Boxing star gym guide5/19/2023 ![]() “I earned myself the name ‘Esther Phiri’ because I used to beat anyone that crossed my path,” she says. Even when a girl falls pregnant, she is the one that drops out of school while the boy or the man continues to enjoy life.”Ĭatherine Phiri, 24, the current World Boxing Council female champion, is one of Esther Phiri’s mentees.Ĭatherine Phiri, who is not related to Esther, was nicknamed “Esther Phiri” for hitting hard during street fights with peers. ![]() “Girls are vulnerable and need support,” she says. ![]() ![]() They’ll become self-reliant that way, she says. In the future, Phiri hopes to own a boxing academy for girls, to increase women’s participation in boxing. I will be back in the gym later,” she says. “I had been studying even when I was actively fighting, but now I need to focus more. Currently, she says, she is focusing her energy on academic work. Phiri has been inactive in boxing since May 2015, when a fight with Sandra Almeida of South Africa for the interim Women’s International Boxing Association world welterweight title ended in a technical draw. “They relate with Esther’s life because she also came from a slum.” “We have more girls coming to the gym because they see themselves as future champions once they see Esther,” says Mwamba. Phiri’s trainer, Anthony Mwamba, says his gym, surrounded by slums along the Great North Road, has become popular among the girls and boys in the neighborhood because of Phiri’s fame. “Our gym has attracted a lot of girls and boys and it keeps them away from vices like sex, drugs, even stealing,” Phiri says, wiping away sweat after a training session. Phiri says she is using her celebrity status to inspire young people to take up boxing and avoid engaging in illicit activities. Phiri later defended that title in 2011, and the same year captured the International Boxing Organization world female super lightweight title, beating Lely Luz Florez of Colombia in 2011.īorn and raised in the slum of Mtendere, having dropped out of school in the sixth grade, she became a single mother at 16, just a year before she began boxing. It was at the gym that I discovered how fit I was, and I was encouraged to start boxing,” Phiri saysĪfter her initial world victory in 2008, she went on to win the Women’s International Boxing Association world super lightweight title in 2010, when she fought Brazil’s Duda Yankovich. One day, “some guys that were going to a gym encouraged me to join them, and I did. “I was fat and people used to laugh at me.” “I had no intentions of becoming a boxer,” she says. She says she found boxing after being shamed into going to a gym because of her weight. They each also have returned to their studies, challenging girls and boys to continue their educations as well.Ī single mother who was once a vegetable vendor, Esther Phiri burst onto the international boxing scene in 2008. All three encourage girls and boys to try the sport. GPJ interviewed Esther Phiri and two other Zambian boxers: Catherine Phiri, a world title holder and a UNICEF brand ambassador, and Barbara Banda, a boxer who has just broken into the professional ranks. This is encouraging to young girls and women.” “The women have raised the bar in boxing. “When we talk of boxing in Zambia today, female boxers are the ones that come to one’s mind,” he says. Many are seeking a livelihood through boxing. The country prides itself on six female professional boxers, with Phiri having led the way by winning the Global Boxing Union female world super featherweight title in 2008.ĭavies Nseluka, secretary of the Zambia Professional Boxing and Wrestling Control Board, says girls are filling the gyms and women are swelling the nation’s amateur ranks. Inspired by Esther Phiri, who rose to capture successive international boxing titles, women’s boxing in Zambia has eclipsed men’s in popularity. LUSAKA, ZAMBIA - In a country where only 4 percent of girls graduate from high school, women and girls are turning to boxing to escape poverty.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |