Holly Holm is a Golden Girl whose first boxing match was a pro bout. Ann Marie Saccurato won the National Golden Gloves. When they meet in the ring of the Isleta Casino Resort in Albuquerque, NM on March 22 the show will be billed as  “Destiny.” Whatever happens, the two women will make history that night. They are fighting for Holm’s WBA welterweight belt, and the vacant WBC, WIBA, IFBA, GBU and IBA titles. The winner will be the unified champion of a deeply competitive division of the women’s sport. Maybe more important, they will be the headliners of a card featuring three women’s championship boxing matches which will be broadcast nationally by the Best Damned Sports Show on Fox Sports Net.  Laila Ali is the only woman to headline a non-PPV televised boxing card before this.

In some ways Holm and Saccurato couldn’t be more different from each other. The 5’6”, 29 year-old Saccurato is from White Plains, NY. She commutes to Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn and she’s fought over substantial chunks of the Eastern seaboard.

She’s right handed. Holly Holm, 25 and 5’8”, is from Albuquerque and all but one of her fights has taken place in New Mexico. She’s a Southpaw.

Holm is a bright spirit with an open, cheerful demeanor. She makes a living as a boxer but says she liked her former job as a server. “Sometimes I miss it,” she says.

Saccurato is intense and scholarly with a penchant for research and a demanding career as a performance trainer for athletes and those recovering from injuries.

Both women come out of a lifetime of competitive sports: gymnastics and league soccer for Holm-- softball, volleyball and basketball for Saccurato. Each of them came to boxing by way of Asian martial arts. In their different ways they are both in love with the sport.

After her last fight in December, Holm came down with a nasty chest cold that hung on for weeks and ticked her off because she’s never sick. This fight was originally scheduled for February and Holm says she’s glad it was postponed because it gave her a chance to rebuild her condition.

In 1995, Saccurato’s senior year of high school, she survived a car wreck that punctured a lung, broke her arm, cracked her pelvis and broke both legs and a hip. At first the doctors didn’t think she’d live. Then they told her she might never walk again and that sports were out of the question. A year later Saccurato stepped up to the line at Seton Hall University, ready to play volleyball and basketball.

Holm bought a house with her ring earnings and shares it with her brother. The house is surrounded by trees and flowers planted by her Dad. Saccurato sleeps in an airtight altitude-training tent with a generator that pumps in a controlled artificial atmosphere simulating the oxygen levels at 12,000 feet.  That’s just part of her preparation for her trip to the heights of Albuquerque.

The two fighters’ numbers don’t look that different. Holm’s record is 16-1-2, with 5 KOs. Saccurato sports a record of  12-1-2 with 5 KO’s. Saccurato’s most notable win was a dive down to the lightweight division last November, when she defeated Jelena Mrdjenovich for the WBC 135 pound title.  Holm has defeated former champs Jane Couch, Mia St. John and Christy Martin, among others. 

“I don’t like always being the favorite,” says Holm. “Some people say ‘It’s time to get Holly some serious opposition,” because they’ve been dominating performances.

But I’ll never have another night in boxing like the night I fought Christy Martin. When I stepped into the ring I had a real moment of thinking, “What am I doing?’ But she’s just a woman and she can be beat like anybody else. That wasn’t even my toughest fight. But still, that was really something.” 

Typically, Saccurato sounds confident about facing Holm. “I’ve seen Holly fight a number of times before I knew this opportunity was going to be given to me. You know, she’s a little taller. She’s a little bigger. Obviously she’s a southpaw. But I feel very comfortable in my strength and my power and what I hold.” 

Holm is more cautious about Saccurato. “I’ve only seen a clip of like the first three rounds of a bout she fought a year and a half ago. Maybe there are things to learn there, habits she probably hasn’t changed, but I’ve improved a lot in the last year and a half and I’m sure she’s improved too. Her most recent fight is her most impressive win, and that’s the one I really want to see. “  

“ I know this girl has a lot of heart, just enormous heart. And I know she’s been working really hard. And she’s the underdog, too.”

And there’s the pressure of a high profile bout that both women feel is significant for all women in the sport.

“Of course,’ says Holm. “ I’ve been fighting and my performances have been good but I definitely want this to be a good performance, I really don’t want to get out there on national television and do less than my best.”

 “This fight is huge,” says Saccurato. ”It’s bigger than me and Holly Holm and whoever comes out on top. That’s part of why I was so anxious to take this fight. I’m so happy to be a part of it.  It’s absolutely significant, to be live nation-wide and to have a card full of  top-notch fighters. Everyone is gonna bring it and put on a good show and hopefully this is what the sport needs. Outside of opportunities like this the sport also needs to be accepted into the Olympics. With those two things—getting more female fights like this, getting coverage like this, and then getting the sport into the Olympics, that’s what the sport needs right now and it’s over due.