The Glowing Edge

Category: Interviews

  • Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind

    Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind

    Last year I got a lovely email from a woman who, after greeting me politely and complimenting The Glowing Edge, mysteriously indicated that we might have some things in common. Intrigued, I clicked through and discovered Binnie Klein, a psychotherapist in New Haven, Connecticut, a Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, host of a popular weekly music and interview show on WPKN radio, and… you guessed it, a boxing woman.

    And since she was looking for even more things to accomplish, she’s just written a book about it.

    Her book has just been published and my copy has arrived in the mail; expect a review from me (plus a chance to win a free copy of the book!) as soon as I’ve read it. Meanwhile, she and her publisher gave me permission to share this excerpt with you.

    *     *     *

    My coach John, a former middleweight state champ (aka “The Punisher”) was acutely aware that the men in the lives of his women boxers were not always supportive.  Maybe that’s why he often asked what my gentle and peace-loving husband Scott thought about my boxing. Scott wasn’t the only one who was perplexed.  It’s not like I was Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby; I wasn’t battling for recognition, and no one was standing in my way.  People looked startled when they heard I was boxing. “You?”  they’d say.  Why are you so shocked? I wanted to ask, Is it because I’m older? Because I’m not trim and fit?   Because I’m a woman? Somehow the aggression or intensity required to hit was understandable coming from a man.  But with a woman, it was an anomaly.  Why on earth would a woman want to punch?  Or be hit?

    Or was it something else altogether that people were thinking?

    Maybe they don’t think my profession fits with the sport.  You’re a therapist, they scold, as if reminding me that in choosing my career I was to be denied the physical plane altogether, a brain suspended in a tank like in a 1950s science fiction movie.

    You’re not supposed to be aggressive, right?  Aren’t you supposed to have it all analyzed and sublimated?

    Yeah, right.  There’s nothing like donning boxing gloves and headgear to make you face your own competitiveness, rage, and desire for dominance.  My inclinations were shocking.

    People ask me – do your patients know?  Some do because I’ve referred them for boxing lessons to help them feel their own physical power and competence.  Therapists fall into two groups:  those who pretend that their patients know nothing personal about them, and struggle to keep it that way.  They won’t give opinions, and they won’t tell you where they’re going on vacation.  You’ve already guessed which group I’m in.  The mystery therapists may be perfectly helpful therapists; they just don’t roll that way.  But there are the inevitable clues emanating from their faces and their walls, whether their humor is direct, sardonic, or missing altogether; whether their offices are adorned with Klee prints and tasteful soapstone sculptures or a just a dusty row of crookedly-hung diplomas; whether they are outfitted in blazers and chinos or Flax clothing and chunky jewelry, and whether the car sitting in the therapist’s space is a Prius with a “Think Globally, Act Locally” sticker or a brand-new Saab with a ski rack.

    Boxing is a bit like being part of a sexual minority – we take pleasure in something many people don’t understand, and feel compelled to judge us for – but sometimes when I talk about boxing, a surprising amount of people, both women and men, begin to imagine themselves with boxing gloves on.  I recognize the look.  Their innocent eyes widen.  They start talking about how they did five minutes of kick-boxing in an aerobics class once.  They’re intrigued…and then they’re curious…and then, in almost a whisper:

    “So where did you say you do this?”

    This excerpt was adapted from “Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind” published by Suny Press, January 2010.

  • Melissa Hernandez: Her Best to the Last Bell

    Melissa Hernandez: Her Best to the Last Bell

    Many of the top pro boxing women know each other; a fact that becomes more and more evident to me when I hear my trainer Bonnie “Queen B” Mann chatting aimiably about meeting with Mia St. John in Vegas, running into Laila Ali at a hotel, or talking with Erin Toughill or Christy Martin on Facebook.

    For my birthday this year she gave me an incredible gift: she arranged for me to talk on the phone with three-time world title holder Melissa “Huracan” Hernandez (11-1-2), who has a title fight coming up this December 4th in Albuquerque, New Mexico against the inimitable Holly Holm (25-1-3).

    On the phone, Melissa gracefully put up with my awe-struck stammering, and treated me like a friend. She also talks a million miles an hour with that beautiful Bronx by-the-way-of Puerto Rico accent. She has just as much energy on the phone as she does in the ring, and she answered all of my carefully researched-in-advance questions and added a few of her own. The “Huracan” tag fits her amazingly well.

    Melissa is probably best known for being willing to take on any fighter in any weight category. She barreled out of the amateurs in 2005 with a string of wins, but really drew the attention of the boxing world by facing Kelsey Jeffries, who had more than 40 pro fights (and 33 wins), for Melissa’s fourth fight. They battled 10 rounds to a draw, and suddenly Hernandez was a boxer to watch.

    She told me she was proudest of her wins against Chevelle “Fists of Steel” Hallback — an incredibly athletic, powerhouse boxer — and Lisa “Bad News” Brown. And while it was exciting to hear her talk about some of her most famous fights, I wondered what her difficult times looked like.

    “Do you ever get discouraged or afraid?” I asked her.

    “Absolutely!” she laughed, “Every fight!”

    “No way,” I said, half disbelieving. “Not every fight, surely.”

    “It’s true,” she replied equably. “You should hear me, dragging myself around the gym, telling everybody that I hope I don’t wreck it for my next fight; that I hope I don’t go down bad, get knocked on my ass. I take every fight very seriously; I have a lot of respect for my opponents, no matter what craziness I might talk in the press conferences. There are some incredibly powerful boxing women out there, women who train very hard and make sacrifices in order to be in top fighting condition. So of course I get afraid. I want the fight very much, but I also know the risks.”

    “My goal is to fight my best,” Melissa said, after a brief pause. “I don’t say, ‘I have to win every fight.’ Everyone loses sometimes. I just want to make it to the last bell, win or lose, knowing I fought my best.”

    “What does your training regimen look like as you’re getting ready for a big fight?” I asked, switching gears.

    Most days she does a 3 mile run, sprints, and calisthenics, along with an incredible 16 rounds of sparring, with a fresh sparring partner every three rounds. “Some speed bag for focus, mitt work. And I do the slip bag endlessly,” she said, somewhat ruefully. “All. The. Time. It’s good for quick movement patterns, reaction times.” Which certainly shows when she’s in the ring. If ever there was an explosive, quick-moving boxer who works the angles, it’s Melissa Hernandez, one press writer recently noted.

    Melissa is not just a boxer, she’s also an astute businesswoman with a keen grasp of the business side of boxing. She trains a number of fighters (mostly women, but also some men, which — she noted dryly — is where the money is), and spoke briefly to the ever-widening gap between MMA and boxing. She pointed to the need for a bigger dose of “show” in boxing publicity (she’s well-known for talking a little smack for the press) but she also mentioned a need for the people who love boxing most to pool their money and help promote women’s boxing shows. “Take that $2000 you were going to spend on a trip to the beach,” she said, “and help rent out a hall where a show can run! Show your love for this sport.” She laughs, but you know she’s dead serious, too.

    If you ask her about women’s boxing being admitted to the 2012 Olympics, you’ll get an ear full. She’s justifiably irate at the small slice of weight categories and slots the women will have in comparison to the men, and she has the most to say about the exclusion of pro fighters, who are allowed in many other Olympic sports. “We have such a small space,” she said, “and we really need to show the world how incredible women’s boxing is in order to win a larger array of slots and weight categories. I wish we could showcase the very best fighters in women’s boxing; professional women with history and power. Women the world will not only tune in to see, but demand more of.”

    We also talked about Lucia Rijker‘s recent induction into the World Boxing Hall of Fame — the first female boxer ever to win that status. I asked her who the next three women should be. “Belinda Laracuente (with whom Hernandez lived and trained in her early years), Laura Serrano, Sumya Anani, Alicia Ashley, and me!” she told me, her quick and easy laughter punctuating the final nominee.

    She’s quick to promote herself, but she’s also constantly promoting women’s boxing, and is quick to criticize other top-tier boxers whom she feels don’t use their name and resources to do the same.

    “Okay,” I said, down to the last question on my page of notes, “Who do you want to fight next, after Holly Holm in December?”

    “I’ll fight anyone,” she said, with unfeigned enthusiasm. “I want to fight everyone; I don’t care about the weight category. There are so many great boxers out there I’d like to get in the ring with. Jackie Nava would be one,” she noted. “And Ina Menzer. And how about Christy Martin? I want to fight her!”

    “I’m the best,” she continued, “I’ll give them all a shot.”

    Whoever she fights, the crowd can count on this energetic, committed, and dynamic woman to be her best in the ring, all the way to the final bell.

    Copyrighted image used by permission of BestFemBoxers.com

  • Bonnie Mann: Breaking Ground, Discovering Boxing

    Bonnie Mann: Breaking Ground, Discovering Boxing

    I recently had the opportunity to talk with my trainer outside of the gym, and she shared a little bit with me about how she got started in boxing and the one woman and two incredible men who have made all the difference in her 14 year professional boxing career.

    Beginnings in Baseball
    She was always an athlete, she told me, and was the first girl to play on the formerly all-boy team in Grasshopper Baseball when she was 7 or 8 years old. She laughs and relates the story of her coach telling them all to be sure and get a “cup;” information which she promptly and obediently relayed to her mother once she got home that day.

    She played Little League, then switched to fast pitch softball, and even did a stint  as a pitcher and shortstop with Raleigh’s Women’s Professional Baseball Association. But after more than 20 years of  baseball, she grew tired of it, and dropped out of the scene. She found herself messing around in gyms trying to occupy her mind and body by lifting weights, but the horizon looked empty; she was bored and restless.

    A Chance Encounter with a Female Pro Boxer
    One day she found herself interviewing for a job with North American Van Lines, thinking to put her strength to work to earn a paycheck. Her interviewer seemed eager to hire, and threw a sweetener into the deal to draw Bonnie in: “If you take the job,” he offered, “I’ll introduce you to Teresa Arguello. She was a pro boxer in Texas and California.”

    He’d gained her interest. She took the position.

    It wasn’t long before the two women met, and Bonnie indicated her curiosity in finding out what boxing was all about. Arguello told her to meet her at a warehouse one night after work. She gave her an old pair of boxing gloves and when they both arrived Arbuelo put her through a workout for about 30 minutes. The next day Mann was so sore she could hardly walk. And she was hooked.

    It was new, it was incredibly difficult, and the challenge drew her in like a wounded surfer draws sharks.

    The two women went to a baseball field in Morrisville, to a tiny 4×6 concrete slab, where Arguello made Bonnie jump rope in the 100 degree heat. Then she would hold the mitts and have Bonnie work them. They utilized outdoor spaces, garages, and warehouses; wherever they could get permission to spend an hour or so working together.

    A Run-Down Gym, a New Friendship
    Mann eventually found a hole-in-the-wall gym in Durham that someone had mentioned to her. It was on the second floor of a building that looked to be condemned. There was no sign or any indication that somone had knocked out cinderblocks to enlarge an interior space, constructed a makeshift ring and hung two heavy bags upstairs. They had power for the lights strung across the ceiling, but little else. There were no other women, of course, and Bonnie didn’t have the first idea how to even work a bag. So she lingered on the fringes, watching and learning.

    If you follow boxing much you may know the name Paul “The Italian Hit Man” Marinaccio (23-3-3). In those days he was working out at that same tiny gym, working his own business during the day and training for amateur boxing matches with whatever time and places he could find in the cities where he traveled. Marinaccio is an imposing man at 6 feet, 5 inches tall, with dark hair and shoulders that fill a doorframe. Paul was the first one to approach Bonnie at the makeshift gym where they both were training, and his fierce love for the sport, along with his kind manner and willingness to accept Mann as just as serious as he was, made for a friendship that would flourish during the amateur and professional fighting careers of both boxers.

    One story that Bonnie loves to tell is how they both were on the card for a World Boxing Federation event; his fight was a headliner and hers was a featured event. Her opponent withdrew, which meant she was able to watch him win the heavyweight title that night.

    She also fought her World Boxing Empire title fight on his birthday, and dedicated her win to him.

    A World-Renowned Trainer
    The two have also shared a trainer. Paul and Bonnie had been working out in a small gym of their own, born of an extra space not being used by Paul’s girlfriend’s dance studio. A ring had been installed, heavy bags hung, and a sign which pronounced it “Jawbreakers” made it the official place where Paul’s trainer, Coach Anthony Bradley, would come to put him through his paces.

    An Army Middleweight World Champion boxer himself, Bradley has won respect around the globe as a three-time US Olympic Boxing Coach (1996, 2000, and 2004) and US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year.

    Bonnie asked Paul if he thought Coach Bradley would consider training her as well. Marinaccio wasn’t sure, since at the time he didn’t know whether Bradley was willing to work with a woman. But he determined to find out, and together they concocted a plan. By their arrangement, Bonnie was training hard in the gym when Bradley arrived to work with Paul. Coach Bradley couldn’t help but notice this dedicated woman, working her heart out in the small space of the gym, and Paul casually introduced her as his friend and training partner. Just as they had hoped, after Paul and Bradley began to train, Coach Bradley called Bonnie over and worked them both.

    Bonnie recalls how she would have killed herself to please the Coach, and in fact she did win his admiration, and later he became her official trainer. He watched her respond to his commands that day and told Paul, “Now that’s how you train.”