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5'6" Frida Wallberg from Gøteborg, Sweden (born
April 28 1983) had a very successful amateur
boxing career,
compiling a 48-5 record at the national and international levels before
turning pro as a lightweight in February 2004.
Frida
was a two time winner of the Nordic Women's Championship and a six-time
(1998 to 2003) Swedish National Champion, boxing out of the Åtvidaberg
Boxing Club. She won the Swedish 63.5-kg title in December 1998 with a
5-2 victory over Annika Weman, and in December 1999 with a RSC-2
victory over F. Gjörstrup.
She fought Canadian national
champion and current pro boxer
Jaime Clampitt
in the first leg of the
Canada-Sweden Dual in Sudbury/Azilda, Ontario on March 24, 1999, losing
by an 11-5 decision, but went on to defeat Canada's Tanya Robertson by
a
15-9 score three days later in Toronto. On May 15, 1999 at the
international Feenix Cup tournament in Turku, Finland, she avenged her
loss to Jaime Clampitt by defeating her 10-6 in the tournament
semifinal. She
then went on to defeat Anna Gutierrez
of the USA by a 12-6 score to win the tournament title.
She lost to Myriam Lamare of France in the
63.5 kg (139-lb) semifinal of the Feenix Box Cup in October 2001 but
she avenged this loss in December by winning the 63.5-kg world title at
the
inaugural AIBA world championship in Scranton, Pennsylvania, edging out
Lamare by a 12-10 score. Wallberg had defeated
Terhi Luka of Finland (16-1), Joy Liu of the USA (15-3) and
Cristina Cerpi of Italy (12-8) to reach the world title bout with
Lamare.
Frida made her pro debut on
February 6, 2004 at Falconer Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Weighing in at 131 lbs, she scored a second-round TKO over Maribel
Santana (130¾ lbs) of the
Dominican Republic when Santana retired after the first round, owing to
blurred vision in her
left eye. Santana fell to 1-1-1 with the loss.
On March 13, 2004 at Bröndby
Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark,
Frida (133 lbs) won a four-round unanimous (40-36,40-36,40-36) decision
over
Viktoria Olenik (130 lbs) of Kiev, Ukraine.
Wallberg said she wasn't fully satisfied with her victory,
“I was too tense and nervous and I put too much
effort into landing a single knockout punch”,
she told Aftonbladet, adding that she had a minor cold and could not
come up to her usual
standard of performance. Olenik also had an awkward style that gave
Wallberg some problems and
she got more into the fight as Wallberg appeared to tire. Olenik fell
to 0-4-1 with the loss.
On April 3, 2004 at SAS
Radisson Hotel in Aarhus, Denmark,
Frida (128½ lbs) won a four-round unanimous (40-36) decision over Sharon Gaines
(126½ lbs) of Kansas City, Missouri, USA, who fell to 2-1-0 (0 KO).
WBAN's European
Correspondent Torben L. reported that Wallberg won by
using her extra height and reach very well.
On November 12, 2004 at
Brøndby Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark
Frida (130 lbs) easily won a six-round unanimous (60-52,60-52,60-50)
decision over Stoyanka Krasteva (132 lbs) of Bulgaria.
Frida's original opponent, Ilona Papp, had to call off the
fight and Krasteva substituted for her at short notice. Krasteva, who
took an eight count in both the second and the sixth rounds, fell to 1-2 with the
loss. The fight was shown on PPV.
On April 15, 2005 at KB Hallen
in Copenhagen, Denmark, Frida
(132¼ lbs) won a hard-fought six-round unanimous (59-55,59-55,59-55)
decision over Angela Cannizzaro (133½ lbs) of Reggio Calabria,
Italy. Wallberg improved to 5-0 (1 KO) while Cannizzaro fell
to 2-1 (1 KO) with the loss.
On June
17, 2005 at the SAS Radisson in Aarhus, Denmark, Frida
(130 lbs) won the vacant WIBF Intercontinental Junior Lightweight title
with a unanimous (99-92,99-91,99-91) decision over Zarika Njeri (5'5½",
125¼ lbs) of Kenya. According to a local
report, it was reported that the fight was a "tough" fight, where
Wallberg got the upper hand by using her left jab and right hook well,
but Njeri remained dangerous and countered well. Njeri also bit
Wallberg on the collarbone twice during the fight, leaving a red welt
and inevitable comparisons with Mike Tyson! Wallberg improved
to 6-0-0 (1 KO) as a professional while Njeri fell to 5-1-1 (2
KOs).
In July 2007 WBAN reported
that Frida was back in training after giving birth to a baby girl on
March 30, 2007 and was hoping to return to boxing.
Her
actual return to the pro ring was delayed until September 17, 2010 at
Pabellon Municipal Villa de Onda in Onda, Spain.
Frida (134½
lbs) took on Irina Boldea (132¼ lbs) of Târgu
Jiu, Romania, in a scheduled six-rounder. Boldea retired at
the
start of the fourth round after being down in the second and third
rounds. Boldea dropped to 1-2-1 (0 KO's) with the loss.
On
September 24, 2010 at Sundsta Idrottshus in Karlstad, Sweden, Frida
(134¼ lbs) won a six-round unanimous decision over Nicole Boss (134½
lbs) of Wohlen, Switzerland, who fell to 5-3-1 (4 KO's).
On November 27, 2010 at
Johanneshov, Stockholm, Sweden, Frida (128½ lbs) took on Olivia Gerula
(128 lbs) of Winnipeg, Canada for the WBC Junior Lightweight title.
There were several controversial aspects to this fight.
First, the WBC sanctioned an eight-round fight for its world
title in deference to Swedish rules which for many years had banned
professional boxing altogether and only recently allowed women's
competition with limits to the lengths of the fights. (The last 8-round
fight in Sweden had been in 1967). Second, the "historic"
fight's unanimous (77-75,78-75,78-75) decision for
the home-standing Frida was controversial. Gerula
slipped to 13-11-2 (3 KO's).
On September 3, 2011 at
Karlstad CCC in Karlstad, Sweden, Frida (129 lbs) won a ten-round
unanimous (99-91,98-92,98-92) decision over Olivia
Gerula (130 lbs) in a rematch for the WBC Junior Lightweight
title. The
fight was scrappy and closely fought in most rounds but Wallberg
clearly won several stanzas and also finished stronger with Gerula
against the ropes.
Gerula’s record fell to 13-12-2 (3 KO) while Wallberg remained
undefeated at 10-0 (2 KO's) and became the first Swedish professional
boxer to defend a world title in her home country. On April 27, 2012 at the Cloetta Center in Linkoping, Sweden, Frida Wallberg (129½ lbs) retained the WBC Junior Lightweight title with a ten-round
unanimous (98-93,97-93,96-94) decision over Amanda Serrano (129¼ lbs) of New York City, NY.
Serrano fought aggressively and took the action to Wallberg for the
whole ten rounds, but still came up on the short end of the decision on
the scorecards. Wallberg advanced to 11-0-0 (2 KO's) while Serrano
suffered her first pro loss and dropped to 14-1-1 (9 KO's).
From 1969 to 2010,
Sweden was one of five countries that banned professional
boxing (the others are Cuba, North Korea, Iceland and Norway). Paradoxically, the late-20th century
revival of women's amateur boxing was pioneered by the Swedish
Amateur Boxing Association, which first sanctioned women's events in
1988 and held its first women's national amateur championship in 1994. Frida Wallberg had the benefits of an
extensive and highly competitive amateur
career
to prepare her to face the best in her weight
class ... but she was forced to spend her
early pro career fighting on foreign soil.
Frida is trained and managed by Wally
Munteanu of Gothenburg, Sweden. We thank Frida's former promoter Bettina Palle for
providing fight photos from 2004 to 2005 for this bio. Check out the nine-minute interview video with Frida at Trans World Sport which shows her training regime and some highlights of her fight with Amanda Serrano.
In this interview Wallberg states that she would like eventually
to go up in weight and face Norwegian world welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus.
Page
last updated: Friday, November 23 2012.
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