(JAN 6) So we come to another end-of-year award season in the sport of
Women's boxing; a search for the high points in a rather
desultory twelve months in a sport that desperately needs to be
more concerned with it's future than it's past. Shortly after
exchanging holiday wishes on the first day of the new year, the
fighter tells me, "I don't care about awards, about title belts,
I care about the sport that I have dedicated a big part of my
life to, I care about making a breakthrough for that sport from
where we are now to where we deserve to be."
I'm talking on the phone with Chevelle Hallback, from her home
in Tampa, FL and her words were prompted by a question as to how
she keeps going after fourteen years in the most brutal of
female sports. "I got started a bit late in boxing, I'll turn 41
this year, "
Hallback continues, "but I feel as good as I ever
have and as far as the sport is concerned, I'm convinced it's
still there for anyone who wants to take it and who is willing
to step up and grab it. Will 2012, with the Olympics, be that
breakthrough year? We'll see, the amateur programs have improved
a lot since I started in 1997. I didn't spend much time as an
amateur, there just wasn't that many opportunities then. Now,
it's the Olympics and that's great, but the sport still comes
down to the fighters who are willing to do the "right" things
necessary to make this sport as good as it should be."
Photo by Sue TL Fox
And Chevelle Hallback has been doing those "right" things for
the fourteen years she's graced the professional boxing ring.
One month after her pro debut (February 97), Hallback stepped
up, way up to her second bout with a fighter not many female
boxers were eager to see across the ring: Lucia Rijker.
Hallback
took Rijker into the fifth round of a scheduled six, before
being stopped. It's instructive to note that, despite numerous
attempts, Rijker never agreed to a return bout. Since the Rijker
fight, Chevelle Hallback has amassed 37 pro bouts, encompassing
238 rounds in a career that is a primer for how to do the
"right" things in the sport of Women's boxing. How right?
Hallback's total career, to this point, of 39 fights and 244
rounds, have been fought against boxers who had a combined
winning percentage of 62.2%. Significant? This year's WBAN FOY,
the deserving Anne Sophie Mathis, compiled her 26-1 career
record against fighters with a winning percentage of 59.7%.
Hallback set the standard for looking up in the rankings for
opponents and has maintained that ethos throughout those
fourteen years. In 2011, she sought out Cecilla Braekhus and
Myriam Lamare and traveled to Europe to fight each of these two
elite boxers.
Asked if she resents the fighters who, today, increasingly seem
to take a somewhat easier, more gilded path to title fights,
Hallback replies, "Not really, I don't blame any fighter for
taking any fight, we have bills to pay, rent to make and taking
fights is the way to do that. If the bout happens to be for a
title belt against a less than top contender, so be it.
That's
not the fighter's fault, that's on the people who own the belt,
the sanctioning bodies, they make that call. It's probably
something that needs to looked at more closely, if our sport is
going to present the best product to the fans, because
mismatches being presented as title fights do nothing good for
the sport. But blame the fighters? No! Fighters fight. Blame
those people who only climb in the ring to award those shiny
belts and get their picture taken with the winner."
As far as Chevelle Hallback continuing to climb in the ring, she
speculates, "Probably another two years. I feel great now and
when I don't, it'll be time to stop. But right now, what I want
is an opportunity to fight either Braekhus or Lamare again. I
dropped both decisions and I'm not going to whine about that,
but I'd really like to have another shot at Myriam Lamare. I
felt the judges overlooked the effectiveness of my body punches
in that bout (in November, in France) and I do know that those
two judges who gave her (Lamare) nine and eight rounds
(respectively) missed most of the damage I was doing inside. (a
third judge had it 96-94, Lamare). "I was the only one who made
it to the post fight press conference. She's a good fighter and
we'd put on a good return bout and that's what this sport needs
most right now, good bouts."
If indeed, Mathis/Holm II happens in the near future, Hallback/Lamare
would be a very compelling supporting feature bout, maybe even
compelling enough for the new head of HBO Sports, Ken Hershman,
to reconsider his network's antediluvian position on female
boxing.
The attitude of always looking for good fights against the best
available competition, is the essence of what Chevelle Hallback
is all about. She's been doing exactly that for the fourteen
years she's competed as a professional fighter and her banner
clearly reads, "I'll go anywhere, I'll fight anybody." She did
it with Rijker at the start and continues against Braekhus and
Lamare now.
Chevelle Hallback not only knows how to do it right,
she goes out and does it right. And so, in this season of
rewards for yearly accomplishments, let's think about an award
for the year after year accomplishments of Chevellle Hallback.
Maybe we call it "The Right Way" award, not only because it
perfectly summarizes Hallback's career, but because she probably
deserves to retire that particular trophy.