Holly Holm is a
Golden Girl whose first boxing match was a pro bout. Ann Marie
Saccurato won the National Golden Gloves. When they meet in the ring
of the Isleta Casino Resort in Albuquerque, NM on March 22 the show
will be billed as “Destiny.” Whatever happens, the two women will
make history that night. They are fighting for Holm’s WBA
welterweight belt, and the vacant WBC, WIBA, IFBA, GBU and IBA
titles. The winner will be the unified champion of a deeply
competitive division of the women’s sport. Maybe more important,
they will be the headliners of a card featuring three women’s
championship boxing matches which will be broadcast nationally by
the Best Damned Sports Show on Fox Sports Net. Laila Ali is
the only woman to headline a non-PPV televised boxing card before
this.
In some ways Holm and
Saccurato couldn’t be more different from each other. The
5’6”, 29 year-old Saccurato is from White Plains, NY. She
commutes to Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn and she’s fought over
substantial chunks of the Eastern seaboard.
| She’s right handed. Holly
Holm, 25 and 5’8”, is from Albuquerque and all but one of
her fights has taken place in New Mexico. She’s a Southpaw. |
Holm is a bright
spirit with an open, cheerful demeanor. She makes a living as a
boxer but says she liked her former job as a server. “Sometimes I
miss it,” she says.
Saccurato is
intense and scholarly with a penchant for research and a demanding
career as a performance trainer for athletes and those recovering
from injuries.
Both women come out
of a lifetime of competitive sports: gymnastics and league soccer
for Holm-- softball, volleyball and basketball for Saccurato. Each
of them came to boxing by way of Asian martial arts. In their
different ways they are both in love with the sport.
After her last
fight in December, Holm came down with a nasty chest cold that hung
on for weeks and ticked her off because she’s never sick. This fight
was originally scheduled for February and Holm says she’s glad it
was postponed because it gave her a chance to rebuild her condition.
In 1995,
Saccurato’s senior year of high school, she survived a car wreck
that punctured a lung, broke her arm, cracked her pelvis and broke
both legs and a hip. At first the doctors didn’t think she’d live.
Then they told her she might never walk again and that sports were
out of the question. A year later Saccurato stepped up to the line
at Seton Hall University, ready to play volleyball and basketball.
Holm bought a house
with her ring earnings and shares it with her brother. The house is
surrounded by trees and flowers planted by her Dad. Saccurato sleeps
in an airtight altitude-training tent with a generator that pumps in
a controlled artificial atmosphere simulating the oxygen levels at
12,000 feet. That’s just part of her preparation for her trip to
the heights of Albuquerque.
The two fighters’
numbers don’t look that different. Holm’s record is 16-1-2, with 5
KOs. Saccurato sports a record of 12-1-2 with 5 KO’s. Saccurato’s
most notable win was a dive down to the lightweight division last
November, when she defeated Jelena Mrdjenovich for the WBC 135 pound
title. Holm has defeated former champs Jane Couch, Mia St. John and
Christy Martin, among others.
“I don’t like
always being the favorite,” says Holm. “Some people say ‘It’s time
to get Holly some serious opposition,” because they’ve been
dominating performances.
But I’ll never have
another night in boxing like the night I fought Christy Martin. When
I stepped into the ring I had a real moment of thinking, “What am I
doing?’ But she’s just a woman and she can be beat like anybody
else. That wasn’t even my toughest fight. But still, that was really
something.”
Typically,
Saccurato sounds confident about facing Holm. “I’ve seen Holly fight
a number of times before I knew this opportunity was going to be
given to me. You know, she’s a little taller. She’s a little bigger.
Obviously she’s a southpaw. But I feel very comfortable in my
strength and my power and what I hold.”
Holm is more
cautious about Saccurato. “I’ve only seen a clip of like the first
three rounds of a bout she fought a year and a half ago. Maybe there
are things to learn there, habits she probably hasn’t changed, but
I’ve improved a lot in the last year and a half and I’m sure she’s
improved too. Her most recent fight is her most impressive win, and
that’s the one I really want to see. “
“ I know this girl
has a lot of heart, just enormous heart. And I know she’s been
working really hard. And she’s the underdog, too.”
And there’s the
pressure of a high profile bout that both women feel is significant
for all women in the sport.
“Of course,’ says
Holm. “ I’ve been fighting and my performances have been good but I
definitely want this to be a good performance, I really don’t want
to get out there on national television and do less than my best.”
“This fight is
huge,” says Saccurato. ”It’s bigger than me and Holly Holm and
whoever comes out on top. That’s part of why I was so anxious to
take this fight. I’m so happy to be a part of it. It’s absolutely
significant, to be live nation-wide and to have a card full of
top-notch fighters. Everyone is gonna bring it and put on a good
show and hopefully this is what the sport needs. Outside of
opportunities like this the sport also needs to be accepted into the
Olympics. With those two things—getting more female fights like
this, getting coverage like this, and then getting the sport into
the Olympics, that’s what the sport needs right now and it’s over
due.
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