Like Father...Like
Daughter!
On May 1, 2003, at the Delaware
County Fairgrounds, in Muncie, Indiana, there was a "History
First" when father, Al Hughes, 54, and Daughter, Angela
Hughes, 18, fought on the same amateur event! Both Al and
Angela won their bouts...Angela who was making her debut stopped
Lynicia Hinson of Anderson in the second round by KO, and Al,
defeated 20-year-old Johnny Sparks of Indianapolis. In the
first round Sparks knocked "Dad" down to the canvass, but then Al
got the better of his opponent and KO'd him in the second round!
Diedre Yumi
Hamaguchi...a history first and fascinating story
Hamaguchi was the first woman
Hamaguchi was the first woman
to enter the 1994 Daily
News Golden Gloves in New York, NY. To keep them from knowing that she was a female,
Diedre mailed in her application using only a first initial "D" Hamaguchi, so as
to not give away her gender. to enter the 1994 Daily
News Golden Gloves in New York, NY. To keep them from knowing that she was a female,
Diedre mailed in her application using only a first initial "D"
Hamaguchi, so as
to not give away her gender. As the Daily News quoted in an
article called, "Ladies night with a punch," dated April 7, 1995, a year
after she made history, "Dee Hamaguchi, who is the reason why women were here at
the Daily News Golden Gloves in the first place. It had never happened in the 68 years of
the country's oldest and largest amateur boxing competition. Last year as
application was submitted with the name D. Hamaguchi. Nobody knew D. was Dee, and
that Dee was a woman from Harlem. Even though she didn't end up competing last year,
the seed was in the ground, and it started growing, so there we were last night looking at
Jill Matthews' mascara and at the Golden Gloves dangling from Christine Bruno SanGallo's
neck." Dee Hamaguchi would have had her chance to compete in 1994, except
that the Daily News sent her schedule to get her physical exam too late in the mail!
First
Professional Female Fight in Canada - 1977
Referee Nick Nicholo signals it's
all over as Yvonne Barkley heads to her corner, a fourth-round
winner, and a beaten Smokey Robinson slumps in her corner clutching her midsection.
Barkley and Robinson competed in Canada's first professional female fight in Canada at
Pointe -aux -Trembles, Que.
February
1994 - First female boxing match sanctioned by USA Boxing
These women finally got a chance to box in the
first female boxing match and were part of history in the making when they participated in
the first bout officially sanctioned by USA Boxing, the amateur sport's national governing
body. The female participates were Tracy Desmond, a 21-year-old senior at DePaul
majoring in international studies and Jacqueline Ta, an 18-year-old from the University of
Chicago. The fight ended in a TKO for Desmond.
October
1993 - USA Boxing News
USA Boxing said it will start registering female
amateur boxers nationwide to compete against other females in sanctioned bouts.
August
26, 1986 - Ohio Boxing Commissions Allows Female Bout
The Ohio Boxing Commission had
finally allowed a female boxing match to be scheduled on a 7-bout card at the Lakeland
Community College. The female boxers who participated in that
"first-time" ever bout was Parma's Debra Kennedy and Cleveland's Sharon
Harrington.
First
Women's Bantamweight World Championship - 15 rounds
Darlina Valdez, of Santa Fe, was
in the women’s first bantamweight world championship before more than 1,000 screaming
fans in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She fought a 15-round battle and won a unanimous decision
over Holly McDaniel of Muncie, Indiana. Apparently the fight was
a crowd pleaser, and it was reported that the crown "roared with delight" at the
performance of the two women. McDaniel, a high school beauty contest winner and mother of
a three-year-old. She got her nose broken in the 11th round, but continued bravely
to the finish. The rules at the time in 1983 for fighting a championship fight, was
the same as men’s, 15 rounds for championship fights and eight-ounce gloves. Chest
and abdomen protectors were optional and at the time, only about 50 percent of the
women wore them.
