In 1985, she achieved black belt in karate and in
1989, she became the Norwegian national champion in kickboxing. And
ultimately, she became the World Champion in kickboxing in Berlin, 1991.
During this time, she also competed as an amateur boxer winning the
"Norway Box Cup" in 1988; and as a team captain and boxer, represented
Norway in the first international competition held for women in Sweden in
1989.
Along with her boxing career, Helga was running her
own advertising agency. From 1987-92 she was a board member in The
Norwegian Amateur Boxing Association fighting for women's boxing. She was
the only woman in the world to be a board member in an amateur boxing
association. One of her tasks was editor, writer and photographer for the
magazine BOXING.
Leaving Norway
The International Amateur Boxing Federation (AIBA)
had a congress in Australia in 1991. This committee banned women from
competing in amateur boxing internationally. This was a major setback
for women boxing. Since professional boxing was not legal in Norway at
the time, the only way Helga could continue boxing was to leave the
country.
After moving to the U.S., Helga wound up in Los
Angeles and started to train at her hero Benny The Jet's gym. A boxing
trainer, Herchel Jacobs "adopted" her and she started to train
professionally.
There were no women's boxing at all at the time in
the U.S. For one year she had to network across the U.S. to find women
boxers and promoters that were willing to put a bout together. Boxing
promoters laughed at her, and people did not take her seriously.
Meeting Don King
Don King had a
press conference in Los Angeles, and Helga went. She introduced herself as
a professional boxer, and King smiled. He invited her to come to Las Vegas
to meet him the following weekend. Helga rented a car, drove through the
Mojave desert and went to the fights at the Mirage
hotel where Julio Cesar Chavez was the headliner. Don King and Helga were
sitting privately, talking for two hours. She finally asked him, "Are
you willing to put two of the best women's boxers on your card?". He
sat quietly, thinking for a long time before he answered "Yes, I will
do that, send me some tapes of your fights".
Fighting for Top Rank
She never sent Don King the tapes, because right
after that she got her first fight with Top
Rank on March 4, 1993. This fight was held at the Aladdin Hotel in
Las Vegas. Most people had never seen women boxing before so they were
stunned and surprised. Helga moved to Las Vegas and continued to box.
Her third fight was showed on national television,
and other promoters began to put women boxers on their cards. Don King
kept his word and signed up Christy Martin, who is an exciting fighter to
watch. Women boxing started to take off seriously.
Historic fights
Since Helga Risoy was one of the first women boxers
in the new generation of women boxers she always had to prove to everyone
that women should be in the sport of boxing. The commissioner Marc Ratner
in Nevada said, "Helga Risoy was the first woman to fight in Las
Vegas in almost twenty years, she is one of the true pioneers, she started
it all".
She participated in the first professional boxing
match for women in Mexico, December 12. 1994. Also she went back to her
Scandinavian roots, and fought the first professional women bout in
Denmark, October 21. 1995.
Hard road to go…
It was not easy to get fights. After fighting for
Top Rank, Helga began to fight for other promoters as well. She was at
the gym every day, but no fights. About 90 % of the fights she was
promised were cancelled. There were not enough other women boxers out
there, so hard to find opponents.
She waited and trained and trained and waited, and it was frustrating
and hopeless. Time was running out for Helga, who now had been training
and fighting for 20 years. She said in an interview following her last
fight, "Both my hands and my right elbow have been bothering me for the
last two years. I am now losing to girls that I probably would have
easily beaten as an amateur, so it is time for me to " hang them up",
for good".
Helga Risoy retired as a boxer in 1997, but continued to work as an
international matchmaker and event coordinator for her former trainer
Emanuel Steward, for several years.
Steward died at the age of 68 years old, in 2012. He was world renown as
one of the best trainers in boxing history and whose Kronk Gym
symbolized Detroit's gritty, blue-collar boxing scene and produced
numerous world champions.
After retiring as a boxer and the boxing world, she took up music, which
was her first love. Writing her own songs, and performing at small
events around in Las Vegas.
Helga is currently working as a web designer, songwriter and singer. She
often goes hiking in the mountains, enjoying the quiet beautiful nature
that gives her great inspiration for her music. After being a volunteer
with rescue horse ranches for several years, she has taken an interest
as an animal right activist and adopted a rescue horse. The last 10
years she has spent the summers in Norway, and travels to the Las Vegas
area in the winter to get away from the dark and cold winters in
Northern Norway.
