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On April 6, 2000 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada:
5'1" Margaret Sidoroff
of Windsor, Ontario won the
IWBF World Flyweight title by unanimous (99-91, 99-91, 96-95) decision
after a toe to toe ten-round battle with Spokane, Washington's
5'8" Para Draine, a former holder of
the IWBF belt. Draine and Sidoroff traded punishing shots all night
and Sidoroff was cut on top of her head by an accidental bump of heads
in the seventh. Women's boxing was also the winner as this fight was
the high point of a four-fight card before 3,500 fans.
The only downside of this fight, as Margaret mentions in her post,
is the minimal coverage it received from Canadian media, especially
compared to the saturation coverage of Laila Ali's seventy
seconds of one-sided action against Crystal Arcand in Margaret's home town a few
weeks earlier ...
As she had done after all her big fights,
Margaret stopped by the Women's Boxing Forum to tell her fans about the
experience when she got home. Here's an excerpt from
what she posted, and then a mini-chat session with me a couple of
days later ...
I just wanted to write in and thank everyone again for the
support they gave both Para and me for our fight last week! I'm
just getting in now and won't be able to get to my e-mail until
tomorrow.
Para is a great technical fighter and we really had a
great fight exchanging angles and punches! She has a lot of
heart!
I really tried to start fast this fight and felt things
went my way for the first seven rounds. We bumped heads really
badly at that point and my scalp busted open at the very top of
my head! Para came out very strong in the eighth and certainly took
that round. Josh told me that she would probably do that to try
to end it, so I went in there and tried to weather the storm. It
was close the rest of the way, and the crowd really loved it!
I won't talk about the media, because that was
disappointing to say the least ... Thanks again everyone!
See you at the fights!
I also talked to Margaret off-line:
Dee:
Was Para as tough an opponent as Jolene Blackshear? Did you have to prepare
differently for her height?
Margaret: Para was different than Jolene, but I wouldn't say tougher! Do they
come any tougher than Jolene? Seriously though, the height and reach
advantage were our main concerns going into the fight, and my training for
those problems really paid off ... you know, traditional things like
destroying the body and cutting off the ring...
Dee:
Did you do anything different to warm up this time?
Margaret:
My warm up was the same as usual, with the exception of Josh
(Margaret's trainer and now husband Josh Canty ... Dee) allowing a TSN interview two hours before the fight. He usually doesn't allow anybody
near me, but they said they were doing a feature on me ... oh the irony!
Dee:
Who would you like to take on next? Are you planning any trips to Germany?
Margaret: Regina (Halmich) and
Daisy (Lang) have
always been on my radar screen, but Josh said the
other day that they had their chance to fight me in Germany. I don't want
to fight them in Canada either ... no, not because the lack of TV coverage
(ha ha), but because I don't want any excuses or favours.
Honestly,
there are several great North American fighters that are more willing to
fight me and that's just fine with me.
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