June 15, 2025 • 49 mins
In this ep you're about to hear from the ONLY Australian boxer to have achieved #1 ranking in the world pound for pound! This year (2025) our girl, Diana Prazak, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and given these incredible (and under-celebrated) accolades I'm here to make some noise.
Fun fact... Diana was the main event at the first pro boxing fight I attended back in 2014, fighting the tough-as-nails opponent Shotgun Shannon O'Connell (former guest on the show). What a fight!
We talked about her unexpected (and late) entry into boxing, her rise to number one in the world, and how she stayed grounded despite getting little recognition from back home. Diana doesn’t hold back. She shared the raw truth about what it took to keep showing up in a sport that gave her everything and nothing at the same time. We got into the reality of being a woman in boxing, what it means to fight through trauma, and how she’s now using her story to help others, especially young people who need it most.
This is one for the underdogs, and just the kind of story that inspires the sh*t out of me... I hope you enjoy it just as much.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
She said, it's now never I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm tiff. This is Roll with the Punches and we're
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(00:29):
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reach out to Mark and the team at www dot
test Artfamilylawyers dot com dot au. Diana Prazak, Welcome to
(00:53):
Roll with the Punches.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Good day.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Where you being, mate, Where you be? You of this show?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I've been everywhere. I'm more than anything. I was just
so excited to hear your voice for me. I get
so excited when I'm not obviously home home in Australia.
For me, every time I can connect with someone from home,
it makes it makes.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
My heart happy. Do you know what I mean? So?
I love it. I love it. I might live in
the States.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I'm I had citizenship for the States as well. But
there's no place like home, you know. And we're always
told that growing up, there's no place like home. There's
no place like Australia. It's the greatest country in the world.
But I never realized that until I left it.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
M do you know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's funny. I'm from Tazzy and I go home all
the time, and I've always been like, nah, I always
thought i'd move back there one day, but I've found
beautiful spots in malb when the last two years, it's
had that beautiful connect you know, you just eventually land
and you go there is something about this, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
There's just something like just home. There really is no
please like home.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Every time I come back home at least once or
twice a yeah, and every time I'm like crying at
the airport coming back to.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
The States.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
When we were last year.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Last time I was home was August last year, and
I'll actually be home.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Again in July.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, we better have a coffee, mate.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
We'll learn them more than a coffee, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
All right, Let's how do we explain you to my listeners? Gods,
you're amazing for it. Let me let me start with
my introduction, which is very brief, but my first memory
of you is so right before. I'd had a few
corporate boxing challenges and was on right balls deep in
the excitement of boxing for women, and I hadn't yet
(03:01):
had an amateur fight, but I was ready. I was
training for that. And we went and watched yourself and
Shannon O'Connell fight in two tho fourteen, and you know
what the reality of watching you two hard hitting, incredible
super athletes and you're just a warrior. I remember just
(03:22):
watching that fight and thinking, Tiff, you're own in Kansas anymore?
Like do you really want to go into this Look
at the bast in this sport.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
That was a good fight, that was awesome. I had
just come home for Christmas.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
M it was you know, I had just fought in Sweden.
We had a couple months off.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
We're still training even though we had a couple months off.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
And Lucia said go home for Christmas, just take some
time off, and I was like sweet.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I flew back home to Melbourne.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
And while I was home, you know, your Facebook always
goes off a little bit like crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And Shannon called me out.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Shan like there was she came out like here, I
hadn't even had the title.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
For that long, do you know what I mean? And
she she called me out, and Brian Armatruda put it on.
He reached out to me and said, hey, I know
you're here for a holiday, but do you want to
you know.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Shannon's called you out? Do you want to defend your
title back home? And obviously the fighter in me is
like hell, yes, like definitely, of course I always in
a fight, but you learn very quickly that when you
have a train like Lucia, that you don't get to
call all the shots.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So I remember I gave her Yeah, yeah, she was
always in charge. And I remember she was in.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
The Netherlands and I rang her and I was like, hey,
I just got called out.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Do you wanna do you want to fight? Do you
want a trip to Australia? And she was like yeah,
let's do it. And yeah, a month later she had
flown in. Brian's got it all set up the I
think he was working with Barrier of all.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
No, they just done a five bar at all, but
Brian got it all sent up and yeah, I ended
up defending my title back home and it was no
one knew I was from Australia. How's that for people
not knowing who you are? I remember being in the
dressing room of that fire and a guy came in
and he was like, so, what is it like being
(05:24):
in Australia? Do you like this country? And I was like, dude,
I was this.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Weird in Melbourne? This is my hometown, do you know
what I mean?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Like, how how's that you come in and you don't
even know who I am or where I'm from.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
This is my title, this is my this is my home.
And yeah, that happens more than it should. Unfortunately, that
blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Like I remember being back then being and I guess
still to a degree. Women's changing, but back then I
just remember going, no, boxing is are weird sport and
especially for women, it's like no one knows anyone, like
no one I couldn't name, I couldn't name boxes unless
you were And for someone to was obviously involved in
the sport to walk into the change rooms and have
no idea of your background.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Exactly and there was my home that it was my hometown,
that I was the Melbourne girl. Shannon was from Queensland. Yeah,
so it was I remember that was a good fight Shannon.
Shannon was a.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Real goer, tough girl, tough girl.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, really, watching you two was something, like I said,
from going from watching most of my experience was watching
those corporate fights that I was involved in, and that
level to coming and watching you two was like, oh, DP,
do you want to do that?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
That was a really important win for us to get.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Yeah, because because I had come home and everyone she
was the favorite, Everyone was saying that she was going
to she was going to win that fight, and yeah,
it was a fifth round stoppage alway obviously.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, and yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
It was so important for us to walk away with
that wind and to win decisively, just to just because
you know, at that stage, I was number one in
the world. I had just made pounds of pounds number
one in the world, the only Austraying to ever do that,
and and I.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Was still being looked as the outsider coming in. I
was still the underdog in my own home after everything
that we had achieved.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
So that was a big, a big, really decisive win
for us that we had to get.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And I'm really happy that it was a good.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
It was a good, clean fight, and it was a
really good, decisive win for us, just to show that,
you know, we were a whole on a whole different
level than everybody else.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh yeah, Oh, let's let's talk about a bit about
your entry into the sport and your background in the sport, because,
like when I was just having a bit of a
refresh on your on your life, I read your first
I can't remember how many, but all of your amateur fights, however,
many all knockout, like knockout.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Well, they weren't all knockouts. I think I was technically,
I think I had four stops.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
It was six fightsages six amunter fights, and I think
it was four stoppages I think, not six, So it
definitely wasn't six.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
All right, well it's still pretty well.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Wasn't six for six? I think it was four for six,
I think.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, amazing. All right, tell me how you got
started in the sport.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Me, my boyfriend. It was a muso.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
My boyfriend at the time was a muso and we
were we were on the drink at a at a
gig and one of my mates come up to me
and Donna and she was like, Hey, they just opened
a boxing gym near us, do you want to come box?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go box. And
and then I forgot all about it.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Obviously, I didn't think. I never thought about it again.
And a week later she rocked up in my house.
She's like, let's go and where are we going there?
She's like, We're going to boxing gym, and and it
was boxing Fit in Hops Gross.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
They had just.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Opened not long ago, and and that was where all pretty.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Much started up. I really liked it. And as I
was leaving, one.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Of the trainers said to me, so he was just
trying to get me to sign up. I know he was,
but he was like, so you're going to stay fat
your whole life, or you're gonna sign up. He just
read me, right, He just read me, read me, and
he read me right. And I said, yeah, you know what,
You're right, and I signed up. And and at the beginning,
(09:30):
like that first couple of months, I was just having fun.
It was just so much fun.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Hitting things, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And I was always a very natural athlete, always a tomboy,
so for me, it was easy to do that. And
when it come down to I was watching some people's
fire and I said, hey, can I do that? And
and he pretty much said to me, Look, you know
you're kind of you're old, you're fat, and you're a girl.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
What's the what's the point? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
I'm sure if you deny it as well if if
it came out, but I'm not going to hide it.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
But it was it was like that were fighting words
for me.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
And I worked out an arrangement with with Cel and
she started training me and I dropped the weight I was.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I was pretty heavy at the.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Time and started went straight into the amateurs and I
won and I just kept winning.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
But I never had that amateurs style yet. I mean
I always had that pro style.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
So and then my first profile that was like I
was twenty seven when that happened, so definitely a very
late start in the sport. I turned pro after six fights,
so the last fight being the Austrain title which I won.
And when I my first pro fight was against Sarah
Howard Sarah and Missy Howard, and she six rounds and
(10:52):
she she beat him on points, broke my nose in
the last round and it was like someone had died.
I was so devastated. I was like, this is what
is this?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Jeremyn It was at sixty four kilos and was I
never want to experience this again. And we just went
straight into the gym.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
I probably had a couple of days off and that
was it before I went hardcore's training. And I suppose
that's really all that that's what started at all that
lost to Sarah.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I think my ninth fight was the title fight against
Lindsay Garbett. I think you'd have to look at box check.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I'm not sure, but after Seriah's fight, I went undefeated
after that and fought for.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Ronlin Wildly from from New Zealand. She was awesome. She
was my entry into the international circuit.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I had to win a ten round against Sarah, my
first at a time at one hundred and thirty pounds,
which I think is fifty nine kilos, and yeah, beating
her got me a shot at the world titled against
Lindsay Garbet, who was the champion from Canada. And that
was where I think I was thirty or thirty one
when that happened, So it was relatively short time, that
(12:09):
really short space of time when that had happened, and
yet we won.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
That was that was a ninth round stoppage against Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
When did you relocate.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
After that fight. After the we we went to al Paso, Texas.
I'll never forget this, right, And so we flew into
La first and Michell and Okay, she was she had
just been in the States and she had trained with Lucia.
(12:43):
She had done some training with Louise, and.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
She said, Hey, you're in LA. How about I get
you a session with Lucia and that way you really
get to experience it. And I was like, yes, let's
let's do this.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
And so I ended up having two sessions with Loose
and we just connected like sometimes you just mess the people,
but I wasn't there for a long time. We just
had fun. I had a great training with her. We
were there to support frank Lopordo. He was fighting in
our passid for a world title. So we all flew
(13:16):
there and we always got told we had a really
similar fight style, me and Frankie, like we both with
that pressure final that would just walk through punches and
get hit. And I watched Frankie lose and he got
hurt when he like it was it wasn't something you
ever want to see your gym.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Mate experience, do you know what I mean? And when
I was watching him fighting and getting a hit with
with everything. All I could see was myself.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
I thought, if I stay in Australia, this is what's
going to happen to me, because the competition is only
going to increase.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We're only going to fight other champions now that I
was a champion, and I was like, if I'm going
to do this, I have to do it properly. So
I flew back to Australia. I spoke to a manager
and I said, hey, I'm going to do this. I
haven't got very many years left in me. I'm already
thirty one, thirty two, whatever it was.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
And I said, let's do it properly, and so I
flew to the States. It was tough because you know,
you left everything you know on this little wilm that
you know, hoping that you were going to achieve something.
But I never stopped believing that if I wanted it,
if I worked hard enough, I'd have it.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
So Lucy started training me. It was the scariest thing
I ever done ever.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Literally I cried the whole way on that flight, that
sixteen hour plane ride to LA I just cried. I
remember I had a shitty little motel on sunset boulevard
that was literally stood out of the gutters.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I remember, I was too scared to go outside because
it was like nothing like the movies. Yeah, and there
was a mate from Australia, Mike Almatura. He was here
at the same time, and we were on the plane.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Together and he took me under his wing and he
took me the target so I could get some food.
He showed me where wild Card Boxing was so I
knew where I had to train. And yeah, he like,
I was just so bloody lucky he was on the
plane because it was petrifying. But that was the start
of everything, you know, being in the States, that shitty
(15:36):
little motel, training with Lucia. If I didn't do any
of that, none, nothing would have happened.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Hell, back then, how financially viable was professional boxing for women.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
It literally wasn't at all. I didn't make any money.
A couple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there.
I was desperate for sponsors, like I would put out
I would put out like Facebook posts and I would
speak to people, you know, anyone that could help. Because
training was expensive. Training was so expensive. Gear was expensive,
(16:14):
you know, gloves just taping your hands, favsing wall training session,
your clothes that you wore, being able to eat.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
You know, it was it was so expensive. So I
had a couple of really good people who threw in
a couple hundred bucks here and then.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
But I was very lucky. I worked for myself, so
I was able to I had full flexibility over how
I worked. I mean, I still worked for myself. I
have my whole career, but there's no money.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
There was no money. It was zero money. I like,
I made way easy because I was always so poor.
Count I had no food. It's the oddest truth.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
You know. Lucia would come over and she's like, she
look in my free and she's like, dang, where's your food?
And I'm like, oh, I just haven't gone to the
shops yet. I just haven't got any groceries yet. And
I'd bullshit my way through everything. But she knew that,
you know, she'd bring food for me.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Or I'd go to her place and she'd always feed
me and stuff like that. But yeah, it was, it was.
There were rough There were some rough t was My
old career was pretty much like that.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Actually, what makes it? What drove you? What made it
worth it.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
This what we're doing right now.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, anytime I can share what I went through, Yeah,
if I can, if anyone can hear my my shitty
little story, okay and be inspired to do something that
someone told them they couldn't do, this makes it worth it.
Because my I was the underdog my entire career. If
(18:00):
it wasn't for my family believing in me, you know,
I lost relationships. My boyfriend of twenty years, we broke
up because I came to the States because.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I was going to do this properly.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Gentlemen, you know, I had some really good mates. Every
time I came back to Australia, it was like it
was literally coming back home.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know. People would take care of me. People would
they believed in me.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I remember running doing my you know, my roadwork in
the Netherlands and being on the phone to my sister
or Mike Almatsura and that would just talk to me
and they would give me, you know, make help me
believe in myself. If people could hear that what I did,
(18:47):
knowing that there's no financial game, there was zero financial game,
knowing that most people will never know your story, that
a man will always you know, get a higher rank.
You know, better use coverage and a woman will if
they can hear that and know that I still did
(19:07):
it even though they all told me that I couldn't
and I did it.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I still did it. If they can hear that and say,
you know, fuck it, I'm going to do it too,
you know, and if they get the same.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
It doesn't matter if it's boxing, or if it's sports,
or if it's a new job, or if it's you know,
the end of a relationship and they need to believe
their relationship for a new one. You know, it doesn't
matter anything anything that you believe in yourself that you
can do. It doesn't matter if someone is shitting on you,
you can go do it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
You know that. I really believe that. I truly believe that.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
I consider myself so lucky that for the people that
I had around me. I'm so lucky for those people
who would you know, I moved to America with nothing,
literally nothing. I was scared twenty four to seven, but
it gave me so much. It was the scariest thing
I did.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
But that that.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
I want to say bravery, but you know, first world problems. Yeah,
it's compared you know it gave me. Boxing took, but
it gave you know, I got to see the world
I met that, I saw the best in people.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I saw the worst in people. You know, I met
a lot of wankers along the way as well.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
But there were some amazing people that you know, put
their neck out for me and believed in me. And
and that's how we just kept doing. We just you know,
just keep after every loss, coming back and getting a win,
you know, going to your going to your hometown and
some wanker coming and the dress you in and asking
you what it feels.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Like to be in Australia. You know, it's you do
it because of people like that, you know, just just
to one up them a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Okay, so you were just inducted into the International Boxing
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Well that's a fucking big deal. That's deal, right, it's
pretty good. How do you deal with the factor? I mean,
there's not many hot You were number one in the
world as a female pound for pound, You've been inducted
into the Hall of Fame, and yet, let's be honest,
the level of recognition from your home country is like
(21:18):
it was just a tumbleweed that blew away in the wind, Like,
how do you how do you manage that in yourself?
Because listening to you speak and the passion that you
have is infectious. I was covered in goosebumps. I was like, fuck,
feed me more of this. This is so good. How
have you managed to maintain that whilst having that, you know,
like really not being celebrated well number one.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
It's pretty ship. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Like if we ever think about Australia as a whole now,
as a young girl growing up in Australia, we were
always Australia as a sporting mad country, right, everyone loves
sports industry. We celebrate our athletes, we celebrate them now.
I remember when I won the WBC in Sweden. That
(22:08):
when I won the WBC in Sweden, that made that
fight made me numb one in the world. Okay, it
also made me pounds of pounds number one in the world.
And I thought this in my how naive I was though.
I thought that my country was going to be excited
for me. I was so I thought I did it.
(22:28):
I did it, like all, you know. I remember watching
like the Olympics or the Tennis and how much I
get excited to see my heroes stand up, and.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I thought, that's going to be me.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I'm going to come home after this five and people
are going to be They're going to be proud of
what I did.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
My country is going to be proud of me, because
that's what we were.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Raised to believe, that our country would be proud of
us if we for these accomplishments. And I rang up
every news station, every newspaper, and I told them and
they all said the same thing. I'm sorry, no one,
you're a girl. No one's interested in hearing about a
(23:13):
female fighting. And then I remember trying to tell them, no,
you don't understand.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I just did.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Look like I just did.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
No Australian male female cat dog. No one's ever done
this before, like this is the first. And they're like, oh, well,
you know, congratulations, that's amazing for you. But we're not
gonna tell them.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
We're not gonna do a story on it. And it
was so like demoralizing, it really was. I came home.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Mischa threw me a celebrated you know, a celebration party
for the WBC, and I remember saying it to her
and she's like, it's okay, Die, She's like, we've just
got a long way to come.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
We're still coming though, and there's a lot of knocks,
like especially like one I remember Wonderport telling me I
wasn't pretty enough.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You know, if you had something to if people would
enjoy looking at you, and it would be different.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And I was like, yeah, but I'm an athlete. I
look like an I look like an athlete, do you
know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And you know, when you get that again and again,
it does it breaks you down until my wife name me.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
She works with the education system, and she got me
to do a couple of talks for some of the
kids at the school's here and they're at risk kids.
And I didn't even know what at risk meant. That's
how naive I was. These are gang kids or parents
that are in jail and stuff like that. And I
went to do a talk with them and they were
(24:55):
asking me all these questions, what's it like to hit someone,
what's it like to win the title?
Speaker 3 (25:00):
And they're telling me about their street titles and stuff
like that. What I did instead was it.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Inspired me to keep going because these kids could keep
going and I would just tell them.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
The truth instead.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So instead of instead of pretending like it was easy,
or pretending like if you're not pretty enough, you're not
going to achieve it, if you're not good enough, you're
not going to achieve it.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
If you're born the wrong gender, you're not going to
achieve it. I just told them the truth. Hey, yeah,
it's really shit.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Sometimes sometimes they're not going to listen to you and
they're not going to hear you, or you'll do something.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Really good and they'll ignore it. I said, but you
can't let that stop you. You need to keep going.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
And a couple of those kids came to me after
and said, hey, will you teach me how to box?
And I was like, sh yeah, let's do it. Let's
let's let's do it. Let's let's do boxing. A couple
of kids stayed with me for months, like just coming.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
To the gym. Whenever I'd be the gym, they would
just be there, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And I really hope that they're still going or that
they found something. So I think that's why we keep going,
just for that to be able to talk to somebody
from home, to be able to reach out to youth,
to be able to reach out to, you know, the
person male or female that's too scared to leave their
(26:28):
job and change their career, you know, because they've got
financial security is too big a risk to somebody in
an abusive relationship. You know, anything that we can, anything
that we can do to try and give someone a
little bit of gumption, a little bit of that courage
to say, you know, fuck it all, I'm going to
(26:50):
do it because I believe I can. I suppose that's
kind of why I.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Just rattled on a fair bit. Then sorry, that's so good.
It's so I love it.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I love it. And as you were talking about it,
I was thinking about, and it's one thing I talk
about a bit. It was that for me, that realization
at some point, and it was through going through it myself,
but also observing my best mate, Courtney, and in the
preps for her fights and what it meant for her
and what she would sacrifice time after time to do that,
and then the pressure that we put. And as you
(27:23):
were talking, I was just thinking, my exposure to you
would have planted the seed for this thought process that
I've spoke about ever since, but never really put two
and two together. And that was the idea that I
realized back then, that you could be like yourself, You're
this world champion coming to fight in Australia and no
one knows your name, And so coupled with watching what
(27:44):
Courtney was putting on the line, knowing what I was
feeling and doing when I'm just doing these fights and
going this, when you put yourself on the line like that,
everyone wants you to do well, but actually, like your
mates don't really give a fuck if you win all
they're going to celebrate you anyway. So that has to
matter to you. It has to matter, and really it
(28:06):
doesn't matter to anyone else. And boxing was such a
breeding ground for that philosophy because I mean it was
true like this, You're gonna get punched in the face,
You're gonna get humbled, you're gonna get hurt, You're gonna
feel shit. You might get nowhere, and you might get somewhere,
and still people won't know who you are, and you'll
get no money for it all, nor.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
No fae like yeah if what we when at the
Hall of Fame when I did my acceptance speech, I
really wanted to speak from the heart. I didn't want
to blow off about what I want or what I
achieved or whatnot. I really want to speak from the heart.
And the reality is is that boxing humbled me. It
really humbled me because every time I took a step up,
(28:48):
something happened to give me a kick in the ass
and put me back down.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And you have to keep persevering through that regardless. You know,
I met, like I said before, I met amazing people.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
I got to travel the world, I met my wife,
you know, so all these great things happen from it.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So when we talk about how much it takes from you,
God it does.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
It takes and takes and takes and takes, but it
gives you so much as well. And I mean I've
never met a champion. I mean that hasn't experienced the trauma.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Of our sport.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
I'm not even sure that we can be champions without
the trauma that drives us to keep going. But we
need to be there for each other. That's really what
it comes down to. We've got to keep supporting each other.
And that's what I spoke about in my speech. As
much as this sport will take from.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
You, and God I love it.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I love this sport like anything, but yeah, it will
take from you, but it will give you so much.
And it's our responsibility to keep giving to others around us.
You know, the generation before me, Lucy is generation. They
helped pave the way for my generation. You know, my
generation of fighters have helped pave the way for this generation.
(30:08):
And as long as we keep acknowledging that and growing
from it, that's how we keep winning. That like, that's
how there's no other way to win without growth. So
I'd like to think that my thought isn't a single thought.
I'd like to think that we all kind of feel
the same way about it, because why else did we
(30:32):
keep going?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
You know, what did you learn about you that it
didn't expect that it didn't expect In the boxing ring, that.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
Was probably tougher than I thought it was. It was
probably tougher than I thought. My whole life I had,
I was always trying to prove myself. I was always
trying to.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Prove and find who I was because I never knew who.
I never knew. I was just always that, you know,
the little tom boy who played with all the boys.
You know, that's just what I was known for.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And you know, I.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Experienced abuse a very young age, and for the longest time,
I thought it was so tough it didn't hurt me.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
And then I could just ignore it and put it away.
And the more I went through this sport and I
had to find who I.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Was, I realized how hurt I was from that abuse
and how it had shaped me to be the person
that I was. So for me, the whole experience of
boxing wasn't just about getting into the ring. It shaped
me as a person throughout my entire career. It made
(31:49):
me realize that I was a victim of something that
I had to overcome, and that I was one of
hundreds of thousands of other women who had been a
victim that we had to overcome it. I think the
stats are like one in three women, you know, discussing
stuff you know that we're still experiencing today. So the
(32:09):
so for me, boxing gave me, that gave me a
bit of an identity because it made me see who
who I was based on everything that I had experienced,
and that I was still here and that I was
still fighting and that I could still believe in myself
to keep going forward.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
I love that so much, and that's so in line
with my own experience. You know, I have a similar
background and I have and I always called boxing my mirror.
I'm like boxing is a place where I met me
for the first time and realized I didn't know the
person I was pretending to be.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Yeah, it's we could talk to you know, ten twenty
thirty other women and I'm and eighty percent of them,
ninety percent of them will give us the same say
the same thing. You know, when I did those kids,
those talk with those kids, I was very open about
the abuse that I had experienced because I had to
(33:04):
keep my mouth shut for such a long time because
it was a family member who did it, and so
it was, you know, that hush hest that secret that
everyone knows, and.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
I was never allowed to speak about it. And I
was like, screw this, I'm going to speak about it.
And as I talked, I can see the girls.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
That were there all light up that it wasn't just them,
that they weren't the only one to experience something like this,
and that we could.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Get we could get through it, that they could get
through it. That if they looked at me and they're like, hey,
she she did it, she kept going.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
And then for whatever they perceived that I made something
of my career, I had a career, then hey, I
can do it too. They can believe in themselves, you know,
whatever's happened to shoot them down. These are things I
tell myself to really that I hope a true by
the way.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
They one hundred percent. I think it's so so so
important to speak and to express and to let people
know that they can. Like you know, you talk about
being silent for so long, like not sharing that and
holding that inside, and I was the same. It was like, oh,
I just forget about that. Whichen it never happened on moving,
(34:19):
isn't it. Yeah, it's like it'll disappear. And then I
start boxing and I get this visceral experience of expressing
with my body. And then at that time, over those
first couple of years, it starts popping into my mind.
I'm like, yeah, so this is about like.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
It's always with us, Yeah, because it's part of us.
It shaped us, you know.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
And when you have the people who tell you oh,
it was nothing or it wasn't so bad or you're fine,
you know, fuck then because the reality is is it's
shaped the people that we are today.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, you know, and some people aren't going to get
through it. Some of us aren't going to be able
to push push through it and persevere.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
So it's our job to be vocal about it and
screw if they like it or if they don't like it,
you know. So that's what I think. And I'll piss
off a lot of people when they hear me say that,
you know, probably my family included. But I don't care anymore,
do you know what I mean? Because we're the ones
who have to live with this And if this, like
(35:22):
I said too before, if we can help one other
person by being vocal, then we're doing the right thing.
We're doing we are, we're doing the right thing. My
I'm going to go off topic a little bit here.
My cousin was recently murdered by her boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Okay, and I didn't know this that in Australia, the
partners are like, it's such a right.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Mass waiting for this is going to be terrible, okay,
But that the abuse that people receiving relationship domestic domestic abuse.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
It's calling the death of people around us, people that
we love, sisters, brothers, you know.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
And if we're not vocal, if people like us aren't
vocal to speak out about this and call the bullshit
that it is, nothing is ever going to change.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And it comes from people.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Like us who've experienced abuse and who are lucky enough
to survive it and persevere, Okay, to stand up and
say this is not okay, what's happening, because if we don't,
it just stays quiet. It just stays quiet, and it
keeps going and it gets worse, you know, and more
people will suffer. So our boxing talk has changed a
(36:41):
little bit right now. But these are all really important things,
you know what I mean, And we've got to use
our voices to be able to make.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
People aware of what's truly happening.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
What I love about this is this morning I went
to secondary college and spoke to some young girls and
I was talking on topic of you know, I was
asking about the podcast and who I speak to, and
I said it. You know, I started it by wanting
to talk to people who had been through the Ringer,
and I wanted to know why some people go through
(37:16):
the ringer and come out stronger, and why some people
go through the ringer. And it's like an anchor, I said.
But at some point, very early on, I decided at
the same time or I wouldn't mind speaking to people
who have done incredible shit. You know, your ultra endurance athletes,
your people that have just gone above and beyond. And
I said, within no time, I realized I was having
(37:37):
the same conversation. So when you look at the athletes
and the business people and the people that have got
somewhere where you want to be, you've got to understand
that beneath that they've overcome something, every bit is big.
On the on the flip side, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Hey dude, I'll be home in July. I'll come and
speak with you happily. Because we need, we need to
get we need to we need to have a voice,
you know, because for those who can't for those who
can't speak. And but if I if I do a
big circle and go back to boxing, in my case
of boxing gave me that voice.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Yes, because while I was always a fighter, I had
never dealt with my own bullshit, and I well, I
put it away like it was nothing, and waxing now
gave me the strength to be able to deal with it,
to meet people who had also experienced it and dealing
(38:42):
with it together. So all these all these things, they
all make, they all collide, they all join.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
The world is really small, and people share a lot
more than we give it credit for.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
One of my favorite quotes that I read at some
point was I heal out loud because my silence nearly
killed me. And you know, we talk about people that
overshare and the stuff that I isn't it, Yeah, I
love it. It's last don't tell people to shut up
sometimes when people Yeah, there's a lot of bullshit people
post and share online, but you know some of those people,
(39:19):
I know, I went through a stage of I don't
know how to reach out one on one, but I
know how to start to just be honest and go,
fucking this is what's going on, you know, and you've
got to let do that. You don't want to shut
them down and put them back in their quiet box.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
There's always going to be hate, yeah, always.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
There's always going to be people who agree with what
you're doing, and there's always people that don't.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
That's just the way this is.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
After the Hall of Fame, there was an article I
did in the Guardian and the only reason I got
that article in the Guardian is because one of my
good mates knew the new a journal from the Guardian
and he's like, don't does anyone is anyone writing about
your Hall of Famer? I was like, no, mate, nothing's happened.
And Nick was like, hey, I know a dude, who
(40:07):
who's going to want to write the story?
Speaker 3 (40:09):
And he did so.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
From from everything like that happens of nobody wanting a
piece of what are being inducted, okay, it's another thing
of one person saying now saying, you know, that's bullshit.
We should we should talk about this is incredible what
you've achieved. And if it wasn't for Nick, I never
would have had that article.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
In the in the Guardians.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
So it's another example of just really good people that
you meet that are a part of your team, you know,
a part of the people that help help build you up.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's such insanity. I remember when those very early corporate
fights I had, and you know, you have to sell
your twenty tickets to pay for your involvement of being
in it. And it was so funny because people there
was such a I don't want to watch girls fight,
you know, like fine natural or whatever, like oh yeah,
as soon as people in the room, I remember, there
(41:07):
can't I don't even know. This guy was a real
estate Gary Pierre, and they they'd been at the fight
and there was this this video turns up online where
they're talking about but going to this fight and they're like,
the women were incredible, and they literally named with hers.
There was this blonde girl called Tiffany and she was
it was like, I was nuffy because I was like
it was my first fight, but you know, they were raving.
(41:30):
You get people in the room and you give them
a bunch of novices and it's the women who they
loved the technical aspect of the fighting, and it was
just it just stood out to me so much, like.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Isn't it awesome? Yeah, yeah, so good.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
It's so good, like you know, once given a chance,
once once did all that bullshits out of the way.
It's like, sit down and watch these women are making.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Amazing It's just it's just words. It's literally just words.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
There's we have these predivined values in life still of
what men should be doing and what women should be doing.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
You know, and your name is this, So I'm going
to pay you five hundred, you know, thousand for your
fight or whatnot.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
For me, all it does is is it makes me
sad number one, that my own country hasn't acknowledged what
we've achieved.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
And on the other hand, it makes me just want
to speak up a little bit louder and.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
Say, hey, we're all doing this. Look what we're doing,
and you can shut us down for as long as
you want, but.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
We still did it. Like we still did it eventually.
Another restraint is going to win pounds for the pound,
right man or woman?
Speaker 4 (42:46):
But I did it first, and they better remember like
I did it first, and they even though they might
not have wanted to speak about that or report it,
they can't take away that happened, you know. So there
we have our little ego little bursts on there, and
(43:07):
it's just the reality is are you going to keep
us alive?
Speaker 3 (43:10):
Sometimes? You know? I love I love that.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I had Caitlin Parker on the show recently and she
just won the bronze medal for Australia, right, so the
first female boxer in Australia to bring over the medal
and I'm like, mate, And I don't know if she'd
thought about it that way that I'm like, mate, do
you realize like we can chicks can go there and
win medals again now? But you you're the first, she
did it first, Like you're the first. No one could
(43:34):
ever do it for the first time again and just
the kind of look of acknowledgment. She was like, oh, yeah,
like that's a forever thing.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yeah, it's isn't incredible?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, acredible. Are a piece of Australian sporting history. You're
a piece of international sporting history forever.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Thank you, Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
That's really very fucking cool.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yeah, it's kind of cool.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
I'm a little I never got it from getting from
being on the piss one though and saying hey let's
go bogs to speaking to you right now in my
house in LA and.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Wanted to go looking forward to coming home again.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
You know, it's frustrating as it feels it also I
have I really love the story start to finish. You're like, yep,
still not because it means right now your voice is
as powerful, if not more, for the underdogs, Like I'm
all for representing the underdogs, Like who thinks they're an underdog?
I thought I was so shit when I was boxing,
(44:36):
but it was just like some seed of tenacity let
me made me hang on. I was like, I might
be the shiitest, but fuck yeah, you don't know how
much I can wear and how hard I can work.
I've got those two things, and I'll just find a way.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
It takes a warrior to get in those roots win
all loose. Yeah, you've got to be a warrior, you know.
You can't fight with that two people.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
So, and even a journeyman who takes a fight just
for the purse, for no other reason then for the purse,
the fact that they get in that ring and that
they're willing to do that knowing that their chance of
what we all see the padded records in boxing, okay,
And there's obviously the fans out there that don't understand
(45:21):
we're building a career. There's lots of them, we all
know that. But it takes a lot of courage for
a journeyman to.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Get in there knowing that their likelihood of winning.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Is pretty bloody low, you know. So it takes a
lot of courage in this sport. And we see as
well a.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Lot more now, or maybe we're just more aware of
it now. There's a lot more people getting hurt in
the ring, you know, sometimes fatally. So the courage it
takes to step in there is you can never take
that away. You can never not give that enough credit.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
What is what's the future hold for you? What's what's
important now?
Speaker 4 (46:06):
Well, I'd love to I'd love to help out to
work more with our youth, do you know, Amen? And
and just and I do a little bit of it,
but not enough, is the truth. If people don't know
who you are, they don't want you to work with them,
(46:26):
do you know, Amen?
Speaker 3 (46:27):
But I on the side, like I said before, I
work for myself. I'm working in it.
Speaker 4 (46:35):
But I'd love to to put more effort into our
youth because I think not I think they are our future.
They're the ones that will shape us. They're the ones
that will define how we keep walking forward, whether it
be in Australia or the United States. If we don't
(46:57):
put that effort into the youth coming through now, the
world looks pretty bleak, do you know what I mean? So,
especially like look all we've just spoken about in this
time together. So it's that that's really I think where
the where the focus is. And at the same time,
it's hard to keep me out of the gym, do
(47:18):
you know what I mean? So I'm still at the
gym training each day. I still have the passion for
the for the sport, and even though I'm retired, I
still love I still love hitting the bag and getting
the ring and shadow boxing, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
I love it your best? Can you where? Do you
want to promote anything? Do you want to point their
listeners in a direction to check you out? Follow you
find you.
Speaker 4 (47:44):
Have?
Speaker 3 (47:44):
I haven't really got anything, is that honest?
Speaker 4 (47:47):
But you can find me on social media, like just
like everybody else through Facebook and the install and just
what we're doing is just trying to let people know
about the youth around us, and we're.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
Trying to support them. So yeah, hit us up for
that if we if we can be of any assistance.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
But I think, just more importantly, just don't forget where
we all came from, because if we if we forget that,
we lose sight of what we've number one, what we've achieved,
and what we're capable of doing and still almost left
still to do.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
You're really good. I've enjoyed this. I mean I knew
i'd enjoy it, but I've enjoyed this way more than
I thought you've and You've got such awesome passion and energy.
So thank you so much. I can't wait to see
you next.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, for sure, I can't wait to come home.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Thanks Di, she said, it's now.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Never I got fighting in my blood. It's got
She said, it's now never I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm tiff. This is Roll with the Punches and we're
turning life's hardest hits into wins. Nobody wants to go
to court, and don't My friends are test Art Family Lawyers.
Know that they offer all forms of alternative dispute resolution.
Their team of Melbourne family lawyers have extensive experience in
(00:29):
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reach out to Mark and the team at www dot
test Artfamilylawyers dot com dot au. Diana Prazak, Welcome to
(00:53):
Roll with the Punches.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Good day.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Where you being, mate, Where you be? You of this show?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I've been everywhere. I'm more than anything. I was just
so excited to hear your voice for me. I get
so excited when I'm not obviously home home in Australia.
For me, every time I can connect with someone from home,
it makes it makes.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
My heart happy. Do you know what I mean? So?
I love it. I love it. I might live in
the States.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I'm I had citizenship for the States as well. But
there's no place like home, you know. And we're always
told that growing up, there's no place like home. There's
no place like Australia. It's the greatest country in the world.
But I never realized that until I left it.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
M do you know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's funny. I'm from Tazzy and I go home all
the time, and I've always been like, nah, I always
thought i'd move back there one day, but I've found
beautiful spots in malb when the last two years, it's
had that beautiful connect you know, you just eventually land
and you go there is something about this, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
There's just something like just home. There really is no
please like home.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Every time I come back home at least once or
twice a yeah, and every time I'm like crying at
the airport coming back to.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
The States.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
When we were last year.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Last time I was home was August last year, and
I'll actually be home.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Again in July.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, we better have a coffee, mate.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
We'll learn them more than a coffee, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
All right, Let's how do we explain you to my listeners? Gods,
you're amazing for it. Let me let me start with
my introduction, which is very brief, but my first memory
of you is so right before. I'd had a few
corporate boxing challenges and was on right balls deep in
the excitement of boxing for women, and I hadn't yet
(03:01):
had an amateur fight, but I was ready. I was
training for that. And we went and watched yourself and
Shannon O'Connell fight in two tho fourteen, and you know
what the reality of watching you two hard hitting, incredible
super athletes and you're just a warrior. I remember just
(03:22):
watching that fight and thinking, Tiff, you're own in Kansas anymore?
Like do you really want to go into this Look
at the bast in this sport.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
That was a good fight, that was awesome. I had
just come home for Christmas.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
M it was you know, I had just fought in Sweden.
We had a couple months off.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
We're still training even though we had a couple months off.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
And Lucia said go home for Christmas, just take some
time off, and I was like sweet.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I flew back home to Melbourne.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
And while I was home, you know, your Facebook always
goes off a little bit like crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And Shannon called me out.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Shan like there was she came out like here, I
hadn't even had the title.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
For that long, do you know what I mean? And
she she called me out, and Brian Armatruda put it on.
He reached out to me and said, hey, I know
you're here for a holiday, but do you want to
you know.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Shannon's called you out? Do you want to defend your
title back home? And obviously the fighter in me is
like hell, yes, like definitely, of course I always in
a fight, but you learn very quickly that when you
have a train like Lucia, that you don't get to
call all the shots.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So I remember I gave her Yeah, yeah, she was
always in charge. And I remember she was in.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
The Netherlands and I rang her and I was like, hey,
I just got called out.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Do you wanna do you want to fight? Do you
want a trip to Australia? And she was like yeah,
let's do it. And yeah, a month later she had
flown in. Brian's got it all set up the I
think he was working with Barrier of all.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
No, they just done a five bar at all, but
Brian got it all sent up and yeah, I ended
up defending my title back home and it was no
one knew I was from Australia. How's that for people
not knowing who you are? I remember being in the
dressing room of that fire and a guy came in
and he was like, so, what is it like being
(05:24):
in Australia? Do you like this country? And I was like, dude,
I was this.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Weird in Melbourne? This is my hometown, do you know
what I mean?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Like, how how's that you come in and you don't
even know who I am or where I'm from.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
This is my title, this is my this is my home.
And yeah, that happens more than it should. Unfortunately, that
blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Like I remember being back then being and I guess
still to a degree. Women's changing, but back then I
just remember going, no, boxing is are weird sport and
especially for women, it's like no one knows anyone, like
no one I couldn't name, I couldn't name boxes unless
you were And for someone to was obviously involved in
the sport to walk into the change rooms and have
no idea of your background.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Exactly and there was my home that it was my hometown,
that I was the Melbourne girl. Shannon was from Queensland. Yeah,
so it was I remember that was a good fight Shannon.
Shannon was a.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Real goer, tough girl, tough girl.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, really, watching you two was something, like I said,
from going from watching most of my experience was watching
those corporate fights that I was involved in, and that
level to coming and watching you two was like, oh, DP,
do you want to do that?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
That was a really important win for us to get.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Yeah, because because I had come home and everyone she
was the favorite, Everyone was saying that she was going
to she was going to win that fight, and yeah,
it was a fifth round stoppage alway obviously.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, and yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
It was so important for us to walk away with
that wind and to win decisively, just to just because
you know, at that stage, I was number one in
the world. I had just made pounds of pounds number
one in the world, the only Austraying to ever do that,
and and I.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Was still being looked as the outsider coming in. I
was still the underdog in my own home after everything
that we had achieved.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
So that was a big, a big, really decisive win
for us that we had to get.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And I'm really happy that it was a good.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
It was a good, clean fight, and it was a
really good, decisive win for us, just to show that,
you know, we were a whole on a whole different
level than everybody else.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh yeah, Oh, let's let's talk about a bit about
your entry into the sport and your background in the sport, because,
like when I was just having a bit of a
refresh on your on your life, I read your first
I can't remember how many, but all of your amateur fights, however,
many all knockout, like knockout.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Well, they weren't all knockouts. I think I was technically,
I think I had four stops.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
It was six fightsages six amunter fights, and I think
it was four stoppages I think, not six, So it
definitely wasn't six.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
All right, well it's still pretty well.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Wasn't six for six? I think it was four for six,
I think.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, amazing. All right, tell me how you got
started in the sport.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Me, my boyfriend. It was a muso.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
My boyfriend at the time was a muso and we
were we were on the drink at a at a
gig and one of my mates come up to me
and Donna and she was like, Hey, they just opened
a boxing gym near us, do you want to come box?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go box. And
and then I forgot all about it.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Obviously, I didn't think. I never thought about it again.
And a week later she rocked up in my house.
She's like, let's go and where are we going there?
She's like, We're going to boxing gym, and and it
was boxing Fit in Hops Gross.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
They had just.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Opened not long ago, and and that was where all pretty.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Much started up. I really liked it. And as I
was leaving, one.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Of the trainers said to me, so he was just
trying to get me to sign up. I know he was,
but he was like, so you're going to stay fat
your whole life, or you're gonna sign up. He just
read me, right, He just read me, read me, and
he read me right. And I said, yeah, you know what,
You're right, and I signed up. And and at the beginning,
(09:30):
like that first couple of months, I was just having fun.
It was just so much fun.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Hitting things, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And I was always a very natural athlete, always a tomboy,
so for me, it was easy to do that. And
when it come down to I was watching some people's
fire and I said, hey, can I do that? And
and he pretty much said to me, Look, you know
you're kind of you're old, you're fat, and you're a girl.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
What's the what's the point? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
I'm sure if you deny it as well if if
it came out, but I'm not going to hide it.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
But it was it was like that were fighting words
for me.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
And I worked out an arrangement with with Cel and
she started training me and I dropped the weight I was.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I was pretty heavy at the.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Time and started went straight into the amateurs and I
won and I just kept winning.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
But I never had that amateurs style yet. I mean
I always had that pro style.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
So and then my first profile that was like I
was twenty seven when that happened, so definitely a very
late start in the sport. I turned pro after six fights,
so the last fight being the Austrain title which I won.
And when I my first pro fight was against Sarah
Howard Sarah and Missy Howard, and she six rounds and
(10:52):
she she beat him on points, broke my nose in
the last round and it was like someone had died.
I was so devastated. I was like, this is what
is this?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Jeremyn It was at sixty four kilos and was I
never want to experience this again. And we just went
straight into the gym.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
I probably had a couple of days off and that
was it before I went hardcore's training. And I suppose
that's really all that that's what started at all that
lost to Sarah.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I think my ninth fight was the title fight against
Lindsay Garbett. I think you'd have to look at box check.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I'm not sure, but after Seriah's fight, I went undefeated
after that and fought for.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Ronlin Wildly from from New Zealand. She was awesome. She
was my entry into the international circuit.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I had to win a ten round against Sarah, my
first at a time at one hundred and thirty pounds,
which I think is fifty nine kilos, and yeah, beating
her got me a shot at the world titled against
Lindsay Garbet, who was the champion from Canada. And that
was where I think I was thirty or thirty one
when that happened, So it was relatively short time, that
(12:09):
really short space of time when that had happened, and
yet we won.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
That was that was a ninth round stoppage against Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
When did you relocate.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
After that fight. After the we we went to al Paso, Texas.
I'll never forget this, right, And so we flew into
La first and Michell and Okay, she was she had
just been in the States and she had trained with Lucia.
(12:43):
She had done some training with Louise, and.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
She said, Hey, you're in LA. How about I get
you a session with Lucia and that way you really
get to experience it. And I was like, yes, let's
let's do this.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
And so I ended up having two sessions with Loose
and we just connected like sometimes you just mess the people,
but I wasn't there for a long time. We just
had fun. I had a great training with her. We
were there to support frank Lopordo. He was fighting in
our passid for a world title. So we all flew
(13:16):
there and we always got told we had a really
similar fight style, me and Frankie, like we both with
that pressure final that would just walk through punches and
get hit. And I watched Frankie lose and he got
hurt when he like it was it wasn't something you
ever want to see your gym.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Mate experience, do you know what I mean? And when
I was watching him fighting and getting a hit with
with everything. All I could see was myself.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
I thought, if I stay in Australia, this is what's
going to happen to me, because the competition is only
going to increase.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We're only going to fight other champions now that I
was a champion, and I was like, if I'm going
to do this, I have to do it properly. So
I flew back to Australia. I spoke to a manager
and I said, hey, I'm going to do this. I
haven't got very many years left in me. I'm already
thirty one, thirty two, whatever it was.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
And I said, let's do it properly, and so I
flew to the States. It was tough because you know,
you left everything you know on this little wilm that
you know, hoping that you were going to achieve something.
But I never stopped believing that if I wanted it,
if I worked hard enough, I'd have it.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
So Lucy started training me. It was the scariest thing
I ever done ever.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Literally I cried the whole way on that flight, that
sixteen hour plane ride to LA I just cried. I
remember I had a shitty little motel on sunset boulevard
that was literally stood out of the gutters.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I remember, I was too scared to go outside because
it was like nothing like the movies. Yeah, and there
was a mate from Australia, Mike Almatura. He was here
at the same time, and we were on the plane.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Together and he took me under his wing and he
took me the target so I could get some food.
He showed me where wild Card Boxing was so I
knew where I had to train. And yeah, he like,
I was just so bloody lucky he was on the
plane because it was petrifying. But that was the start
of everything, you know, being in the States, that shitty
(15:36):
little motel, training with Lucia. If I didn't do any
of that, none, nothing would have happened.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Hell, back then, how financially viable was professional boxing for women.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
It literally wasn't at all. I didn't make any money.
A couple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there.
I was desperate for sponsors, like I would put out
I would put out like Facebook posts and I would
speak to people, you know, anyone that could help. Because
training was expensive. Training was so expensive. Gear was expensive,
(16:14):
you know, gloves just taping your hands, favsing wall training session,
your clothes that you wore, being able to eat.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
You know, it was it was so expensive. So I
had a couple of really good people who threw in
a couple hundred bucks here and then.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
But I was very lucky. I worked for myself, so
I was able to I had full flexibility over how
I worked. I mean, I still worked for myself. I
have my whole career, but there's no money.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
There was no money. It was zero money. I like,
I made way easy because I was always so poor.
Count I had no food. It's the oddest truth.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
You know. Lucia would come over and she's like, she
look in my free and she's like, dang, where's your food?
And I'm like, oh, I just haven't gone to the
shops yet. I just haven't got any groceries yet. And
I'd bullshit my way through everything. But she knew that,
you know, she'd bring food for me.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Or I'd go to her place and she'd always feed
me and stuff like that. But yeah, it was, it was.
There were rough There were some rough t was My
old career was pretty much like that.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Actually, what makes it? What drove you? What made it
worth it.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
This what we're doing right now.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, anytime I can share what I went through, Yeah,
if I can, if anyone can hear my my shitty
little story, okay and be inspired to do something that
someone told them they couldn't do, this makes it worth it.
Because my I was the underdog my entire career. If
(18:00):
it wasn't for my family believing in me, you know,
I lost relationships. My boyfriend of twenty years, we broke
up because I came to the States because.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I was going to do this properly.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Gentlemen, you know, I had some really good mates. Every
time I came back to Australia, it was like it
was literally coming back home.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know. People would take care of me. People would
they believed in me.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I remember running doing my you know, my roadwork in
the Netherlands and being on the phone to my sister
or Mike Almatsura and that would just talk to me
and they would give me, you know, make help me
believe in myself. If people could hear that what I did,
(18:47):
knowing that there's no financial game, there was zero financial game,
knowing that most people will never know your story, that
a man will always you know, get a higher rank.
You know, better use coverage and a woman will if
they can hear that and know that I still did
(19:07):
it even though they all told me that I couldn't
and I did it.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I still did it. If they can hear that and say,
you know, fuck it, I'm going to do it too,
you know, and if they get the same.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
It doesn't matter if it's boxing, or if it's sports,
or if it's a new job, or if it's you know,
the end of a relationship and they need to believe
their relationship for a new one. You know, it doesn't
matter anything anything that you believe in yourself that you
can do. It doesn't matter if someone is shitting on you,
you can go do it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
You know that. I really believe that. I truly believe that.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
I consider myself so lucky that for the people that
I had around me. I'm so lucky for those people
who would you know, I moved to America with nothing,
literally nothing. I was scared twenty four to seven, but
it gave me so much. It was the scariest thing
I did.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
But that that.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
I want to say bravery, but you know, first world problems. Yeah,
it's compared you know it gave me. Boxing took, but
it gave you know, I got to see the world
I met that, I saw the best in people.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I saw the worst in people. You know, I met
a lot of wankers along the way as well.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
But there were some amazing people that you know, put
their neck out for me and believed in me. And
and that's how we just kept doing. We just you know,
just keep after every loss, coming back and getting a win,
you know, going to your going to your hometown and
some wanker coming and the dress you in and asking
you what it feels.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Like to be in Australia. You know, it's you do
it because of people like that, you know, just just
to one up them a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Okay, so you were just inducted into the International Boxing
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Well that's a fucking big deal. That's deal, right, it's
pretty good. How do you deal with the factor? I mean,
there's not many hot You were number one in the
world as a female pound for pound, You've been inducted
into the Hall of Fame, and yet, let's be honest,
the level of recognition from your home country is like
(21:18):
it was just a tumbleweed that blew away in the wind, Like,
how do you how do you manage that in yourself?
Because listening to you speak and the passion that you
have is infectious. I was covered in goosebumps. I was like, fuck,
feed me more of this. This is so good. How
have you managed to maintain that whilst having that, you know,
like really not being celebrated well number one.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
It's pretty ship. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Like if we ever think about Australia as a whole now,
as a young girl growing up in Australia, we were
always Australia as a sporting mad country, right, everyone loves
sports industry. We celebrate our athletes, we celebrate them now.
I remember when I won the WBC in Sweden. That
(22:08):
when I won the WBC in Sweden, that made that
fight made me numb one in the world. Okay, it
also made me pounds of pounds number one in the world.
And I thought this in my how naive I was though.
I thought that my country was going to be excited
for me. I was so I thought I did it.
(22:28):
I did it, like all, you know. I remember watching
like the Olympics or the Tennis and how much I
get excited to see my heroes stand up, and.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I thought, that's going to be me.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I'm going to come home after this five and people
are going to be They're going to be proud of
what I did.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
My country is going to be proud of me, because
that's what we were.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Raised to believe, that our country would be proud of
us if we for these accomplishments. And I rang up
every news station, every newspaper, and I told them and
they all said the same thing. I'm sorry, no one,
you're a girl. No one's interested in hearing about a
(23:13):
female fighting. And then I remember trying to tell them, no,
you don't understand.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I just did.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Look like I just did.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
No Australian male female cat dog. No one's ever done
this before, like this is the first. And they're like, oh, well,
you know, congratulations, that's amazing for you. But we're not
gonna tell them.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
We're not gonna do a story on it. And it
was so like demoralizing, it really was. I came home.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Mischa threw me a celebrated you know, a celebration party
for the WBC, and I remember saying it to her
and she's like, it's okay, Die, She's like, we've just
got a long way to come.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
We're still coming though, and there's a lot of knocks,
like especially like one I remember Wonderport telling me I
wasn't pretty enough.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You know, if you had something to if people would
enjoy looking at you, and it would be different.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And I was like, yeah, but I'm an athlete. I
look like an I look like an athlete, do you
know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And you know, when you get that again and again,
it does it breaks you down until my wife name me.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
She works with the education system, and she got me
to do a couple of talks for some of the
kids at the school's here and they're at risk kids.
And I didn't even know what at risk meant. That's
how naive I was. These are gang kids or parents
that are in jail and stuff like that. And I
went to do a talk with them and they were
(24:55):
asking me all these questions, what's it like to hit someone,
what's it like to win the title?
Speaker 3 (25:00):
And they're telling me about their street titles and stuff
like that. What I did instead was it.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Inspired me to keep going because these kids could keep
going and I would just tell them.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
The truth instead.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So instead of instead of pretending like it was easy,
or pretending like if you're not pretty enough, you're not
going to achieve it, if you're not good enough, you're
not going to achieve it.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
If you're born the wrong gender, you're not going to
achieve it. I just told them the truth. Hey, yeah,
it's really shit.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Sometimes sometimes they're not going to listen to you and
they're not going to hear you, or you'll do something.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Really good and they'll ignore it. I said, but you
can't let that stop you. You need to keep going.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
And a couple of those kids came to me after
and said, hey, will you teach me how to box?
And I was like, sh yeah, let's do it. Let's
let's let's do it. Let's let's do boxing. A couple
of kids stayed with me for months, like just coming.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
To the gym. Whenever I'd be the gym, they would
just be there, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And I really hope that they're still going or that
they found something. So I think that's why we keep going,
just for that to be able to talk to somebody
from home, to be able to reach out to youth,
to be able to reach out to, you know, the
person male or female that's too scared to leave their
(26:28):
job and change their career, you know, because they've got
financial security is too big a risk to somebody in
an abusive relationship. You know, anything that we can, anything
that we can do to try and give someone a
little bit of gumption, a little bit of that courage
to say, you know, fuck it all, I'm going to
(26:50):
do it because I believe I can. I suppose that's
kind of why I.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Just rattled on a fair bit. Then sorry, that's so good.
It's so I love it.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I love it. And as you were talking about it,
I was thinking about, and it's one thing I talk
about a bit. It was that for me, that realization
at some point, and it was through going through it myself,
but also observing my best mate, Courtney, and in the
preps for her fights and what it meant for her
and what she would sacrifice time after time to do that,
and then the pressure that we put. And as you
(27:23):
were talking, I was just thinking, my exposure to you
would have planted the seed for this thought process that
I've spoke about ever since, but never really put two
and two together. And that was the idea that I
realized back then, that you could be like yourself, You're
this world champion coming to fight in Australia and no
one knows your name, And so coupled with watching what
(27:44):
Courtney was putting on the line, knowing what I was
feeling and doing when I'm just doing these fights and
going this, when you put yourself on the line like that,
everyone wants you to do well, but actually, like your
mates don't really give a fuck if you win all
they're going to celebrate you anyway. So that has to
matter to you. It has to matter, and really it
(28:06):
doesn't matter to anyone else. And boxing was such a
breeding ground for that philosophy because I mean it was
true like this, You're gonna get punched in the face,
You're gonna get humbled, you're gonna get hurt, You're gonna
feel shit. You might get nowhere, and you might get somewhere,
and still people won't know who you are, and you'll
get no money for it all, nor.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
No fae like yeah if what we when at the
Hall of Fame when I did my acceptance speech, I
really wanted to speak from the heart. I didn't want
to blow off about what I want or what I
achieved or whatnot. I really want to speak from the heart.
And the reality is is that boxing humbled me. It
really humbled me because every time I took a step up,
(28:48):
something happened to give me a kick in the ass
and put me back down.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And you have to keep persevering through that regardless. You know,
I met, like I said before, I met amazing people.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
I got to travel the world, I met my wife,
you know, so all these great things happen from it.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So when we talk about how much it takes from you,
God it does.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
It takes and takes and takes and takes, but it
gives you so much as well. And I mean I've
never met a champion. I mean that hasn't experienced the trauma.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Of our sport.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
I'm not even sure that we can be champions without
the trauma that drives us to keep going. But we
need to be there for each other. That's really what
it comes down to. We've got to keep supporting each other.
And that's what I spoke about in my speech. As
much as this sport will take from.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
You, and God I love it.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I love this sport like anything, but yeah, it will
take from you, but it will give you so much.
And it's our responsibility to keep giving to others around us.
You know, the generation before me, Lucy is generation. They
helped pave the way for my generation. You know, my
generation of fighters have helped pave the way for this generation.
(30:08):
And as long as we keep acknowledging that and growing
from it, that's how we keep winning. That like, that's
how there's no other way to win without growth. So
I'd like to think that my thought isn't a single thought.
I'd like to think that we all kind of feel
the same way about it, because why else did we
(30:32):
keep going?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
You know, what did you learn about you that it
didn't expect that it didn't expect In the boxing ring, that.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
Was probably tougher than I thought it was. It was
probably tougher than I thought. My whole life I had,
I was always trying to prove myself. I was always
trying to.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Prove and find who I was because I never knew who.
I never knew. I was just always that, you know,
the little tom boy who played with all the boys.
You know, that's just what I was known for.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And you know, I.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Experienced abuse a very young age, and for the longest time,
I thought it was so tough it didn't hurt me.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
And then I could just ignore it and put it away.
And the more I went through this sport and I
had to find who I.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Was, I realized how hurt I was from that abuse
and how it had shaped me to be the person
that I was. So for me, the whole experience of
boxing wasn't just about getting into the ring. It shaped
me as a person throughout my entire career. It made
(31:49):
me realize that I was a victim of something that
I had to overcome, and that I was one of
hundreds of thousands of other women who had been a
victim that we had to overcome it. I think the
stats are like one in three women, you know, discussing
stuff you know that we're still experiencing today. So the
(32:09):
so for me, boxing gave me, that gave me a
bit of an identity because it made me see who
who I was based on everything that I had experienced,
and that I was still here and that I was
still fighting and that I could still believe in myself
to keep going forward.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
I love that so much, and that's so in line
with my own experience. You know, I have a similar
background and I have and I always called boxing my mirror.
I'm like boxing is a place where I met me
for the first time and realized I didn't know the
person I was pretending to be.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Yeah, it's we could talk to you know, ten twenty
thirty other women and I'm and eighty percent of them,
ninety percent of them will give us the same say
the same thing. You know, when I did those kids,
those talk with those kids, I was very open about
the abuse that I had experienced because I had to
(33:04):
keep my mouth shut for such a long time because
it was a family member who did it, and so
it was, you know, that hush hest that secret that
everyone knows, and.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
I was never allowed to speak about it. And I
was like, screw this, I'm going to speak about it.
And as I talked, I can see the girls.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
That were there all light up that it wasn't just them,
that they weren't the only one to experience something like this,
and that we could.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Get we could get through it, that they could get
through it. That if they looked at me and they're like, hey,
she she did it, she kept going.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
And then for whatever they perceived that I made something
of my career, I had a career, then hey, I
can do it too. They can believe in themselves, you know,
whatever's happened to shoot them down. These are things I
tell myself to really that I hope a true by
the way.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
They one hundred percent. I think it's so so so
important to speak and to express and to let people
know that they can. Like you know, you talk about
being silent for so long, like not sharing that and
holding that inside, and I was the same. It was like, oh,
I just forget about that. Whichen it never happened on moving,
(34:19):
isn't it. Yeah, it's like it'll disappear. And then I
start boxing and I get this visceral experience of expressing
with my body. And then at that time, over those
first couple of years, it starts popping into my mind.
I'm like, yeah, so this is about like.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
It's always with us, Yeah, because it's part of us.
It shaped us, you know.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
And when you have the people who tell you oh,
it was nothing or it wasn't so bad or you're fine,
you know, fuck then because the reality is is it's
shaped the people that we are today.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, you know, and some people aren't going to get
through it. Some of us aren't going to be able
to push push through it and persevere.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
So it's our job to be vocal about it and
screw if they like it or if they don't like it,
you know. So that's what I think. And I'll piss
off a lot of people when they hear me say that,
you know, probably my family included. But I don't care anymore,
do you know what I mean? Because we're the ones
who have to live with this And if this, like
(35:22):
I said too before, if we can help one other
person by being vocal, then we're doing the right thing.
We're doing we are, we're doing the right thing. My
I'm going to go off topic a little bit here.
My cousin was recently murdered by her boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Okay, and I didn't know this that in Australia, the
partners are like, it's such a right.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Mass waiting for this is going to be terrible, okay,
But that the abuse that people receiving relationship domestic domestic abuse.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
It's calling the death of people around us, people that
we love, sisters, brothers, you know.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
And if we're not vocal, if people like us aren't
vocal to speak out about this and call the bullshit
that it is, nothing is ever going to change.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And it comes from people.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Like us who've experienced abuse and who are lucky enough
to survive it and persevere, Okay, to stand up and
say this is not okay, what's happening, because if we don't,
it just stays quiet. It just stays quiet, and it
keeps going and it gets worse, you know, and more
people will suffer. So our boxing talk has changed a
(36:41):
little bit right now. But these are all really important things,
you know what I mean, And we've got to use
our voices to be able to make.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
People aware of what's truly happening.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
What I love about this is this morning I went
to secondary college and spoke to some young girls and
I was talking on topic of you know, I was
asking about the podcast and who I speak to, and
I said it. You know, I started it by wanting
to talk to people who had been through the Ringer,
and I wanted to know why some people go through
(37:16):
the ringer and come out stronger, and why some people
go through the ringer. And it's like an anchor, I said.
But at some point, very early on, I decided at
the same time or I wouldn't mind speaking to people
who have done incredible shit. You know, your ultra endurance athletes,
your people that have just gone above and beyond. And
I said, within no time, I realized I was having
(37:37):
the same conversation. So when you look at the athletes
and the business people and the people that have got
somewhere where you want to be, you've got to understand
that beneath that they've overcome something, every bit is big.
On the on the flip side, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Hey dude, I'll be home in July. I'll come and
speak with you happily. Because we need, we need to
get we need to we need to have a voice,
you know, because for those who can't for those who
can't speak. And but if I if I do a
big circle and go back to boxing, in my case
of boxing gave me that voice.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Yes, because while I was always a fighter, I had
never dealt with my own bullshit, and I well, I
put it away like it was nothing, and waxing now
gave me the strength to be able to deal with it,
to meet people who had also experienced it and dealing
(38:42):
with it together. So all these all these things, they
all make, they all collide, they all join.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
The world is really small, and people share a lot
more than we give it credit for.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
One of my favorite quotes that I read at some
point was I heal out loud because my silence nearly
killed me. And you know, we talk about people that
overshare and the stuff that I isn't it, Yeah, I
love it. It's last don't tell people to shut up
sometimes when people Yeah, there's a lot of bullshit people
post and share online, but you know some of those people,
(39:19):
I know, I went through a stage of I don't
know how to reach out one on one, but I
know how to start to just be honest and go,
fucking this is what's going on, you know, and you've
got to let do that. You don't want to shut
them down and put them back in their quiet box.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
There's always going to be hate, yeah, always.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
There's always going to be people who agree with what
you're doing, and there's always people that don't.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
That's just the way this is.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
After the Hall of Fame, there was an article I
did in the Guardian and the only reason I got
that article in the Guardian is because one of my
good mates knew the new a journal from the Guardian
and he's like, don't does anyone is anyone writing about
your Hall of Famer? I was like, no, mate, nothing's happened.
And Nick was like, hey, I know a dude, who
(40:07):
who's going to want to write the story?
Speaker 3 (40:09):
And he did so.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
From from everything like that happens of nobody wanting a
piece of what are being inducted, okay, it's another thing
of one person saying now saying, you know, that's bullshit.
We should we should talk about this is incredible what
you've achieved. And if it wasn't for Nick, I never
would have had that article.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
In the in the Guardians.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
So it's another example of just really good people that
you meet that are a part of your team, you know,
a part of the people that help help build you up.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's such insanity. I remember when those very early corporate
fights I had, and you know, you have to sell
your twenty tickets to pay for your involvement of being
in it. And it was so funny because people there
was such a I don't want to watch girls fight,
you know, like fine natural or whatever, like oh yeah,
as soon as people in the room, I remember, there
(41:07):
can't I don't even know. This guy was a real
estate Gary Pierre, and they they'd been at the fight
and there was this this video turns up online where
they're talking about but going to this fight and they're like,
the women were incredible, and they literally named with hers.
There was this blonde girl called Tiffany and she was
it was like, I was nuffy because I was like
it was my first fight, but you know, they were raving.
(41:30):
You get people in the room and you give them
a bunch of novices and it's the women who they
loved the technical aspect of the fighting, and it was
just it just stood out to me so much, like.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Isn't it awesome? Yeah, yeah, so good.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
It's so good, like you know, once given a chance,
once once did all that bullshits out of the way.
It's like, sit down and watch these women are making.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Amazing It's just it's just words. It's literally just words.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
There's we have these predivined values in life still of
what men should be doing and what women should be doing.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
You know, and your name is this, So I'm going
to pay you five hundred, you know, thousand for your
fight or whatnot.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
For me, all it does is is it makes me
sad number one, that my own country hasn't acknowledged what
we've achieved.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
And on the other hand, it makes me just want
to speak up a little bit louder and.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
Say, hey, we're all doing this. Look what we're doing,
and you can shut us down for as long as
you want, but.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
We still did it. Like we still did it eventually.
Another restraint is going to win pounds for the pound,
right man or woman?
Speaker 4 (42:46):
But I did it first, and they better remember like
I did it first, and they even though they might
not have wanted to speak about that or report it,
they can't take away that happened, you know. So there
we have our little ego little bursts on there, and
(43:07):
it's just the reality is are you going to keep
us alive?
Speaker 3 (43:10):
Sometimes? You know? I love I love that.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I had Caitlin Parker on the show recently and she
just won the bronze medal for Australia, right, so the
first female boxer in Australia to bring over the medal
and I'm like, mate, And I don't know if she'd
thought about it that way that I'm like, mate, do
you realize like we can chicks can go there and
win medals again now? But you you're the first, she
did it first, Like you're the first. No one could
(43:34):
ever do it for the first time again and just
the kind of look of acknowledgment. She was like, oh, yeah,
like that's a forever thing.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yeah, it's isn't incredible?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, acredible. Are a piece of Australian sporting history. You're
a piece of international sporting history forever.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Thank you, Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
That's really very fucking cool.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yeah, it's kind of cool.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
I'm a little I never got it from getting from
being on the piss one though and saying hey let's
go bogs to speaking to you right now in my
house in LA and.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Wanted to go looking forward to coming home again.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
You know, it's frustrating as it feels it also I
have I really love the story start to finish. You're like, yep,
still not because it means right now your voice is
as powerful, if not more, for the underdogs, Like I'm
all for representing the underdogs, Like who thinks they're an underdog?
I thought I was so shit when I was boxing,
(44:36):
but it was just like some seed of tenacity let
me made me hang on. I was like, I might
be the shiitest, but fuck yeah, you don't know how
much I can wear and how hard I can work.
I've got those two things, and I'll just find a way.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
It takes a warrior to get in those roots win
all loose. Yeah, you've got to be a warrior, you know.
You can't fight with that two people.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
So, and even a journeyman who takes a fight just
for the purse, for no other reason then for the purse,
the fact that they get in that ring and that
they're willing to do that knowing that their chance of
what we all see the padded records in boxing, okay,
And there's obviously the fans out there that don't understand
(45:21):
we're building a career. There's lots of them, we all
know that. But it takes a lot of courage for
a journeyman to.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Get in there knowing that their likelihood of winning.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Is pretty bloody low, you know. So it takes a
lot of courage in this sport. And we see as
well a.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Lot more now, or maybe we're just more aware of
it now. There's a lot more people getting hurt in
the ring, you know, sometimes fatally. So the courage it
takes to step in there is you can never take
that away. You can never not give that enough credit.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
What is what's the future hold for you? What's what's
important now?
Speaker 4 (46:06):
Well, I'd love to I'd love to help out to
work more with our youth, do you know, Amen? And
and just and I do a little bit of it,
but not enough, is the truth. If people don't know
who you are, they don't want you to work with them,
(46:26):
do you know, Amen?
Speaker 3 (46:27):
But I on the side, like I said before, I
work for myself. I'm working in it.
Speaker 4 (46:35):
But I'd love to to put more effort into our
youth because I think not I think they are our future.
They're the ones that will shape us. They're the ones
that will define how we keep walking forward, whether it
be in Australia or the United States. If we don't
(46:57):
put that effort into the youth coming through now, the
world looks pretty bleak, do you know what I mean? So,
especially like look all we've just spoken about in this
time together. So it's that that's really I think where
the where the focus is. And at the same time,
it's hard to keep me out of the gym, do
(47:18):
you know what I mean? So I'm still at the
gym training each day. I still have the passion for
the for the sport, and even though I'm retired, I
still love I still love hitting the bag and getting
the ring and shadow boxing, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
I love it your best? Can you where? Do you
want to promote anything? Do you want to point their
listeners in a direction to check you out? Follow you
find you.
Speaker 4 (47:44):
Have?
Speaker 3 (47:44):
I haven't really got anything, is that honest?
Speaker 4 (47:47):
But you can find me on social media, like just
like everybody else through Facebook and the install and just
what we're doing is just trying to let people know
about the youth around us, and we're.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
Trying to support them. So yeah, hit us up for
that if we if we can be of any assistance.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
But I think, just more importantly, just don't forget where
we all came from, because if we if we forget that,
we lose sight of what we've number one, what we've achieved,
and what we're capable of doing and still almost left
still to do.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
You're really good. I've enjoyed this. I mean I knew
i'd enjoy it, but I've enjoyed this way more than
I thought you've and You've got such awesome passion and energy.
So thank you so much. I can't wait to see
you next.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, for sure, I can't wait to come home.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Thanks Di, she said, it's now.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Never I got fighting in my blood. It's got
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