Written by:
Nancy L. Warren
Her dream had always been to be the champion and finally at thirty-four in a small outdoor arena in Salinas, Calif., Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi would have her day.
Fighting Leah Mellinger for the North American Welter Weight Championship boxing title, Gina Guidi unleashed a cavalcade of concussive blows in the seventh round to earn the TKO and the belt that signifies she is the very best. In a sport historically the private domain of men, Guidi carved a niche for herself and earned the respect of the boxing community.
Women's boxing rocked the world with the introduction of Christy Martin as the undercard to the Tyson-Bruno pay-per-view fight in Las Vegas, which culminated in a dramatically bloody victory by Martin. Richard Hoffer of Sports Illustrated wrote of the fight saying, "Not only was the bout between ... Martin and ...Gogarty (Dangerous Deirdre) more competitive than the typical prelim, but it had more action and better boxing than the main event...and there was gore to boot, all of it Martin's. After Gogarty rocked her in the second round Martin bled wildly from the nose; it was a harmless injury, but eye opening for the fans who were expecting Foxy Boxing."
Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi is the antithesis of the Foxy Boxer. She is a driven athlete, working out six days a week. Her twelve and three-fourth-inch biceps are visible proof of long hours spent pounding the heavy bag. In a light workout three days before her title bout Guidi strung together three rounds of shadow boxing, six rounds on the heavy bag, six rounds of speed bag, three rounds jumping rope, one hundred and twenty neck exercises, two rounds of stomach work and finished off with a mere six hundred sit-ups, then apologized for having the session be so short.
As a teenager in the San Francisco Police Athletic League gym, Guidi was one of the few women boxers fighting to be taken seriously every day. Now stepping into King's Gym in Oakland where she trains, there is a mix of men and women. Boxers male and female alike look up to Guidi and admire her intensity. They know who she is and there is no question as to whether she should be taken seriously.
The victories and accolades for Guidi and other boxers like her are few. In a sport that has yet to reach infancy, every bout is a step forward. The Women's International Boxing Federation (WIBF) was formed three years ago to organize and promote women in boxing. With one thousand professional boxers worldwide, the pool of talent is slowly growing. Countries like England, Denmark and France, (where martial arts are prevalent and might provide candidates for boxing's future), retard that growth with outdated laws preventing women from being promoted. The British Boxing Board of Control prohibits its members from promoting women at all. Jimmy Finn, general secretary of the WIBF, said, "Women's martial arts in France and Holland are phenomenal -- there are an amazing number of women doing boxing workouts, but we will have to go to court in Europe for them to be allowed to fight. Even in the United States, the equal right to fight doesn't mean equal opportunity to fight."
Obviously a male-controlled sport, boxing is not likely to change overnight into a lucrative opportunity for women. At the moment, the novelty of female bouts is drawing attention, but small purses make it impossible for women to pursue the sport as their sole means of support. While Tyson and Bruno were loading their thirty-six million dollars into their wagons to pull home, Christy Martin took only a neat little fifteen thousand. Gina Guidi works forty hours a week as purchasing manager for an advertising firm, fitting her workouts and bouts into an already full schedule. While Guidi earned two thousand dollars for her title victory, she estimated that in the male world an equivalent title would have been worth about twice that amount. The biggest difference is not the purse but the future opportunities that would evolve from the victory.
"What this would have meant for a man to win that kind of a title would have advanced him way up in the rankings, to possibly fight a contender, making it possible to get to the top, to a world title. He would have had promoters banging the door down trying to get him to sign to fight exclusively for them," said Guidi. Though no promoters are banging on Guidi's door, she is becoming more well known and may sign a contract for her first televised bout in 1997.
In addition to her minority status as a woman, Guidi is also a lesbian. When asked whether she had experienced any discrimination as a lesbian in boxing her frank response was, "I don't have any problem with it. I know that some people outside the ring have a problem with it, but to be perfectly honest with you, I am getting really close to not worrying about it. It's there but it's underlying." Guidi's partner, Diane Butler, is very visible in all aspects of Guidi's career. From assisting with daily workouts to being her corner "man" during bouts, Butler is the epitome of support. "Because we are so comfortable with each other," Guidi said. "And because we are fortunate to live in the Bay Area, it is no big thing. We like to keep everything business-like when it has to do with boxing, because it is business."
"Once people see Gina in the ring they see what an incredible athlete she is. Then they talk to her and they see how well she expresses herself, how devoted she is, how hard she trains and how skillful she is," Butler said. "People accept Gina as a boxer, not as a woman boxer, and our relationship is accepted as well. She tends to break all the stereotypes."
Guidi believes there are fewer gay women boxers than straight. Only twentyfive percent of the boxers she has faced have been lesbians. Guidi does not believe women's boxing faces the same type of stigma that women's golf had endured for so many years when Ben Wright declared that the professional golf tour would not be successful because there were too many lesbians playing. "I do not think that is the problem for women in the boxing world," Guidi explained." I think the problem is that there are a lot of people out there who have a problem seeing two women hit each other. With the Foxy Boxing popular in the Seventies and Eighties, we were seeing models beating each other with pillows on the hands and it was a ha-ha kind of sexy thing for guys. This is real boxing now and you're seeing blood, you're seeing women getting knocked down and knocked out."
The USA Network aired its first female bout in August of last year and subsequently polled viewers on whether they wanted women's fights. From one hundred thousand calls, eighty percent said yes to more women's boxing. With added television exposure the sport could blossom and purses increase. Christy Martin is cashing in on that opportunity and riding the wave as far as it will go. Martin has minced few words in declaring her reasons for competing -- she is in it for the money and for her own personal gain. Her blatant anti-woman statements have earned her the reputation of being self-centered and a detriment to women's boxing. In her Sports Illustrated interview, Martin said, "I'm not out to make a statement about women in boxing, or even women in sports. I'm not trying to put women in the forefront. This is about Christy Martin."
What women will do with this ring now that they have stepped into the main event remains to be seen. As with any sport in its earliest stages, women's boxing is imperfect. With the small number of truly talented boxers, the opportunity exists for the athletes to take control over the outcome of their bouts. It appears that this is Martin's goal -- sucking the cash out of boxing while providing some entertainment for the masses. Guidi's goal is to become the best woman boxer in the world and to expand the opportunities available to women in boxing. For now, these two women define the extremes that women's professional boxing currently embodies.
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