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In 1996, after virtually being out of boxing for nearly 17 years, I
decided
to get back into shape to fulfill a goal to run in the "Race for the Cure"
--- a benefit to raise funds for Breast Cancer research, in Portland,
Oregon. I ran this race not only to raise money, but to celebrate surviving
a different kind of bout, not boxing, but with breast cancer. This year, I
am celebrating a decade of beating this dread disease.
I knew that the best way to get in shape for that would be to train
in boxing. I found a gym in Portland, called University
Park. When I first started training in the gym, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the trainer, Lee Jenkins, had actually seen me fight in Portland in the 70's. As
I began to train, I started to get to know the other students. One day, one
of the guys made a comment about Christy
Martin, and that she was a great
fighter, and he went on to tell me about her fight against Deirdre Gogarty
on the Tyson card.
I was not on the Internet at the time, so I signed up with an internet provider, and began my journey into surfing the net to find out what WAS on
the net about women's boxing. I was shocked and dismayed to find that there
was virtually NOTHING on the net about any of the women boxers in the 70's &
80's.
I wrote to many of the sites that featured women boxers, and expressed my
disappointment about the lack of acknowledgment of the struggles and
tribulations that the past women boxers had to endure to pave the road for
the 90' fighters, and that there was not any information about these
fighters.
So started my journey……
I spent countless hours, researching, trying to find the past fighters, calling people, emailing, sending letters to gyms, promoters, managers and
the list goes on. In retrospect, I look back at this and never realized at
the time how difficult this journey was going to be for me.
During my research, I quickly discovered that the history of women's boxing
was completely inaccurate. The 90's fighters were staking claims to being
the "pioneers." They even would be classified as such on television
programs, in publications, and magazines. So the "fire" was lit, and I was
more than ever determined to pay homage to the past fighters so that their
part in history would not be forgotten.
In 1998, I was ready to unleash the history of women's boxing, and so
Women
Boxing Archive Network (WBAN) was born. I thought at the time, that no one would
really hit my site, but that at least I had solace in the fact that I played
my part to try and straighten out the history of this sport. Was I ever
wrong about the hits! I was bombarded by boxing fans that were amazed at the
hidden history of women's boxing, so I began to develop allies to work as a
team to help me bring the history to the public.
The very first thing that I discovered about the History of Women's Boxing
was that I DIDN'T KNOW what I thought I KNEW about it! Boxing fans began to
send in documents, hotel records, magazines, newspaper clippings, old videos
of women boxing, and I knew then that even I HAD TO KEEP researching to
continue to set the record straight in women's boxing.
A funny thing happened……..
The current fighters began writing to me and telling me about what was going
on in the 90's. I began to realize that in many cases, that HISTORY WAS
REPEATING ITSELF. I also started to find that the very websites
I held
in awe... turned out to have their own agendas with the current fighters.
Sadly, time has proved this to be true.
I knew that I had to start talking about what was going on in
today's boxing to try and change
things and make it better. By networking with the current
fighters, I was able to understand the hardships that they
were facing today, which
made me have a renewed respect for what it takes to be a fighter.
And so,
Women Boxing Archive Network revolved into not only covering past fighters,
but also featuring and telling about the current women boxers!
The 90's will soon be considered the history of women's boxing, and so the
battle continues to document what is going on so that the sport will be
accurate for boxing fans in the future!
In addition, WBAN has expanded and
extended the site by having womenboxingrecords.com. This site will be the record-keeping of women's boxing--
recording sanctioned bouts, exhibitions, mixed matches and
anything of public interest. It houses literally
thousands of huge digital photos, there is also video
streaming files, Mpegs files, Matchmaker's Hot List, Exclusive
Matchup that has an extensive listing of women boxers, and
much more. Another site that is now WBAN's is
www.hotboxingnews.com.
This site also includes a lot of historical data on men's
boxing and will continue to develop throughout the years.
WBAN has gone on to be an Award-Winning website, being listed
on USA Today as a "hot site on the net." WBAN has also helped
many television shows, including other media sources for other
women boxers.
I am currently writing a book, called: "Women's Boxing-Setting
the record straight." This book is intended to give the
REAL facts about the past, and correct the many inaccurate
historical claims that have been reported on many media
outlets.
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