|
|
Update as of 2024:
ELENA TVERDOKHLEB… A Former world kickboxing champion, Elena became
the first female professional female boxer from Ukraine. A Lawyer by
profession, she fought Myriam Lamare of France twice for the WBA world
titles and lost by close decisions. Together with her late husband Igor
they did much to manage martial arts and amateur boxing in eastern
Europe. Her daughter is a national standard water-polo player in
Ukraine.5'6" Junior
welterweight Elena Tverdokhleb, 38
years old as of 2009, fights out of Kiev, Ukraine.
She is a practicing lawyer and she has a master degree in law,
graduating in 1998 from the faculty of law in the National Shevchenko University.
For over 10 years Elena has bee the head of a legal department of the big
joint-stock and holding companies.
Elena told WBAN about her early childhood. She said, "In my childhood, I was a habitual ringleader and a participant of all-out fights. I was fighting desperately and had no fear of
getting a broken
nose and/or teeth. Everybody thinks that my nose was broken in the ring,
but actually it is a trace of my pugnacious childhood."
"And as long as can remember, I always did sports: from games to
track-and-field athletics and from athletics to Judo in which I’d been
the champion of Kyiv, a prize – winner of Ukraine Championship and some
international tournaments", added Elena.
In 1991, Elena began kickboxing in the 1990's. In 1993, she won
her first silver medal at X World
Championship in Greece (WAKO), then she received a bronze medal at IÕ World
Championship in Budapest (WAKO).
In 1993, and1995, Elena became the
champion of the world at X World Championship in Kiev (WAKO) and the
champion of Europe among professionals of WAKO.
In 1997 in
Milan, she became the champion of the world according to prestige American
version ISKA.
Elena said, "following several years of making my legal carrier, and giving birth to
my son, I came back to sports and starting 2003 began training and
competing in professional boxing. Yet in April 2005, in Marseille, I
fought for the WBA Boxing World Champion. In 2007-2008, I stop my
training and giving birth to my daughter. From April 2009, I came
back to boxing gym and now I am preparing for new fights. When my
friends form Europe and America wonder how can I, a practicing lawyer,
be professionally into boxing, I always laugh off that: professionally I
am into jurisprudence, and boxing just helps to persuade opponents… But
to be serious, I never faced and I will never face such a choice – I can
do both and even more. It is ten years since I have been heading the
legal departments of the biggest companies."
Elena never thought of boxing as a job – she would then lose joy of
treating boxing as an exciting hobby… And when Vitaliy Klichko had
repeatedly expressed opinion that boxing is not for women, Elena
retorted, "I would say
that boxing is not for all men either... ".
"If speaking about moments when it is needed to put a cad (boor) in his
place, I can prove my words not only with oral evidence, which is
sometimes inefficient, but also with fists. It is better then to gulp
back offences. Kindness and good manners must be with fists in the
direct meaning of it, otherwise cads will wipe their feet on them",
added Elena. |
|
|
|
