Seniesa Estrada Shuts Out Tina Rupprecht to Unify 105-Pound Titles, Set Up Undisputed Clash Versus Yokasta Valle

 

Undefeated 105-pound world champions Seniesa Estrada and Tina Rupprecht each put their respective titles and perfect record on the line in Saturday night’s minimumweight unification fight in Fresno. 

Befitting her intrepid ring moniker, ‘Superbad’ Estrada made what should have been a tough scrap look close to effortless. After ten spectacular rounds, Seniesa walked away not only with Rupprecht’s WBC belt to compliment her own WBA strap, but the newly-minted 105-pound Ring magazine title. And, of course, the zero in Estrada’s loss column remained intact.      

Making her US debut against East LA’s switch-hitting superheroine in the co-feature of ESPN’s Top Rank card, and only her second appearance outside of her native Germany, Rupprecht is a ten-year veteran of the hurt business who patiently and diligently worked her way toward possession of the WBC minimumweight world title. 

First earning the Silver belt in 2016 by outpointing Joana Pastrana, Rupprecht became interim world champion fourteen months later with a unanimous decision win over Anne Sophie Da Costa before handing Niorkis Carreno her first loss one year after that to claim outright ownership of the vacant world title. Saturday’s bout against Seniesa Estrada would be her seventh defense. As things would turn out, it would also be her last.  

Measuring up to a mere five-two herself, Estrada is nevertheless on the taller end of the spectrum in the 105-pound division and typically enjoys a slight height advantage over her adversaries, though not nearly as much as she did against ‘Tiny Tina,’ who stands a diminutive four-foot ten.  

Rupprecht countered Estrada’s relentless attacks as best she could in the early going, able to tag her with a clean left hook in the second round and the occasional overhand right throughout the first half of the fight. 

By the start of round eight, however, ‘Tiny Tina’ looked about as helpless as her nickname might suggest. At a complete loss as to how to contend with Seniesa’s ever-changing stances and heavy volume of punches thrown from unconventional angles, Rupprecht seemed resigned to the fact that there just wasn’t much she could do about it. 

Estrada made excellent use of her jab, something she admitted had been lacking from her arsenal in the past and sought to correct, and her body punching went a long way toward taking the wind out of Rupprecht’s sails as the bout wore on. Tina was most accommodating in this regard by keeping her guard high and tight which made an inviting target of her midsection.

The three ringside judges were in total agreement that Seniesa Estrada swept every round, bestowing upon her the pair of new world title belts. The other two needed to complete her collection and earn her the status as undisputed champion belong to her nemesis, Yokasta Valle.        

Speaking of Valle, the three-division world champion successfully defended her newly unified IBF and WBO 105-pound titles with a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten but untested Jessica Basulto in Costa Rica that very same evening. 

Valle was evidently supposed to have appeared on the same bill with Estrada to further hype up their inevitable undisputed showdown, but plans changed due to a scheduling conflict with Yokasta’s IBF mandatory challenger, Sarah Bormann, necessitating the implementation of a plan B in terms of both opponent and venue.

Estrada and Valle have been taking swipes at one another during interviews and on social media for some time now, but both women are very eager to do so in person instead. We fans are as well, and now it seems as though we should all be getting our wish sooner than later. 

Adam West’s Batman is Both Crime Fighter and Prizefighter in “Ring Around The Riddler”

“Riddle me this, ladies and gentlemen. When is a prizefight like a beautiful lady?,” Batman’s enigmatic archvillain queries the spectators sitting ringside at Gotham Square Garden for his boxing match with the Caped Crusader. “Answer: When it’s a knockout.”

This episode, only the second entry in the show’s third and final season, was most memorable for the fact that it heralded the return of Frank Gorshin to the Rogues Gallery roster for the first time since season one’s penultimate two-parter. Not to mention, this reappearance would also prove to be Gorshin’s last laugh as The Riddler.  

William Dozier, creator, executive producer, and narrator of the 1960s Batman TV series, had delivered a knockout blow to Frank Gorshin at the conclusion of the first season’s wildly popular 34-episode run. The William Morris Agency, newly representing Gorshin, demanded a hefty salary increase on behalf of their client. A doubling of his per-episode compensation to be precise, from $2,500 to $5,000. An Emmy nomination for Gorshin as Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (won again that year by Don Knotts, his fourth of five awards) was assumed to be the primary impetus behind the request. A request which would be denied.   

Despite Batman’s initial success, ABC was looking to tighten the purse strings in an effort to curtail excess spending on the show. Each two-part episode in season one carried a price tag estimated at $205,000 and they were intent on taking a scalpel to that figure moving forward. With this in mind, Dozier fired off a letter to Gorshin dated May 9, 1966–when the actor would have been eleven days into production on the Batman movie, filmed during hiatus–in which he wrote, “I had hoped you would be satisfied to reap your financial harvest from the multiplicity of opportunities playing The Riddler has opened up for you, rather than attempt to exact a fatter stipend from Batman.”      

The quirky comedian’s hyperactive physicality and manic zaniness made his question mark-embellished green leotard an impossible one to fill. Not that Dozier didn’t try. After first reworking a story arc halfway through season two originally planned for Gorshin and substituting Planet of the Apes’ soon-to-be Dr. Zaius, Maurice Evans, as The Puzzler (originally a Superman foe, first appearing in June 1942’s Action Comics #49), Dozier later hired the now unemployed John “Gomez Addams” Astin to give it a go as The Riddler in back-to-back episodes (“Batman’s Anniversary” and “A Riddling Controversy”). Ironically, Astin’s availability was possible due to The Addams Family’s premature demise at the hands of the ratings juggernaut that was Batman. 

Technically speaking, Gorshin's welcomed reprise as The Riddler came at the very end of the season three premiere, “Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin,” which served as a teaser revealing the following week’s special guest villain. This new contrivance was one of many the show would unveil in an attempt to shake things up, reverse the recent downturn in viewership, and further reduce the budget. Standalone narratives were one such distinction, bucking the series’ established trend of airing two episodes on consecutive evenings with the first closing on a cliffhanger and an invitation for the audience to tune in for tomorrow’s thrilling conclusion. Same Bat-time, Same Bat-channel.

Of course, season three’s most significant modification was the aforementioned introduction of the Dynamic Duo’s female partner in crime fighting. Portrayed by Yvonne Craig, a ballet dancer turned actor (Gidget, 77 Sunset Strip, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and Star Trek being but a few of her notable onscreen credits) and former girlfriend of Elvis Presley (the two became an item while filming 1957’s Loving You), Batgirl was the alter ego of Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara, a librarian by day with the Doctorate to prove it.    

Producer Howie Horowitz justified the addition of Batgirl, who had debuted in four-color print not long before (Detective Comics #359, January 1967), by professing that he wanted to give little girls a character to identify with. But no doubt the lovely Yvonne Craig was also brought onboard as eye candy for the pubescent male Bat-fans. It certainly worked like a charm on me. She was one of my first boyhood crushes as a kid of the seventies watching syndicated reruns of Batman every day after school. 

In any event, if ABC executives had gotten their way and given the green light to a fourth season, Burt Ward would have gone on the proverbial chopping block, with Robin to be replaced by Batgirl as the Caped Crusader’s lone sidekick. This was not to imply that she was being thrown into the mix as a potential love interest, at least according to Horowitz, although the blatant flirtation between Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon throughout season three certainly suggests otherwise, old chums.       

In “Ring Around the Riddler,” Batgirl takes the initiative in helping Batman and Robin thwart the conundrum-loving fiend’s latest scheme, which is to take control of prizefighting in Gotham City. And then everywhere else.

With there being no secret about the fact that the boxing world and criminal underground have long been cozy bedfellows, The Riddler’s infiltration of the fight racket makes perfect sense as a plot point. Frankie Carbo, Blinky Palermo, Owney Madden, and Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano were a few of the more notorious mobsters who owned a piece of the action by wielding influence over boxers like Primo Carnera, Jake LaMotta, Johnny Saxton, and Sonny Liston.  

Using the Little Used Gymnasium as his hideout, Riddler’s plot unfolds with an overture to local favorite Kid Gulliver (a young James Brolin, back for the last of his three Batman appearances) to take a dive in his upcoming fight. When Gulliver refuses, Riddler has his stooges toss him into the gym’s Steam Room (like everything else in the Adam West Bat-mosphere, it is prominently labeled as such) where the boxer’s defiant attitude will be shrunk down to size.   

One of the wonderfully campy aspects of the show was that the villains’ goons were given comical monikers, typically printed on their uniforms for convenient identification, that fit with the theme of that week’s criminal and/or caper. Which is why in this boxing-related episode, The Riddler has henchmen named Kayo and Cauliflower. 

Journeyman character actor Gil Perkins, whose Hollywood career began in the silent era and ended by playing a cornerman in Scorsese’s Raging Bull, portrayed Cauliflower. Among Perkins’ more than 200 screen credits were bit parts in films like King Kong, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and Spartacus in addition to steady work on television programs such as Lassie, Maverick, Thriller, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and The Red Skelton Hour. Perkins appeared in four other episodes of Batman, as well as the 1966 feature film.

Kayo, meanwhile, was played by Nicholas Georgiade, who had boxed in high school and won the European heavyweight championship while serving in the U.S. Army. Georgiade’s claim to fame was scoring the role of Elliott Ness’ right hand man Enrico Rossi on The Untouchables, but also acted in Mannix, Get Smart, Quincy, and T.J. Hooker among many others.

Tuning into the big fight on TV at stately Wayne Manor, millionaire Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson watch in disbelief as Kid Gulliver is knocked out with suspicious ease in the third round. In addition to his countless other civic responsibilities, Bruce also serves as the Gotham City Boxing Commission’s chairman and immediately detects foul play. Summoned to police headquarters by the Bat signal operated by Chief O’Hara, Dick and Bruce are off in the Batmobile after a quick change of costume for a pow-wow with Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara, who is similarly incognito thanks to her superhero disguise.  

The Terrific Trio inspect a rectangular metal canister topped with blinking lights retrieved by Batgirl from the Gotham Square Garden box office where it had mesmerized the cashier into a stupor, allowing Riddler and his flunkies to break into the vault behind her and make off with the cash from the Kid Gulliver fight’s gate receipts. This calls to mind Gorshin’s last two-part appearance as The Riddler, way back in season one. Dressed like Charlie Chaplin in the lead-in episode “Death in Slow Motion,” Riddler orchestrated the robbery of a movie theater box office after a well-attended silent film festival.   

The placement of the receptacle in Gotham Square Garden, meant to be readily discovered, was as deliberately thought out as its contents. Inside the box, Batman finds one of Riddler’s trademark brain teasers buried beneath a mound of metal shavings. “Who rules the ring? No prince, king or rajah. Look for a clue on the walls of Khafaja!!” 

The tricky word play stumps the usually astute Robin and, although Batman identifies Khafaja as a Mesopotamian temple, the full meaning of the riddle doesn’t become apparent until Barbara Gordon, who just so happens to have an expertise of bygone civilizations dating back to her college days, enlightens them when the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder pay a late night visit to her apartment.            

“As I recall, strange scrollwork was found on the walls of that temple indicating men fought with their fists long before the supposed beginning of boxing in ancient Rome and Greece,” she explains to the Dynamic Duo. This part of the puzzle is a subtle hint at the prizefighting character the cackling, cavorting supervillain has cooked up with Betsy Boldface, a sports reporter who hosts a late night talk show and has been working in cahoots with The Riddler all along. The metal filings found in the blinking box will come into play later.   

Riddler appears on Betsy’s program masquerading as southwestern Asia’s unchallenged champion, Mushy Nebuchadnezzar, who has arrived in Gotham to take on any and all comers. Ultimately, of course, the endgame of this ploy is to lure Batman into the squared circle. Decked out in a pink and red Arabic burnoose for the interview, Riddler’s outfit looks like something more cartoonishly suited for a pro wrestler than a prizefighter. Then again, you have to consider the fact that he will ultimately be boxing a grown man dressed like a bat. 

In “Ring Around the Riddler,” writer Charles Hoffman commits with tongue planted firmly in cheek to the show’s emblematic absurdity. Hoffman, who took over as series script editor at the start of season two and penned a total of twenty-two Batman scripts, would significantly up the ante eight weeks later with the even more farcical surfing contest between Batman and The Joker. It goes without saying that The Dark Knight this is not.     

Even if Betsy Boldface (played by Peggy Ann Garner, most famous for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) serves an alternate purpose as The Riddler’s moll in this episode, the fact that she is a renowned female sportscaster is certainly worth pointing out since this was a rarity in the 1960s, Jane Chastain being the only woman to that point to have gained a notable measure of upward mobility in the field with far more to come in the following years. The trailblazing Chastain would become the first female sports journalist to call play-by-play action at both the regional and national levels, to be allowed onto a Major League Baseball field, and to gain entry into an NFL press box and announcer’s booth. Settling in to watch Betsy Boldface’s midnight sports show at Barbara’s apartment, Commissioner Gordon tellingly remarks to his daughter–an atypical female crime fighter (even if he is unaware of it), “She’s as good as any man would be on that job.”     

Betsy asks Mushy, whose restrained demeanor is quite contrary to The Riddler’s typical lunacy, what his diet consists of. “Tamarisk berries. Bulbul bird eggs. And licorice. But only licorice native to my country,” he responds in a nondescript accent. Perhaps not so odd given the nature of the show’s running motif of scarcely concealed secret identities, no one seems to notice that beneath his hooded burnoose, Mushy is wearing The Riddler’s telltale lavender eye mask. When it comes to liquids, Nebuchadnezzar says that he drinks one thing only. “Just camel grass juice. What else?” 

Riddler’s ruse doesn’t pass the smell test for Barbara Gordon, and she later tails Betsy Boldface on her errand to pick up Mushy’s required foodstuffs, unwittingly leading Batgirl back to the lawbreaker’s lair. Before that though, Riddler turns up at the Gotham Square Garden box office where Batman and Robin swing by to check on Chief O’Hara, who was sent to look for clues relevant to the burglary. 

The Dynamic Duo find O’Hara in an amnesic trance, presumably under the influence of the same “Riddle Juice” drug administered to Kid Gulliver, who vanished after his fight only to be discovered wandering aimlessly in front of the arena. Riddler suddenly materializes in his more formal question mark-adorned dress suit and bowler hat to confound them with a verbal word puzzle before vanishing into thin air. 

Riddle me this: since when does The Riddler possess supernatural powers? Despite Batman dismissing Riddler’s magical disappearing act as a simple matter of “Now you see him, now you don’t,” this sequence is a head scratcher for sure, even within the structure of this show which admittedly loses the plot more and more as season three goes along. 

Back at the Little Used Gymnasium, Riddler tries to subdue Batgirl by calling on The Siren, or as she is otherwise known, Lorelei Circe. Played by Joan Collins, Siren will be next week’s guest villain as teased again by her reappearance inside Commissioner Gordon’s office for this episode’s coda. For now though, Lorelei’s Siren song has no effect on Batgirl, nor on Betsy Boldface, proving that only members of the male persuasion are susceptible to her ear-splitting octaves. Which explains why Riddler and his accomplices are wearing protective earmuffs.    

In an earlier draft of the teleplay, Batgirl was supposed to have been strapped down to a vibrating table. Assuming that the producers chose to circumvent censorial interference due to the mildly sexually suggestive nature of the apparatus, she instead ends up being dragged into the Steam Room where she will be kept captive, her kidnapping used for leverage to entice Batman into accepting Riddler’s challenge to a prizefight.

While he has Siren at his disposal, The Riddler opts to employ her services to rid himself of three more pugilists that he has rounded up. The entire trio were real-life contenders, all fighting out of Los Angeles, two of whom would go on to win world championships. Jerry Quarry is the only one of the three whose name is spoken. 

Three months prior to the September 21, 1967 airing of this episode, the heavy-handed Quarry (53-9-4, 32 KOs) attained his first meaningful degree of recognition by battling former two-time heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson to a majority draw in a thrilling slugfest which saw both men hit the deck, and even more by besting Patterson in their title elimination rematch six weeks after “Ring Around the Riddler” hit the airwaves. 

Quarry would drop a majority decision to Jimmy Ellis in his bid for the WBA belt vacated by Muhammad Ali and would later be stopped twice by ‘The Greatest’ as well as Ali’s nemesis, Smokin’ Joe Frazier. The hard luck Irishman himself said he was “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” and indeed had varied success while mixing it up with the heavyweight division’s cream of the crop–defeating the likes of Brian London, Alex Miteff, Buster Mathis, Mac Foster, Ron Lyle, and Earnie Shavers, while losing to Eddie Machen and getting knocked out by George Chuvalo and Ken Norton.      

Not only is Quarry afforded no dialogue, but a scant amount of screen time, brought under The Siren’s spell within a matter of seconds before being dispatched to the Steam Room. The other two boxers are both seated silently with their backs to the camera and off to the side of The Riddler, who is once again posing as Mushy Nebuchadnezzar. Unlike in the shooting script, where Betsy introduces them to Mushy prior to Jerry Quarry, they are distinguishable in the show only by the lettering on their robes which identifies them as Raul Rojas and Armando Ramos.

Unbeaten in his first 24 bouts, with 16 of those victories coming by way of knockout, Raul Rojas (38-7-2, 24 KOs) suffered his first loss to WBC/WBA world featherweight champion Vicente Salvador, who scored a TKO in the 15th and final round of their 1965 title fight. Picking up the California State super-featherweight belt along the way, Rojas would win the vacant WBA world featherweight title in 1968 by outpointing Enrique Higgins but relinquish it to Shozo Saijo in his first defense six months later.  

Armando ‘Mando’ Ramos (37-11-1, 23 KOs) similarly came up short in his first world championship bid, losing a unanimous decision to WBC/WBA lightweight title holder Carlos Teo Cruz in 1968. Their rematch five months after the fact would end with Ramos claiming the pair of title belts by way of an eleventh-round technical knockout when the fight was stopped on cuts. Unfortunately, Ramos’ bout opposite Ismael Laguna would culminate in reverse fashion with Mando’s corner throwing in the towel and ending his year-long reign. He would reclaim the WBC title in a 1972 rematch with Pedro Carrasco but drop it to Chango Carmona later that same year. 

Besides Kayo and Cauliflower there are now two other unnamed stooges, and when the henchmen drag the three boxers off to the Steam Room they discover that Batgirl has somehow escaped. The temporarily unhinged Riddler is forced to improvise a new tactic to coax Batman into the ring. Commissioner Gordon’s office is subsequently besieged by dozens of letters containing riddles which the question-marked scoundrel knows will provoke a visit from the Caped Crusader. 

When Batman does show up at police headquarters, The Riddler places a phone call wherein he finally succeeds in his game of mental warfare by way of a pair of brain-teasing taunts. “Riddle me this, Batman. What are the chilliest twelve inches on Earth?” With little hesitation, Batman answers, “Cold feet!”

“What suit of cards lays eggs?,” prompts Riddler. “One that’s chicken-hearted,” Batman responds through gritted teeth. If being mocked wasn’t bad enough, Batman is told by The Riddler that their call has been tapped into radio station GTCR, meaning that listeners all around Gotham City have heard him essentially being called a coward. This has the desired effect of an uncharacteristically agitated Batman accepting a fight against Mushy Nebuchadnezzar that very evening at Gotham Square Garden. 

Charles Hoffman’s final draft included a celebrity gag that occurs before the boxing match, similar to the bat-climb window cameos in the first two seasons but in a different context, which had Batman being stopped by Mae West as he walks down the aisle toward the ring. “If you win this fight, Batman, come up and see me sometime,” she says, delivering her seductive catchphrase. This wouldn’t have been as egregious a guest appearance as it might seem since Ms. West had a long-standing affinity for prizefighting. And for prizefighters. Holy debauchery, Batman! 

A handful of Hollywood insider-type newspaper pieces even mentioned her upcoming spot on the show. Nevertheless, for one reason or another it was not filmed and exists only as a scripted what-might-have-been encounter between the Blonde Bombshell and the Caped Crusader.

Who does show up at ringside, however, is Aunt Harriet. This is noteworthy because it would be the first of only two third season episodes in which she would appear due to the declining health of series regular Madge Blake, who would sadly pass away two years later. To cover for her lengthy absences, they have Aunt Harriet explain to Commissioner Gordon that she has become quite the world traveler. She interrupted her wanderings to stop by Wayne Manor and surprise Bruce and Dick but didn’t find them at home, so she came to the Garden because Aunt Harriet evidently just can’t resist a good fight. 

Batman is not at all surprised when Mushy Nebuchadnezzar removes his burnoose in his corner before the fight to reveal that it was The Riddler the whole time. The role of the referee went to Johnny Indrisano, a Boston-based welterweight of the 1920s and 30s who defeated world champion Joe Dundee in a non-title contest and retired boasting a more than respectable career ring record of 48-8-1 with 10 knockouts. Three decades in show business followed for Indrisano, with more than 200 credits on the small screen and the silver screen alike including The Great John L., It’s a Wonderful Life, the Joe Palooka film series, Body and Soul, Requiem for a Heavyweight (the 1962 movie version), The Manchurian Candidate, Bonanza, and Mannix. Indrisano had previously appeared on two other Batman episodes (“The Joker is Wild” and “Dizzoner the Penguin”) and died a little more than nine months after “Ring Around the Riddler” was broadcast.      

Riddler crisscrosses the ring, swinging and missing with a few wild haymakers, before running right into a stiff jab from Batman. Gorshin reacts in his signature over-the-top fashion with a wonderful jelly-limbed dance where his legs wobble and arms flail about, all in total disharmony, looking like a marionette whose crazed master has spontaneously snipped half the puppet’s strings. 

He then knee-walks across the canvas to his corner where Kayo and Cauliflower inform him that Betsy Boldface loaded his gloves with metal shavings–like the ones found in the metal box earlier–and that she is hiding beneath the ring with a giant magnet to immobilize Batman. How The Riddler was unaware of these developments is one of the episode’s gaping plot holes that requires a liberal suspension of disbelief to navigate past. In any event, Riddler hits Batman with a left to the body, showering metal scraps all over the Caped Crusader who, with Betsy’s magnet underfoot, is suddenly frozen in place.  

Barbara Gordon excuses herself from her ringside seat under the pretense of having something in her eye and changes into her Batgirl costume in the Ladies Lounge. Was the outfit inconceivably stuffed inside her tiny handbag, knowing she might need it? Did she somehow hide it in the women’s room beforehand just in case? And what does she do with her street clothes? Again, best not to worry yourself too much about these things.   

Expecting Batman to still be incapacitated, Riddler turns to deliver a certain knockout punch after playing to the crowd only to find the Caped Crusader beyond his reach thanks to Batgirl having disabled Betsy’s oversized magnet. Riddler slides under the bottom rope and slinks out of the ring, back to his secret lair at the Little Used Gymnasium where the obligatory but always fun Bat-fight ensues. 

Alfred, disguised as a grizzled trainer they called Gus, had seconded Batman for the abbreviated boxing match. Wayne Manor’s faithful butler gets in on the free for all, even dealing the finishing blow to Riddler, who can’t help himself from trying to perplex his arch rival one last time before passing out. “What do you throw away that keeps returning?” Batman guesses that it is a boomerang. “Correct,” retorts a woozy Riddler. “And I am a boomerang. And I shall be back.” But, as we know, unfortunately he wouldn’t. Not in the original Batman series, anyway. Gorshin would don the question-marked leotard one last time for the 1979 TV special, Legends of the Superheroes.  

Before the final commercial break, the Boy Wonder is seen enthusiastically enjoying a glass of Mushy’s camel grass juice. A disapproving Batman warns his impulsive sidekick, “Beware of strong stimulants, Robin.” Heavy-handed public service announcements like this were routinely incorporated into the show’s dialogue for the benefit of impressionable young viewers, of which there were legions.

Jerry Quarry, Mando Ramos, Raul Rojas, and Johnny Indrisano were not the only prizefighters featured on Batman. Bronx-born heavyweight contender Roland La Starza (57-9, 27 KOs), best remembered for his pair of wild dustups with Rocky Marciano, appeared as The Mad Hatter’s underling Cappy in a first season two-parter. 

Meanwhile, legendary light-heavyweight world champion and heavyweight title challenger Archie Moore (186-23-10, 132 KOs) played the part of Everett Bannister, a banker minding his own business before being robbed at arrowpoint by Art Carney’s villain The Archer in the season two premiere episode.   

It’s also fun to note that for a 1989 bout against Lorenzo Canady only five fights into his career, future undisputed heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe stepped between the ropes at Harrah’s Casino in Atlantic City sporting a black cape and cowl like the one worn by Michael Keaton in Tim Burton’s Batman film that had just come out three weeks before. Though he didn’t go so far as to wear the outfit into the ring, the always flamboyant Tyson Fury showed up for the press conference prior to his 2015 challenge to then-unified heavyweight titleholder Wladimir Klitschko dressed as Batman.   

Just like these combatants each left their indelible mark on the manly art of self-defense, so too did Frank Gorshin put his uniquely demented stamp on The Riddler, single-handedly elevating a peripheral malefactor, who had a grand total of three comic book appearances to his credit prior to the 1966 Batman television show, to the upper tier of the Caped Crusader’s Rogues Gallery, shoulder to disreputable shoulder with The Joker, The Penguin, and Catwoman. 

“I’ll puzzle you a puzzle, I’ll quiz you a quiz,” Gorshin sings in the 1966 novelty song based on his kooky miscreant of a character and composed by ‘The Velvet Fog,’ Mel Torme. “I’ll keep you guessing like nobody’s business. I’m a whiz. And my name is The Riddler!”     

Sources:

John S. Drew. The Batcave Podcast. (Episode 50: Ring Around the Riddler, January 5, 2016) 

Frank Gorshin. The Riddler (A+M Records, 1966) 

Martin Grams, Jr. Batman: The TV Series (Martin Grams Blog, May 14, 2011–accessed at http://martingrams.blogspot.com/2011/05/batman-tv-series.html) 

Charles Hoffman. Ring Around the Riddler–Final Draft Teleplay (July 20, 1967–accessed at http://www.knowitalljoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Batman-Ring-Around-the-Riddler-Script.pdf)  

Batgirl and the Batman Phenomenon (Television Obscurities–accessed at https://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/batgirl/) 

Ring Around the Riddler (Season 3, Episode 2–written by Charles Hoffman, directed by Sam Strangis. Airdate September 21, 1967) 

The Batman 1966 Message Board. Mae West as Minerva? (accessed at http://www.66batman.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6787) 

boxrec.com

imdb.com

Ramla Ali on Road to Recovery After Startling Post-Fight Diagnosis

 

Throughout the fight week media events leading up to her bout against Avril Mathie on the Serrano/Cruz undercard last Saturday, Ramla Ali made mention of having a cold and not feeling terribly well in a casual, almost offhand manner. 

She wasn’t being evasive or playing coy as it turns out. Even Ali wasn’t aware of the severity of the situation until after her dominant unanimous decision win over Mathie, which earned Ramla her first professional boxing title. 

Ali didn’t seem quite her typical self both during interviews and at certain junctures during the fight. Despite a convincing and, at times, roughhouse performance against Mathie, the usually sprightly Ramla appeared a bit gassed out in the middle rounds before catching her second wind. There was a good reason for this.  

A post-fight trip to the hospital revealed that Ali had fought ten hard rounds on Saturday with a partially collapsed right lung which resulted from a severe pneumonia-related viral infection she was suffering through unbeknownst to her. 

How Ramla fought at all, much less as well as she did, under these conditions is almost unfathomable and a testament to her resilience, tenacity, and undeniable dedication to boxing.

Ali developed and sharpened her survivor’s mentality at a young age, having endured the Somali civil war, a perilous exit from her homeland, and the treatment she and her family received at the refugee camps. 

With that in mind, struggling through this illness to compete on such an impactful event was simply not open to debate as far as she was concerned. Which tells you everything you need to know about Ramla in a nutshell. 

It goes without saying that healing up is Ali’s top priority, but having captured the IBF Intercontinental super-bantamweight title Saturday night by beating Avril Mathie puts Ramla that much closer to a showdown opposite unified IBF/WBO world champion Cherneka Johnson in the not too distant future.

Ali also fancies a go at WBC titleholder Yamileth Mercado, the green and gold world championship belt being one she has a dream of one day possessing.

Bomb Blasts and Bloody Jordans: Serrano and Baumgardner Victorious on Women's Undisputed Double-Header in NYC

 

Temperature readings on the sidewalks of New York City lethargically climbed only as high as the mid-20s this past Saturday, with the wind chill reflecting real-feel numbers imperceptibly above zero at their peak. Within the confines of Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre, however, you would never know it. 

The ten women competing on the Serrano/Cruz fight card supplied all the heat the sold-out crowd could stand. Not just thawing out the nearly 6,000 spectators like TV dinners, but galvanizing every entity contained inside the whole building into a collective fever pitch that reached its maximum level of delirium not long before the midnight hour when Amanda Serrano etched her name into the history books yet again. It’s kind of what she does.             

Manhattan played host to Matchroom Boxing’s first event of 2023, a major happening which featured no fewer than five female bouts. All of them title fights. Two with undisputed championship status to be determined. Serrano guaranteed the fans a war and delivered on that promise Saturday night. She vowed to defeat Erika Cruz to become undisputed featherweight champion and was as good as her word on that count too.

Serrano vs. Cruz. Puerto Rico vs. Mexico. Unified title-holder vs. WBA Champion. Southpaw vs. southpaw. Slugger vs. slugger. That this would be the fight of the night there was no doubt. Fight of the Year candidate, though? Not sure anyone saw that coming. And yet, here we are.

I’ll be the first to admit that I had little faith that Erika Cruz would still be standing at the final bell. Don’t get me wrong, I say that with no disrespect intended whatsoever. You don’t become a world champion by accident, and Cruz earned that distinction the hard way, specifically by unseating longtime belt holder Jelena Mrdjenovich and then pitching a shutout against the Canadian with a left hook like Joe Frazier in their rematch. In fact, she didn’t lose a round in either fight, the first one ending prematurely by way of technical decision after Mrdjenovich suffered a nasty cut from a headbutt. 

Head clashes have been a recurring theme with Cruz and would enter the equation on Saturday as well, turning the main event into a gore fest which would have pleased the most jaded watcher of horror movies. Only it would be Cruz’s blood leaking as if from a faucet with a burst pipe. And making a mess of Amanda’s Air Jordans. Not to worry, though. “It will wash off,” Serrano laughed during the post-fight press conference.

Your textbook walk-forward Mexican warrior, Erika’s awkward offensive technique involves leading with her head and folding her body in half before lobbing bombs–or Cruz missiles, if you will–from a lowdown crouch. There were more than a few observers, myself included, who felt that this would leave her vulnerable to an evening-ending Serrano uppercut. But, credit where credit is due. Cruz didn’t simply hang in there with Amanda and do just enough to survive, she gave as good as she got on many occasions.

It was indeed an accidental headbutt in the third round that was responsible for the crimson mask obscuring Cruz’s facial features from that point forward. Serrano’s sister Cindy, a former world champion herself who is a vital presence in Amanda’s fight camps and ring corner, wisely advised the Puerto Rican champion to take her foot off the gas to avoid a potential stoppage on cuts before the end of round four which, as the rules state, would have resulted in a technical draw. There was too much at stake to allow that. 

Whether from a headbutt or left hook, Serrano developed a gash over her right eye midway through the seventh round and the Hulu Theatre Massacre continued without interference from the referee or ringside physician. The commendable, blood-soaked valiance of Erika Cruz played a huge part in making this bout as memorable as it deserved to be. But this was Amanda Serrano’s night, and she would under no circumstances be denied the undisputed championship she has spent the last fourteen years struggling toward. The judges awarded Amanda the decision in unanimous fashion by scores of 98-92 (x2) and 97-93.   

Watching this slugfest from her ringside seat with a keen interest in the outcome, Katie Taylor stepped between the ropes to offer her congratulations to Amanda amid much jubilation. More was still to come when Eddie Hearn seized the opportunity to formally confirm that the rematch the boxing world has been waiting for since last April will take place in Dublin, Ireland on May 20. 

Both women stood side by side, each with a full complement of title belts in their respective weight division draped over her arms, an impressive sight to say the very least to see that much golden hardware on display at the same time. This will mark the first occasion in the four belt era on which two undisputed champions have gone head to head. As I mentioned earlier, Amanda can’t seem to help herself from making history at nearly every turn. A more deserving and hard working competitor I would be hard pressed to think of.  

Katie hasn’t fought since last October when she easily outboxed Karen Carbajal, which will give the homecoming Irish phenom almost seven full months in between bouts by the time the Serrano sequel comes around. By contrast, Amanda has now had two bouts since her first date with destiny against Taylor, and undoubtedly walked away from Saturday’s bloodbath having left more than a little piece of herself back in the ring that she will never reclaim. Battles such as that have this effect. It’s one of boxing’s elemental truths. But so too is that Amanda Serrano is as tough as they come and loves having something to prove. 

For that matter, Alycia Baumgardner also thrives under pressure and did so once more in Saturday’s undisputed co-feature by beating the rough and ready Elhem Mekhaled. Anyone who saw Mekhaled’s performance against Delfine Persoon in a close loss (her only one coming into last weekend) came away with a newfound respect for Elhem as a tough customer indeed, and one not to be trifled with or taken for granted. 

Befitting her secondary vocation as a model in her native France, Mekhaled made her ring walk a visually striking and uniquely regal one by wearing a red sequined gown over her boxing gear. Baumgardner, no stranger to fashion photographers in her own right, boogied her way to the ring with the self-assurance of an individual so comfortable with who she is that she alone determines the soundtrack she will dance to. 

This night was no exception. Alycia established her preferred rhythm early and kept Mekhaled on the backfoot often, putting her challenger on the deck twice in round three. Elhem recovered well and maintained her poise, landing her fair share of clean power punches throughout the proceedings to exhibit that she was no low-risk walkover or easy mark but a credible threat. Baumgardner assessed, equalized, and systematically vanquished the threat to earn a clean sweep of the scorecards and the vacant WBA stripped from Hyun-Mi Choi to complete her collection and become the undisputed queen of the super-featherweight division. 

Long may she reign. Except if Mikaela Mayer has any say in the matter. Of course, since defeating her arch rival last October, Baumgardner has made it quite clear to Mayer that she will have to wait her turn at the back of the line while she pursued the undisputed title (now a reality) and a potential legacy fight versus the winner of Taylor/Serrano 2. Which isn’t to say Alycia has totally ruled out the prospect of a return bout with Mayer, who was seated in the crowd on Saturday night beside her Top Rank stablemate Seniesa Estrada to hear Baumgardner boast in a business-like manner during her post-fight interview, “I’ll knock her the fuck out.”   

It wasn’t Skye Nicolson’s fault that she didn’t look particularly good on Saturday, even in victory. You can pin the blame squarely on the shoulders of Tania Alvarez, who gave the Australian 2020 Olympian nothing to work with thanks to her propensity for relentlessly lumbering forward like the Frankenstein Monster, with greater speed but more or less the same agility, with her guard low and no jab to fend off the potshots she ate all night long before initiating a clinch, being separated, and beginning the process all over again in a Groundhog Day-type scenario which played out on an endless loop to the frustration of Nicolson, referee Sparkle Lee, and the fans. 

Competing outside of Spain for the first time in her career, Alvarez was undefeated in seven previous bouts before tangling with Nicolson, but had squared off opposite no worthy adversaries to speak of and only two of which had winning records.

If Nicolson can be taken to task for anything, it was that her ring IQ is not yet high enough to adjust to the unorthodox style of a fighter like Alvarez. Stepping to the side when Tania would sprint straight toward her and using different angles to pepper Alvarez with combinations or body shots would have been a good starting point. Her team is culpable as well, as far as that goes. Pattern recognition and mid-fight technical adaptation is what they’re paid for.

Nevertheless, Skye took some solace in having banked some valuable rounds, in addition to the fact that the win (her sixth as a pro) entitled her to the vacant WBC Silver featherweight title. 

Nicolson spent the last part of her fight camp in Detroit, training alongside Alycia Baumgardner with whom she became fast friends. “Those two are so cute together,” remarked A History of Women’s Boxing author Malissa Smith, who stopped by to watch the Nicolson/Alvarez fight with me. I couldn’t disagree. They are downright adorable.    

In another bout between unbeaten prospects, Ramla Ali improved to a flawless 8-0 and claimed her first professional boxing title (the IBF Intercontinental super-bantamweight championship) by virtue of a dominant unanimous decision victory over Avril Mathie, a rugged Aussie who had been hand-picked by Ebanie Bridges for a voluntary title defense last year before the IBF enforced a mandatory showdown with Shannon O’Connell instead. 

Ali, who was plenty talented prior to working with Manny Robles, has shown great improvement under his tutelage in her last several outings. One groundbreaking athlete paying tribute to another, her cornermen were decked out in Dodgers jerseys with Jackie Robinson’s number 42 on the back and Ramla’s name spelled out above. 

Sitting down on her punches is a technique Ali has refined under Robles’ tutelage, and it shows. Though it was Ali who displayed bumps and bruises to show for her effort, she had a far easier time dealing with Mathie than I would have thought, not just beating Avril but beating her up. The disappointment of enduring her first loss notwithstanding, an appreciative Mathie later strolled through the crowd to rub shoulders and take pictures with the fans which I felt was a nice gesture.

A late but welcome addition to the card was the WBC/WBA world super-middleweight title eliminator pitting former IBF/WBA champion Elin Cederroos against Shadasia ‘The Sweet Terminator’ Green, a power-punching contender out of Paterson, New Jersey who signed a deal with Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions just eight days prior to fight night.         

Franchon Crews-Dezurn, who reigns supreme at 168 pounds, was in attendance with Claressa Shields to assess the situation. She was already familiar with Cederroos, having roughed her up over ten rounds on the Taylor/Serrano undercard to become undisputed champion. The 38-year-old Swede got pretty much the same treatment this time around, only worse.

Green dropped Cederroos with a big right hand in the third, and pounded her way to a stoppage three rounds later. Now 12-0 with 11 KOs, Shadasia Green made the most of her coming out Garden party. Still in need of smoothing out some rough edges as she sets off on a collision course with Franchon Crews, ‘The Sweet Terminator’ is without question fun to watch and a force to be reckoned with.   

As was also the case when I attended Taylor/Serrano at MSG last April, I got to go to Saturday’s fights with the one and only Lady Tyger, a trailblazer in women’s boxing, a Hall of Famer, and a beautiful human being inside and out.The profound nature of having the past and present come together under such meaningful circumstances is not lost on me whatsoever. Nor to her.

Britt VanBuskirk's Long and Winding Road: Part Four—Sumya Anani Trilogy and Closing Thoughts

 

Her comeback now set in motion, however unceremoniously, Britt fought on a dozen subsequent occasions over the next thirteen months. The results were a mixed bag of wins over previously unbeaten boxers like Dianna Lewis, Daisy Ocasio, and Dana Bates in a rematch, and losses to Jeanne Martinez (twice), Sabrina Hall, Suzette Taylor, Daniele Doobenen, and Dana Bates in their first fight. VanBuskirk held future world champion Isra Girgrah to a four-round draw and had earlier dueled to a stalemate opposite Gina Nicholas.

By September 2000, Sumya Anani was 16-0 and was being mentioned in the same breath as Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker in the conversation regarding the best pound for pound female fighter by virtue of her headline-grabbing upset over Christy at the tail end of 1998. Not only did Anani, known as ‘The Island Girl,’ beat Martin, she beat her up. So badly in fact that she sent Christy to the hospital. Unable to corner Martin for a return engagement for reasons that will be explained shortly, Sumya jumped on whatever opportunity came her way, decisively outpunching and outpointing then-unbeaten Denise Moraetes and scoring a pair of victories over Cora Webber’s sister Dora.

“When the phone rang for Sumya I had streptococcus, strep throat. This time they gave me about one week’s notice, maybe even ten days,” Britt remembers. “I had heard that she had beaten Christy, so I knew that this would be an important and tough fight.”

The six-rounder between Anani and Van Buskirk was the co-headlining bout on a show held in the parking lot of Harrah’s Casino in St. Louis which featured Cory Spinks in the main event. Billed as ‘Knockout Night 3’ (presumably the third in a series), the card was staged by Tony Holden, who promoted Christy Martin’s future wife, Lisa Holewyne.      

Judging by the unflattering terminology used by Joe Miller in his feature for the Kansas City Pitch, there was no mistaking the fact that Britt was the B-side of this production while Sumya was very much the hit single racing up the charts. While he acknowledged that “VanBuskirk was once ranked the best woman fighter in the world,” Miller quickly dismissed this as “ancient history in the post-Christy Martin world.” Miller mocked Britt’s “mannish” crewcut which framed a face he said looked “chiseled and rough as a roadworn refugee’s.”

By night’s end, the joke would be on Joe Miller and everyone else who laughed VanBuskirk off as “a chump for hire” and “a has-been with a losing record.” To the surprise of all her snarky naysayers, Britt put the first scratch on Sumya’s formerly flawless record.   

“On the way to the fight, I practiced saying Sumya’s name,” reflects VanBuskirk. Phonetically pronounced “Suwm-ayah,” and meaning special or unique, it is indeed more than meets the eye. “Everything went smoothly until the bell rang. In the first round I was surprised at how easy she was to hit, and it went that way until the fourth round when I landed a smashing right hand right behind her ear and she went down,” Britt recounts.

“She tried to get up but fell over again. The referee was counting very slowly. When he was at 8, she was up but not capable of standing without the support of the ropes,” she continues. “I moved forward from the white corner. The referee waved me back to the corner and started to count again. Timewise, she got about a 15-count before he started the fight again. She should have been counted out right there with a knockout, but the referee saved her.” 

Sumya disputes Britt’s version of events, telling me that it was a flash knockdown and that she was not hurt or temporarily incapacitated. With just two rounds to go and the fight’s outcome hanging in the balance, VanBuskirk looked to press the advantage, which was easier said than done with Anani intent on switching gears from survival mode to attack mode.  

“She came back and fought like a wildcat. She landed some horrendous punches. Sumya is a tough customer,” Britt acknowledges. “She is in excellent shape and boxes very unorthodox because she switches from left to right with almost every punch, so it’s very hard to see every punch coming in. I always say it’s like fighting your little sister. Because of my reach I was able to control her, and we heard the final bell. When they were reading the scores, one judge had given the fight to Anani, and one had given it to me. The third judge was the man that came to my gym and certified it. He gave the fight to me.” The official scores were 57-56 Anani and 58-55, 57-56 VanBuskirk.   

“He later told me it wasn’t a split decision, it was a knockout. I had a couple of words with the referee,” says Britt. “When I went to pick up my money, Tony Holden said, ‘Congratulations. The winner of this fight goes against Lucia Rijker.’ Later I spoke with Sumya. She told me that she was sure that I was a boy and that’s why she lost.”

Embarrassed as she was at the risk of hurting Britt’s feelings, Sumya confirmed this for me during a recent phone conversation during which she gave me permission to print her remarks. “I was scared,” she confessed before elaborating on the backstory.

Don King had offered Anani a promotional contract after she had beaten Christy Martin and, despite people telling her that she was crazy to turn down that sort of lucrative opportunity, she was brazen and, in retrospect, wise enough to do exactly that. Surrender her professional independence for the glittering prizes and cash rewards? No thank you, Anani concluded. Not worth it in her estimation.

At the time, however, Sumya did fear what the fallout from rebuffing King might be. Perhaps so serious a consequence as being blackballed. “That did happen to a certain extent,” she told me. With no pay-per-view fights or extraordinary paydays forthcoming, she took what she could get and hoped for the best.

“I was in a bad headspace,” said Anani. So much so that, upon seeing VanBuskirk before their first fight, Sumya convinced herself that Don King was out to get her by setting her up to fight a man. Not that she is making excuses for the loss, but Anani offers nevertheless, “Mentally, I just wasn’t there that night.”

A practitioner and instructor in yoga and meditation before, during, and after her boxing career, Sumya stressed to me the power of the mind. “The mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy,” she said during our talk. Ideally, the individual’s goal in boxing, martial arts, meditation, yoga, and life itself, she proposed, is to achieve through constant and diligent practice a vital symmetry between body and mind. This will allow us to adapt to adversity and continue to evolve as human beings.  

“Fear is such an awesome motivator,” Sumya went on to theorize. “It all depends on how we channel it.” The perfect juxtaposition, she illustrated, was how she used fear in her favor to defeat Christy Martin, as opposed to succumbing to it before she even stepped between the ropes to touch gloves with Britt.      

Anani’s lifelong trainer and mentor Barry Becker was reportedly disconsolate after the loss to VanBuskirk, sure that they had just blown their shot at a potential rematch with Christy Martin or a legacy-building fight against Lucia Rijker. Ultimately, neither option would pan out for Sumya, as Rijker and Martin fruitlessly chased each other around the country for the next five years on what Anani would sarcastically refer to as the “money train.” VanBuskirk would not be awarded the promised fight with Rijker either.

Instead, Britt and Anani would again find themselves matched opposite one another thirteen months later. And with a world championship on the line. In the meantime, though, VanBuskirk fought for two other world titles, losing on points to Marischa Sjauw for the vacant IBA super-lightweight championship and then to Gina Guidi with the brand new WIBA welterweight strap up for grabs.    

“When the call came for the Anani rematch it was against Lisa Holewyne first, which she denies to this day,” claims VanBuskirk. “I had a contract to fight Lisa Holewyne, and the promoter called and said he was going to switch opponents. He was going to replace Lisa Holewyne with Sumya Anani. I said, ‘That is quite an upgrade.’ Come to find out Lisa took a fight with Christy and left me with Anani.” Britt would eventually tangle with Holewyne, three times no less, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

“About four days away from the fight, my girlfriend comes in, sits down, and says, ‘Are you focused for the fight?’ I said, ‘Yes, I believe I am focused.’ She said, ‘Good, I’m leaving as soon as we get home from the fight,’” recounts VanBuskirk. “I went to the fight, cried the whole way there and home.”

Not that the breakup of a relationship is ever fun or convenient, but for Britt her partner’s revelation couldn’t have come at a worse time. Her return bout against Sumya was the main event on a show held at the Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville, Oregon. Legendary pioneer of the sport Barbara Buttrick was on hand that evening in the role of acting supervisor representing the GBU (Global Boxing Union) to personally bestow their inaugural World Welterweight Title belt to the victor. “It was so cool getting to meet Barbara Buttrick,” enthuses Sumya.       

“Anani was out for blood,” VanBuskirk exclaims emphatically. “I had recently handed her the most painful thing a prizefighter can endure (her first defeat), and she was out to right it. I was tired when the first bell rang. She came at me like something out of an Alien movie. She knocked me from one corner of the ring to the other for ten rounds.” If it wasn’t bad enough having to fend off Sumya’s relentless attacks, Britt’s thoughts and emotions were elsewhere. Again, the power of the mind comes into play.

“I was somehow able to remove myself from the fight,” she says. “I remember the tenth round, she tried to knock me out. She threw everything she had. Some landed too, many actually, but I finished on my feet. I have never been knocked down, not even in the gym. Sumya Anani deserved to win that day and won a world championship that she also deserved. I got what I deserved. A rematch.”

And on February 1, 2002, a rematch there would be. “After the second Anani fight, I was in my 40s and ready to call it a career. After Sharla left, I didn’t have anyone to work my corner or even a sparring partner. It was a very lonesome time for me. I felt empty. I had lost my third world championship fight and my girlfriend of four years in one day. It seemed that all I wanted was a rematch with Anani,” reflects Britt.

“Four months later the phone rang, and I got the offer for a rematch with Anani. I took it. A six-rounder in Oklahoma City. Friday Night Fights on ESPN. In my opinion it was a good fight,” VanBuskirk says. “Anani won, but I beat her up. That’s the best way to describe it. She won fair and square, but I hit her with some big right hands and split her eyebrow open.” Injury notwithstanding, Sumya swept the judges’ scorecards for a unanimous 80-72 verdict in her favor.

“I went home and decided to stop boxing forever, a hard thing to do,” states VanBuskirk. “But my phone rang with an offer to fight Lisa Holewyne. I asked, ‘Why don’t you get Anani?’ They said because she’s suspended because of a cut over her eye for sixty days. I thought to myself, damn she won and is suspended and I’m not! I won!  I’ll take the fight. It was six rounds against Lisa Holewyne in Texas. She won and I moved on from boxing. To the Hall of Fame!”

Britt was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame as a member of their Class of 2016 in the company of her old friend Lady Tyger Trimiar, as well as Jane Couch, Elena Reid, Ann-Marie Saccurato, Giselle Salandy, Jackie Kallen, and her three-time ring foe, Sumya Anani. 

Sumya made sure to point out to me her feelings toward Britt as “a good person and a great fighter.” The two have gotten to reconnect from time to time throughout the years at various functions and on social media. “What a career she had,” says Sumya admiringly. “Someone should write a book about her. I’m sure she’s got so many great stories to tell.”

Indeed, she does. We’ve barely scratched the surface here.

 

Postscript

“I’d go buy myself a big yacht and sail away, never to be heard from again,” Britt mused in 1983 when asked what she would do if she were able to make enough money from boxing to live comfortably.

This didn’t happen, of course. Neither fame and fortune nor seafaring anonymity were in the cards for VanBuskirk, although by design she has existed largely off the grid since hanging up her boxing gloves.

Taking her sixteen-year sabbatical into consideration, Britt’s career went on to span a quarter-century and crossed over multiple generations of female prizefighters, from blazing trails shoulder to shoulder with Lady Tyger, Squeaky Bayardo, Cora Webber, Julie Mullen, and Dulce Lucas to competing decades later against the likes of Lucia Rijker, Isra Girgrah, Lisa Holewyne, Chevelle Hallback, and Sumya Anani.    

“Boxing is very near and dear to me. I understand it intimately. When I look back, I am glad that I had the vision I had at such a young age. I felt that females had the right to fight, and we had to fight for that right so now there can be such a thing as Beautiful Brawlers and females boxing at the Olympic games,” testifies VanBuskirk in closing.  

“It’s much more than I expected in my lifetime. The proudest thing in my life is that I was where I was when I was, to join the people that I did in a movement that gave a heartbeat to women’s boxing. I don’t think it is understood how hard the pioneers’ work was and the sacrifices made so that boxing can be what it is today,” she continues.

“I have seen women’s boxing go from not being allowed in the gym to me fighting the main event to men fighting on our undercards. That’s a long way! My hope is that it is not mishandled like pot-grabbing for fame, that the training standards improve. Now anybody with a pair of mitts thinks they are a trainer. This is a fatal mistake for a lot of the folks coming up. It will result in a very short time in the ring. So, treat boxing like a little infant baby because that is what it is, and it will go where we lead it. Boxing will always give back.”

 

Sources:

Author Interviews with Britt VanBuskirk and Sumya Anani

Boxrec.com

Britt VanBuskirk Ring Record (supplied to author by Sue Fox)

Robert Enstad. This Boxer is So Good She Frightens Off Foes (Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1983)

Mike Estel. This Woman Really Packs a Punch (Southern Illinoisan, March 20, 1983)

Sue Fox. Fight Night at the Seven Feathers with Sumya Anani Facing Britt VanBuskirk for GBU World Title (WBAN October 21, 2001—accessed at http://www.wbanmember.com/fight-report-sumya-anani-vs-britt-vanbuskirk/)

Joe Miller. To Her, With Glove (Kansas City Pitch, September 28, 2000)

La Canada’s Women’s’ Boxing Champ (WBB News, January 1980)

Amateur Boxers Flocking to Gym in Carbondale (Bloomington Pantagraph, June 13, 1995)

The AX Forum: Female Thai Boxing History (http://message.axkickboxing.com/index.phtml?action=dispthread&topic=24359&junk=1209591760.9093)

1979: Britt VanBuskirk, pro boxer vs. Kickboxer from Japan (in Japan) About 1979. Britt won by KO (uploaded to YouTube by WBAN100, October 22, 2020—accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqrK_MbsyQ)