(OCT 18) Eileen Olszewski's last
bout was nearly two years ago (December 2008), a ten round draw
with Nadia Rauoi, who, recently, lost a very close and disputed
decision to Susi Kentikian. That 2008 bout was "business as
usual" in Olszewski's "go anywhere, fight anyone" professional
career, which, over two years, encompassed nine bouts, seventy
rounds and a "Who's Who" opposition list in the flyweight
division.
Consider her last five opponents: Rauoi, in Switzerland, Simona
Galassi, in Italy, Carina Moreno and Elena Reid. in this country
and Stefania Bianchini, in Italy. Consider, also, those five
fighters had a combined winning percentage of 92% (68-6). Line
up some of the prominent champions in the sport of Women's
boxing who have never fought one fighter with a 9 of 10 winning
record and watch that line wind around the corner. Throughout
her professional boxing career, Eileen Olszewski didn't simply
look for bouts, Eileen Olszewski looked for tough bouts. That
alone put her on a short list in her sport and when she left the
ring, the sport of Women's boxing, specifically the flyweight
division, took a step back in quality.
"I never left," Olszewski makes very clear as we sit talking,
along with her husband, Matt, in a treatment room in Sykes
Boxing/Sports Lab/NYC, in midtown Manhattan, around the corner
from the newly refurbished main branch of the New York Public
Library. "After, the Rauoi bout, I felt it was an ideal time to
take a step back, give some of the nagging injuries, that had
plagued me for so long, a chance to heal and take time to assess
what came next. We opened this facility in January and it's been
a lot of work but I never had any doubt that I would, at some
point, return to the ring. I've been training full time for
fourteen months, sparring two or three times a week with some
good New York fighters, Alicia Ashley and Melissa Hernandez, and
looking for the right opportunity to step back into the ring. We
found it thanks to Star Boxing and some hard work by my manager,
David Selwyn.
That opportunity comes Friday (October 22), on Joe DiGuardia's
Star Boxing card at the Capitale Club in lower Manhattan,
against Suzannah Warner. The six round bout is a return of a
four round majority decision win Olszewski had, at the Paradise
Theater in the Bronx, in August 2007. "Suzannah is a tough
fighter," Olszewski states, "who's been in the ring with some of
the best in the world. The first fight was supposed to be six
rounds but was cut to four for TV (ESPN) and what I remember was
it was all out action, bell to bell, each round. I expect
exactly the same thing this time.
Asked about future plans, Olszewski is reluctant to stray from
the "one fight at a time" mantra, but she has a logical
rationale. "I'm at a point in my career where I can't spend a
great deal of time cultivating my career. I'm 42 and I don't
have a lot of years left in the ring. But, assuming this bout
(Warner) goes well and I feel good about my performance, I would
like to fight Carina (Moreno) again. I wasn't at my best the
last time we fought and, since I know her very well, going back
to our amateur days, I feel I owe her a better fight."
On the subject of returning to fight in Europe, Olszewski is a
bit less sanguine, "The circumstances would need to be
different, certainly in terms of neutral judging. This is
nothing against the fighters I fought in Switzerland and Italy,
they were great opponents and quality fighters, but I honestly
thought I won both bouts that came up draws (Rauoi, Bianchini)
and even the Galassi fight, I thought was much closer than the
final scores indicated. Every round in that bout, to me, was
very close and the nod, in almost every round, went to Simona.
Would I go back to Europe? Sure, it's a good location for the
sport, with great fans, but I'd need some kind of assurance that
I'm not already behind on the scorecards as I'm walking down the
aisle."
This Friday, Eileen Olszewski will walk down the aisle to an
improvised ring at the Capitale Club and answer a bell in a
professional boxing venue for the first time in nearly two
years. I accept her premise that she "never left" the sport and
that at 42 years of age, her remaining time in the ring is
finite. I will also stipulate that Olszewski would make an ideal
subject for a "Forty is the New Thirty" poster and that her
return to the ring against another quality fighter, Suzannah
Warner, is exactly the type of quality match-up the sport of
Women's boxing needs at this point in time. Maybe Eileen
Olszewski never left, but what's certain is that it's good for
the sport that she's back
Bernie McCoy
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