She’s a boxer and a lady

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/03/2009 (6360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A boxer leans on the top rope of a makeshift ring in the corner of an autobody shop and readies for a photograph to be taken. A few feet away a sparring partner is working up a sweat by thump-thump-thumping a heavy bag while a trainer and manager map out how the hour-long workout will unfold.

These are the sights and sounds that would be commonplace at just about any boxing gym anywhere on the planet.

But it’s the minute Olivia Gerula flashes her high-wattage smile, adjusts her pink workout top and asks, "Would it be better if my hair was up or down?" that the image of the gritty, menacing club fighter is momentarily lost.

Momentarily being the key word here. Because just seconds after unravelling an elastic band to let down her long blonde locks and posing for a photo, Gerula — her ring nickname is The Predator — is throwing jabs at trainer Mark Collins, the punches popping off the pads on his hands quickly and violently. Then she’s dancing around her sparring partner, firing combinations that are but a blur, cursing when she takes a shot before smiling and muttering through a mouthguard, "Good one."

In a nutshell, this is Gerula — the 29-year-old Winnipeg single mother of two who both matches and defies every boxing stereotype imaginable.

You want tough?

Try taking three head-butts to the face — the third shot spewing blood all over her nose and mouth — in her last fight, before toughing out a split-decision victory over hometown Fujin Raika in Toyko last month. That win, it’s worth noting, made Gerula the fifth-ranked fighter in her division in the world and helped set up her title shot next month in Edmonton against Jelena Mrdjenovich.

You want dedicated?

Try raising two kids as a single parent, then working with 50 different clients as a personal trainer, teaching a dozen kick-boxing and boxing lessons each week AND still finding the time to train every day.

And yet 10 minutes into an interview in which Gerula is engaging, enlightening and the picture of pure energy we are struck by something. Stumbling around the words, we mention she has no visible scars like many fighters, her speech isn’t slurred and, truthfully, how she doesn’t seem at all like the prototypical female fighter.

She’s just not…

"You want to say butch, don’t you?," says Gerula with a laugh. "But stick me in a dress and I do look like a girl. It’s hard to explain all of this to people, it really is.

"Look, I’ve never gotten into a bar fight or a street fight — mostly because I want to get paid to fight. And you could have known me for years and not known I’m a professional boxer. But I’ve trained with Floyd Mayweather and boxed for Don King… it’s not something I brag about. I feel pride about that in myself, I don’t need to walk around and brag about it.

"Now that’s not to say that when I win that green (championship) belt next month I won’t want to walk around wearing it with some green matching shoes."

Born in Brampton, Ont., Gerula’s family moved to Winnipeg when she was just one. She excelled at soccer and gymnastics but turned to kick-boxing before settling on boxing in 1997.

She won her first fight 12 years ago and — in between giving birth to two kids, getting married and divorced and building a house — has posted a 10-10-2 record essentially on raw skill before Collins and manager John Vernaus got more involved. Amazingly. only four of Gerula’s 22 bouts have come against opponents with a losing record, unheard of in the sport.

But despite her so-so record it was her performance in Japan that opened eyes. That and her willingness to climb into the ring against an opponent any time, anywhere.

"I always say you’ve got to have a perverse sense of humour to do this, but I enjoy it," Gerula explains. "I love sharing the sport of boxing and kick- boxing and I get paid to work out and exercise. It’s something I get up every morning absolutely looking forward to… Boxing has been the one constant in my life. With all the things that have gone on, the trials and tribulations, boxing has always been there. It’s been a 12-year relationship that’s gone really well.

"You know," Gerula adds, "people ask my mom, ‘Why would you let your daughter do this?’ And her reaction is always, ‘Because she’s good at it.’ "

And boxing could very soon open some bigger doors. A win over Mrdjenovich next month could possibly set her up for a shot at adding a European belt. And more belts means more opportunities. More opportunities mean more dough.

But there is none of the typical boxer bravado from Gerula here, In fact, all this information is provided by Collins and Vernaus. Again, it’s all part of her intriguing personality; this mix of two characters — the boxer and the lady.

"I’d like you to know I own as many high heels as I do running shoes," said Gerula. "Primarily I’m a gym rat. But I like to get dressed up and do my thing, too. I guess sometimes I wish I could go to work in a suit and high heels and do my thing and then go to the gym and train. There’s part of me that fights to do one or the other, but for now this is where it all is.

"I’ll be honest, I have come back from fights looking like a boxer. I’ve had to wear the hat and the sunglasses. Personally, if I have a black eye I look at it as a war wound and I’m like, ‘I earned this sucker.’"

Gerula then winks and adds: "But I can tell you I do clean up OK."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Tale of the tape

 

OLIVIA GERULA

Height: 5-foot-5; Weight: 130

Born: May 1, 1979 in Brampton, Ont.

Residence: Winnipeg

Nickname: The Predator

Record: 10-10-2

Next bout: April 9, Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton vs. Jelena Mrdjenovich (23-3-1) for the WBC Female Super Featherweight title.