There was a time not way back when girls’s boxing was within the wilderness, writes Steve Bunce
LUCIA RIJKER was misplaced in boxing’s wilderness years on the finish of the final century.
Christy Martin ran these years with a formidable popularity and the promotional energy to again her each determination.
As we method a large battle between Savannah Marshall and Claressa Shields, it’s important to recollect simply how shut and the way far-off a battle between Rijker and Martin was at totally different instances. It will have been, belief me, the primary one-million-dollar feminine battle. It’s fairly a story. And it’s true.
In early 1998 the ladies had by no means met, by no means been face-to-face. That occurred someday earlier than June of 1998 at a press convention to advertise the doomed Henry Akinwande world title battle with Evander Holyfield. It was meant to be at Madison Sq. Backyard in June of 1998; Christy Martin was outstanding on the invoice and so was Roberto Duran, in a final stand on the Backyard, combating for the middleweight world title in opposition to William Joppy. Duran was 46, however I watched him prepare that week and he had turned again the clock. The present by no means occurred; Akinwande had hepatitis B and Martin’s opponent was pregnant. Very pregnant, it turned out. Oh, and it was a nasty prime of the invoice and ticket gross sales had been sluggish. Rattling, I actually wished to see Duran within the Backyard.
On the convention for the evening, which befell a few weeks earlier, Rijker walks in and Martin is just not impressed. Martin was feisty, a handful again then within the Nineties. And positively not the wonderful and liked and revered pioneer she is now thought-about.
Rijker requested if Martin would battle her? Martin mentioned it was within the fingers of tv and Don King, her promoter. Martin additionally added: “I’m a girl, there is no such thing as a have to doubt that.” It was a part of the snickering debate on the time; there was a perception that Lucia was a person. Let’s not cover from the brutal reality of the day. Rijker had agreed to take no matter assessments Martin demanded and that included the demeaning assessments. This was not way back, however it was archaic stuff.
Martin additionally warned that the battle needed to be quickly as a result of she was off to have infants. Jay Larkin, the good tv boxing guru of Showtime, was on the convention and mentioned a number of issues, made some options. Rijker was eager: “I settle for the supply.” That was in 1998; Rijker was unbeaten in about eight fights and Martin had misplaced solely as soon as in 35 fights. It ought to have been a mismatch, however the insiders knew: Rijker was the favorite.
They clashed once more at an open coaching session for a Martin battle in 2000. That was uglier and Rijker ended up with clumps of Martin’s hair in her fists. There had been punches. Rijker admitted to Don King after that altercation that she loved it. Rijker was accused of throwing a sucker punch – Martin took it. Martin was robust.
They had been each 37 in 2005 when the battle was lastly signed, sealed and so practically delivered. The winner would have walked away from the July battle in Las Vegas with 1,000,000 {dollars}. It was dubbed: Million Greenback Girl. Bob Arum was the promoter; Million Greenback Child, the Oscar-winning movie starring Rijker, was due for launch on DVD a number of days earlier than the primary bell. Uncle Bob knew an angle when he noticed one.
It was a singular deal, maybe one thing that may very well be revisited sooner or later with different fights which have taken eight or extra years to make. They had been each assured 250,000 {dollars} and the winner would get an additional 750,000 {dollars}. It was 1,000,000, child, and it will have been historical past. We needed to wait till this yr for that piece of historical past to occur.
After which it collapsed. Rijker was injured simply eight-days earlier than the primary bell on the Mandalay Bay. Martin nonetheless believes that Rijker refused the battle. Particulars of the surgical procedure and the surgeon had been circulated. Martin will solely ever consider that Rijker was scared. In Martin’s distinctive e-book, written with Ron Borges, she is just not a cheerful camper. However, then once more, neither was Rijker within the sluggish construct to the million-dollar showdown.
Rijker insisted the media liked Martin’s “soiled mouth”; Martin had referred to as her “a steroid dyke.” These things was private, make no mistake. Martin and Rijker had been at one another’s throats for an extended, very long time.
Nonetheless, the Hollywood tinsel fell all around the battle. It will have been, in some ways, the actual finish of the wilderness years. The years when nights of girls’s boxing had names like, ‘Lips of Rouge, Fists of Fury.’ The super-fights at that time had been created, they had been pretend; Martin v Laila Ali and Martin v Mia St.John had been each stained by the calls for of weight.
I’m wondering if Martin had heard what so many insiders had mentioned? I’m wondering if, in 1998, she had been advised what Manny Steward thought? It’s brutal, however then once more Rijker transformed so many witnesses to her health club wars. She had an unofficial shrine at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card. Right here is Manny when advised that there was discuss in 1998 of a battle between the novice, Rijker, and Martin: “Lucia doesn’t battle like a lady. She doesn’t come out and go nuts. When the bell rings, she comes out and takes management. Christy Martin is rarely going to battle her. If she do, it’ll be the top of Christy Martin.” There are nonetheless boxing people who discuss Rijker sparring with Vince Phillips in some unspecified time in the future in 1997. It was like “life and demise”, they are saying.
Martin by no means preferred Rijker and doubtless, even at peace, won’t ever like her. It’s one thing that understandably will get misplaced when her story is advised. It’s tiny in comparison with her husband’s abuse, getting shot, stabbed and left to die when he tried to homicide her. The e-book with Borges is legend and never for the squeamish.
In order that was it, the unhappy story concerning the early finish of the best girls’s battle in historical past. Elements of the story are unbelievable and that’s the manner I prefer it.
