Women getting hooked on the new boxing craze

By Kyle Jorreyjorrey@theacorn.com

NO RING GIRL—Above, Newbury Park resident and Ventura County native Alexis Bessa goes through a boxing workout at KnockOut in Westlake Village. The latest fitness craze, boxing-orientated training has become popular among the general public, especially among women, who perfer the high-intensity, high-endurance workout to more traditional methods of getting in shape. Below, trainer Tony Mendoza keeps a watchful eye on his students, Kathleen Loretto of Newbury Park (left) and Madallen De Bois of Westlake Village. Note of caution to all husbands and boyfriends: Next time you leave that seat up in the middle of the night, you might be in bigger trouble than you think.

Thanks in part to the success of the Oscar Award-winning film “Million Dollar Baby” and NBC’s “The Contender” (which had a predominately female audience), boxing and boxing-orientated training has become the next big thing for women in search of a more high-intensity method of getting in shape.

Think “Rocky” minus the ugly gray jumpsuit and frozen beef punching bags—and replace the Italian Stallion with Adrian.

Women of all ages and body types are finding out for themselves why boxers have such phenomenal physiques and why they’re able to survive 12-rounds of grueling fisticuffs in the ring.

Boxing’s feminine side has come to the Conejo Valley where facilities such as KnockOut in Westlake Village and Big Fish Boxing in Agoura Hills are brimming with female clients, who now make up about 50 percent of the gym clientele.

“Since we’ve been open there’s a group of at least 20 women who were there on day one and are still coming at least twice a week. They’re addicted,” said Alexis Bessa, the 23-year-old general manager at KnockOut. “And these women are not in their 20s, they’re in their 40s and 50s, and they are devoted. Everyday they leave here they leave dripping wet and they can’t get enough of it.”

Many of the women found working the speed bags say they turned to boxing after a number of failed attempts at more tradi

tional weight loss methods.

Bessa, a resident of Newbury

Park and also a new boxer-in-train

ing, said there are other reasons

why girls are stepping into the

ring.

“I think there is something

very cool about boxing for

women. It’s sort of a woman

power thing,” Bessa said. “It

makes you feel more powerful.

It gives you more confidence.

Plus, I know if I get approached

I know how to throw a good left

hook.”

Changed perceptions

Adam Fish, owner of Big Fish Boxing and a former professional fighter, remembers a day when seeing a woman in a boxing gym was like seeing Evander Holyfield at the Pottery Barn.

“In those days, a lot of trainers wouldn’t train a woman period. No questions asked,” Fish said. “Now those are the people we market to, those are our forte. . . .The philosophy is we don’t train a championship fighter over the soccer mom that wants to get in the best shape of her life because after three kids she’s gained 30 pounds.”

The success of boxing poster girls Christy Martin and Leila Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali, connected women to the sport in the 1990s. Now it’s fighters such as Lucia Rijker, the villainous Billie “The Blue Bear” in “Million Dollar Baby,” who hope to bring the sport to wider audiences.

Rijker, who currently trains at KnockOut under trainer George Sylva and wellness coach Robert Ferguson, will fight Martin at Mandalay Bay July 30 for the first ever $1 million prize in any female sport. Rijker said she hopes her success will open doors for women in a sport previously thought to be “for men only.”

“Every time I fight I want to send a message to women that they can do things even when people around them say they can’t, because that has been the case with me all along,” said Rijker, who has a professional boxing record of 170 and is a heavy favorite in the match against Martin. “People would tell me I couldn’t do something so I would go out and do it. I never let them change the dream I had for myself.”

When Westlake Village resident Alison Deeth-Mula first shared her thoughts about boxing with her elderly father back home in England, his reaction was less than enthusiastic.

“He was absolutely horrified,” Deeth-Mula said. “He just thought it wasn’t right for a woman to be boxing. Nobody in my family could imagine me with boxing gloves on. They thought it was ludicrous.”

Nevertheless, the mother of two stuck to her guns. Today, she attends boxing classes three times a week.

“Once I got over being intimidated, I found it really worked for me,” said Deeth-Mula, who works at a dental office. “It’s very fun and high energy, not like just running on a treadmill. . . . Plus, you can just kind of forget everything else and concentrate on that one thing.

“I never thought I’d do it but now I really hit that bag hard,” she said.

Pulling no punches

It’s important to remember

that even though places such as

Knockout and Big Fish offer box

ing as a way to get in shape, the

gyms also provide a venue for real

fighters to work out.

“First and foremost, we are a

traditional boxing gym,” said

Fish, who employs a handful of

pro fighters (past and present) as

his gym’s trainers. “We don’t do Pilates, we don’t do kickboxing, we don’t do weight training. We strictly teach traditional boxing. . . .We train everybody like they’re getting ready for a championship fight, whether they’re going to box someone or not.”

And that might be part of the appeal. After all, training just a few feet away from professional pugilists who have put their life and blood into the sport serves as added motivation.

“You’re hitting that bag and right in front of you in the ring is Fernando Vargas or Lucia Rijker,” Robert Ferguson said. “That just makes you want to work harder.”

In addition to traditional boxing, KnockOut offers instruction in kick boxing, ultimate fighting and even martial arts.

Business philosophy tells the owners to keep the traditional methods, but be willing to adapt boxing to a new audience.

“When I first told people I was going to put a boxing gym in the middle of Agoura, they said I was crazy,” Fish said. “But really, the community has just taken us in. It shows that you’ve got to be willing to adapt to your surroundings.”

Just ask Sylva, who runs Sylva’s Boxing Gym in Ventura. With over 30 percent of his business coming from women, he knew the traditional dark and drab look of the Brooklyn gym wasn’t going to cut it.

“If we want new people to come into the world of boxing, especially women, then we have tomake it comfortable, we have to make it friendly,” Sylva said. “If you look at our place, it doesn’t even look like a boxing gym. We don’t want people to be intimidated from trying the sport that we love so much.”

Dropping weight

Besides the fun and the thrill

of the sport, women are realizing

that boxing works wonders on the

body as well.

“The women that are doing it

and are committed to it, look

amazing,” Bessa said, “because in

boxing, you are always pushing

yourself to the extreme and burn

ing massive calories. You end up

working muscles you never

thought you had.”

And as more women begin to

lace up the gloves, the stigma

surrounding their place in the

ring will slowly disappear, Bessa

says. According to her, women

are ready and willing to change from low-impact to high-impact exercises.

“Pilates have always been the woman thing to do because it’s about a graceful kind of workout, but not anymore,” Bessa said. “Women are finding out if you really want to look good in that bathing suit, then you need to work and you need to sweat. Pilates won’t cut it by itself.”

Marissa Sepe, who walked through the doors of Big Fish earlier this week for a look-see and an application, is the latest to decide she’s ready to learn an effective combination or two.

“A friend and I are thinking about doing it together, we thought it’d be fun,” said Sepe, a 2000 graduate of Agoura High School. “We’re just bored of the regular workout and want to get something a little more high impact.”

There’s no question if Sepe gives boxing a try, that’s exactly what she’ll get.