Del Pettis Talks about her boxing history in 1987

Full copyrighted article:  https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/women-in-gloves/  Dated:  September 3, 1987 – by Jeff Carlson

Boxing is boxing.

Whether the fighters are male or female, the blood is one color, the bruises look the same, and the same skills apply to winning a bout. The only difference in equipment is that women wear breast protectors and men wear protective cups.

“Eight years ago, I had my son Daniel Lee and I gained too much weight,” recalls Del “La Rose” Pettis, 27, talking about her introduction to the sport. “I was 50 pounds overweight and I met a guy who was a fighter and I started working out to get back in shape.”

After slimming down, Pettis decided she’d like to try the sport for real. Daniel Lee’s father was killed in 1981 and Pettis had financial decisions to make about raising her child alone. She decided that a tough childhood in San Diego and her new physique might translate into some ring success.

“I hoped boxing would get me somewhere,” Pettis says.

Initially, all it gave Pettis was grief. She was banished from the local gym by men who said she was awkward and a distraction. But she worked out where she could and “started to get something together.” Eventually, the men at the gym realized she was serious about boxing and let her back in.

“It’s a struggle trying to get in there and prove that we can box,” says Pettis.

Laurie Ann Holt, 24, from Waterville, Maine, grew up in a family of ten sisters and five brothers, a family of fighters. She started boxing in the barn with her brothers when she was a teenager; she asked one of her brothers-in-law to train her and he laughed.

Holt has been on a mission ever since. Late in 1983, at the age of 19, Holt had her first professional fight (there are no amateur programs in women’s boxing). It was a disaster; in fact Holt lost her first two professional fights before she found manager/trainer Bob Sylvia.

“He got me in shape and taught me the art of boxing,” Holt recalls. “The biggest problem I had in the first fight was inexperience. My opponent was ranked number four in the country and I didn’t know what a jab was.”

After a year under the tutelage of Sylvia, Holt won a rematch with her conqueror and hasn’t lost since. She has captured a Maine state title, a North American title, and a Women’s Boxing Board world title, and she came to Chicago to battle Del “La Rose” Pettis for the world Women’s Boxing Association’s super featherweight title.

Women have been involved in sanctioned boxing since 1975. California was the first state to regularly promote women on boxing shows, and they have been searching for acceptance ever since.

“There’s a lot of promoters that are against women in boxing,” says Pettis.

Many of those same promoters might be willing to attract curiosity seekers to their male-dominated cards. But not by booking mismatches, say Holt and Pettis, and the lack of a women’s amateur program and the paucity of woman fighters make mismatches hard to avoid.

As a result, fights for women are few and far between. Pettis, a professional for four years, has a record of 4-0-1, and Holt has only nine fights (7-2) to show for five years of leather pushing.

“People don’t know what’s happening yet and we have to show them proof,” says Pettis.

“People come in expecting to see a freak show with hair pulling and scratching,” Holt says, “and they come out surprised and real impressed.”

Holt says she’s had phone calls from promoters who wanted to put on topless boxing shows, but she’s realized the financial rewards would come at the expense of her credibility. Credibility is what the boxing women are desperately searching for.

Fight promoters Marshall Christopher and Kristin Newman have brought women’s boxing to Chicago. They’re paying Pettis and Holt $1,000 apiece, plus $200 in expense money. Pettis, who has never made more than $200 for a fight, acknowledges the fight is a big chance for her to make a mark.