Killer Quotes from Three Female Boxers

The 2024 National Women’s Month Celebration in the country aims to get the most out of the recurring theme “WE for gender equality and inclusive society,” introduced in 2023 to last until 2028.

The capitalized word “WE” is short for “Women and Everyone”. Truly it is necessary to put men into the equation and the part they play in accomplishing what women have achieved in their lives and careers.

As a trying-hard boxing blogger-chronicler and a fan of the sport, and as we enter the second day of Women’s Month today, I am featuring later a glimpse of kayoing quotes from the two well-known boxing Filipinas of today, the Olympian Nesty Petecio and Rica Aquino-Uy from the professional rank to be concluded by that of boxers’ rights advocate Marian Trimiar, a pioneer in the field and fought between 1976 and 1985.

Before that, as known to boxing communities all over the globe, the first official female bout in the world happened as early as 1876 when Nel Saunders defeated Rose Harland at the Hill’s Theater in New York.

To borrow from David Diamante, “The fight starts now!"

The assigned female at birth Nesthy Alcayde Petecio, a native of Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur was born on April 11, 1992, and won a silver medal in the inaugural women's featherweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal in boxing.

“Sobrang proud po ako bilang member ng LGBTI+. Kahit anong gender po natin basta may pangarap po tayo, laban po!” (Eng. Trans. :”I am very proud as a member of LGBTI+. No matter what gender we are, as long as we have a dream, fight!’), says s/he on the interview over GMA’s Unang Hirit morning program on August 4, 2021.

Rica Aquino-Uy AKA Baby Dynamite is a boxing commentator, sportscaster analyst, and musician (violinist). She hailed from Besao and Sagada in the Mountain Province, a half-Igorot who was so proud of the warrior tradition of her indigenous people’s lineage and ethnic roots. She may not be as popular as Petecio but she is famous in her own right (Well, I follow her coverage of the events with Mr. Alvin S. Go, her godfather, over Elorde TV Sports).

“As a boxer, I strive to be the champion, but there is more to the profession than just fighting. People reach out to me on social media, and young kids exist in my community who want to learn boxing. I have a social responsibility to give back,” says Baby Dynamite in a piece by George Buid and published at Orato World on August 17, 2022.

The story of these brave women warriors like the seasoned Fil-Am Sarah Rama-Goodson, and the rest of their kind is a continuing tale of perseverance and insistence that they belong or once belonged in the ring and, through their achievements, provide for the betterment of the sport as a whole no doubt.

But this is the undisputed killer quote of all time for me and it’s from Marian “Lady Tyger” Trimiar mentioned when she staged a month-long hunger strike in April 1987 advocating for better conditions, pay, and recognition for women boxers in the US and it reads, “It's my heart, it's my love. Unless women get more recognition, we will be fighting just as a novelty for the rest of our lives. There will be no future." (Source: Houston Chronicle News Services 04/27/1987)

Also, for the struggling women in the world, regardless of their ideology and political beliefs, love, passion, responsibility, and conviction have transformative powers.

Happy Women’s Month to all boxing Pinays, the empowered women of the ring in its true, literal sense.