Lady Tyger Trimiar: She Had a Dream – by Sue TL Fox

Lady Tyger—She had a dream. . .since the age of 10 years old, she visited the neighborhood gyms and watched fighters spar with each other. She watched boxing on television. One day she told people at the gym that she wanted to be a boxer, and to have a trainer. Lady Tyger remembers that when she expressed that dream to others, they just laughed. 

When Lady Tyger first went to the gym to work out, she was matched with a guy that pounded on her in the ring. A not too unfamiliar event that happened to females who wanted to start training in a boxing gym. When Lady Tyger returned the next day, she won their respect.

LADY TYGER  started seriously training at 18, after graduating from Julia Richman High School in Manhattan. She said she has fought a total of 25 official fights, winning all but four with an “off and on” career over the past 12 years. In 1979, she won the Women’s World lightweight championship from Sue “KO” Carlson in San Antonio, Texas.

LADY TYGER was sure that women’s boxing was going to be very big in a couple of years and she vocalized that belief to all that who would listen. Little did she know or could have predicted that she would go through years of turmoil and disappointment in the sport of boxing.   

A true pioneer of female boxing, in 1987, she carried on the cause to the extent of going on a well-publicized “hunger strike” for a month to advocate better money and conditions for professional female boxers, even though she was protesting for others and not herself.  All that Lady Tyger strived for was equality among how boxers were paid and treated, whether they were male or female.   She directed that hunger strike towards Don King, the current manager of Christy Martin and other female fighters.   In defense of Don King, even then, he openly vocalized that he was for female boxing. 

Lady Tyger Trimiar was the first woman to apply for a boxing license in New York State. After a long drawn out lawsuit, Lady Tyger, Jackie Tonawanda, and Cathy “Cat” Davis were the first women to be issued a boxing license. They were side-by-side together at the same time to receive that license, even though Cat Davis, was physically “handed” her license first, they were actually all THREE issued a license at the same time. Because Cat Davis was handed her license first, she was pegged as the “First woman” to get her New York license, but in reality, Lady Tyger applied for her boxing license first with New York State, and technically should have received it first on that day.  She even protested the fact that Cat Davis was handed her license first, and the whole ordeal had  suspicious political overtones to it.

Lady Tyger was truly one of the greatest female boxers in the 70’s and 80’s. She fought exhibition fights before it was legal to box in  sanctioned bouts. She stayed in the fight game from 1973 until 1987, accumulating over 25 professional bouts. Her fame in the 70’s and 80’s even reached the Smithsonian Institute, when one day she received a letter from them, requesting remnants from her boxing days. Copyrighted 5/15/98. All Rights Reserved.

T.L.Fox:  What has been happening lately in your life?

Lady:  I just got featured in an article with VIBE Magazine, February issue.  Actually, the article is about a current amateur fighter by the name of Alcivar, but they go into the roots of women boxing and talk about my career, my struggles to obtain a New York Boxing license in the 70’s and the hunger strike that I did in the 80’s to gain better rights and wages for women boxers.     It also covers when I first started boxing and my experiences in the different gyms in the 70’s.

T.L.Fox:   How did it make you feel to finally feel vindicated for the many years that Cathy “Cat” Davis claimed to be the first woman to be licensed in New York City, when in actuality you applied first, and should have technically been “handed” your New York License first on September 19, 1978 when you , Cat and Jackie Tonawanda all received it on the same day?

Lady: Very good.   Sue, that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do the article.    That has bothered me for so many years. 

T.L.Fox:  What kind of feelings were you going through, getting interviewed about the past?

Lady:  I was having a lot of mixed emotions.  I felt happy and sad at the same time.  It brought back good times and some really bad times about the hunger Strike and all the struggles I went through to get the right to box. 

T.L.Fox:   Do you regret getting into boxing years ago?

Lady:  No, not at all.  Sometimes my family say things to me that are negative. Kind of like what did I have to show for all the misery it brought on in the past.  But at the same time my family has said to me that if I didn’t get into boxing, I would not have met so many nice people.

T.L. Fox:   Are you married now, or do you have children?

Lady:   I am a single mother with a nine-year old son.

T.L.Fox:     How many years did you stay in boxing?

Lady:   About 15 years.

T.L.Fox:   If you had not made your career choice as a professional female boxer, what would you have done in replacement of it?

Lady:   I don’t really know.  I guess I would have liked to have been a nurse.

T.L.Fox:  In the 70’s when you dared to defy the public, and you shaved your head, what kind of public reaction did you have to that?

Lady:   My family was SHOCKED.  My mother literally dropped her jaw.  It was funny, because I never planned to shave my head.   I was in the hairdressers one day and all of a sudden just told them to shave it all off.   I was called Kojak, and all kinds of names, including Mt. Baldy. One person accused me of shaving my head to blind my opponents under the bright lights over the ring?

T.L.Fox:  Okay, speaking of “hair” or more appropriately named, “no hair”, how did the public react when you started wearing a mohawk?

Lady:     Oh, I did that just for fun, and didn’t keep it that way for very long.  

T.L.Fox:   Have you had any physical or medical problems connected with boxing that you know of?

Lady:    I don’t think so.  I did get an offer from some medical institute to answer questions in regards to medical concerns.

T.L.Fox:  In closing, Lady, is there anything you would like to say to the public?

Lady:  I would like to say that I appreciate all of the fan mail and support and comments that I have received since being on WBAN’s website.    It has truly touched me.  I also would like to tell the women boxers to never give up. To fight for that dream, and for your rights to fight.