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AKONDAYE FOUNTAIN
5'6" middleweight/super middleweight Akondaye Fountain was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on November 12, 1972. She
now lives in Houston, Texas and trains at Savannah Boxing Gym with Hylon “Cedric” Williams, who also
trained two-time world champion Valerie Mahfood.
Akondaye
has been a spirited athlete her entire life. From elementary school through
Senior high school she excelled in track and field, soccer and basketball.
While earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology Akondaye’s competitive
determination and drive led her on to compete at the collegiate level as a
heptathlete on the track team at Texas Southern University. Her fervor for
competition continued after graduating from TSU as she began training for body
building and fitness competitions.
Competing in the Nationals as a
fitness competitor in 1999 and 2000 Akondaye again sought a balance between
brain and brawn and went on to obtain her Master of Science degree from the
University of Houston-Clear Lake in Counseling. After achieving her Master’s
degree Akondaye still felt the need to compete and challenge herself, so she
trained and competed in a triathlon in 2001, after which a friend in the fitness
circle stirred her to the sport of boxing.
"As a child, I definitely didn't think about being a boxer," says Fountain. "I'm not, by nature, aggressive. If anything I'm passive,
even in the ring sometimes. But everybody has a dark side, and mine comes out in a fight,
where it's allowed to."
She began boxing as an amateur in 2003, notching a 3-1 (2 KO) record
with trainer Jose Vasquez. She was
Texas Games champion in Bedford, Texas in July 2003, Ringside national runner-up
to Laura Ramsey in
Kansas City, Missouri in August 2003 and Silver Gloves champion in Houston in September 2003.
Akondaye made her pro boxing debut on March 19, 2004 at the International Ballroom Arena in Houston, Texas,
weighting in at 157˝ lbs and winning a four-round
40-36, 40-36, 38-38 majority decision over Alicia Collins (158ľ lbs) of Killeen,
Texas, who was also making
her pro debut.
On May 7, 2004 at the International Ballroom in Houston, Texas, Akondaye (158
lbs) won a four round unanimous (40-36) decision over Trini Guzmán (165˝ lbs). According
to a ringside correspondent "Akondaye Fountain improved to 2-0 after blistering and dominating the slower and more plodding Trini
'La Traviesa' Guzmán in their four rounder. Fountain seemed to do what she wanted when she wanted to. Although both women did box, there were some moments when Guzmán did pawing and slapping than punching."
On November 4, 2004 at SBC Center in San Antonio, Texas
Akondaye (161 lbs) TKO'd Trini Guzmán (169 lbs) of Houston at the end of the first round of a scheduled
four-rounder. Fountain had knocked Guzmán down and Trini retired in her corner between rounds.
Fountain was now 3-0 (1 KO), while Guzmán fell to 1-3 (0 KO) with her second straight loss to Fountain.
On January 21, 2005 at the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas, on an ESPN2 card in
front of a sellout crowd of 3300 Akondaye (168 lbs) won by a TKO at 0:32 in the
third round over pro debuter Crystal Davis (175 lbs) of Midland, Texas.
On March 26, 2005 at Harrah’s in Laughlin, Nevada, Akondaye (153˝ lbs) won by a TKO
at 1:29 in the seventh round over Shelley Burton (154 lbs) of Kalispell, Montana. Burton pressed the fight
in this scheduled eight-rounder but she kept getting caught with left
and right counters. It was a fight decided by Fountain's ability to slip and counter
and by her stronger punching power. Fountain staggered Burton with big
right hands in the second and again in the third. Burton gathered herself and
fought on even terms through a fast and furious fourth and fifth rounds but
Fountain had a huge sixth round, teeing off on Burton with big shots to the
head, snapping her head back in a disturbing fashion. Referee Robert Byrd warned
Burton between rounds that he would stop the fight if she took any more clean
punches. In the seventh, Burton appeared to take these words to heart and rushed
Fountain with a barrage of punches that caught Akondaye
off-guard and backed her up at first. But then Akondaye began to trade
bombs with her and Burton tired. After Akondaye landed two clean shots in a row
to Burton's head, Byrd stopped the fight, to the crowd's evident
displeasure. Akondaye improved to 5-0 (3 KOs) with this impressive win
while the very game Shelly Burton dropped to 6-2 (1 KO).
On
September 17, 2005 at The Pavilion at Coushatta in Kinder, Louisiana, Akondaye
(160 lbs) won a four-round split (40-36,39-37,37-39) decision over
Veronica Rucker (162˝
lbs) of Cleveland, Ohio.
Akondaye improved to 6-0 (3 KOs)
with this win while Rucker fell to 1-3-1 (1 KO).
On January 21, 2006 at Coushatta
Casino Resort in
Kinder, Louisiana, Akondaye
(157 lbs) made it a short night with late replacement Veronica Rucker (161
lbs),
when Rucker was stopped in the first round.
On June 30, 2007 in El Paso, Texas, Akondaye (168Ľ
lbs) and Kathy Rivers (170˝ lbs) fought to a
four-round majority draw. The two fought hard, and both were coming back after
being out of the ring for awhile. Final judges scores were 38-38, 38-38, 40-36.
Rivers moved her pro record to 14-5-3 (5 KOs).
On December 15, 2007 at the Anhalt Arena in
Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, Natascha Ragosina (167Ľ
lbs) of Magdeburg, Germany used her six-inch height advantage to good effect and won a
10-round unanimous decision over Akondaye (163ľ lbs) for the WIBF, WIBA, GBU, WBA, and the Interim WBC Super
Middleweight titles. The Khazakstan-born Ragosina, a former world
amateur champion, improved her record to 15-0-0 (11 KOs) while Fountain suffered
her first pro loss.
On November 7, 2008 at Sichuan
Gymnasium in Chengdu, China
Yanan Wang (157 lbs) of China won a 10-round unanimous (95-94,97-92,98- 91)
decision over Akondaye (158˝ lbs) for the WBC and WIBA Middleweight
titles.
Wang improved to 9-0 (3 KO's)
with the hard-fought win while Fountain fell to 7-2-1 (4 KO's).
Akondaye trains under Cedric Williams in the gym of Houston's Willie Savannah — whose
25 years in boxing haven't deterrd him from running a gym that is
female-friendly. "One lady told me she'd called all over, and nobody would take her," said Savannah,
who manages WBA world lightweight champion Juan Diaz. "She said they said she'd distract
the (male) boxers. I said, 'If that's the case, as far as I'm concerned the male boxers
got a problem, not you. You abide by my rules, and you're welcome here.' "
Savannah firmly supports women's boxing. "I think it's great," he said.
"I wish there were more girls fighting, because the ones
we've got don't get to fight that much. In the Golden Gloves, we had 54 girls enter,
but there were only five or six fights because we didn't have the right matchups by
weight or age groups."
"What I like about Akondaye,"
says trainer Williams, "is that she's a diligent worker. You
don't have to beg her to run or to do her situps and pushups. She got a late start,
but she's catching up. When I was training Valerie for her fights with
Laila Ali, Akondaye was one of our sparring partners. That's how we got to know
each other. She held her own, gave Valerie all she could handle and actually
beat up on her a little one day. Now, Valerie is sparring with her, helping us
get ready for our next fight. Akondaye is a world-class fighter already. The
world just doesn't know it yet."
"You get Akondaye in close, and she'll come after you," says Mahfood. "She's not afraid of mixing it up. She's got
a lot of heart and a lot more ability than most novices."
Fountain admits that she still struggles with maintaining the instinct to punish her opponents,
but not when she's sparring with her male sparring partners. "Not many girls can take her punches,"
trainer Williams said.
"When I box with the guys, I bring it all out," says Akondaye. "I
still hold back with the girls. I guess with the guys I feel threatened, whereas
there hasn't been a woman yet that made me feel that way. I do OK against men. I
injured one of them, bruised his ribs pretty bad."
"Nobody likes to get hit. But in the ring, you don't think about that. You're
thinking about moving, looking for opportunities, trying to find a weakness.
There's a constant adrenaline rush. I really love the feeling. In other sports,
like bodybuilding, it's who you knew and how you looked, very political stuff.
In boxing, it's just me."
"I
want to be recognized as a great athlete, that's all. But there's so much to
learn. I'm growing daily. My movement is improving, my defense. I have a lot of
power, a lot of arm strength, but I haven't learned to get behind my punches
with my whole body."
Page last updated:
Thursday, 08 June 2023 |
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