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5'2½" 118-lb southpaw Lisa "Bad News" Brown was
born in
Port of Spain, Trinidad and lives in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. The
only girl in a family of four, she emigrated to Canada in 1988 at age
17.
Lisa began boxing as an amateur
at age 26, encouraged by her pro boxer husband Errol Brown. Like many
women who entered
the boxing ring in the late 1990's, Lisa says she was also motivated by
seeing Christy Martin and Dierdre Gogarty in
1996 on a Mike Tyson Pay-Per-View card.
Lisa won two bantamweight
championships in her home province of Ontario, and she competed in the
Canadian
national amateur championships in 1998 and 1999.
At the 1998 Canadian
nationals in Edmonton, Alberta, Lisa took the silver medal at 54 kg
when she dropped a
tough 3-2 decision to Patricia Picotin of Quebec in the title match on
January 17. Canadian amateur boxer
Misty Shearer told me "this was a really close
fight. Lisa was a bit more aggressive but Patricia was able to
counter really well. Lisa had good power and went to the body well but
Patricia was quick to counter and was able to get off
the ropes and move out of Lisa's way."
On July 10, 1998 at the
Lackawanna County Stadium, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Lisa represented
Canada in the
119-lb division of the first-ever dual meet between the USA and
Canadian national women's amateur boxing teams. She lost by
a razor-thin 11-10 decision to Elizabeth Aguilera of West Covina,
California.
On January 24, 1999, in the
finals of the 1999 Canadian nationals in Sudbury, Ontario, Lisa won the
54-kg
division by a walkover.
On March 27, 1999 in a 54-kg
bout the second leg of the Canada-Sweden Dual at the Atlas Boxing Club
in
Toronto, Lisa was edged out by Sweden's Frida Emanuelsson by a hard
fought 7-6 decision.
Lisa turned pro with a 26-6
amateur record behind her, but she then had a hard time finding
opponents who were
willing to fight her.
She finally secured a debut
fight on May 5, 2000 at the Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona, by
stepping into
the ring against Tucson's own
Leilani Salazar as a late substitute for Valory Troike of Las
Vegas. Lisa took this fight on just a few days' notice, telling Arizona
Daily Star reporter Bruce Pascoe afterwards:
"I know my abilities ... I know as long as I went out there and fight
the way I know I can, there was no way I'd
lose."
Lisa spoiled Salazar's first
professional fight in Tucson by TKO'ing her at 0:49 of the fourth and
final
round. The late substitution may even have worked in Lisa's favor,
because Salazar didn't seem ready for Lisa's aggressive
southpaw style. Brown won the first round easily but Salazar made a
comeback, urged on by her hometown fans, until the fight
was stopped at 49 seconds into a wild final round. Brown landed several
good combinations early in the round, then had
Salazar pinned against the ropes when the fight was called. It turned
out that Brown had good reason to go for the KO and
not take her chances on a decision on Salazar's turf ... one judge had
the fight even going into the fourth, one had it
29-28 for Salazar and the other 29-28 for Brown. Leilani's
disappointment showed as she said "she didn't wear me down;
it was just a bunch of wrestling" but her trainer Hank
McCadden had praise for Lisa, saying "I don't want to take
anything away from (her), she's a good fighter." Salazar fell
to 3-5 with the loss and hasn't fought professionally
again.
On June 27, 2000 in
Orangeville, Ontario, Lisa (122 lbs) moved her pro record to 2-0 in a
much easier match,
scoring a first-round TKO over debut fighter Jeanette Sanabria (121
lbs) of Cleveland, Ohio, who hasn't fought since.
On September 23, 2000 before
3000 fans at Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario, Canada, Lisa (120 lbs)
mounted a non-stop attack
to TKO Shondell Alfred
(123¼ lbs) of Georgetown, Guyana at 1:06 in the second round. Brown
stunned Alfred with a left hook that had her
pitching and stumbling forward, prompting the referee to stop the bout.
Alfred, who fell to 4-2 with the loss, had lasted
over three and a half rounds against another former Canadian national
champion, Doris Hackl, that June. Unlike Lisa's
previous opponents, she's kept on fighting after her loss to the "Bad
News" girl!)
On November 11, 2000 at Skylon
Towers in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Lisa moved to 4-0 with a
four-round
unanimous (40-36, 40-36, 39-37) decision over Donna Parsons of Drexel
Hill, Pennsylvania. Parsons hasn't fought since.
 Lisa's fifth pro bout represented a significant
step up in competition. She took on an experienced pro
warrior in a six round war on a card aptly billed as the “Border
Explosion” on April 27, 2001 at the Convention Center in
Niagara Falls, New York. A crowd announced as 4500 saw an entertaining
battle as Lisa won a six-round unanimous (57-55,
57-56, 57-56) decision over the scrappy IFBA Junior Featherweight
champion "Downtown" Leona
Brown of Pawling, New York. Leona took a series of big
punches from Lisa in the first round and went down hard from a
right uppercut. Leona then came back to floor Lisa with a quick counter
right over a lazy left later in the same round. Lisa
decked Leona twice more with right uppercuts in the second but Leona
pressed the action after Lisa began to tire in the
third. Leona outhustled Lisa in the second half of the fight and had
Lisa "on the verge of a knockout" at the
final bell, according to according to FightNews
reporter Andre Courtemanche who was at ringside. Leona Brown fell to
8-7 (2 KO's), while Lisa advanced to 5-0 (3 KO's).
On August 31, 2001 at Cedar
Bridge Academy in Bermuda City, Bermuda, Lisa (116½ lbs) won the vacant
IWBF
Bantamweight title with a ten-round decision over Leona Brown (117 lbs) who fell
to 9-8 (3 KOs).
There were no knockdowns in this hard-fought rematch of their April
cross-border war in Niagara Falls.
On December 21, 2002 at War
Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Lisa (121½ lbs) won a
six-round
unanimous (60-54) decision over Karen Martin (121 lbs), now
living in the U.K. Martin fell to 6-4-0 (5 KO).
On April 26, 2003 at Hamilton
Place Theater in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Lisa won a convincing
four-round
unanimous (40-36) decision over fellow Ontarian Olga Heron of
Mississauga. Brown remained undefeated at 8-0-0 (3 KO) while
Heron slipped to 3-1-0 (1 KO). Brown stepped in to fight Heron at short
notice on a card that had to be reorganized due to
restrictions on medical testing in Ontario caused by the SARS outbreak
in Toronto. Brown surprised a game but overmatched
Heron with a very aggressive start in this fight.
On
July 11, 2003 at Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio, 5'9" Kelli Cofer of Shelby, Ohio and
Lisa both stayed
undefeated as they battled each other to a six-round draw
(58-56,56-58,57-57) in a junior featherweight contest. The much
taller Cofer, who left the ring visibly shaken by the decision,
progressed to 10-0-2 (4 KO) .
(WBAN's Brian Ackley scored this fight 58-56 for Cofer.)
While she's been the IWBF
Bantamweight champion, Lisa has had difficulty persuading opponents to
agree to face
her, so she has started taking fights as a junior featherweight just to
stay active.
On October 30, 2003 at
Seminole Coconut Creek Casino in Hollywood, Florida,
Ada Velez
(5'3", 118 lbs) of Hollywood and Lisa (116½ lbs) fought to a ten-round
majority draw in a
hard and closely-fought bout for Velez's WIBA Bantamweight world title.
After a feeling-out round, the two southpaws traded
punches toe to toe with Brown's back to the ropes in the second. Brown
used the ring better in the third and her footwork
and defensive skills negated Velez's aggression and earned her points
on the scorecards in the middle rounds. The crowd was
solidly behind the Puerto Rican and local resident Velez but Brown's
quickness and boxing skills held her in check. Velez
pushed the pace harder in the late going and wobbled Brown once near
the end of the final round, but Brown had done enough
to earn the decision on one judge's card. The scorecards were 96-94 for
Brown, and two even at 95-95, so Velez kept her
title belt. Brown remained undefeated at 8-0-2 (3 KO) while Velez, the
IBA and WIBA champion progressed to 14-1-2 (6 KO).
Lisa told reporters that she
thought she had won the fight but was still pleased with getting a
majority draw on Velez's
home turf, saying that she had made fans and gained respect with the
bout. She offered Velez a rematch in Canada or the
USA and said she would put her IWBF belt on the line if Velez accepts
the return engagement.
On May 26, 2004 at the
Ameristar Casino in Kansas City, Missouri, Lisa (122 lbs) won a
six-round unanimous (59-54,59-54,60-53) decision over Jeri Sitzes (122 lbs) of
Springfield, Missouri. Lisa controlled the first round by
beating Jeri to the punch and knocked Jeri down near the end of the
stanza. Sitzes felt it was a slip but the ref gave her an
eight count anyway. Lisa controlled the start and end of an
action-packed second round but they raded hard when Jeri pinned her in
the corner midway through it. Round three was evenly fought with less
action, but Lisa returned to beating Jerri to the punch in the
fourth. Lisa controlled most of the fifth but Jeri finished
it with a good flurry, while the sixth was close. Sitzes fell to 5-3-1.
On December 10, 2004 at
Southport Sharks in Southport, Queensland, Australia, Sharon Anyos of Australia won a
ten-round majority (96-96,96-95,100-91) decision over Lisa defending
her WBF Women's Featherweight Title. Anyos is now 8-3 (1 KO). Brown suffered her first loss and is 9-1-2 (3
KO).
© Copyrighted photo taken by Durell Wambolt
On February 18, 2005 at the
Docks Nightclub in Toronto, Canada, Lisa (123½ lbs) knocked out
Stephaney George (120 lbs) of Guyana at 1:18 in the second round of a
scheduled six-rounder. After a quiet first round, Lisa came out much
more aggressively in the second and landed solid straight lefts and
rights that snapped George's head back. Midway through the round Lisa
followed a sharp right hook to the side of George’s head with a left
uppercut that caught George flush on the chin and snapped her head back
violently, knocking her out cold. George was on the canvas for several
minutes, while Lisa Brown held her hand; she
was shaking when carried out of the ring by paramedics, but her
trainers said later that she was not seriously hurt. Brown improved to
10-1-2 (4 KOs) while George fell to 5-4.
On June 18, 2005 at Shaw
Convention Center in Edmonton, Alberta, Lisa won a clear
(59-51,60-53,59-54) six-round unanimous decision over 5'9" Kelli Cofer of Willard, Ohio in
the co-main event of Canada's first all-female pro boxing
card. The shorter but stronger Brown rattled Cofer in the
fifth and had the lanky American dangling on the edge the rest of the
way. She kept up the pummeling in the sixth and final round, landing a
barrage of straight lefts and hard uppercuts.
Cofer went to the canvas from an overhand left with five seconds left
in the fight. "I looked at the tape (of our previous fight)
and saw that if I continued to use the jab, it would help me set up my
punches and take her out. I usually like to throw the combinations so
using the jab and come with the right hook, they are not expecting the
right hook coming, so I tried to use that as much as possible. I was
surprised that she could keep taking the punches, but there was no way
she could sustain herself against that kind of pressure,"
said Brown.
"The business is taking your opponent out. ''I smelled blood and I
wanted to take her out and go home." Cofer fell to
10-3-4 (4 KOs).
On September 23, 2005 at Jean
Pierre Sport Complex in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Lisa (121¾
lbs) used a relentless body attack to pound out a clear ten-round
unanimous (98-92,100-90,100-90) decision over IFBA Bantamweight
champion Jackie Chavez
(120 lbs) of Albuquerque, New Mexico for the WIBC and WIBA Junior
Featherweight titles. According to local reports, Lisa peppered Chavez
with left hooks to run up a big lead before Chavez tried to make a
comeback in the late going. Lisa,
fighting in her birthplace for the first time as a pro boxer, improved
to 12-1-2 (4 KOs) while Chavez suffered her first pro loss and fell to
9-1-0 (3 KOs). A dispute between the WIBC and the promoters over the
organization and supervision of the card later caused the WIBC to
withdraw its sanctioning from the event, so the fight will not count as
a WIBC title bout.
Lisa Brown battles Jeannine Garside for the WIBA title
© Copyrighted photo taken by Mary Ann Owen
On November 18, 2005 at the
Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, former four-time
Canadian national 57-kg amateur champion Jeannine
Garside (121¾ lbs) of Windsor, Ontario won the WIBA Junior Featherweight title
with a ten round unanimous (99-90,99-90,98-91) decision over Lisa (120¾ lbs).
Jeannine dropped Lisa for an eight count in the third round en route to
dominating the rest of the fight with a steady barrage of solid punches. Lisa
fell to 12-2-2 (4 KOs) with her most decisive pro loss to date while Jeannine
Garside improved to 4-0 (1 KO).
On June
23, 2006 at the Shaw Conference Center in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
Jeannine Garside (121 lbs) and Lisa
(121 lbs) fought to a 10-round majority draw in a defense of Garside's
WIBA title Final judges' scores were 95-95, 95-95, and 96-94
for Brown. Brown came out strong in the early rounds in an attempt to
reclaim her title, winning the first three by setting the
pace with effective aggression, getting off first and landing harder
and more frequently.
Garside made adjustments in the fourth and closed the bout well,
trading toe to toe with Brown. “I thought I was
pacing myself,” Garside
told
reporter Doug Rowe. “I thought I was taking the rounds. I had
her back to the ropes and I had her hurt three times in the fight. I am
confused. What they want is to see me fight her again and that’s fine.
There will not be any question the next time I fight her. It has
nothing to do with revenge, it just has to do with who is the champ,
and I am the champ!”
Lisa was equally adamant that she had won the bout, telling Rowe: “It
was robbery. I came out to fight, I did what I had to do ... I come and
give the fight of my life and they call it a draw. I can’t believe it.
The first time I fought her, I wasn’t in shape, I had so much going on
I wasn’t mentally in shape, mentally and physically. This time I
actually got my game together and I was hungry. So I came out to put on
the best fight of my life.”
Negotiations
are reportedly under way for a third match between the two Ontario
rivals. Jeannine moved her pro record
to 5-0-1 (2 KOs).
Lisa battles Melissa Hernandez in November 2006
© Copyrighted photo taken by Mary Ann Owen
On November 4, 2006 at the
Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Lisa (121
lbs) lost a ten-round unanimous (96-94,96-94,98-92)
decision to Melissa
Hernandez (5'3", 119 lbs) of New York for the WIBA Junior
Featherweight title, which Jeannine Garside had vacated to fight on the
same card for the WIBA Featherweight belt. Lisa
fell to 12-3-3 (4 KOs) with the loss, while Hernandez improved to 6-0-1
(2 KO's).
Lisa vs. Jackie Chavez in March 2007
© Copyrighted photograph by Mary Ann Owen
On March 22, 2007 at the
Isleta Casino near Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lisa (122 lbs)
won the IFBA Junior Featherweight title with a 10-round unanimous
(99-91,97-93,97-94) decision over Jackie
Chavez (122 lbs) of nearby Los Lunas, New Mexico. Lisa's
power and ring experience controlled most of the bout while Chavez's
best round was in the fifth, when she came alive with the
home crowd chanting her name throwing a barrage of sharp combos with
Brown pinned near the ropes in the closing moments. Lisa
Brown improved to
13-3-3 (4 KOs) while Chavez fell to 9-3-0 (3 KOs).
On February 7, 2008 at the
Pechanga Resort and
Casino in Temecula, California, Lisa took on scrappy
Jeri Sitzes of Springfield, Missouri defending her IFBA
Junior Featherweight title. Lisa literally took her lumps in this
fight, ending it visibly battered but still the winner on the
scorecards by a unanimous (97-92,98-91,98-93)
point decision. Lisa
advanced to 14-3-3 (4 KOs) while Sitzes fell
to 14-7-1 (6 KOs), ending a nine-fight unbeaten streak.
On
June 12, 2008 at
the Mohegan
Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. and televised live on Fox
Sports Net, in the main event Lisa (121¾)
retained her IFBA World Junior Featherweight title with a controversial
ten-round split (97-93,97-93,94-96)
decision over Alicia Ashley
(121¾ lbs) of New York. Ashley chose to fight
from the outside for the most part and used her speed and quickness to
counter and frustrate Brown, who kept moving forward but was unable to
connect solidly very often. As Brown took a couple of tumbles
to the canvas late in the fight, the scoring was surprising, rewarding
Brown's conventional (but only occasionally effective) aggression over
Ashley's movement and quickness. Ashley
fell to 13-8-1 (1 KO).
On March
7, 2009 at Jean Pierre Sports Complex in
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Lisa Brown TKO'd Maribel Santana of
La Romana, Dominican Republic at 1:39 in the third round of a scheduled
10 rounder for the WIBA Junior Featherweight title.
Santana
fell to to 10-7-1 (3 KOs).
On
October 15, 2009, Lisa traveled to Incheon City, South Korea in her
quest for a fifth world title by moving up to the featherweight
division. Brown (125¾ lbs) lost a disputed
decision to local fighter, Hyo-Min Kim (125¾ lbs). Team Brown states
that they were "advised by Judy Kulis, president of the IFBA
immediately after the fight that it was scored as a “split
draw”. However, the bout was released as a unanimous
decision. Given, in the words of IFBA. president Judy Kulis,
the “grievous” nature of the decision, the sanctioning body filed
a protest with the Korean Boxing Commission." The
KBC later announced
that the decision would stand but agreed with the IFBA that a rematch
is needed. The IFBA then issued a press release indicating that the
rematch would be mandatory and was to take place in early
2010. Brown's management team Cloverlay Management
Corporation, through Mike Schmidt, commented as follows: "I
think the actions of the IFBA speak volumes in regard to what a
terrible decision this was. Lisa beat up Hyo-Min Kim for ten rounds and
I don't use the term "beat up" lightly. Under usual circumstances a
mandatory rematch would be ordered within two months. Preliminary
reports are that Ms Kim will be unavailable for approximately five
months as she is or will be undergoing an eye operation as a result of
injuries suffered during the fight.” Team Brown informs WBAN
that they have yet to be informed
about a rematch.
Lisa vs Ana Julaton in March 2010
© Copyrighted photo taken by Durell Wambolt
courtesy of Team Lisa Brown
On
March 27, 2010, at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Lisa (122 lbs) entered
the ring against Ana Julaton (120¾ lbs) of Daly City, California for
the WBA Super Bantamweight Championship. Julaton, with just eight pro
fights, was going into her third world title match in a row after
winning the IBA and WBO titles. Julaton had been an amateur standout
winning the San Francisco Golden Gloves, the California State
Championships and a Diamond Belt champion as well as the silver medal
at the US Amateur Championships, and was the recipient of the vast
majority of media coverage leading up to the fight, it was Brown who
dominated inside the ropes for a 99-91, 99-92, 100-90 unanimous
decision.
On
April 2, 2011 at Arena
Roberto Duran in Panama City,
Shantal Martinez
(122 lbs) of Panama City won a hotly-contested ten-round unanimous
(97-93,95-94,95-94) decision over Lisa (122
lbs) for the WBA Junior Featherweight title.
The boxers exchanged solid blows throughout the bout but Martinez
appeared to tire in the late rounds and was lnocked down in the eighth.
"I
give thanks to God, to my coaches who did the job and I am happy to be
world champion," Martinez said after her victory, which
dropped Brown's
record to 18-5-3 (5 KO's) as Martinez improved hers to 13-4-0 (5 KO's).
On
November 19, 2011 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Lisa (121¼
lbs) won a ten-round unanimous decision over Angela Marciales (132 lbs)
of Bogota, Colombia for the WIBA Junior Featherweight title.
Marciales fell to 6-6-3 (5 KO's).
On August
18, 2012 at La
Cetto Vineyard, Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California, Mexico, Jackie
Nava (122 lbs) of Tijuana, Mexico won by a TKO at 1:42 in the
third
round over Lisa (122 lbs) for the WBA
Junior Featherweight title. Nava improved to 28-4-3 (12 KO's)
while Brown slipped to 19-5-3 (6 KO's).
In 2020, Lisa Brown was inducted into the International Women's
Boxing Hall of Fame.
Page
last updated:Monday, 12 June 2023
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