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In a sport full of stories, the
story of World Boxing Federation
(WBF) Womens World Lightweight
Champion Nicole Wesner (9-0, 4
KOs) is quite an interesting
one. Its not a tale of hardship
and turmoil, as is often the
case, but rather a story of how
it is, as they say, never too
late to achieve your goals.
Born in Cologne, Germany in the
summer of 1977, Nicole Sabine
Wesner wasn’t really interested
in boxing, and certainly not as
a career, until a time where
most top-athletes would at least
start to consider the
possibility of retiring to do
something less demanding.
Wesner studied international
business in Mannheim, and later
in Lyon, France, before
returning to Mannheim to work in
marketing at a large
international health care
company. She was later stationed
in Italy and Belgium, before
said company eventually send her
to work in Vienna, Austria in
2006.
And it was here that she started
boxing a few years later, but it
was not something she had any
kind of plan to do.
“It
was all by chance”, says Wesner.
“I went to a fitness center that
offered yoga, Pilates and boxing
classes, and wanted to do yoga.
But for some reason I went into
the boxing class, and just fell
in love with this beautiful
sport right away.”
After training boxing in the
fitness center for a while,
Wesner was so caught up in the
sport that she decided that just
once in her life, despite being
busy with work, she wanted to
have a real fight. So she
changed the scenery to a proper
boxing club.
At this time she was already 32
years old, and, in her own
words, “didn’t realize how crazy
it was” to start fighting
competitively at this age. And
it became much more than just
one fight:
“I
started training every day, then
it escalated to twice a day, and
my amateur career just took off
and I eventually won the
Austrian national
championships.”
“Boxing
was becoming such a big part of
my life that I left my well-paid
job to focus on boxing, and at
35 I decided to turn
professional. Now I wanted to be
world champion!”
Wesner made her professional
boxing debut in December of
2012, three years after she
entered that Vienna fitness
center to do yoga, and 35 years
old!
Switching between bouts in her
native Germany and her adopted
home country of Austria, she
went undefeated in eight fights,
including a wide ten-round
unanimous decision over former
European title-challenger
Kremena Petkova, before landing
her WBF World title fight on
December 6 2014 in Vienna
against 11-1 Hungarian Gina
Chamie.
Chamie had previously won and
defended a minor belt, but most
of all proven her worth nine
months earlier by going six hard
rounds with another German,
multiple world champion Ramona
Kuehne, for the WBF World Super
Featherweight crown, before
retiring between rounds with an
elbow injury.
It was expected to be a real
fifty-fifty match-up, but Wesner
at 37 years of age ended up
thoroughly outclassing her
opponent, thirteen years her
junior, in almost every
department, before scoring a
highly impressive third-round
knockout victory.
With a smile on her face, Wesner
explains: “I had seen videos of
Chamie, and I thought it would
be a harder challenge. But
already in the second round I
felt that I would probably knock
her out. She was down five times
before the fight was stopped.”
Winning the WBF World
Lightweight title hasn’t changed
Wesner, and she claims that she
is just as hungry for more
success as she was before that
night at the Multiversum arena.
However, in the aftermath, she
did do something she normally
doesn’t allow herself after a
fight:
“Normally
I start training again
immediately after a fight, and
start all the planning and so
on, but after I won the world
title I took time out to relax
for the first time, and went to
Spain for a holiday. But, to be
honest, I also went to a gym
there to train...”
Wesner is hoping to have a busy
2015, with three world
title-defenses and a couple of
non-title fights in-between to
further hone her skills. She
comes across as a very
dedicated, grounded and
extremely professional
individual, and setting goals
for herself seems to be a big
part of what drives her as a
boxer.
“Considering
that I only started boxing five
years ago, I am very happy about
how my career has developed, but
there is still a lot to do”, she
points out.
“But
if I take care of my body I
think I can box another ten
years, and I want to continue
learning. I want to become a
great boxer.”
“I
have a strong passion for this
sport, and as long as I have
this in me I will give my best
every day to make sure I am
better than the day before.”
One wonders if Nicole Wesner
ever had a goal that she didn’t
achieve!
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