Rita Turrisi professional boxer who fought from 1998-2005

Rita fought from 1998 to 2005 with a final boxing record of 3-7-0 (3KO).  She had a win against Holly Holm when Holm received an extensive cut in the fourth round on June 27, 2004.

RITA TURRISI, born in Sicily, her father a Sicilian and mother Croatian. Her grandfather on her mother’s side was a light heavyweight European champion in the early 1920’s. Rita trains and coaches other athletes who box and Thai Box in Milan. Turrisi from the team SIDDHARTA has been operating independently for two years under this name in Milan, Italy.   Here she trains and coaches other athletes who do boxing and Thai boxing.

Before Rita began boxing, she was into the sport of swimming and shot-putting at school. It didn’t take her long to realize that track-and-field sports were her childhood dream. She was most suited to long-distance running and her time in the 42,195-metre marathon was so good that it got her into the Italian national team. Unfortunately, she had a hemorrhage in her leg, and had to undergo surgery which made it impossible for her to continue running. Rita stopped—but she felt very bitter about it.

In the meantime, Rita got involved in other sports, that included the triathlon and karate in the goju-ryu style. However, there was no competitive spirit in the latter and other defensive arts were too unrealistic for her, and she soon tired of them.

As fate would have it, while she was in a gym, she saw a training session for fighting and encountered Thai boxing. Rita found what she had been looking for in a sport.

 Highlights of Turrisi fighting career:

• On 12-10-96 she won the European title, I.S.K.A., in the 62 kilo category, with a technical knock-out, in the 7^th round.

• On 22-11-98 she won the European title, W.I.B.F., in Croatia, in the welter-weight category, with a knock-out in the 8^th round.

• On 14-2-98 she won a kick-boxing match in Zaandam (Holland), with a knock-out in the second round against her opponent after a heavy exchange of punches.
• Rita Turrisi of Italy won the WAKO World Title in the 68 kg kickboxing category. She defeated Ana Marija Jurinjak of Croatia by TKO in the fifth round of a scheduled 10-round bout in Bergamo, Italy on October 14, 2000.