspaper report by Bill Conlin in the July 17 edition of the Sacramento Bee stated that Julie had been hospitalized, needing 57 stitches to close wounds originating from putting her hand through the glass in a picture frame as well as an attack by a razor-wielding assailant while she was walking down the street. What the two incidents had to do with one another, if anything, how closely timewise each one occurred, and why she was evidently treated once and at the same time for both injuries are anybody’s guess. No further details were made available, other than that Mullen was fully healed and ready to take on Valerie Ganther (misidentified by Conlin as Janet Gaither) on July 22 in Truckee, California.

There was lost ground to be reclaimed, as Mullen had slipped to #5 in the welterweight rankings during her misadventures in Sacramento and it was doubtful that a four-round draw with Ganther, a 21-year-old full-contact karate competitor making her boxing debut, would help matters any. 500 fans turned out to the Tahoe-Truckee High School Surprise Stadium for the five-fight card which also featured Squeaky Bayardo winning a decision over Joann Williams. Uncharacteristic of Mullen’s fights, it was Ganther who emerged as the aggressor, landing left hooks in the first and second rounds that had Julie momentarily buzzed. Mullen managed to shake them off, but was seemingly unable to gain the upper hand until cracking Ganther with a short right hand in the final round.

Too little, too late, and Mullen was fortunate to walk away with a deadlock on the judges’ scorecards instead of an upset loss. “I was surprised. She punched harder than I thought. She’s the best puncher I’ve fought,” admitted Mullen. Nevertheless, she said of the decision, “I don’t like it. I thought I won it, maybe by a point.”

It goes without saying that Valerie Ganther and her team saw things from a different point of view. “We won the first two rounds, the third was even, and the other girl won the fourth,” stated Ganther’s manager, Hap Holloway. “The draw was my fault. I told her (Valerie) to coast in the fourth because we had the fight won.”

Mullen later confessed to being unsettled by recent events and that her focus wasn’t completely on the task at hand. “In that fight, my mental state wasn’t good,” she declared. “I was having personal problems. That was a mistake to let it bother me.”

Julie’s manager, Ted Walker, was able to find the silver lining woven through the otherwise dreary scenario. “It’s a blessing in disguise,” he said of the stalemate against Ganther. “It’s been hard to match her (Mullen). Now they’ll get off their high horses and fight us.” Walker’s optimism was put to the test when the lone challenge that had come along in the meantime, an August 5 fight against Las Vegas-based Charlene Anthony at the Spring Creek Sports Palace in Elko, Nevada, fell through at the last minute. It took an additional two and a half months, but the window of opportunity would open for Mullen in the familiar form of Toni Lear Rodriguez.     

One year to the day since their first meeting, Mullen and Rodriguez resumed hostilities for a non-title bout at the Carson City Community Center on October 30. Toni Lear had captured the vacant WWBA world junior-lightweight title back in January by beating Tansy ‘Baby Bear’ James in a rematch of their own. Mullen struggled down to 135 and still had a 13-pound advantage over Rodriguez, running her record to 2-0 against Toni Lear (7-0-1 overall) via unanimous decision despite having to shake off the cobwebs from absorbing a few flush right hands long the way. “I’m in a lot better shape now,” Julie testified afterwards. “I did my road work this time.” The ‘Girl Machine’ was confident that she had undergone the repairs necessary to set herself back on track, engines roaring and tires squealing toward a title shot looming just over the horizon. Mullen’s faith would soon be rewarded. Locally anyway.

Four women’s title fights headlined a Hyatt Lake Tahoe card on November 21, with Karen Bennett winning the world bantamweight championship courtesy of a second-round stoppage of Bonnie Prestwood in the main event. The other three female bouts would be contested for Nevada State titles. Ginate Troy was awarded the flyweight title by knocking out Laurie Ferris in the first round, and the lightweight title would go to Squeaky Bayardo, who outpointed Carlotta Lee. Lavonne Ludian, a Tahoe blackjack dealer and prizefighter who had competed against Theresa ‘Princess Red Star’ Kibby for the third time in the first women’s bout broadcast on national TV a year and a half prior, was something of an idol to Julie Mullen. Not only did Mullen put aside her hero worship of Ludian for the duration of their Nevada State welterweight championship match, she put Lavonne down on the canvas twice in the fourth round with a pair of left/right combinations and was awarded the TKO victory.     

“She is probably one of the best women fighters in the world. She had the publicity. I was just excited to fight her. I didn’t realize that I hit her that hard. I was afraid when I saw her go down,” said Julie, referring to the first knockdown when Ludian landed headfirst. “I didn’t want to hurt her. She is a real nice lady.” Even if only regional in nature, Mullen had finally attained championship status and was still hopeful that worldwide recognition as the best female welterweight in boxing was soon to follow.

Instead, Mullen found herself in Billings, Montana on April 7, 1979 to compete in that city’s inaugural women’s bout opposite Jennie O’Brien, a 34-year-old pro wrestler who was filling in for the absent Sandy Parker. Only 3,200 of the Metra Center’s 9,000 seats were occupied by fight fans witnessing this historic first and, although “the welcome in Billings for the most part, was friendly” remarked John Blanchette writing for The Billings Gazette, the women were greeted by predictably bad behavior from at least a portion of the predominantly male crowd who viewed their bout as a novelty. Some wiseguy suggested not so subtly to O’Brien during a break in the action in round one, “Get a hormone test!” Another smart aleck felt compelled to shout “Atta boy!” at Mullen whenever she pressed the advantage.

Bystanders impatient for the conclusion of the women’s scrap wouldn’t be left waiting long. The very first punch of the fight from Mullen was thrown with such authority that referee Dick Weinhold administered a standing-eight count to O’Brien. This set the tone for how the remainder of the contest played out. Two times in the next round Mullen pummeled O’Brien into the ropes, the second occasion resulting in another standing-eight from the ref. Julie deposited O’Brien onto the canvas with a right hand to the midsection in the opening moments of round three. Forty-five seconds later, it was all she wrote for O’Brien after another body blow by Mullen created an opening for a pair of vicious head shots. Dick Weinhold put a stop to the carnage at 1:10 of the third round with O’Brien laid out at his feet. “Hi, baby!” a voice in the crowd yelled to the victorious Mullen as she made her way through the arena back to the dressing room.

“There isn’t much you can say about a fight like that. It wasn’t a very good fight. She was just very easy to hit,” assessed Mullen. “I wanted it to be a good, hard six rounds for myself, for a workout. But it’s another KO for my record—that’s six now,” she tallied. “I’ve gotten a good fan following. The audience is what gets me going. If they’re good, I’ll have a good fight.”

“It’s not bad, but it’s not my sport,” confided Jennie O’Brien, whose boxing career would amount to one and done. “If people offer me money, I’ll fight. But I like wrestling better. I like the body contact and being in complete control of my body. I don’t feel that way with boxing gloves on. Plus, in the last ten years, I’ve been to Australia twice, Japan eight times, Indonesia, all over Canada. I’ve seen a lot.” 

As was customary early on for Mullen, she had already signed up for another fight to follow hot on the heels of the previous one and she would return to Nevada for what would be her seventh and final appearance at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe just five days removed from her knockout of Jennie O’Brien in Billings. Another common theme throughout Julie’s boxing odyssey was having to contend with no-shows and replacement opponents. This would be no exception.

Not much was known at the time about 18-year-old Britt VanBuskirk, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. It turns out she would be a considerable trade-up from Mullen’s originally scheduled opponent, the even more enigmatic JoJo Crummens. With only two bouts in Japan on her résumé to that point, one of which was a boxer versus kickboxer exhibition, it would have been easy to look past Britt. But it would also have been folly to do so. Looks, as they say, can be deceiving and VanBuskirk, built like the female version of Thomas Hearns with her tall, lanky frame and a right hand capable of bringing down a brick wall, may have been an unknown quantity but was not to be underestimated. Which is not to suggest that was the mindset of Mullen, whose own deadly weapon was her right hand as well. This made it a question of who could pull the trigger quicker. VanBuskirk provided the answer in the second round, putting Julie down and out with an explosive right behind her long left jab.  

Looking to rebound from suffering her first defeat, a knockout at the hands of a relative novice no less, Mullen took a confidence-building fight against a pugilistic greenhorn in Bernice Ford of Sacramento, scheduled to take place on June 16 at a makeshift 1,200-seat bleacher stadium set up in a parking lot on Yerington, Nevada’s Main Street. Ford was nowhere to be found come fight night and Julie had to settle for boxing a four-round no-decision exhibition with another newbie by the name of Judie James, who Mullen outweighed by twelve pounds.  

On September 18 at the Shy Clown Casino, located on the corner of Glendale and Rock in Sparks, Mullen was supposed to have squared off against “The Famous Rowdy Rebecca Johnson,” as advertised in the Nevada State Journal the day before. For reasons unknown, that matchup was scratched from the card and Julie would not re-enter a boxing ring again until she pounded out a six-round decision over first-timer Blanca Rodriguez in Carson City on February 18, 1980.

“I could’ve taken her out in any of the rounds, but I was rusty,” bemoaned a disappointed Mullen. Her first official fight in almost a year since being stopped by Britt VanBuskirk would also prove to be her last, and one can only speculate what became of her after this, as ‘The Girl Machine’ Julie Mullen lived from that day forward free from the scrutiny of the public eye.  

  

Sources:  

Media News Release: Boxing…Hyatt Lake Tahoe Thursday October 6, 1977 (supplied by Sue Fox)

Prelims (Sacramento Bee, October 6, 1977)

Steve Sneddon. ‘Sad Boy’ Beats Arnold at Hyatt (Nevada State Journal, October 7, 1977)

Steve Sneddon. Ramsey Upsets Arnold (Reno Gazette-Journal, October 31, 1977)

Mullen’s Fight Upstages Good Incline Main Event (Reno Gazette-Journal, November 1, 1977)

Steve Sneddon. Mullen’s Lethal Right Produces Ring Victory (Reno Gazette-Journal, November 2, 1977)

Women Boxers To Make History (Reno Gazette-Journal, November 29, 1977)

Steve Sneddon. Women Fighters Impress Top Men (Reno Gazette-Journal, December 7, 1977)

Ramsey, Hernandez Highlight Fight Card (Reno Gazette-Journal, January 12, 1978)

John Nolen. Lear—Portland’s World Boxing Champ (Oregon Journal, January 17, 1978)

Mike Blackwell. Young Robby Epps Flashes Championship Form (Reno Gazette-Journal, March 16, 1978)

Bill Henson. O’Connor Beaten Before He Climbed in Ring (Minneapolis Star, March 28, 1978)

Steve Sneddon. Hernandez Turns Puncher To Score Grudge Victory. (Nevada State Journal, April 5, 1978)

Bill Conlin. A New Welter on the Scene (Sacramento Bee, April 10, 1978)

Gardnerville July 3 Boxing Card Listed (Nevada State Journal, June 11, 1978)

Bill Conlin. Streets Make Ring Look Safe (Sacramento Bee, July 17, 1978)

Steve Sneddon. Girl Machine Mullen Settles For a Draw (Nevada State Journal, July 23, 1978)

Steve Sneddon. Inspiring Main Event on Elko Fight Card (Reno Gazette-Journal, August 4, 1978)

Steve Sneddon. Sellout Expected for Nevada Day Eve Boxing Card (Reno Gazette-Journal, October 30, 1978)

Austin Earns His Bread the Hard Way (Reno Gazette-Journal, October 31, 1978)

Women Battling for Titles (Reno Gazette-Journal, November 16, 1978)

Steve Sneddon. Hard-Punching Bennett Stops Prestwood (Nevada State Journal, November 22, 1978)

Girl Machine to Fight (Nevada State Journal, April 6, 1979)

Dave Trimmer. Castillo Does His Bit for Billings Boxing (Billings Gazette, April 7, 1979)

John Blanchette. Gals’ Bout Still Novelty to Fight Fans (Billings Gazette, April 8, 1979)

Frank Dell’apa. Boxer’s Fast Start in Pros (Reno Gazette-Journal, April 13, 1979)

Giron Faces Tougher Foe (Reno Gazette-Journal, June 13, 1979)

Steve Sneddon. Giron Changes Sides, Wins with Knockout (Nevada State Journal, June 17, 1979)

Live Professional Boxing (Nevada State Journal, September 17, 1979)

Boxing (Nevada State Journal, February 19, 1980)

Mary J. Kudla Obituary. (Co-Op Funeral Home, December 2, 2018)