(JULY 16)
The Olympic Games begin in a few weeks and during this
quadrennial event the sport of Women's boxing is making a
historic debut. Much has been written about what the debut of
female boxers in the 2012 Games will mean to the sport; what
impact the Games will have on the future of female boxing, both
amateur and professional; and how females in a boxing ring,
throwing punches, will be perceived by sports fans who, largely,
have been either unaware or only minimally cognizant of the fact
that throughout the world, many very talented female athletes
participate, at a high level, in a sport that has been, for far
too long, certainly within the framework of the Olympics, a male
preserve. A considerable amount of the talk and speculation has
ranged from ill-focused analysis to overblown wishful thinking
and in search of a clear-eyed, objective perspective from
someone who would qualify as an "expert witness" on the sport of
Women's boxing, I made a call to Florida, last week, to talk to
Bonnie Canino. "It's what we've been working on since 2001," was
Canino's terse, concise opening line about Women's boxing in the
2012 Games.
Bonnie Canino - retired multi-world
champion
There are many names associated with female boxing in this
country and then there is a much more exclusive core of names
that "Is female boxing" in the US. Bonnie Canino fits
comfortably in that exclusive core. She was a professional boxer
in the mid 1990s (11-4) and is now, primarily, best know, in
boxing circles, for guiding one of the most successful amateur
programs in the country from her gym in Dania Beach, FL. She has
been a coach with the women's teams for US Boxing and on the
coaching staff at the World Games. Why she has not been
included, in some capacity, on the current US Olympic team is a
question that has been frequently heard in the boxing community.
Bonne Canino has spent over 30 years in the sport and it's been
pretty much a one-way arrangement: Canino has been on the giving
end with a sport that is not renowned for providing much in
return.
Photo by Dean Ingram - Canino takes
fight at
last minute against Chevelle Hallback - June 4, 2004
Many in boxing have Bonnie Canino tales that accurately reflect
her three decades in the sport, but June 4, 2004 is as good an
example as any. Canino was accompanying a fighter to Oregon for
a card that featured Chevelle Hallback who, at the time, was
coming into prominence as a top ranked lightweight fighter. She
had just come off a close loss to Mary Jo Sanders and would, the
following month, win the WIBA super featherweight title against
Layla McCarter. The Oregon fight was on TV and, with Hallback
featured, was an important event for both the fighter and the
sport. At the last minute, Hallback's opponent dropped off the
card, jeopardizing both the bout and the TV exposure. No last
minute replacement fighter could be found, until Bonnie Canino
volunteered to step in the ring with Hallback who was 20-4-1 at
the time in addition to being ten years younger than Canino. One
might surmise that the resulting bout was a light sparring
session, but that attitude would only indicate a distinct lack
of knowledge of what goes into the makeup of female athletes
such as Chevelle Hallback and Bonnie Canino. Both fighters came
out "winging" from the opening bell and while Hallback prevailed
throughout, Canino was still coming forward when the bout was
stopped in the fourth round. Chevelle Hallback got four good
rounds of work, Women's boxing got some valuable TV time and
Bonnie Canino got one more professional bout, after having been
retired from the ring for nearly five years.
I remembered seeing a tape of the Oregon bout when I called
Bonnie Canino last week to talk about Women's boxing and the
upcoming Olympics. Canino is the type of personality who is
always well prepared for whatever task is at hand: training
fighters, running a first class gym or spending time explaining
boxing with a unique combination of intelligence, insight and
experience. As she did in the ring, Canino begins conversations
by coming straight forward, "The Olympics can be a very big deal
for the sport of Women's boxing. A gold medal would be a
pinnacle of achievement for any female fighter and would
immediately surpass many of the so-called titles that currently
exist in the sport. A female gold medal winner could do exactly
what Sugar Ray Leonard did, go directly from the Olympics to
being a major force in the sport. Will it happen? I think we
have three very good US fighters heading for the Games, any one
of them is capable of getting to the podium."
Asked about the support system for the female boxers, Canino
replied, "They (US Boxing) are moving in the right direction.
They cleaned house and reorganized and the results are positive.
The coaches that are serving on the team are very good boxing
people and our fighters are in good hands." Had Canino been
approached to be part of the team? "There was some discussion,
but they went in a different direction. Look, this is,
hopefully, just the first step for female boxing in the Games,
it can only get bigger and better. There will be future
opportunities."
As to the future, one change Canino foresees is the possibility
of professional fighters in the Games. "Let's face it, many of
the "amateur" boxers around the world are, literally,
professional. They are subsidized by their governments which
provide them with good money and a living style that allows them
to concentrate solely on boxing. If that's not the definition of
a professional fighter, I'm not sure what is. Our boxers get no
benefits of that sort and, as a consequence, simply don't have
the ability to focus, exclusively on their sport. Would
including professionals in the Olympic mix be the answer? Maybe,
but that's what I mean, this is the first year for female boxing
in the Games, it's going to be a learning experience for
everyone and the future will bring changes, hopefully for the
better, for both the sport and the athletes."
"But make no mistake about it," Canino continued, "this is a big
step forward for the sport simply because anything associated
with the Olympics is going to have a global impact on female
boxing, both amateur and professional. If nothing else, female
boxers will be showing up on the television screen much more
often than they have in recent years. Maybe, just maybe, there
will be a resurgence of what happened when women first started
getting TV coverage back in the nineties; all of a sudden,
boxing fans might come to the realization that ' hey, those
women know what they're doing in there, they can fight ' "
As we were winding up, I mentioned the night in Oregon, eight
years ago which, of course Canino remembers, "Yeah, we (the
sport) were still getting some TV coverage in those days and the
fighters were benefitting because of it. It was important and
when Chevelle's opponent dropped out, everybody stood around
looking at each other, thinking ' now what.' Nobody else had any
ideas, so I said, ' I'll fight, ' and of course it wasn't one of
my best nights and I didn't object when the ref stepped in and
stopped it."
In point of fact, it was a night that said everything you ever
needed to know about Bonnie Canino and boxing and how she has
graced the sport for a lot of years. And if the 2012 Olympic
Games trigger a resurgence in the sport of Women's boxing, there
will be a critical need for a lot more leadership in the sport
than currently exists today. Women's boxing, more than ever,
will need experienced, "can do" people, preferably women,
preferably like Bonnie Canino. Women who will do exactly what
Canino did that night in Oregon. Step up.
Bernie McCoy
WBAN
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