(JULY 16) The sport of
Women's boxing put it's ceremonial best foot forward on July 11
with the second annual induction ceremony of the sport's Hall of
Fame. The ceremony, attended by a sell-out crowd of athletes,
boxing officials and fans, was held at the Hyatt Regency Pier
Sixty Six in Fort Lauderdale, FL and coincided with the nearby
National Women's Golden Gloves tournament.
Ali led a group of six "modern era" boxers inducted into the
IWBHF including three international fighters: Deirdre Gogarty of
Ireland, Laura Serrano of Mexico and Jeannine Garside of Canada
along with two American boxers, Terri Moss and Ann Wolfe.
Rounding out the group of Year Two inductees were Sparkle Lee,
the first female licensed to referee professional boxing bouts
in New York and New Jersey and Phyllis Kugler (posthumous), a
pioneer boxer in the 1950s.
The first annual "Lifetime Achievement Award" was presented,
posthumously, to Jose Sulaiman, President of the World Boxing
Council for nearly four decades, who passed away in 2014, in
recognition of "his contributions to the sport and for
establishing the WBC title belt as the highest prize for female
boxers world wide." Additionally, "Recognition of Excellence"
awards, acknowledging special contributions to the sport of
boxing, were made to Dr. Martha A. Dodson, trainer, physician
and coach in the sport and a major force in gaining
participation for Women's boxing in the 2012 Olympics and Alvin
E. Simpson, a 24 year Army veteran and longtime coach of the
Fort Bragg boxing team who, upon retirement from the service,
continues to be active in the sport in North Carolina.
Each inductee was presented a personalized plaque by Sue Fox,
founder of WBAN, the "Internet site of record" for Women's
boxing and the President of the IWBHF. Highlights of the
acceptance remarks included Laila Ali's views on her life as an
undefeated professional boxer, as an off-spring of possibly the
most famous athlete in the sport and her current life as a wife,
mother, TV personality and entrepreneur; Laura Serrano's
recitation on what it took to achieve her goal of becoming a
professional fighter in Mexico where, at the time, females were
not allowed to participate and her feelings about her first
professional fight in which she was matched with the, then,
"face" of the sport, Christy Martin; Sparkle Lee's moving memory
of the part her Christian faith played in overcoming the
obstacles that were thrust in her career path for two decades as
she attempted to become what she is today, a highly respected
boxing referee and the group of family members of the late
Phyllis Kugler, numbering over two dozen, one of whom came to
the stage wearing the late fighter's ring robe. A group that
traveled from Indiana to south Florida to honor Kugler and
accept her plaque.
The International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony was an
event that both honored elite athletes who have achieved
excellence in a sport in which, in the not too distant past,
those athlete's accomplishments would have consigned to the
stuff of impossible dreams and, at the same time, it was a
celebration of that sport as it continues, to this day, to seek
it's rightful place in the crowded sports landscape of the
twenty-first century.
