MsHits : Women’s Boxing: Sock ‘em, Sex Appeal . . . and Exploitation, Many Critics Say

Yvonne Trevino was uptight. “I had a slight bruise under one eye that I tried to cover up with makeup,” she said about the preparation for a preliminary photo shoot for Playboy.

The bruise was the result of a punch.

Jen Childers is 6-foot-3, but she’s still mother Marty’s little girl.

“She doesn’t like to see me get hit,” Childers said.

And then there’s Christy Martin, who was afraid a ringside doctor might stop a fight that left her face a bloody mess. He didn’t and she won.

“Well, they say you have to bleed for your fame and fortune. The blood sure got their attention,” she said.

Martin got the kind of attention--a Sports Illustrated cover and appearances on TV talk shows--that has encouraged a lot of women to try pro boxing. Two of them are Trevino and Childers.

“I want to get the ball rolling and make money like Christy Martin,” said the 30-year-old Trevino, a super flyweight (112 pounds), who has a 3-1-1 record with two knockouts.

Trevino, who lives in Peoria, Ariz., got interested in the sport through martial arts.

“It was a local karate studio and I got involved in kick boxing,” she said.

She made her pro boxing debut as a last-minute replacement on Sept. 18, 1994, and won a four-round decision over Chris Kreuz. “I broke her nose,” Trevino said.

As for her Playboy shoot, the photos were never used. The original theme of the issue, sports, was changed.

“I wasn’t impressed with the pictures,” said Trevino, who would like to get into acting and modeling.

The 23-year-old Childers, of Evansville, Ind., has similar goals. Her mother would love to see her become a full-time model.

Childers’ parents attended her fight against Kate Sekules on Feb. 13 at Philadelphia’s venerable Blue Horizon.

“Kate got a broken nose and I got a bloody nose,” said Childers, billed as the Raging Belle.

“My mom kept saying, ‘This is sick, this is terrible.’ She didn’t watch the last three rounds. She doesn’t want to come to any more of my fights. My dad kind of liked it.”

Childers, who weighs 165 pounds and boxes as a light heavyweight, has a 7-0 record with four knockouts. She got involved in boxing when she went to a gym to lose weight.

The 28-year-old Martin, born in Bluefield, W.Va., and known as The Coal Miner’s Daughter, turned pro in 1989 and has led the resurgence of women’s boxing, which has been around but ignored for many years.

But she shuns that role.

“I don’t want the role of trail blazer or pioneer. I just want to be Christy Martin, exciting fighter,” she said.

Martin, a lightweight (135 pounds), has fought 34 times (31-1-2, with 25 knockouts). The fight that boosted her career and women’s boxing was a decision over Ireland’s Deidre Gogarty on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno WBC heavyweight title fight last year.

Martin got a bloody nose in the HBO-televised bout and her tough performance got her the Sports Illustrated cover and spots on talk shows.

Martin, whose biggest purse was $75,000, hasn’t fought since Nov. 9 after a falling-out with promoter Don King. She is now trying to get out of her contract, which expires at the end of October.

Perhaps the fact that she is fighting with King--something Larry Holmes, Julio Cesar Chavez and numerous other boxers have done--is a sign that Martin has made it as pro fighter.