A Great “Lead In” – A Strong Show Generating a Big Audience By Bernie McCoy

(JUNE 9)  In television programming it’s known as a “lead-in:” a strong show generating a big audience and “leading” that audience to the following show or, in the case of TV’s most famous lead-in, “The Cosby Show,” leading the audience to an entire Thursday night of viewing. “It’s a technique that has also been used, successfully, in boxing,” Judy Kulis, IFBA President, noted, on the phone, from her headquarters office in Nevada last week. “Often when there is a big PPV fight in Las Vegas on a Saturday, ESPN will originate their “Friday Night Fights” from that city. We’re doing a variation, leading with an all-female boxing show from Connecticut into the biggest PPV event in the history of Women’s boxing, the following night in Albuquerque, NM. There will be an interview with Holly Holm on the Thursday telecast along with numerous references to the PPV telecast. It’s a way of marketing the PPV show while, at the same time, presenting a very good night of female boxing. Over the two nights, there will be a total of six IFBA titles on the line in those two rings.

On Thursday, June 12, from Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, CT and telecast on Fox Sports network, Lisa Brown (14-3-3) will defend her IFBA super bantamweight crown against Alicia Ashley (14-7-1) over ten rounds, while Jill Emery (8-2) and Angelica Martinez (6-4) will battle for the vacant IFBA welterweight title. Emery had originally been scheduled to fight Cristy Nickel in a non-title six round bout. When Nickel dropped off the card, Judy Kulis went looking and Martinez took the bout, prompting an editorial aside from Kulis, during our phone call, “I love Angelica, she’s one of the fighters in the sport, who will, on short notice, take a fight and not just any fight, but, as in this case, a tough fight against a tough opponent. Making Emery/Martinez a ten round title fight was an easy call.” Emery is coming off a close loss to Terri Blair, last December, while Martinez, over her five year career, has been in with Holly Holm four times (starting early in both fighters’ careers), Layla McCarter  and has a win over Christy Martin (October 2006)…..easy call, indeed. The Brown/Ashley fight is a main event bout on almost any card in any venue. It matches two veteran fighters with ring skills tested over a combined 17 years and 42 bouts against some of the top competition in the sport.

Also on the card is a six round featherweight bout between Jeri Sitzes (14-7-1) and Ela Nunez (6-3) and Kulis notes, “This could be the sleeper bout of the night, two action fighters who come to fight every time out.” Nunez’s last bout, in March, was a five round TKO of tough Brooke Dierdorff, while Sitzes is coming off a title bout loss, in February, to main-event fighter, Lisa Brown.
Also featured is the return to the ring, after a year and a half hiatus, of unbeaten Melinda Cooper  (18-0) in a six round bout with veteran Donna Biggers (19-7-1). At press time, a fifth bout, featuring Elena Reid  (19-4-5) going six rounds with Ava Knight (3-0-1) has been added.

Given the ongoing paucity of television coverage of the sport of Women’s boxing, the Fox Sports network telecast, from Connecticut, would be, in normal circumstances, a major event for the sport. Two very good title fights, a bout that promises bell/bell action from two dynamic fighters and the return to the ring of one of the most skilled female boxers in the sport, is, usually, as good as female boxing and television coverage of the sport gets. Add the fact that the Thursday telecast is scheduled for a prime time airing on the Fox Sports affiliates, not suffering from the time constraints of an 11PM start time that has plagued some of the past Fox female boxing telecasts, and the Thursday show from Connecticut shapes up as a “perfect storm” of quality exposure for the sport. Kulis noted that the Fox Sports TV coverage will include “the two title bouts and the Sitzes/Nunez fight, with the Melinda Cooper and Elena Reid bouts held, as “swing bouts,” to be shown if any of the other three fights end early, a distinct possibility.”

And this is just the “lead-in.” Combine the Connecticut card with the New Mexico PPV show the following night and the boxing fan will be treated to television exposure of the largest group of female fighters ever assembled: six championship bouts and under-card fights that might be at the top of many boxing programs around the country. How good are the six title fights, two in Connecticut, four in New Mexico? Start with the fact that these six fights spotlight some of the most talented fighters in the sport, fighting each other. The six fights are, basically, what fight fans always hope for: “two good fighter” bouts. How good? Think about the six bouts: Holly Holm/Mary Jo Sanders, Chevelle Hallback/Jeannine Garside, Carina Moreno/Eileen Olszewski, Hollie Dunaway/Wendy Rodriguez, Lisa Brown/Alicia Ashley and Jill Emery/Angelica Martinez and then realize that, if you’re honest, you don’t really know who is going to win any of those bouts. And when was the last time you could say that, particularly about some of the “title” fights that the sport has foisted on the public recently and a couple that are scheduled in the near future.

Said another way, the two female fight cards in Connecticut and New Mexico are an example, a good example, of what can, what should, be accomplished on an ongoing basis, in the sport of Women’s boxing. It’s what results when forward thinking promoters such as Fresquez Promotions and the boxing officials at Mohegan Sun combine with a TV network, like Fox Sports and a PPV distributor such as Integrated Sport (could the be a better name) that recognize that good boxing isn’t limited by gender and both are joined by an aggressive Women’s boxing sanctioning body, such as the IFBA, who aims for the achievement of results rather than talking about how to go about getting results. It is that type of support, that has, unfortunately, been absent for far too long in the sport of Women’s boxing. When that type of support exists, two fight cards, like the ones in Connecticut and New Mexico, result and some of the best fighters in the sport are showcased on national television while at the same time providing the sport of Women’s boxing with the opportunity to show just how good it can be.

It begins Thursday night with a great “lead in.”