(SEPT 1) Mamaroneck is a bedroom community, a half hour northeast of New York City, nestled next to a body of water known as Long Island Sound. It is a town from which many residents, daily, commute, by train, into the city, moving, then, from Grand Central Station to Wall Street, Madison Avenue and various law offices throughout the concrete canyons of Manhattan. Mamaroneck is flowered with a number of pastoral neighborhoods, the best of these located within view of the Sound.

LA Boxing is not located in one of those neighborhoods. Rather, LA Boxing is in a worn down part of the town, on the back end of a parking lot, five steps up from ground level, the gym situated in what once might have been a loading dock. Upon locating LA boxing, one's initial thought is: "just right." Inside that gym, the main floor contains a full size ring, several rows of heavy bags, walls filled with requisite boxing photos and posters, the ubiquitous, semi cluttered office and one of the top female fighters in the sport of Women's boxing. It was in that office, last week, that I sat down to talk with Ann Marie Saccurato.

Earlier in the month, Saccurato won, for the second time in less than a year, the WBC lightweight title (Saccurato has held the title three times in her career) with a decisive ten round decision over Fujin Raika in Tokyo, Japan. The bout reversed a ten round fight, nine months prior, when Raika won a close majority decision for the WIBA lightweight title (Saccurato relinquished her WBC title to fight for the WIBA crown). In answer to a question about the two bouts, the fighter emphatically prefaced with, "I thought I had done enough to win the first bout, it just didn't go my way, in her hometown.

I felt so much fresher and stronger for the second bout; in training, in the dressing room, hitting the mitts and in the ring. My first two punches of the bout were right on target and from that point I felt in control the entire way." The three judges concurred, awarding Saccurato 22 of the 30 rounds. A third fight? "Sure, absolutely, I told them that right after the fight," the boxer answers, quickly, "but the next one is over here (in the U S). I went to Japan twice and that's not around the corner, or even across the country, it's a long, wearing trip. I'm the champion now, the belt is over here and, as far as I'm concerned, that's where the third fight, if it happens, will be."

Ideally, for Saccurato, "over here" would be a bout in New York, in front of her hometown fans, most ideally, in a venue such as Madison Square Garden. However, Ann Marie Saccurato, who is, depending on your viewpoint, one of the top three, four or five female boxers competing in the ring, today, knows that making major female bouts in one of the world's largest and most famous venues, in the country's biggest city, is easier, much easier, said than done. In point of fact, there has not been a big time, quality female boxing bout in Madison Square Garden in over seven years; in May 2001, Christy Martin won a fast paced ten round decision over Long Islander, Kathy Collins (and yes, I'm aware Laila Ali fought Shelly Burton at the Garden in November 2006.....I said quality bout). Why the drought? Let's start with ignorance and apathy: New York promoters seem to have adopted a "don't know, don't care" attitude whenever the issue of making female boxing bouts in major New York venues is raised. Those promoters seem somewhat benignly neglectful of Ann Marie Saccurato, a New York fighter, and her rise up the ranks of female boxing. And that's strange because good fighters, male or female, make good fights and promoters are, purportedly, always looking for good fights.

"I feel I'm just coming into my own," Saccurato notes, "everything is coming together for me, in the ring, with my training, in my whole approach to the sport. When I'm preparing for a bout, my life completely focuses on the fight." A glance at her record serves as reinforcement for that statement.

The first-bout loss to Raika was preceded, in March 2007, by a ten round decision loss, in Albuquerque, NM, to Holly Holm. To many observers that bout was a much closer fight than reflected on the scorecards, which came up with an overwhelming margin (23 of 30 rounds) for Holm (make no mistake, Holly Holm won that fight that night but not by 23-7 in rounds).

Interspersed among those two close losses were wins over Jelena Mrdjenovich and Jessica Rakoczy. Yes, you've heard of Mrdjenovich and Rakoczy, both good fighters and both wins over these good fighters had common elements: "road trips" for Saccurato, Mrdjenovich in Edmonton, Canada and Rakoczy in Lemoore, CA. Additionally, neither fight saw the bright lights of national television coverage (it's not hard to speculate that if the Saccurato/Rakoczy bout had been on ESPN, that "fight of the year" would still be replaying on the network's Classic channel).

Given her record, it's difficult to understand why Ann Marie Saccurato is not besieged with offers to fight in her hometown, New York. It's almost as if promoters in that town are oblivious to a fighter who possesses world class boxing skill and also has an overload of local appeal; a fighter, yes a female fighter, who wants nothing so much as to showcase that skill in front of hometown fans. To date, for some unknown reason, the valuable Madison Square Garden oxygen that is, occasionally, allotted to female boxers, has been squandered on fighters with famous names or "celebrity" resumes, while Ann Marie Saccurato remains outside: ready, willing, hopeful and available.

"I've paid my dues, I've moved through the amateurs to the pros," Saccurato notes, "I've taken the four rounders in the small venues for the small purses; I've gone to the hometowns, here and overseas, and now that I'm reaching a point near the top of my game, I'm looking for a bit of ' two way street time.' If Raika won't come to the US for the third bout, there are a lot of other good bouts out there; Nathalie Toro from Belgium has been mentioned, certainly Chevelle Hallback and Layla McCarter, maybe even a return with Holly Holm who now seems to have an inclination for travel (Holm will go to Detroit on October 17 for a return bout with Mary Jo Sanders). Any of those fighters is a bout worthy of a big time venue."

Those are all good bouts. And, it's time, long past time, for the sport of Women's boxing to return to New York and the Garden in a meaningful way, with a quality bout. It's time, long past time, for the promoters in the city to step up and make a major commitment to the sport of Women's boxing and it's athletes with a marquee match-up of top quality female fighters. It may have been years since the city had a local female boxer with big time skills, but she's here now. She's a WBC champion.

She's up in Mamaroneck at LA Boxing and there are good fights out there for her, perfectly suited for the "world's most famous arena." All that's necessary is for the promoters to promote and the WBC to sanction. Ann Marie Saccurato has already made it big in the "anywheres" of the world, it's time she made it big in New York, at home.

Bernie McCoy