Hellcat: A Boxing memory

This week I embarked on a mission to find a boxing DVD for my brother who came down to New York City from Rhode Island to get his hands on a series of fights that cemented his loyalty as a fan of boxing, the Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Erik Morales trilogy. As he tells it, these fights rank high on his favorite sports memories and he has talked about these fights ad naseum to his friends in Providence and now wants to share those fights in order to convert his friends from MMA fans into boxing fans. In the short time that he was in the city he failed to score the dvd and so I have now taken up the hunt for those fights. It got me to thinking about what was my favorite boxing memory, what stood out as the one moment in boxing that captivated me or that I can vividly retell and use as a lure to bring in the non-boxing fan?

Was it the night that Evander Holyfield defied the odds and upset Mike Tyson, was it the incredible Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward trilogy, or the greatest fight I have ever seen involving Diego Corrales vs Jose Luis Castillo? Incredibly my favorite moment in boxing did not involve a professional boxer, it wasn't even a scheduled match up, it was an impromptu sparring session between a female flyweight boxer and a male lightweight preparing for the NY Daily News Golden Gloves tournament in January of 2007. I remember being so moved by what I saw that I wrote about it that same night, it was probably the first thing that I wrote about boxing. It prompted me to go digging for the article that I wrote so that I can share this boxing memory with The Blackeyed View readers. The following is the transcript of what I witnessed and how it was interpreted by me three years ago.

I saw the coolest thing last night at my boxing gym. My favorite fighter to watch at this gym is a girl, a shorty that weighs 106 pounds and when she wears the headgear her ponytail sticks out straight up from the middle of her head like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals. I've seen her break down a tall Asian girl in two rounds and fight this big, tall African American girl twice her size to a draw. Well last night she sparred against a guy for six rounds. He's a lightweight which puts him at 125 pounds and he was about a foot or more taller than her. Those six rounds they fought I have to describe in 6 stages:

Round 1 (INDIFFERENCE) The guy figured to let the girl punch away, after all she's just a girl. This girl punched him everywhere and he was trying to block her punches but he ended up eating at least 65% of what she threw at him.

Round 2 (REALIZATION) In the next round the guy figured it was time to show her who she was in there with and start throwing punches at her. The problem was that this girl never stopped punching, he realized soon enough that it wasn't he who was letting her hit him in Round 1, it was she who was doing whatever she wanted to do to him. He tried to step up the pressure on her but if he was able to hit her with four punches in Round 2 I did not see it. She continued to out punch him.

Round 3 (DESPERATION) After accepting that what he was doing in the previous two rounds was not helping his cause, he decided to try several different strategies. He switched into a left handed stance to throw off her balance, he tried punching from long range, he tried fighting on the inside, and he even tried to rough her up by fouling her... nothing worked. She adjusted to everything he did and started to bully him by the end of the round. The guy's frustration was starting to show.

Round 4 (FEAR) By this round the girl was in full bully mode and the guy was in full retreat. He got chased all over the ring and there was no escaping this chick. She cut of all escape routes and continued to pound on him, lucky for him he must be able to take a good shot because she was whacking away at him with all her might (all 106 pounds of her). Her frustration at chasing him around came to a boiling point when she got away with hitting him in the crown jewels twice, she managed to do it in full view of the ref but she hid it well and got away with the foul...clever girl.

Round 5 (THE BEAT DOWN) This is the round in which her punches started to hurt him. She punched him with some good clean shots, two of which froze him for half a second. He did not throw any punches at all in this round and only used his hands to try to push her off of him. He was taking a beating and if he was a girl I'm sure that the trainer would have stopped the fight. However his trainer I'm sure took into account the guy's male ego and decided to let him go on.

Round 6 (RELIEF & EXCUSES) She continued to plow ahead and go for a knockout but it was not to be. The guy used everything he was ever taught on how to survive a fight by holding, fighting against the ropes, and dancing away from danger to end the round on his feet. When the bell ended the fight you could see a mix of both relief and shame swell up on his face. And then the excuses started..."I held back, you know I'm bigger then her, she's only 106 pounds if I really hit her there would be problems. I just wanted to get some work in...." blah, Blah, BLAH!

The female fighter's name is Nellie Bartow and in searching for an image of her I discovered that she was also a member of USA's Muy Thai team. That is not surprising to me but what was a pleasant surprise was to discover that she is also a rising star in the fashion world. She is a fashion designer who makes some amazing dresses that have been worn by celebrities. How amazing it seems to me that among the names of Holyfield, Tyson, Gatti, Duran, and Ali, the name of Nellie Bartow, a fashion designer, ranks amongst my favorite boxers of all time. I really wish I had footage of that sparring session to share with everyone but at least I have that memory ingrained in me till the day that Alzheimer's decides to take it away.

DVD pick of the week: If you read up to this point then you would have figured that the obvious choice this week is the Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales trilogy. At the beginning of this series the favorite was the undefeated Erik 'El Terrible' Morales who was on an absolute tear at the time while Barrera was coming back on the heels of TKO at the hands of Brooklyn's own Junior Jones. Barrera was thought of as a spent force who had gone through many wars and was ripe for a losing streak. Well what transpired was a war between these two that was not to be out shined until Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward took place a year or two later.



Barrera was able to win this series but not by much. There was a real hatred that developed between these two especially from the part of Morales and the two remained bitter rivals throughout the rest of their careers. Their series of fights propelled both men to super stardom and ensured them a place in the hall of fame when their time comes. Both men ended up losing to Manny Pacquaio but it must be noted that at the time they fought the Pac-man both Mexican warriors were well spent and even though they were not in their prime they were both able to give Pacquiao competitive fights and in the case of Morales handed Manny his only loss in the past 6 years. Catch these men in their primes and watch them go at each other on dvd, you will not be sorry.