Women’s Boxing Event Set for Pond

The Arrowhead Pond has staged its share of unconventional events, from indoor football to rodeos, roller hockey to motorcycle races. So is an all-female boxing card really that absurd?

Probably not.

The Pond’s bimonthly “Fight Night” boxing shows haven’t exactly captured the attention of area boxing fans in nearly 2 1/2 years of Monday night cards. And other than Roy Englebrecht’s “Battle in the Ballroom” event at the Irvine Marriott, no local promoter has turned a profit at a large venue.

Tim Ryan, general manager of the Pond, and Rick Kulis, president of Event Entertainment, are hoping to change all that with the Everlast Women’s National Championships, the male equivalent of the U.S. Amateur Boxing Championships.

Preliminary bouts will take place May 27-29 at Santa Ana’s Salgado Community Center. The championship bouts will be at the Pond May 31, beginning at 7 p.m. Ticket prices at the Pond are $30 for ringside, $15 for floor and plaza and $10 for plaza. “We wanted to make this accessible to anyone who wants to come down and take a look at a sport that could be an Olympic sport by the turn of the century,” Ryan said.

Kulis, whose company produces female and male boxing on pay-per-view and cable TV, said he hopes the finals will draw between 1,500 and 3,000 people. Ryan was making no such predictions.

“We go into every event with the hope of making money,” Ryan said. “Our hope is that this event can be a springboard for future female shows at the Pond.”

Until recently, most female boxing has been on a professional level. The boxers came primarily from the martial arts, kick boxing and karate. But in 1993, USA Boxing, the national governing body for Olympic-style boxing, recognized female boxing.

Last year, 67 women competed in the first women’s amateur national championships in Augusta, Ga., before a crowd of about 2,000. This year’s event is expected to draw 100 competitors in 12 weight classes.

Two of those competitors, Linda Carillo and Krysti Rosario, attended Tuesday’s press conference. Also on the dais were professional boxers Bridgett Riley and Fredia Gibbs.

“This is the most attractive dais I’ve been on in a long time,” Kulis said. “The last time I was up here, Leon Spinks was with me with all of his front teeth out.”

Kulis said it was a coincidence that every female boxer at Tuesday’s press conference was attractive.

“We invited more, but these are the ones that showed,” he said.

Said Rosario: “This has nothing to do with looks, it’s about heart. If we do everything the way our trainer tell us, our faces will be intact anyway.”

So far, Kulis said people are watching his all-female fight nights.

“We had a 3.3 rating on USA [cable network],”he said. “That’s the highest rating they’ve had for boxing in five years.”

Ryan admitted he was skeptical until he saw his first female bout at the Pond’s April show.

“I’ll admit, I was surprised that I liked it,” he said. “But once I got past the thought of two women fighting, all I saw were two incredible boxers.

“It’s happened in other sports where women have come into a sport traditionally dominated by men. Why not boxing?”