I was having a look at our women world champions a few days ago. Natascha Ragosina, Christina Hammer, Noni Tenge, Myriam Lamare, Ramona Kuehne, Oksana Vasilieva, Unathi Myekeni, Nadya Hokmi and Ju Hee Kim. Nine beautiful, skillful and outstanding world champions both inside and outside the ring.
These are ladies with great beauty, strong intelligence and powerful character. One could well picture all of them as high powered businesswomen, lawyers, doctors, politicians and the question I posed to myself was why?
Why boxing – the toughest sport in the world, why put themselves through heavy training, hours and hours of roadwork, excessive work in the gym, strengthening their mental and physical attributes. Why?
The answer to be quite honest I wasn’t exactly sure and with some deliberation I came up with the following which might be interesting to debate, refute or simply discuss. These ladies box because of a few reasons – the most important is that of the challenge. The challenge to conquer a sport that has been male dominated for so many years. To show fellow females that anything and everything is possible with hard work and dedication. To prove to one and all that they are as talented, entertaining and as skillful as the men.
To all of our nine world champions – we are so proud of you and what you have achieved. We are proud of the way you conduct yourselves in and out of the ring. We are proud that you have worked and continue to work so hard in arguably the toughest sport in the world.
To all of you wonderfully talented ladies, you deserve to be world champions and we salute you. God bless each and every one of you.
Until next time, keep boxing.
Howard Goldberg
PRESIDENT: World Boxing Federation
