The rivalry between France's two best
fighters, WBA world champion Myriam Lamare of Marseille and EBU
champion Anne-Sophie Mathis of Dombasle, is generating as much if
not more heat than the one in Argentina between Marcela Acuña and
the newly crowned WBC champion Alejandra Oliveras, with Lamare
apparently incensed by remarks made by the European champion in a
recent interview. "I don't know Anne-Sophie Mathis," fumed the woman
from Marseille on Sunday, "but there are things I do not like and
I'm not afraid to say so out loud."
With interest in women's
boxing really taking off now in France – the number of girls
participating in the amateur sport rose by 25% last year
alone – the clash between the two junior welterweights in
the Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy on the 2nd December is
now certain to receive top billing (as, indeed, did Lamare's
successful title defence against Belinda Laracuente last
Saturday) and top the 2 million viewers that have followed
her recent outings on the French satellite channel Canal+.
Whilst trainer Louis Lavaly's new name
for her, "Myriam Dollar Baby", slightly overstates the case – Lamare
earns 25 000 euro (just under 32 000 US dollars) per fight – vastly
more recognition (including an 1,800-word profile in this week's
L'Express) has been heaped on the champion than the challenger, and
this has less to do with their relative merits as fighters than with
the politics of the sport. Whilst Lamare is currently the darling of
the most powerful man in French boxing, Michel Acariès, and performs
regularly for the jet set on the major televised bills from the Côte
d'Azur, the ascent of Mathis to number two in the world rankings has
passed virtually unnoticed outside her native Lorraine. It had been
thought that Acariès – whom Lamare was not afraid to tear off a
strip when he suggested (jokingly) in a TV interview that theirs was
more than a professional relationship – would give her rival an
outing on the Tiozzo undercard in Lyon on the 30th September, but
the Tiozzo fight has been put back to the 18th November, which would
leave Mathis too little time to refocus for the showdown with Lamare.
Although she was careful, interviewed ringside at the two recent
Lamare-Laracuente fights, not to appear unpatriotic, Mathis is
underwhelmed – or so she pretends – by the skills of the world
champion; and whilst Acariès believes Lamare "is destined to become
an icon", the woman from Lorraine is champing at the bit to drag her
off that plinth: "Lamare's muscular development is impressive," she
concedes, "but it takes more than that to scare me. I have only one
desire, and that's to beat her!"
According to Henri Haget, who interviewed her for L'Express, Lamare
would utter not one word when he mentioned her rival's name, with
the restless tapping of her feet the only sign of emotion.
"Provocation isn't her cup of tea," explained Lavaly. "But that one:
if she can kill her, I swear to you, she'll kill her!"
Haget had expected that remark to be punctuated by laughter. But the
laughter never came.
