Sports

Boxing

Hallback lands punches in her fight for attention

The Plant City fighter says quality women's bouts on national TV are what the sport needs.

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published July 21, 2004

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Christy Martin may have put women's boxing on the map and Laila Ali may have elevated its status, but Plant City's Chevelle Hallback thinks she will be a big part of legitimizing it as a sport.

Well, not just her, but others like her: talented, skilled, smart fighters who are proving themselves more than just a passing curiousity.

Two weeks ago Hallback beat Layla McCarter in a 10-round unanimous decision. Carried live by ESPN's Friday Night Fights, the quality of the straight-ahead bulldozing Hallback and the deft counter-punching McCarter seemed to surprise even the fight's announcers.

This, Hallback says, is what her sport is, if people will just take a closer look.

"There are plenty of female boxers out there that can box," Hallback said from her training camp in Temecula, Calif. "The problem is the stations aren't showing them. They prefer showing the girls just starting out."

The reason for that is cost. Hallback said new fighters do so more cheaply, which is why finding fights can be so difficult for the smarter veterans.

"People think we're not there, and that is what's really hurting the sport," she said.

Hallback's victory over McCarter is the kind that can only help the sport. It was an entertaining 10-round affair and established Hallback as one of the world's finest pros. She is 22-4-1, and until losing in May had been the IBA Continental junior welterweight champion for three years.

Hallback, 32, has always been a talented athlete. She envisioned herself as a basketball and track star when she went to Turkey Creek Middle School in Plant City.

But the allure of boxing had always been strong, influenced by her family's love of the sport.

"It's just that when I was younger, I grew up admiring Muhammad Ali, and even the older boxers like Sugar Ray Robinson," Hallback said. "I used to watch with my dad and grandfather, and thought, "I can do that.'

"I fell in love with it. Then once I found out there were female boxers, I was like, "Wow, I wanna do this."'

She graduated high school in Germany - her father was stationed there - and when the family moved back to Florida she settled in Tampa and began an amateur boxing career that lasted all of zero fights.

"There wasn't anyone to fight," she laughed.

In 1997 she made her pro debut, beating Connie Plosser in Miami. She said she wore weights around her thighs under her sweat pants to get the fight with the much heavier opponent.

Her second fight was not nearly as smooth.

Though she had just one round of experience, she was scheduled to fight six rounds with an opponent who had just three pro fights. What her then-manager failed to tell her at the time was that Lucia Rijker was a world famous kick boxing champion.

The night before the fight, Hallback said she found out just how good Rijker was when she saw an HBO Sports special that featured her.

"After that first fight, I felt that I could beat anybody," Hallback said. "My manager gave it to me in a way to say she didn't have that many fights. So I took it on a week's notice. Then I saw that special on HBO about her, and I knew right then and there she was too much for me."

Hallback considered pulling out of the fight, but she was being paid $3,000 and feared she would be blackballed from future fights.

So she fought, winning the first round, splitting the second and losing the third.

"After the third round, I was done," she said.

In the fifth round she was knocked out. To this day only five fighters have lasted longer with Rijker.

"That was just super crazy," said Hallback, adding how much she would love a rematch.

Hallback, who moved to Georgia and then California to find fights, bounced back and won her first title by beating Bonnie Canino in 1998. Between 2001 and May of this year, she won 15 straight.

Back in Plant City, her following is swelling after her latest win.

"I always have people come up to me in my salon, or at church. They say we saw your girl last night," said Hallback's mother, Brenda Lee.

"She's got a lot of people here who follow her career."

Hallback says there's room for more. She realizes Ali continues to be the biggest name in the sport, but says she plans on squeezing her way onto the national stage. Performances like the one she and McCarter put on will attract new fans and make her sport more vibrant.

"To have a strong showing like that was great, especially on national television," she said. "It showed there are skilled female fighters out there. These are the kind of fights we need to see. Once that starts, it trickles down."

[Last modified July 20, 2004, 23:14:16]

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