As the decade of the 2000s wore on, women’s boxing in most of Europe, Latin America, and Asia continued to grow, with many of the fighters from those regions consistently winning championships and appearing high up on the list of top female boxing talent.
The Disappearance of the Sport
What began as a far-fetched salvo lobbed by Jacqui Frazier-Lyde became a veritable industry as Laila Ali and Frazier-Lyde negotiated their Ali-Frazier IV battle in 2001.
The first major promotion held between the two was on March 2, 2001—marking nearly thirty years to the day since their fathers’ epic first battle.
With Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde’s joint appearance in separate fights on a card billed as the “March to Destiny” at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York, the plan was to announce their impeding Ali-Frazier IV battle after both fighters finished contesting their bouts.
The proceedings began with both women winning their bouts in a pair of mismatches. Ali had to actually work for hers—five “vicious” rounds worth until she got the TKO—whereas Frazier-Lyde won hers in the first round.
Ali-Frazier IV was set to be an eight-round pay-per-view extravaganza with the viewing fee set at $29.95 (although also reported at $24.95). It would be fought in a tent erected in the parking lot at the Turning Stone with seating for eight thousand. It also coincided with the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) weekend held in nearby Canastota, New York, which guaranteed press attention and the presence of some number of the boxing elite at ringside. The fight was listed among the festivities of the weekend.
By fight night, the press was in a frenzy of condemnation for the hyped-up battle. Writer Jack Newfield, invoking Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s legendary third battle in Manila, wrote, “Friday’s event between their daughters will be a burlesque, a P.T. Barnum hustle to exploit two sacred names, and the hatred between the fathers that has become Shakespearean over the years.”
He went on to quote Mark Kram, author of the newly published Ghosts of Manila about the famous battle and its aftermath. Kram had said, “It’s a non-event. What’s the purpose, except to trade on the bitterness between the fathers?”[33]
Not all of the prefight publicity was negative. A photograph of Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde appeared on the cover of the May 28, 2001, edition of TV Guide magazine and an article ran in People magazine. Laila Ali also appeared on The Today Show, proving her crossover appeal as a celebrity and the kind of interest the fight had piqued among the general public.
In response to all the criticism, both fighters were clear in stating that it was about them and not their fathers and also pointed to the hypocrisy of some of the arguments. Jacqui Frazier-Lyde was particularly incensed:
They should be ashamed. The investment that Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali made in boxing 30 years ago, a lot of people are still trading off that. People are still writing books and making TV shows and movies. I don’t see a problem with their children benefiting. Besides, we’ve sweated and worked to get here.[34]
Joe Frazier, who was asked to comment, also took the fight out of the realm of a blood feud and said, “I think it’s all showbiz.”[35]
Laila Ali noted, “It’s about worldwide exposure. It’s going to be on television and it’s going to be shown all over the world.”
With a purse rumored to be anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to “between $1.7 and $2.4 million, mostly from sales of television pay-per-view,” the fight—whatever the motivations—was likely to be the highest payday on record for a female boxing match.[36]
On the night of the fight, sixty-five hundred fans came to Verona, New York—including Joe Frazier who sat proudly at ringside for the eight-fight card. Muhammad Ali, however, was not in attendance, reportedly due to a prior commitment at an auto show. There were also three hundred reporters, photographers, and film crews credentialed for the event from all over the world.
If the audience in the tent and those watching on pay-per-view had thought they were showing up at the “Groaner in Verona” they were wrong.[37] Both women had come to fight.
At the weigh-in, the five-foot, ten-inch, twenty-three-year-old Ali came in at 160¾ pounds while Frazier-Lyde, who was thirty-nine, was five-feet, nine inches and weighed 164 pounds. Both were in peak condition having truly worked diligently.
Ali, sixteen years younger and the more skilled of the two, was the odds-on favorite coming into the bout and managed to edge her way to a majority win. Frazier-Lyde, however, was no pushover as the pair shocked the crowd with a tough, hard-fought battle that could easily have been called a draw.
Both fighters showed grit and heart in what was clearly the most difficult ring outing either of them had ever fought. And while their skill level could not be called a refined ring science, their sustained output of punches and determination more than made up for it. Frazier-Lyde, in particular, rose to the challenge in the later rounds, even managing to jab, something the brawler had found hard to do in the early going.
After all the hype and controversy, the fight was competitive and entertaining. It also went the distance with such a continued high level of intensity that the pundits were forced to give the pair their admiration for their efforts. The crowd, too, was totally invested in the fight and was on their feet cheering as the two women faced off even before the festivities began.
Of the two fighters, Ali was probably the most surprised at the outcome, telling reporters, “I know she had feeling behind this fight. I didn’t think she was going to get me tangled up like that.”
Frazier-Lyde said, “I feel fantastic. My family is here with me and I feel like a winner.” She added, “The Ali camp did not want a rematch called, but maybe public demand will change that.”[38]
In the aftermath of the fight, boxer Mia St. John perhaps best summed up all of the hoopla when she remarked, “Nothing can hurt the reputation of boxing. It has such a bad reputation already. It’s what people love about it. It’s kind of dark, kind of crooked. People love that.”
St. John was also purportedly about to embark on the next “big thing” in women’s boxing—a possible fight date with Christy Martin. “It’s a fight that has to happen,” St. John said. “I’ve taken a lot of criticism for my boxing and the way I look, but my goal has always been to fight her, beat her [Martin], and get out. Her biggest mistake will be she’ll underestimate me.”[39] While the opening salvo in the discussions would have put the fight on a card in September 2001, the pair actually met in the ring a year later, in 2002, at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, as the main event of the evening. The pay-per-view show was touted as the WBC Pound-for-Pound Women’s Championship bout.
The fact that Mia St. John was willing to fight Christy Martin—for a reported $100,000, her largest payday—garnered a lot of respect for St. John. She’d begun training with Robert Garcia, a former fighter with a good reputation as a trainer, and St. John even had woman boxer Fredia Gibbs, who was well regarded in the sport, in her corner for the fight.
St. John was also making a conscious decision to walk away from “pitty-pat” fighting into the realm of real boxing. Although she lost the unanimous decision to Martin, no one had expected her to last ten rounds (having previously only ever gone four), least of all against Christy. St. John also showed, in some instances, better skills than Martin, boxing her on the angles and getting in a fair number of clean shots, which served to increase her stock as a fighter.
What people forgot watching the pair was that they were also only one year apart in age. And if Martin had ushered in the era of “pink” in the early 1990s, St. John had brought “hot pink” into the lexicon of women’s boxing in the latter part of that decade. The name of the game, however, was not so much their promotional gimmicks, but the contesting of a highly competitive boxing match—with St. John seemingly the younger and hungrier fighter as they boxed toe to toe in the ring.
Martin was to later explain away some of that by stating she�
�d not had adequate sparring hours to prepare for the fight due to money constraints. She hadn’t received the promised $200,000 advance, but she’d also clearly underestimated just how much St. John wanted to prove that she was a skilled boxer. The ringside audience had been only a meager five hundred or so “live fans,” which put a damper on what was otherwise a good night of boxing.
Lucia Rijker, who’d watched from the audience, also created fireworks of her own by “jumping into the ring” and challenging Martin.[40]
Christy, with her mind on her legacy, still wanted to fight Lucia Rijker, although nothing much had come of it so far. In the interim Martin had added Laila Ali to her short list, now that she had joined her as a marquee fighter.
Martin had already fought two other highly acclaimed female boxers in her weight class (her second career loss was to Sumya Anani in 1998, and she won a squeaker against Kathy Collins in 2001 at Madison Square Garden). With those contests out of the way she did not have a plethora of options unless she was willing to go against the up-and-coming fighters, who were now stronger and more ring savvy (as Belinda Laracuente had proven). Laila Ali—who was rapidly displacing Martin as the most bankable female boxing star—was in many ways her only option in terms of “star power.” Given that Ali was younger, taller, and outweighed her by at least twenty pounds, she was not all that viable as a beatable opponent.
Ali was also still clearly in the ascendant part of her career even though she’d taken a year off after her bout with Frazier-Lyde, electing to have shoulder surgery. She spent some of that year recuperating and after rehabilitation developed and taught an aerobics class she called “The Ali Way.”
Returning to the ring in June 2002, Ali easily won a tune-up fight before fighting for the vacant IFBA female super middleweight title two months later in front of a capacity crowd on pay-per-view. Ali made quick work of her opponent, Suzanne Taylor, by gaining a TKO in the second round. (Taylor had previously fought Jacqui Frazier-Lyde in December 2001 for the vacant WIBA light heavyweight title, and lost by TKO in the fourth round.)
Ali’s win set her up for a super middleweight “alphabet soup” unification battle for the WIBA, IWBF and IBA championships. Her opponent was Valerie Mahfood (sporting purple short-cropped hair), considered one of women’s boxing’s stronger fighters and the holder of the WIBA title. The fight was shown on ESPN2, with Ali receiving an eighth-round win by TKO. Throughout the bout, Ali had used a stinging left jab, combinations, angles, and strong punching, proving that her skills were increasing. The win also further established her among the elite in the sport.
Having claimed two more championship belts, Ali enhanced her name recognition both inside and outside of the ring—pushing Martin back a notch to “pioneer” status. It also set up the pair for a confrontation, but not before Ali defeated Mahfood for a second time by TKO in a nontitle rematch on the undercard of the Lennox Lewis–Vitali Klitschko heavyweight megabattle. Ali’s showing garnered positive press and helped to further solidify her position in women’s boxing.
At the end of June, it was announced that Christy Martin and Laila Ali would fight on August 23, 2003, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. The fight card also featured two other female bouts. One pitted the hard-fighting Ann Wolfe—whom many thought should be Ali’s real opponent—versus Valerie Mahfood in a ten-rounder, plus a pair of local fighters making their pro debut.
In order to fight Ali, Martin had to move up in a weight class but still gave Ali close to a twenty-pound advantage, not to mention a height advantage of six inches. It was also to be Martin’s first fight since defeating Mia St. John—nine months before—so questions of ring “rust” were inevitable, given that she’d also been underprepared for the St. John fight.
Giving up that much in weight and height was a questionable move, especially since Martin never really brought her weight up to 160 and was even allowed to weigh-in fully clothed in heavy combat fatigues. The $250,000 payday would be the first she’d had in nine months and had to be one of the factors in signing on to the “Superfight.”
As it happened the bout was more than a lopsided affair with the much younger Ali towering over Martin and beating her to the punch, although Martin worked tirelessly to slug it out in the center of the ring. Ali also utilized her longer reach, testing Martin who tried hard to adjust by fighting from all angles. Still, Martin was in big trouble—even in the first round—due to Ali’s slugging power.
Martin showed tremendous heart as she fought back hard at a blistering pace. Ali’s constant onslaught, however, proved too much for Martin who took a knee for the first time in her career in the third round, and went down taking a knee in the fourth round before she was counted out. The win gave Ali the moniker of the “reigning” champion of women’s boxing.
Lucia Rijker, the other big name in women’s boxing, returned to the ring in 2002 in a tune-up against Carla Witherspoon and garnered a win by TKO in the fourth round. Rijker next fought British boxing pioneer Jane Couch at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in an eight-round bout—taking all eight rounds by unanimous decision of all the judges at ringside.
Despite the promise of fighters like Belinda Laracuente, Layla McCarter, Chevelle Hallback, and Ann Wolfe, no one had attracted the notice of the big promoters—which meant that, aside from Ali, there was really no one waiting in the wings to step up into the “center ring,” despite there being a raft of skilled fighters.
Million Dollar Baby
Rijker’s appearance as the character Billie “The Blue Bear” in Clint Eastwood’s 2004 film about women’s boxing, Million Dollar Baby, brought a brief renewal of interest in the sport—and placed Rijker alongside Ali as a boxing star. (Rijker was also a technical advisor during the filming of the fight sequences.)
The storyline was a simple one. Maggie Fitzgerald had a singular desire to be a boxer. Through hard work and determination, Maggie begins her professional career and steadily improves. She eventually faces Blue Bear, a “take-no-prisoners” boxer, who paralyzes Maggie by hitting her with a chair after the bell as Maggie walks back to her corner. The film ends with Maggie lying paralyzed in a hospital. After several twists and turns involving her estranged family, she asks Frankie, her trainer, to end her life—which he does out of love for her.
Aside from the controversy that was generated by critics claiming Million Dollar Baby endorsed euthanasia, the film was criticized for its unrealistic portrayal of the world of women’s boxing—something that certainly could also be said of films about male boxing—especially to those who don’t know much about the sport.
Bob Arum—ever the showman—took the title of the film literally and came up with the idea to promote the “Million Dollar Lady” boxing match. The match would finally pit Christy Martin against Lucia Rijker for a $1,000,000 winner-take-all purse. The problem was, no one much cared any more—ticket sales went at a slow clip and not much interest was generated by the press.
Both fighters did take it seriously enough, and Rijker—now back in the gym—began preparing for it. Unfortunately, she tore her Achilles tendon, necessitating surgery, which ended the chance for the once-heralded “dream” fight.
Tragedy of another sort struck and left the boxing world reeling.
Becky Zerlentes was a thirty-four-year-old amateur boxer and geography professor at Front Range Community College in Larimer County, Colorado, not far from her home in Fort Collins. An avid sports woman, Zerlentes had been a synchronized swimmer, a triathlete, and earned both a black belt in Goshin Jitsu and a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. As a boxer, she eventually amassed a 6-4 amateur record in her native Illinois before stepping out of the ring in 2002 after having won a regional Golden Gloves title. In early 2005 Zerlentes began her boxing training again and entered the Colorado Golden Gloves scheduled to be held at the National Western Complex in Denver.
On the night of April 2, 2005, Zerlentes stepped into the ring to compete against Heather Schmitz, thirty-two—the only other woman
in her weight class. The two had met a few days before at the weigh-in and had become friendly, having found that they shared a love for geography and boxing. Both women entered the ring with regulation gloves and helmets and both felt comfortable as they began their match.
In the third and final round of their bout, Zerlentes was ahead on points when Schmitz threw a straight right to Zerlentes’s left temple.
The blow sent Zerlentes lurching forward to the canvas and she lost consciousness after the knockout punch. Ringside physicians, alert to her fall, attended to her immediately, giving her oxygen. But seeing no response when they flashed a light into her eyes, they screamed out for an ambulance.
Zerlentes never woke up and she was pronounced dead the following day after having undergone emergency surgery during which doctors had discovered a subdural hematoma on her brain. The cause of death was initially listed as blunt-force trauma. An autopsy reached the same conclusion.
Becky Zerlentes’s death on April 3, 2005, was the first boxing-related death of a female boxer ever recorded.
Speaking to a reporter, Dr. Russ Simpson, who had attended her ringside, said:
I was thinking, “What did I miss?” The punch was not that hard. I thought she had just lost her balance. She was wearing headgear. The amateur mats are thicker and softer than pro mats. The velocity of the punches aren’t that hard.
A review of the fight footage by Dr. Armando Sanchez, USA Boxing’s medical director, revealed that she had been attended to promptly and properly, and that during “the last 15 or 20 seconds, [she didn’t] look hurt.” He also stated, “At the moment of impact, she [was] defending herself.”[41]
Following so close on the film Million Dollar Baby, the comparisons to Maggie’s fate were inevitable—as were the calls to make boxing illegal. At the end of the day, however, the death just seemed terribly sad, especially knowing that everything had been done “right” when it came to ensuring that both fighters were safe in the ring.
A History of Women's Boxing Page 41