Often when i tell people that it was illegal till 2009 for women to compete in boxing in most states in Australia including NSW they are surpised to say the least. This is just one illustration of how much boxing has changed since we first entered competition in 2009.
Since introducing our black shirt program we were progressing quite well. Before 2005 we were still mostly operating on karate semi-contact rules which means full contact blows to the body but little or no contact to the head. (my karate allows kicks to the head but no punching). Through my kickboxing training and karate training with Shihan William Oliver in New York in the late 1980’s, I had made the transition to head contact with hands and our black shirt test was full contact and the standard of our students was rising and so entering amateur boxing was on my mind but I didn’t know how to go about it. Justann Crawford two time Olympian (Barcellona 1992 and Atlanta 1996) and nine times Australian amateur champion from welterweight to heavyweight was now coaching at Joe’s Boxing every Tuesday night starting 2008. Justann had retired from boxing due to injury was now a PT and was starting to do very well. I had an inquiry from a guy who said he was interested in competing and had already had 3 fights. He had done a class I think and looked fabulous and so I called Justann who was estatic and started doing private lessons with the guy three times a week no charge. This guy was good on the pads but I could tell Justann was getting frustrated with his fitness and committment and it all came unstuck one day when a student named Stephen Dunleavy who was a stuntman and was Hugh Jackman’s double on the movie Australia co-starring Nicole Kidman. He was a 2nd Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and a pretty impressive 190cm and around 90kg but was not a boxer per say and Justann asked if they could do some sparring together as they were about the same size. Stephen proceeded to whoop him and he left embarassed and we never saw him again. I can’t count the number of times over the years someone has looked great on pads or bags but then it didn’t translate to the ring.
Opportunity for competition for our students came in 2009 when I got a call from Cengis from Boxingworks who had the idea to do a fight night between our two gyms. Boxingworks which is still going at Kings Cross was a multi skill gym that coached traditional jiu jitsu , kickboxing and boxing and was owned by Larry Papadopoulis a highly skilled martial arts exponent in Brazilian jiu jitsu and wrestling and had exploited an opportunity in the CBD of Sydney for fitness boxing in the early 2000’s. After the building in Clarence st was demolished and they took over the old Gold’s Gym in Surry Hills and amazing three story building with basement devoted to jiu jitsu and MMA , ground floor to weights and 1st Floor to Boxing. It was an amazing setup for the time.
We ended up with 9 of our students on the fight night but 4 did exhibition fights with each other as we had no opponents. Our two girls did an exhibition with each other making them one of the first in NSW. Kaye Scott and Tammy O’Callaghan I believe were the first to have a competitive fight in NSW but we were not far behind. I am eternally grateful to Justann as I had no clue what I was doing. The headgear we were using was rubbish and without Justann Crawford in our corner we would have sunk. As it turned out we had a couple of great wins especially the headline with Will McDonnell pulling off an underdog win against a more experienced opponent. I still have the DVD’s of these fights. We did a second show about 6 months later with equal success so with a whole heap of over confidence we decided to enter Boxing Australia State Titles at Tszyu’s gym in Rockdale in Friday night then Fisho’s near San Souci over the weekend. We had 7 from Joe’s Boxing aand 3 who were Justann’s students competing and we were to get a rude shock. We lost every fight some were stopped and some were lost by decision but it was obvious we weren’t up to standard of the serious clubs so with bruised egos we were back to the drawing board. In 2009 three women joined that would propel us to some fame and also define our women’s program to this day. Michelle and Anna joined together and after a year or two Michelle who is originally from Zimbabwe was along with Rachel were doing exo’s and fights with some success. Michelle famously did a fight in Moree where by winning against the local hero it was decided that the group should hightail it in the middle of the night back to Sydney. We were now doing regular shows around Sydney with some success with boys and girls. Around 2010-2011 a lady named Nadine Apetz joined the club. Nadine was from Germany and had a record on 4 wins and 4 losses but was obviously well trained and could handle herself against any of boys in the club. With the expert guidance of Justann we were able to get Nadine into open state titles at 69kg where she won against the terrific Arlene Blencowe who later won a professional world title in Boxing (WBF) but also fought Cyborg twice in Bellator and is still fighting having recently fought Jess Messina. Although at the time their weights were different Nadine also fought the now legendary Kaye Scott three times who at 41 holds WBA and WBC world professional titles in 2026. Kaye also won two silver medals at world amateur champs in two entirely different weights 81kg then dropping to 69kg for the second plus a bronze medal at commonwealth games. Nadine after completing her masters in neuroscience at Sydney went back to Germany and concentrated on her boxing and became European champion and the first woman to represent Germany at an Olympics in Boxing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She has subsquently finished her PHD and married her boxing coach.
We seemed to be on a roll and our golden era began in around 2014 with the arrival of Ben Ramjan who became to date our finest most successful competitor completing 26 fights and making nationals and Commonwealth games trials in 2017. Ben put us on the map not only in the ring though the way he carried himself and his sportsmanship win or lose won the hearts of all NSW Boxing. Other notables in this era were Doug McDonnell who had already done 16 fights when he got to us but had some epic battles with the likes of Koen Mazoudier, Michael Pengue and Ty Telford and had the honour of being Tim Tszyu’s last amateur fight before turning professional. Doug mover back to Western Australia and represented the state twice at nationals before retiring. With Pete Becker and Ethan Hoffman we were doing well in mens divisions but we were also getting our masters women (41+) gaining momentum and Anna who had been working steadily since joining in 2009 was now doing some exhibition fights and although had a couple of losses at the beginning continued to work and would reap rewards in the years after Covid.
I hope to return to this chapter and expand significantly as there has been alot left out and was a very exciting 10 years in our history.