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5'1½" southpaw
Tracey Stevens from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada was born on February 20,
1975. She began boxing at age 19,
along with her younger sister. "We thought that it would be a
challenging and tough work out. After a month my sister quit but, I kept on
training", she says.
Starting in 1994, Tracey had several dozen fights as an amateur in Canada.
In the 1997 Canadian National Championships held in Calgary, Alberta,
January 16-19, Tracey won the 51-kg (112-lb) silver medal, losing to Tammy Delaforest of Regina, Sakatchewan.
In the 1998 Canadian National Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, she competed
in the 48-kg division.
In the preliminary round on Friday, January 16 she defeated
Jag Dhaliwal of Alberta on points 13-4. The following day
she faced Ontario's Jamie Behl for the national title and
was defeated by a 14-0 margin. Women's Boxing Page correspondent and
amateur boxer Misty
Shearer told me that "Jamie threw a lot of strong
combinations, controlling most of the fight. Tracey started to come out
strong in the next two rounds but Jamie was too strong ... she really
took control. She moves really well and throws lots of combinations."
In the 3rd annual Ken Goff
Boxing Classic on April 19, 1996 at the Center of the Arts in Regina,
Saskatchewan, Tammy DelaForest of Regina won a unanimous decision over Tracey.
Tracey made her pro debut on December 2, 1998 at the Merchandise Mart in
Charlotte, North Carolina, where she weighed in at 105 lbs and lost by a controversial
four-round split decision to Natasha Wilburn of Atlanta, Georgia. Wilburn was
1-9 with this win. On February 27, 1999 at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington,
a capacity crowd of 1400 saw Tracey (108¼ lbs) take on a formidable
opponent in kickboxing great Kim Messer (107¾ lbs)
who moved her own pro boxing record to 4-2 with
a four-round unanimous decision. Messer's speed, balance and aggression were
too much for the younger girl from Thunder Bay, who was clearly over-matched
on this occasion.
On June 4, 1999 at the Pechanga Casino in Temecula, California, Tracey lost a four-round unanimous decision to
Wendy Rodriguez of Los Angeles, who moved to 2-0
and would later become the IFBA Junior Flyweight champion.
On August 14, 1999 in Sturgis, South Dakota, she got her pro career on track by posting her first pro win with a
one-sided four-round decision over Denver's Terri Lynn Cruz. Stevens dominated the fight and handed Cruz a thrashing that
included two standing eight-counts. Cruz's record fell to 0-2-1.
Tracey (left) with Nina Ahlin at their weigh-in in Las Vegas
© Copyrighted photo taken by Mary Ann Owen
On March 4, 2000 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tracey (104 lbs)
outclassed Atlanta's stylish Nina Ahlin (100 lbs) to earn a four-round unanimous decision
in a fight seen live on PPV. Ahlin, who slipped to 5-2-1 with the loss, appeared almost out on her feet at times
in the last two rounds and was placed on suspension for an injury to her nose, but toughed it out to the end
against the more experienced Canadian.
Tracey next took a layoff of from competition of nearly two and a half
years. The gym that Tracey had trained at closed, so she
began to train herself at a sports complex in Thunder Bay.
On her return Tracey told WBAN "with fight prospects now coming up I am motivated to train
harder than ever to make up for lost time. My goals are to fine tune my
boxing skills and clean up my record, and hopefully find my way on another
pay-per-view card fighting for a title. " On September 28, 2002 at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California, flyweight Mary Duron of Anaheim won a four-round
unanimous (40-36,40-36,39-37) decision over Tracey. Duron outworked Stevens throughout the bout and advanced to
4-3-1 (0 KO) with the win.
Stephanie Dobbs lost
to Tracey Stevens in Laughlin, Nevada in 2002
© Copyrighted photo taken by Mary Ann Owen
On November 8, 2002 at the Edgewater Hotel in Laughlin, Nevada, Tracey (105 lbs) won a four-round unanimous
(40-35) decision over Stephanie Dobbs (107½ lbs) of Moore, Oklahoma, who is now 2-5-1 (1 KO). Stevens sent
Dobbs to the canvas in the second round and then cruised to the win. (See Mary
Ann Owen's fight
report and photos).
On January 24, 2003 at Orleans Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tracey
(105 lbs) won by a first-round TKO over Gena Abel (102½ lbs) of
Alex, Oklahoma. Tracey battered Abel, who had obviously never faced a southpaw,
for the whole first round and Abel had no desire to continue for more.
This was the second time in a row that Abel had been stopped in the first round,
as she fell to 0-2.
On May 17, 2003 at City Center Pavilion in Reno, Nevada Tracey won a four-round unanimous
(40-36,39-37,39-37) decision over unranked
veteran Diedre Hamaguchi of Brooklyn, New York, who fell to 0-4-2 (0 KO) with the loss.
On June 20, 2003 at Home Depot Training Center in Dominguez Hills, California,
Anastasia Toktaulova (104¾ lbs) of Moscow, Russia, now
fighting out of Las Vegas, TKO'd Tracey (105 lbs) at 1:44 in the second round. Toktaulova unleashed a series of
unanswered punches that persuaded referee Jose Cobian to stop the fight. Toktaulova improved to 10-7 (1 KO) with the
win. Stevens, had injured her right hand near the end of the first round.
On August 22, 2003 at Hilton Hotel in Reno, Nevada, Vaia Zaganas (105 lbs) of Burnaby, British Columbia,
Canada by way of Las Vegas won a second-round TKO over Tracey (103½ lbs) when
Tracey failed to answer the bell for the third round of a scheduled
eight-rounder. Zaganas improved to 11-2-0 (5 KO) while Stevens fell to 5-6-0
(1 KO) with the loss.
On December 18, 2003 at Marriott Hotel in Irvine, California, IFBA
Junior Flyweight champion Wendy Rodriguez of Los Angeles stopped Tracey by TKO at 1:30 in
the second round of a scheduled eight-rounder. After a feeling-out round, Rodriguez began to unload on Stevens in
the second, following her jab with power shots to Stevens's head and body. Stevens turned away from Rodriguez after
a hard shot to her face and was quickly pinned on the ropes while Rodriguez cut loose with a barrage that brought
the referee in to stop the bout. Rodriguez advanced to 12-2-3 (2 KO)
while Stevens fell to 5-7-0 (1 KO).
On November 5, 2004 at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas,
Melinda Cooper (115½ lbs) of Las Vegas TKO'd
Tracey (115½ lbs) at 0:26 in the opening round of a scheduled six-rounder.
Cooper improved to 13-0 (7 KOs).
On April 27, 2006 in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, Stephanie Dobbs (111 lbs) of Moore, Oklahoma avenged her early loss to
Tracey (111 lbs) with a third-round TKO, moving her record to 21-21-3 (13
KOs). According to Bobby Dobbs'
fight report, "Stephanie put pressure on
Stevens, kept her on the ropes, threw hard body shots. At the end of round 3,
Stevens indicated she could not continue and Stephanie was awarded the TKO win."
Stevens, who has now lost five straight, dropped to 5-9-0 (1 KOs)
with the loss.
 "All of my life
I was always
the smallest or the weakest and was told that I was too cute and too
small to box. This gave me the motivation to train hard and the
discipline to do so. What I like is that when you're in the ring, it's you by yourself",
says Stevens, "nobody's got your back."
To check out fight reports, complete up-to-date boxing records, with huge digital photos you can go to
the WBAN Records Member Site
Page last updated:
Sunday November 05, 2017 |
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