build-a-fighter
check this out... (from newspaper)
Hollie Dunaway has a sharp mind, a warm personality, a cute face and a bikini-model body.
And she's looking for a fight.
On New Year's Eve, Dunaway, 22, moved to St. Louis from Arkansas to further her career: beating up other women.
Fighting under the nickname Hot Stuff, Dunaway holds three world boxing titles in her 102-pound weight class - known as minimumweight or strawweight. She earns $4,000 to $5,000 a match. Her record is 18-4, and she has won 15 of her last 16 fights.
No surprise, no one wants to fight her. In fact, promoters could not find a match for Dunaway in her weight class for a fight card Thursday at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles. Instead, she will fight Wendy Rodriguez, a mini-flyweight (105 pounds) with a record of 17-2 and three draws.
"I don't mean to sound cocky, but there isn't anyone left to beat in my division," Dunaway said. "There are a couple of women who hold belts with other organizations. They call themselves champs, but none of them will fight me."
'Hollie's my little killer'
Watching Dunaway train makes it easy to see why opponents are scarce. Fighting off a cold, Dunaway put herself through a workout that would have whipped bigger, stronger women - or men, for that matter.
For two hours at the 12th and Park Recreation Center in St. Louis, Dunaway shadowboxed, hit a heavy bag, jumped rope and sparred with trainer Harold Petty. In the rest periods, she did sets of 25 push-ups.
"Hollie's my little killer," said Petty, who held several North American bantamweight titles in the mid-1980s. "She comes to the gym, and she works. She is a professional."
Before going to the gym, Dunaway runs four to seven miles around her southwest St. Louis County apartment complex. At night, she usually runs quarter-mile sprints. She rests on Sundays - and does only the four-mile run.
Her diet consists of Special K cereal for breakfast and lunch, and a chicken caesar salad for dinner. She does not drink alcohol and rarely goes to clubs.
"I don't want to be around all that smoke," she said.
The only vice she misses while training is chocolate.
"I want it so bad sometimes I think I'd eat chocolate-covered dirt," she said.
Petty sees a great future for Dunaway.
"She has excellent footwork and good hand speed," he said. "But her best quality is she's a good student. Guys too often act like they know everything. Hollie's always willing to listen, and learn."
Dunaway said she was not impressed by "Million Dollar Baby," the Oscar-winning film about a female boxer who suffers a fatal injury in the ring.
"That movie wasn't about boxing as much as it was about dying," she said.
And Dunaway said she has no fear of cuts, bruises or broken noses. Her solution is simple, she explains with her usual candor:
"I try not to get hit in the face."
'I was a Barbie girl'
Dunaway was born and reared in Van Buren, Ark., a town she readily admits she does not miss.
"Is there any place more uncool to be from than Arkansas?" she asked. "Now, when they announce my name, they say 'Hollie Dunaway, from St. Louis, Missouri.'"
Her mother, Terry Dunaway, said Hollie was not an aggressive child, other than getting into fights with her older brother David.
"She was very quiet and always had her nose in a book," Terry Dunaway said. "She didn't weigh 80 pounds until she was 18."
Hollie Dunaway said: "I wasn't a tomboy; I was a Barbie girl. I only got into one fight in my life before I started boxing. It was junior high, and some kids were picking on my best friend. I stepped in, and this one girl pushed me.
"And then I punched her in the face and that was the end of it."
Dunaway said her high school years were not happy ones.
"I hardly ever left the house or talked on the phone," she said, explaining that her father was harshly strict. "I never went to football games or dances, and I've never been to a prom."
Dunaway ran away from home when she was 16 but didn't get very far.
"My friend and I had a plan to run away to Iowa," she said with a laugh. "We dyed our hair so people wouldn't recognize us. But we used this stuff that turned our hair orange. And I was so dumb, I'd written down the number of the bus we were going to take. Needless to say, we got caught."
On her 18th birthday, Dunaway dropped out of high school and moved to nearby Fort Smith. Some time later, she and her mother, who eventually divorced Dunaway's father, got their high school equivalency diplomas on the same day.
Dunaway summed up her relationship with her father:
"I don't hate him. I just don't ever want to see him again."
'It made me feel important'
After leaving Van Buren, Dunaway worked as a waitress at the Hamburger Barn.
"It's Fort Smith's answer to Hooters," she explained.
She also was a regular fixture and part-time aerobic instructor at a local fitness center. That's where her boxing career began, and where she met her husband.
"His name is Brian Jones, and he was the membership director at the club," Dunaway said. "He was training this one girl, and he kept asking me, 'Have you ever thought of boxing?' What he really wanted was an opponent for his girl."
So with no experience - "I never even watched boxing matches on TV" - Dunaway took the fight in February 2003. She lost but was paid $150.
"That was two or three nights working at the Hamburger Barn, and I made it all in one night, in one fight," she said. "And I immediately loved it, because of all the people screaming for you. It made me feel important, and I'd never felt that feeling before."
Dunaway fought eight more times in 2003, and eight times in 2004. In the last fight of 2004, she won the Women's International Boxing Association title at 102 pounds.
In 2005, she stepped up to the flyweight division (112 pounds) and lost to world champ Regina Halmich. She returned to the 102-pound class and defended her WIBA title three times.
The seeds for her eventual move to St. Louis were sown in September, when she fought at the casino in St. Charles. There, she met Steve Smith, the president of Rumble Time Promotions, a local company whose officers include Steve Holley and Jack Martorelli. She now has a promotional contract with Rumble Time.
Her biggest fight came in November, when she went to Hungary to fight champion Krisztina Belinszky. Dunaway dominated the fight and won the world championship belt for two other boxing organizations.
But the success had a price: her marriage.
"Brian never seemed happy for me when I'd win," she said. "He never thought I was going to be a world champ, and he'd always tell me how I never was going to make any money at this.
"Our divorce will become final soon, and it hurts. We're still friendly, but I hate telling people I'm 22 and divorced. That just doesn't sound very good."
'I never would have gone anywhere'
Dunaway knows that to get better fights and more money, she's going to have to move up in weight.
Jack Crider, a national matchmaker, said Dunaway is too good for her division.
"She can't help it that she's that small and that talented," he said.
Dunaway and Crider see a fight in the future with junior flyweight (108 pounds) champion Carina Moreno.
"If it happens," Crider said, "it could be the female fight of the year."
Even with dreams of more titles, Dunaway already is grateful for what she has gained.
"Without boxing, I'd still be in Fort Smith," she said. "I never would have gone to Germany or Hungary. I never would have gone anywhere."
When asked, finally, why she puts herself through such a torturous regimen instead of indulging in the frills and fun available to smart and attractive twentysomethings, Dunaway responded quicker than a jab:
"I'm going to be a household name. I'm going to be great."
boyyyy, I could turn that chick into one hell of a martial artist. probably japanese arts, I could figure out which styles, who to go to for training, what extra activities to enhance her understanding, all that stuff. although she'd probably want to do it for the money and fame and end up a MMA contender, she's got the demeanor of a swordsman- that's what she would be best at. calm, assured, yet motivated.
I could play Bill to her Beatrix Kiddo. ahh well. just a brain fart.
Hollie Dunaway has a sharp mind, a warm personality, a cute face and a bikini-model body.
And she's looking for a fight.
On New Year's Eve, Dunaway, 22, moved to St. Louis from Arkansas to further her career: beating up other women.
Fighting under the nickname Hot Stuff, Dunaway holds three world boxing titles in her 102-pound weight class - known as minimumweight or strawweight. She earns $4,000 to $5,000 a match. Her record is 18-4, and she has won 15 of her last 16 fights.
No surprise, no one wants to fight her. In fact, promoters could not find a match for Dunaway in her weight class for a fight card Thursday at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles. Instead, she will fight Wendy Rodriguez, a mini-flyweight (105 pounds) with a record of 17-2 and three draws.
"I don't mean to sound cocky, but there isn't anyone left to beat in my division," Dunaway said. "There are a couple of women who hold belts with other organizations. They call themselves champs, but none of them will fight me."
'Hollie's my little killer'
Watching Dunaway train makes it easy to see why opponents are scarce. Fighting off a cold, Dunaway put herself through a workout that would have whipped bigger, stronger women - or men, for that matter.
For two hours at the 12th and Park Recreation Center in St. Louis, Dunaway shadowboxed, hit a heavy bag, jumped rope and sparred with trainer Harold Petty. In the rest periods, she did sets of 25 push-ups.
"Hollie's my little killer," said Petty, who held several North American bantamweight titles in the mid-1980s. "She comes to the gym, and she works. She is a professional."
Before going to the gym, Dunaway runs four to seven miles around her southwest St. Louis County apartment complex. At night, she usually runs quarter-mile sprints. She rests on Sundays - and does only the four-mile run.
Her diet consists of Special K cereal for breakfast and lunch, and a chicken caesar salad for dinner. She does not drink alcohol and rarely goes to clubs.
"I don't want to be around all that smoke," she said.
The only vice she misses while training is chocolate.
"I want it so bad sometimes I think I'd eat chocolate-covered dirt," she said.
Petty sees a great future for Dunaway.
"She has excellent footwork and good hand speed," he said. "But her best quality is she's a good student. Guys too often act like they know everything. Hollie's always willing to listen, and learn."
Dunaway said she was not impressed by "Million Dollar Baby," the Oscar-winning film about a female boxer who suffers a fatal injury in the ring.
"That movie wasn't about boxing as much as it was about dying," she said.
And Dunaway said she has no fear of cuts, bruises or broken noses. Her solution is simple, she explains with her usual candor:
"I try not to get hit in the face."
'I was a Barbie girl'
Dunaway was born and reared in Van Buren, Ark., a town she readily admits she does not miss.
"Is there any place more uncool to be from than Arkansas?" she asked. "Now, when they announce my name, they say 'Hollie Dunaway, from St. Louis, Missouri.'"
Her mother, Terry Dunaway, said Hollie was not an aggressive child, other than getting into fights with her older brother David.
"She was very quiet and always had her nose in a book," Terry Dunaway said. "She didn't weigh 80 pounds until she was 18."
Hollie Dunaway said: "I wasn't a tomboy; I was a Barbie girl. I only got into one fight in my life before I started boxing. It was junior high, and some kids were picking on my best friend. I stepped in, and this one girl pushed me.
"And then I punched her in the face and that was the end of it."
Dunaway said her high school years were not happy ones.
"I hardly ever left the house or talked on the phone," she said, explaining that her father was harshly strict. "I never went to football games or dances, and I've never been to a prom."
Dunaway ran away from home when she was 16 but didn't get very far.
"My friend and I had a plan to run away to Iowa," she said with a laugh. "We dyed our hair so people wouldn't recognize us. But we used this stuff that turned our hair orange. And I was so dumb, I'd written down the number of the bus we were going to take. Needless to say, we got caught."
On her 18th birthday, Dunaway dropped out of high school and moved to nearby Fort Smith. Some time later, she and her mother, who eventually divorced Dunaway's father, got their high school equivalency diplomas on the same day.
Dunaway summed up her relationship with her father:
"I don't hate him. I just don't ever want to see him again."
'It made me feel important'
After leaving Van Buren, Dunaway worked as a waitress at the Hamburger Barn.
"It's Fort Smith's answer to Hooters," she explained.
She also was a regular fixture and part-time aerobic instructor at a local fitness center. That's where her boxing career began, and where she met her husband.
"His name is Brian Jones, and he was the membership director at the club," Dunaway said. "He was training this one girl, and he kept asking me, 'Have you ever thought of boxing?' What he really wanted was an opponent for his girl."
So with no experience - "I never even watched boxing matches on TV" - Dunaway took the fight in February 2003. She lost but was paid $150.
"That was two or three nights working at the Hamburger Barn, and I made it all in one night, in one fight," she said. "And I immediately loved it, because of all the people screaming for you. It made me feel important, and I'd never felt that feeling before."
Dunaway fought eight more times in 2003, and eight times in 2004. In the last fight of 2004, she won the Women's International Boxing Association title at 102 pounds.
In 2005, she stepped up to the flyweight division (112 pounds) and lost to world champ Regina Halmich. She returned to the 102-pound class and defended her WIBA title three times.
The seeds for her eventual move to St. Louis were sown in September, when she fought at the casino in St. Charles. There, she met Steve Smith, the president of Rumble Time Promotions, a local company whose officers include Steve Holley and Jack Martorelli. She now has a promotional contract with Rumble Time.
Her biggest fight came in November, when she went to Hungary to fight champion Krisztina Belinszky. Dunaway dominated the fight and won the world championship belt for two other boxing organizations.
But the success had a price: her marriage.
"Brian never seemed happy for me when I'd win," she said. "He never thought I was going to be a world champ, and he'd always tell me how I never was going to make any money at this.
"Our divorce will become final soon, and it hurts. We're still friendly, but I hate telling people I'm 22 and divorced. That just doesn't sound very good."
'I never would have gone anywhere'
Dunaway knows that to get better fights and more money, she's going to have to move up in weight.
Jack Crider, a national matchmaker, said Dunaway is too good for her division.
"She can't help it that she's that small and that talented," he said.
Dunaway and Crider see a fight in the future with junior flyweight (108 pounds) champion Carina Moreno.
"If it happens," Crider said, "it could be the female fight of the year."
Even with dreams of more titles, Dunaway already is grateful for what she has gained.
"Without boxing, I'd still be in Fort Smith," she said. "I never would have gone to Germany or Hungary. I never would have gone anywhere."
When asked, finally, why she puts herself through such a torturous regimen instead of indulging in the frills and fun available to smart and attractive twentysomethings, Dunaway responded quicker than a jab:
"I'm going to be a household name. I'm going to be great."
boyyyy, I could turn that chick into one hell of a martial artist. probably japanese arts, I could figure out which styles, who to go to for training, what extra activities to enhance her understanding, all that stuff. although she'd probably want to do it for the money and fame and end up a MMA contender, she's got the demeanor of a swordsman- that's what she would be best at. calm, assured, yet motivated.
I could play Bill to her Beatrix Kiddo. ahh well. just a brain fart.
0
-
fun read, thanks 0 -
Poor thing...she isn't a Redhead.
D.0 -
I've seen her wrestle, but I haven't seen her box.[:D] 0 -
chief get back to the res. 0 -
My first rule of dating is: Don't date girls who can kick your ass 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Rack Ops
My first rule of dating is: Don't date girls who can kick your ass
Then how will you ever get married? [:0][B)]
J/K0 -
quote:Originally posted by cubslover
Then how will you ever get married? [:0][B)]
Guess I'll have to find a nice quadriplegic0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
7 comments