Speaker 1: She said, it's now never I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2: I'm tiff. This is Roll with the Punches and we're
Speaker 2: turning life's hardest hits into wins. Nobody wants to go
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Speaker 2: Know that they offer all forms of alternative dispute resolution.
Speaker 2: Their team of Melbourne family lawyers have extensive experience in
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Speaker 2: custody and children, family violence and intervention orders, property settlements
Speaker 2: and financial agreements. Test Art is in your corner, so
Speaker 2: reach out to Mark and the team at www dot
Speaker 2: test Artfamilylawyers dot com dot au. Diana Prazak, Welcome to
Speaker 2: Roll with the Punches.
Speaker 3: Good day.
Speaker 2: Where you being, mate, Where you be? You of this show?
Speaker 4: I've been everywhere. I'm more than anything. I was just
Speaker 4: so excited to hear your voice for me. I get
Speaker 4: so excited when I'm not obviously home home in Australia.
Speaker 4: For me, every time I can connect with someone from home,
Speaker 4: it makes it makes.
Speaker 3: My heart happy. Do you know what I mean? So?
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it. I might live in
Speaker 3: the States.
Speaker 4: I'm I had citizenship for the States as well. But
Speaker 4: there's no place like home, you know. And we're always
Speaker 4: told that growing up, there's no place like home. There's
Speaker 4: no place like Australia. It's the greatest country in the world.
Speaker 4: But I never realized that until I left it.
Speaker 3: M do you know.
Speaker 2: It's funny. I'm from Tazzy and I go home all
Speaker 2: the time, and I've always been like, nah, I always
Speaker 2: thought i'd move back there one day, but I've found
Speaker 2: beautiful spots in malb when the last two years, it's
Speaker 2: had that beautiful connect you know, you just eventually land
Speaker 2: and you go there is something about this, Yeah.
Speaker 3: There's just something like just home. There really is no
Speaker 3: please like home.
Speaker 4: Every time I come back home at least once or
Speaker 4: twice a yeah, and every time I'm like crying at
Speaker 4: the airport coming back to.
Speaker 3: The States.
Speaker 2: When we were last year.
Speaker 4: Last time I was home was August last year, and
Speaker 4: I'll actually be home.
Speaker 3: Again in July.
Speaker 4: Ah.
Speaker 2: Well, we better have a coffee, mate.
Speaker 3: We'll learn them more than a coffee, I'm sure.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's how do we explain you to my listeners? Gods,
Speaker 2: you're amazing for it. Let me let me start with
Speaker 2: my introduction, which is very brief, but my first memory
Speaker 2: of you is so right before. I'd had a few
Speaker 2: corporate boxing challenges and was on right balls deep in
Speaker 2: the excitement of boxing for women, and I hadn't yet
Speaker 2: had an amateur fight, but I was ready. I was
Speaker 2: training for that. And we went and watched yourself and
Speaker 2: Shannon O'Connell fight in two tho fourteen, and you know
Speaker 2: what the reality of watching you two hard hitting, incredible
Speaker 2: super athletes and you're just a warrior. I remember just
Speaker 2: watching that fight and thinking, Tiff, you're own in Kansas anymore?
Speaker 2: Like do you really want to go into this Look
Speaker 2: at the bast in this sport.
Speaker 3: That was a good fight, that was awesome. I had
Speaker 3: just come home for Christmas.
Speaker 4: M it was you know, I had just fought in Sweden.
Speaker 4: We had a couple months off.
Speaker 3: We're still training even though we had a couple months off.
Speaker 4: And Lucia said go home for Christmas, just take some
Speaker 4: time off, and I was like sweet.
Speaker 3: So I flew back home to Melbourne.
Speaker 4: And while I was home, you know, your Facebook always
Speaker 4: goes off a little bit like crazy.
Speaker 3: And Shannon called me out.
Speaker 4: Shan like there was she came out like here, I
Speaker 4: hadn't even had the title.
Speaker 3: For that long, do you know what I mean? And
Speaker 3: she she called me out, and Brian Armatruda put it on.
Speaker 3: He reached out to me and said, hey, I know
Speaker 3: you're here for a holiday, but do you want to
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: Shannon's called you out? Do you want to defend your
Speaker 4: title back home? And obviously the fighter in me is
Speaker 4: like hell, yes, like definitely, of course I always in
Speaker 4: a fight, but you learn very quickly that when you
Speaker 4: have a train like Lucia, that you don't get to
Speaker 4: call all the shots.
Speaker 3: So I remember I gave her Yeah, yeah, she was
Speaker 3: always in charge. And I remember she was in.
Speaker 4: The Netherlands and I rang her and I was like, hey,
Speaker 4: I just got called out.
Speaker 3: Do you wanna do you want to fight? Do you
Speaker 3: want a trip to Australia? And she was like yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do it. And yeah, a month later she had
Speaker 3: flown in. Brian's got it all set up the I
Speaker 3: think he was working with Barrier of all.
Speaker 4: No, they just done a five bar at all, but
Speaker 4: Brian got it all sent up and yeah, I ended
Speaker 4: up defending my title back home and it was no
Speaker 4: one knew I was from Australia. How's that for people
Speaker 4: not knowing who you are? I remember being in the
Speaker 4: dressing room of that fire and a guy came in
Speaker 4: and he was like, so, what is it like being
Speaker 4: in Australia? Do you like this country? And I was like, dude,
Speaker 4: I was this.
Speaker 3: Weird in Melbourne? This is my hometown, do you know
Speaker 3: what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like, how how's that you come in and you don't
Speaker 4: even know who I am or where I'm from.
Speaker 3: This is my title, this is my this is my home.
Speaker 3: And yeah, that happens more than it should. Unfortunately, that
Speaker 3: blows my mind.
Speaker 2: Like I remember being back then being and I guess
Speaker 2: still to a degree. Women's changing, but back then I
Speaker 2: just remember going, no, boxing is are weird sport and
Speaker 2: especially for women, it's like no one knows anyone, like
Speaker 2: no one I couldn't name, I couldn't name boxes unless
Speaker 2: you were And for someone to was obviously involved in
Speaker 2: the sport to walk into the change rooms and have
Speaker 2: no idea of your background.
Speaker 4: Exactly and there was my home that it was my hometown,
Speaker 4: that I was the Melbourne girl. Shannon was from Queensland. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so it was I remember that was a good fight Shannon.
Speaker 4: Shannon was a.
Speaker 3: Real goer, tough girl, tough girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really, watching you two was something, like I said,
Speaker 2: from going from watching most of my experience was watching
Speaker 2: those corporate fights that I was involved in, and that
Speaker 2: level to coming and watching you two was like, oh, DP,
Speaker 2: do you want to do that?
Speaker 3: That was a really important win for us to get.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because because I had come home and everyone she
Speaker 5: was the favorite, Everyone was saying that she was going
Speaker 5: to she was going to win that fight, and yeah,
Speaker 5: it was a fifth round stoppage alway obviously.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and yeah it was.
Speaker 4: It was so important for us to walk away with
Speaker 4: that wind and to win decisively, just to just because
Speaker 4: you know, at that stage, I was number one in
Speaker 4: the world. I had just made pounds of pounds number
Speaker 4: one in the world, the only Austraying to ever do that,
Speaker 4: and and I.
Speaker 3: Was still being looked as the outsider coming in. I
Speaker 3: was still the underdog in my own home after everything
Speaker 3: that we had achieved.
Speaker 4: So that was a big, a big, really decisive win
Speaker 4: for us that we had to get.
Speaker 3: And I'm really happy that it was a good.
Speaker 4: It was a good, clean fight, and it was a
Speaker 4: really good, decisive win for us, just to show that,
Speaker 4: you know, we were a whole on a whole different
Speaker 4: level than everybody else.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Oh, let's let's talk about a bit about
Speaker 2: your entry into the sport and your background in the sport, because,
Speaker 2: like when I was just having a bit of a
Speaker 2: refresh on your on your life, I read your first
Speaker 2: I can't remember how many, but all of your amateur fights, however,
Speaker 2: many all knockout, like knockout.
Speaker 3: Well, they weren't all knockouts. I think I was technically,
Speaker 3: I think I had four stops.
Speaker 4: It was six fightsages six amunter fights, and I think
Speaker 4: it was four stoppages I think, not six, So it
Speaker 4: definitely wasn't six.
Speaker 2: All right, well it's still pretty well.
Speaker 3: Wasn't six for six? I think it was four for six,
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, amazing. All right, tell me how you got
Speaker 2: started in the sport.
Speaker 3: Me, my boyfriend. It was a muso.
Speaker 4: My boyfriend at the time was a muso and we
Speaker 4: were we were on the drink at a at a
Speaker 4: gig and one of my mates come up to me
Speaker 4: and Donna and she was like, Hey, they just opened
Speaker 4: a boxing gym near us, do you want to come box?
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go box. And
Speaker 3: and then I forgot all about it.
Speaker 4: Obviously, I didn't think. I never thought about it again.
Speaker 4: And a week later she rocked up in my house.
Speaker 4: She's like, let's go and where are we going there?
Speaker 4: She's like, We're going to boxing gym, and and it
Speaker 4: was boxing Fit in Hops Gross.
Speaker 3: They had just.
Speaker 4: Opened not long ago, and and that was where all pretty.
Speaker 3: Much started up. I really liked it. And as I
Speaker 3: was leaving, one.
Speaker 4: Of the trainers said to me, so he was just
Speaker 4: trying to get me to sign up. I know he was,
Speaker 4: but he was like, so you're going to stay fat
Speaker 4: your whole life, or you're gonna sign up. He just
Speaker 4: read me, right, He just read me, read me, and
Speaker 4: he read me right. And I said, yeah, you know what,
Speaker 4: You're right, and I signed up. And and at the beginning,
Speaker 4: like that first couple of months, I was just having fun.
Speaker 4: It was just so much fun.
Speaker 3: Hitting things, you know.
Speaker 4: And I was always a very natural athlete, always a tomboy,
Speaker 4: so for me, it was easy to do that. And
Speaker 4: when it come down to I was watching some people's
Speaker 4: fire and I said, hey, can I do that? And
Speaker 4: and he pretty much said to me, Look, you know
Speaker 4: you're kind of you're old, you're fat, and you're a girl.
Speaker 3: What's the what's the point? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: I'm sure if you deny it as well if if
Speaker 4: it came out, but I'm not going to hide it.
Speaker 3: But it was it was like that were fighting words
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 4: And I worked out an arrangement with with Cel and
Speaker 4: she started training me and I dropped the weight I was.
Speaker 3: I was pretty heavy at the.
Speaker 4: Time and started went straight into the amateurs and I
Speaker 4: won and I just kept winning.
Speaker 3: But I never had that amateurs style yet. I mean
Speaker 3: I always had that pro style.
Speaker 4: So and then my first profile that was like I
Speaker 4: was twenty seven when that happened, so definitely a very
Speaker 4: late start in the sport. I turned pro after six fights,
Speaker 4: so the last fight being the Austrain title which I won.
Speaker 4: And when I my first pro fight was against Sarah
Speaker 4: Howard Sarah and Missy Howard, and she six rounds and
Speaker 4: she she beat him on points, broke my nose in
Speaker 4: the last round and it was like someone had died.
Speaker 4: I was so devastated. I was like, this is what
Speaker 4: is this?
Speaker 3: Jeremyn It was at sixty four kilos and was I
Speaker 3: never want to experience this again. And we just went
Speaker 3: straight into the gym.
Speaker 4: I probably had a couple of days off and that
Speaker 4: was it before I went hardcore's training. And I suppose
Speaker 4: that's really all that that's what started at all that
Speaker 4: lost to Sarah.
Speaker 3: I think my ninth fight was the title fight against
Speaker 3: Lindsay Garbett. I think you'd have to look at box check.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure, but after Seriah's fight, I went undefeated
Speaker 4: after that and fought for.
Speaker 3: Ronlin Wildly from from New Zealand. She was awesome. She
Speaker 3: was my entry into the international circuit.
Speaker 4: I had to win a ten round against Sarah, my
Speaker 4: first at a time at one hundred and thirty pounds,
Speaker 4: which I think is fifty nine kilos, and yeah, beating
Speaker 4: her got me a shot at the world titled against
Speaker 4: Lindsay Garbet, who was the champion from Canada. And that
Speaker 4: was where I think I was thirty or thirty one
Speaker 4: when that happened, So it was relatively short time, that
Speaker 4: really short space of time when that had happened, and
Speaker 4: yet we won.
Speaker 3: That was that was a ninth round stoppage against Lindsay.
Speaker 2: When did you relocate.
Speaker 4: After that fight. After the we we went to al Paso, Texas.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget this, right, And so we flew into
Speaker 4: La first and Michell and Okay, she was she had
Speaker 4: just been in the States and she had trained with Lucia.
Speaker 4: She had done some training with Louise, and.
Speaker 3: She said, Hey, you're in LA. How about I get
Speaker 3: you a session with Lucia and that way you really
Speaker 3: get to experience it. And I was like, yes, let's
Speaker 3: let's do this.
Speaker 4: And so I ended up having two sessions with Loose
Speaker 4: and we just connected like sometimes you just mess the people,
Speaker 4: but I wasn't there for a long time. We just
Speaker 4: had fun. I had a great training with her. We
Speaker 4: were there to support frank Lopordo. He was fighting in
Speaker 4: our passid for a world title. So we all flew
Speaker 4: there and we always got told we had a really
Speaker 4: similar fight style, me and Frankie, like we both with
Speaker 4: that pressure final that would just walk through punches and
Speaker 4: get hit. And I watched Frankie lose and he got
Speaker 4: hurt when he like it was it wasn't something you
Speaker 4: ever want to see your gym.
Speaker 3: Mate experience, do you know what I mean? And when
Speaker 3: I was watching him fighting and getting a hit with
Speaker 3: with everything. All I could see was myself.
Speaker 4: I thought, if I stay in Australia, this is what's
Speaker 4: going to happen to me, because the competition is only
Speaker 4: going to increase.
Speaker 3: We're only going to fight other champions now that I
Speaker 3: was a champion, and I was like, if I'm going
Speaker 3: to do this, I have to do it properly. So
Speaker 3: I flew back to Australia. I spoke to a manager
Speaker 3: and I said, hey, I'm going to do this. I
Speaker 3: haven't got very many years left in me. I'm already
Speaker 3: thirty one, thirty two, whatever it was.
Speaker 4: And I said, let's do it properly, and so I
Speaker 4: flew to the States. It was tough because you know,
Speaker 4: you left everything you know on this little wilm that
Speaker 4: you know, hoping that you were going to achieve something.
Speaker 4: But I never stopped believing that if I wanted it,
Speaker 4: if I worked hard enough, I'd have it.
Speaker 3: So Lucy started training me. It was the scariest thing
Speaker 3: I ever done ever.
Speaker 4: Literally I cried the whole way on that flight, that
Speaker 4: sixteen hour plane ride to LA I just cried. I
Speaker 4: remember I had a shitty little motel on sunset boulevard
Speaker 4: that was literally stood out of the gutters.
Speaker 3: I remember, I was too scared to go outside because
Speaker 3: it was like nothing like the movies. Yeah, and there
Speaker 3: was a mate from Australia, Mike Almatura. He was here
Speaker 3: at the same time, and we were on the plane.
Speaker 4: Together and he took me under his wing and he
Speaker 4: took me the target so I could get some food.
Speaker 4: He showed me where wild Card Boxing was so I
Speaker 4: knew where I had to train. And yeah, he like,
Speaker 4: I was just so bloody lucky he was on the
Speaker 4: plane because it was petrifying. But that was the start
Speaker 4: of everything, you know, being in the States, that shitty
Speaker 4: little motel, training with Lucia. If I didn't do any
Speaker 4: of that, none, nothing would have happened.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Hell, back then, how financially viable was professional boxing for women.
Speaker 3: It wasn't.
Speaker 4: It literally wasn't at all. I didn't make any money.
Speaker 4: A couple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there.
Speaker 4: I was desperate for sponsors, like I would put out
Speaker 4: I would put out like Facebook posts and I would
Speaker 4: speak to people, you know, anyone that could help. Because
Speaker 4: training was expensive. Training was so expensive. Gear was expensive,
Speaker 4: you know, gloves just taping your hands, favsing wall training session,
Speaker 4: your clothes that you wore, being able to eat.
Speaker 3: You know, it was it was so expensive. So I
Speaker 3: had a couple of really good people who threw in
Speaker 3: a couple hundred bucks here and then.
Speaker 4: But I was very lucky. I worked for myself, so
Speaker 4: I was able to I had full flexibility over how
Speaker 4: I worked. I mean, I still worked for myself. I
Speaker 4: have my whole career, but there's no money.
Speaker 3: There was no money. It was zero money. I like,
Speaker 3: I made way easy because I was always so poor.
Speaker 3: Count I had no food. It's the oddest truth.
Speaker 4: You know. Lucia would come over and she's like, she
Speaker 4: look in my free and she's like, dang, where's your food?
Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh, I just haven't gone to the
Speaker 4: shops yet. I just haven't got any groceries yet. And
Speaker 4: I'd bullshit my way through everything. But she knew that,
Speaker 4: you know, she'd bring food for me.
Speaker 3: Or I'd go to her place and she'd always feed
Speaker 3: me and stuff like that. But yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 3: There were rough There were some rough t was My
Speaker 3: old career was pretty much like that.
Speaker 2: Actually, what makes it? What drove you? What made it
Speaker 2: worth it.
Speaker 3: This what we're doing right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, anytime I can share what I went through, Yeah,
Speaker 4: if I can, if anyone can hear my my shitty
Speaker 4: little story, okay and be inspired to do something that
Speaker 4: someone told them they couldn't do, this makes it worth it.
Speaker 4: Because my I was the underdog my entire career. If
Speaker 4: it wasn't for my family believing in me, you know,
Speaker 4: I lost relationships. My boyfriend of twenty years, we broke
Speaker 4: up because I came to the States because.
Speaker 3: I was going to do this properly.
Speaker 4: Gentlemen, you know, I had some really good mates. Every
Speaker 4: time I came back to Australia, it was like it
Speaker 4: was literally coming back home.
Speaker 3: You know. People would take care of me. People would
Speaker 3: they believed in me.
Speaker 4: I remember running doing my you know, my roadwork in
Speaker 4: the Netherlands and being on the phone to my sister
Speaker 4: or Mike Almatsura and that would just talk to me
Speaker 4: and they would give me, you know, make help me
Speaker 4: believe in myself. If people could hear that what I did,
Speaker 4: knowing that there's no financial game, there was zero financial game,
Speaker 4: knowing that most people will never know your story, that
Speaker 4: a man will always you know, get a higher rank.
Speaker 4: You know, better use coverage and a woman will if
Speaker 4: they can hear that and know that I still did
Speaker 4: it even though they all told me that I couldn't
Speaker 4: and I did it.
Speaker 3: I still did it. If they can hear that and say,
Speaker 3: you know, fuck it, I'm going to do it too,
Speaker 3: you know, and if they get the same.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter if it's boxing, or if it's sports,
Speaker 4: or if it's a new job, or if it's you know,
Speaker 4: the end of a relationship and they need to believe
Speaker 4: their relationship for a new one. You know, it doesn't
Speaker 4: matter anything anything that you believe in yourself that you
Speaker 4: can do. It doesn't matter if someone is shitting on you,
Speaker 4: you can go do it.
Speaker 3: You know that. I really believe that. I truly believe that.
Speaker 4: I consider myself so lucky that for the people that
Speaker 4: I had around me. I'm so lucky for those people
Speaker 4: who would you know, I moved to America with nothing,
Speaker 4: literally nothing. I was scared twenty four to seven, but
Speaker 4: it gave me so much. It was the scariest thing
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 1: But that that.
Speaker 4: I want to say bravery, but you know, first world problems. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's compared you know it gave me. Boxing took, but
Speaker 4: it gave you know, I got to see the world
Speaker 4: I met that, I saw the best in people.
Speaker 3: I saw the worst in people. You know, I met
Speaker 3: a lot of wankers along the way as well.
Speaker 4: But there were some amazing people that you know, put
Speaker 4: their neck out for me and believed in me. And
Speaker 4: and that's how we just kept doing. We just you know,
Speaker 4: just keep after every loss, coming back and getting a win,
Speaker 4: you know, going to your going to your hometown and
Speaker 4: some wanker coming and the dress you in and asking
Speaker 4: you what it feels.
Speaker 3: Like to be in Australia. You know, it's you do
Speaker 3: it because of people like that, you know, just just
Speaker 3: to one up them a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you were just inducted into the International Boxing
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: Pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Well that's a fucking big deal. That's deal, right, it's
Speaker 2: pretty good. How do you deal with the factor? I mean,
Speaker 2: there's not many hot You were number one in the
Speaker 2: world as a female pound for pound, You've been inducted
Speaker 2: into the Hall of Fame, and yet, let's be honest,
Speaker 2: the level of recognition from your home country is like
Speaker 2: it was just a tumbleweed that blew away in the wind, Like,
Speaker 2: how do you how do you manage that in yourself?
Speaker 2: Because listening to you speak and the passion that you
Speaker 2: have is infectious. I was covered in goosebumps. I was like, fuck,
Speaker 2: feed me more of this. This is so good. How
Speaker 2: have you managed to maintain that whilst having that, you know,
Speaker 2: like really not being celebrated well number one.
Speaker 3: It's pretty ship. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Like if we ever think about Australia as a whole now,
Speaker 4: as a young girl growing up in Australia, we were
Speaker 4: always Australia as a sporting mad country, right, everyone loves
Speaker 4: sports industry. We celebrate our athletes, we celebrate them now.
Speaker 4: I remember when I won the WBC in Sweden. That
Speaker 4: when I won the WBC in Sweden, that made that
Speaker 4: fight made me numb one in the world. Okay, it
Speaker 4: also made me pounds of pounds number one in the world.
Speaker 4: And I thought this in my how naive I was though.
Speaker 4: I thought that my country was going to be excited
Speaker 4: for me. I was so I thought I did it.
Speaker 4: I did it, like all, you know. I remember watching
Speaker 4: like the Olympics or the Tennis and how much I
Speaker 4: get excited to see my heroes stand up, and.
Speaker 3: I thought, that's going to be me.
Speaker 4: I'm going to come home after this five and people
Speaker 4: are going to be They're going to be proud of
Speaker 4: what I did.
Speaker 3: My country is going to be proud of me, because
Speaker 3: that's what we were.
Speaker 4: Raised to believe, that our country would be proud of
Speaker 4: us if we for these accomplishments. And I rang up
Speaker 4: every news station, every newspaper, and I told them and
Speaker 4: they all said the same thing. I'm sorry, no one,
Speaker 4: you're a girl. No one's interested in hearing about a
Speaker 4: female fighting. And then I remember trying to tell them, no,
Speaker 4: you don't understand.
Speaker 1: I just did.
Speaker 3: Look like I just did.
Speaker 4: No Australian male female cat dog. No one's ever done
Speaker 4: this before, like this is the first. And they're like, oh, well,
Speaker 4: you know, congratulations, that's amazing for you. But we're not
Speaker 4: gonna tell them.
Speaker 3: We're not gonna do a story on it. And it
Speaker 3: was so like demoralizing, it really was. I came home.
Speaker 4: Mischa threw me a celebrated you know, a celebration party
Speaker 4: for the WBC, and I remember saying it to her
Speaker 4: and she's like, it's okay, Die, She's like, we've just
Speaker 4: got a long way to come.
Speaker 3: We're still coming though, and there's a lot of knocks,
Speaker 3: like especially like one I remember Wonderport telling me I
Speaker 3: wasn't pretty enough.
Speaker 4: You know, if you had something to if people would
Speaker 4: enjoy looking at you, and it would be different.
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, but I'm an athlete. I
Speaker 3: look like an I look like an athlete, do you
Speaker 3: know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And you know, when you get that again and again,
Speaker 1: it does it breaks you down until my wife name me.
Speaker 4: She works with the education system, and she got me
Speaker 4: to do a couple of talks for some of the
Speaker 4: kids at the school's here and they're at risk kids.
Speaker 4: And I didn't even know what at risk meant. That's
Speaker 4: how naive I was. These are gang kids or parents
Speaker 4: that are in jail and stuff like that. And I
Speaker 4: went to do a talk with them and they were
Speaker 4: asking me all these questions, what's it like to hit someone,
Speaker 4: what's it like to win the title?
Speaker 3: And they're telling me about their street titles and stuff
Speaker 3: like that. What I did instead was it.
Speaker 4: Inspired me to keep going because these kids could keep
Speaker 4: going and I would just tell them.
Speaker 3: The truth instead.
Speaker 4: So instead of instead of pretending like it was easy,
Speaker 4: or pretending like if you're not pretty enough, you're not
Speaker 4: going to achieve it, if you're not good enough, you're
Speaker 4: not going to achieve it.
Speaker 3: If you're born the wrong gender, you're not going to
Speaker 3: achieve it. I just told them the truth. Hey, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's really shit.
Speaker 4: Sometimes sometimes they're not going to listen to you and
Speaker 4: they're not going to hear you, or you'll do something.
Speaker 3: Really good and they'll ignore it. I said, but you
Speaker 3: can't let that stop you. You need to keep going.
Speaker 4: And a couple of those kids came to me after
Speaker 4: and said, hey, will you teach me how to box?
Speaker 4: And I was like, sh yeah, let's do it. Let's
Speaker 4: let's let's do it. Let's let's do boxing. A couple
Speaker 4: of kids stayed with me for months, like just coming.
Speaker 3: To the gym. Whenever I'd be the gym, they would
Speaker 3: just be there, you know.
Speaker 4: And I really hope that they're still going or that
Speaker 4: they found something. So I think that's why we keep going,
Speaker 4: just for that to be able to talk to somebody
Speaker 4: from home, to be able to reach out to youth,
Speaker 4: to be able to reach out to, you know, the
Speaker 4: person male or female that's too scared to leave their
Speaker 4: job and change their career, you know, because they've got
Speaker 4: financial security is too big a risk to somebody in
Speaker 4: an abusive relationship. You know, anything that we can, anything
Speaker 4: that we can do to try and give someone a
Speaker 4: little bit of gumption, a little bit of that courage
Speaker 4: to say, you know, fuck it all, I'm going to
Speaker 4: do it because I believe I can. I suppose that's
Speaker 4: kind of why I.
Speaker 3: Just rattled on a fair bit. Then sorry, that's so good.
Speaker 3: It's so I love it.
Speaker 2: I love it. And as you were talking about it,
Speaker 2: I was thinking about, and it's one thing I talk
Speaker 2: about a bit. It was that for me, that realization
Speaker 2: at some point, and it was through going through it myself,
Speaker 2: but also observing my best mate, Courtney, and in the
Speaker 2: preps for her fights and what it meant for her
Speaker 2: and what she would sacrifice time after time to do that,
Speaker 2: and then the pressure that we put. And as you
Speaker 2: were talking, I was just thinking, my exposure to you
Speaker 2: would have planted the seed for this thought process that
Speaker 2: I've spoke about ever since, but never really put two
Speaker 2: and two together. And that was the idea that I
Speaker 2: realized back then, that you could be like yourself, You're
Speaker 2: this world champion coming to fight in Australia and no
Speaker 2: one knows your name, And so coupled with watching what
Speaker 2: Courtney was putting on the line, knowing what I was
Speaker 2: feeling and doing when I'm just doing these fights and
Speaker 2: going this, when you put yourself on the line like that,
Speaker 2: everyone wants you to do well, but actually, like your
Speaker 2: mates don't really give a fuck if you win all
Speaker 2: they're going to celebrate you anyway. So that has to
Speaker 2: matter to you. It has to matter, and really it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter to anyone else. And boxing was such a
Speaker 2: breeding ground for that philosophy because I mean it was
Speaker 2: true like this, You're gonna get punched in the face,
Speaker 2: You're gonna get humbled, you're gonna get hurt, You're gonna
Speaker 2: feel shit. You might get nowhere, and you might get somewhere,
Speaker 2: and still people won't know who you are, and you'll
Speaker 2: get no money for it all, nor.
Speaker 4: No fae like yeah if what we when at the
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame when I did my acceptance speech, I
Speaker 4: really wanted to speak from the heart. I didn't want
Speaker 4: to blow off about what I want or what I
Speaker 4: achieved or whatnot. I really want to speak from the heart.
Speaker 4: And the reality is is that boxing humbled me. It
Speaker 4: really humbled me because every time I took a step up,
Speaker 4: something happened to give me a kick in the ass
Speaker 4: and put me back down.
Speaker 3: And you have to keep persevering through that regardless. You know,
Speaker 3: I met, like I said before, I met amazing people.
Speaker 4: I got to travel the world, I met my wife,
Speaker 4: you know, so all these great things happen from it.
Speaker 3: So when we talk about how much it takes from you,
Speaker 3: God it does.
Speaker 4: It takes and takes and takes and takes, but it
Speaker 4: gives you so much as well. And I mean I've
Speaker 4: never met a champion. I mean that hasn't experienced the trauma.
Speaker 3: Of our sport.
Speaker 4: I'm not even sure that we can be champions without
Speaker 4: the trauma that drives us to keep going. But we
Speaker 4: need to be there for each other. That's really what
Speaker 4: it comes down to. We've got to keep supporting each other.
Speaker 4: And that's what I spoke about in my speech. As
Speaker 4: much as this sport will take from.
Speaker 3: You, and God I love it.
Speaker 4: I love this sport like anything, but yeah, it will
Speaker 4: take from you, but it will give you so much.
Speaker 4: And it's our responsibility to keep giving to others around us.
Speaker 4: You know, the generation before me, Lucy is generation. They
Speaker 4: helped pave the way for my generation. You know, my
Speaker 4: generation of fighters have helped pave the way for this generation.
Speaker 4: And as long as we keep acknowledging that and growing
Speaker 4: from it, that's how we keep winning. That like, that's
Speaker 4: how there's no other way to win without growth. So
Speaker 4: I'd like to think that my thought isn't a single thought.
Speaker 4: I'd like to think that we all kind of feel
Speaker 4: the same way about it, because why else did we
Speaker 4: keep going?
Speaker 2: You know, what did you learn about you that it
Speaker 2: didn't expect that it didn't expect In the boxing ring, that.
Speaker 4: Was probably tougher than I thought it was. It was
Speaker 4: probably tougher than I thought. My whole life I had,
Speaker 4: I was always trying to prove myself. I was always
Speaker 4: trying to.
Speaker 3: Prove and find who I was because I never knew who.
Speaker 3: I never knew. I was just always that, you know,
Speaker 3: the little tom boy who played with all the boys.
Speaker 3: You know, that's just what I was known for.
Speaker 1: And you know, I.
Speaker 4: Experienced abuse a very young age, and for the longest time,
Speaker 4: I thought it was so tough it didn't hurt me.
Speaker 3: And then I could just ignore it and put it away.
Speaker 3: And the more I went through this sport and I
Speaker 3: had to find who I.
Speaker 4: Was, I realized how hurt I was from that abuse
Speaker 4: and how it had shaped me to be the person
Speaker 4: that I was. So for me, the whole experience of
Speaker 4: boxing wasn't just about getting into the ring. It shaped
Speaker 4: me as a person throughout my entire career. It made
Speaker 4: me realize that I was a victim of something that
Speaker 4: I had to overcome, and that I was one of
Speaker 4: hundreds of thousands of other women who had been a
Speaker 4: victim that we had to overcome it. I think the
Speaker 4: stats are like one in three women, you know, discussing
Speaker 4: stuff you know that we're still experiencing today. So the
Speaker 4: so for me, boxing gave me, that gave me a
Speaker 4: bit of an identity because it made me see who
Speaker 4: who I was based on everything that I had experienced,
Speaker 4: and that I was still here and that I was
Speaker 4: still fighting and that I could still believe in myself
Speaker 4: to keep going forward.
Speaker 2: I love that so much, and that's so in line
Speaker 2: with my own experience. You know, I have a similar
Speaker 2: background and I have and I always called boxing my mirror.
Speaker 2: I'm like boxing is a place where I met me
Speaker 2: for the first time and realized I didn't know the
Speaker 2: person I was pretending to be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's we could talk to you know, ten twenty
Speaker 4: thirty other women and I'm and eighty percent of them,
Speaker 4: ninety percent of them will give us the same say
Speaker 4: the same thing. You know, when I did those kids,
Speaker 4: those talk with those kids, I was very open about
Speaker 4: the abuse that I had experienced because I had to
Speaker 4: keep my mouth shut for such a long time because
Speaker 4: it was a family member who did it, and so
Speaker 4: it was, you know, that hush hest that secret that
Speaker 4: everyone knows, and.
Speaker 3: I was never allowed to speak about it. And I
Speaker 3: was like, screw this, I'm going to speak about it.
Speaker 3: And as I talked, I can see the girls.
Speaker 4: That were there all light up that it wasn't just them,
Speaker 4: that they weren't the only one to experience something like this,
Speaker 4: and that we could.
Speaker 3: Get we could get through it, that they could get
Speaker 3: through it. That if they looked at me and they're like, hey,
Speaker 3: she she did it, she kept going.
Speaker 4: And then for whatever they perceived that I made something
Speaker 4: of my career, I had a career, then hey, I
Speaker 4: can do it too. They can believe in themselves, you know,
Speaker 4: whatever's happened to shoot them down. These are things I
Speaker 4: tell myself to really that I hope a true by
Speaker 4: the way.
Speaker 2: They one hundred percent. I think it's so so so
Speaker 2: important to speak and to express and to let people
Speaker 2: know that they can. Like you know, you talk about
Speaker 2: being silent for so long, like not sharing that and
Speaker 2: holding that inside, and I was the same. It was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I just forget about that. Whichen it never happened on moving,
Speaker 2: isn't it. Yeah, it's like it'll disappear. And then I
Speaker 2: start boxing and I get this visceral experience of expressing
Speaker 2: with my body. And then at that time, over those
Speaker 2: first couple of years, it starts popping into my mind.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, so this is about like.
Speaker 3: It's always with us, Yeah, because it's part of us.
Speaker 3: It shaped us, you know.
Speaker 6: And when you have the people who tell you oh,
Speaker 6: it was nothing or it wasn't so bad or you're fine,
Speaker 6: you know, fuck then because the reality is is it's
Speaker 6: shaped the people that we are today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and some people aren't going to get
Speaker 3: through it. Some of us aren't going to be able
Speaker 3: to push push through it and persevere.
Speaker 4: So it's our job to be vocal about it and
Speaker 4: screw if they like it or if they don't like it,
Speaker 4: you know. So that's what I think. And I'll piss
Speaker 4: off a lot of people when they hear me say that,
Speaker 4: you know, probably my family included. But I don't care anymore,
Speaker 4: do you know what I mean? Because we're the ones
Speaker 4: who have to live with this And if this, like
Speaker 4: I said too before, if we can help one other
Speaker 4: person by being vocal, then we're doing the right thing.
Speaker 4: We're doing we are, we're doing the right thing. My
Speaker 4: I'm going to go off topic a little bit here.
Speaker 4: My cousin was recently murdered by her boyfriend.
Speaker 3: Okay, and I didn't know this that in Australia, the
Speaker 3: partners are like, it's such a right.
Speaker 4: Mass waiting for this is going to be terrible, okay,
Speaker 4: But that the abuse that people receiving relationship domestic domestic abuse.
Speaker 3: It's calling the death of people around us, people that
Speaker 3: we love, sisters, brothers, you know.
Speaker 4: And if we're not vocal, if people like us aren't
Speaker 4: vocal to speak out about this and call the bullshit
Speaker 4: that it is, nothing is ever going to change.
Speaker 3: And it comes from people.
Speaker 4: Like us who've experienced abuse and who are lucky enough
Speaker 4: to survive it and persevere, Okay, to stand up and
Speaker 4: say this is not okay, what's happening, because if we don't,
Speaker 4: it just stays quiet. It just stays quiet, and it
Speaker 4: keeps going and it gets worse, you know, and more
Speaker 4: people will suffer. So our boxing talk has changed a
Speaker 4: little bit right now. But these are all really important things,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And we've got to use
Speaker 4: our voices to be able to make.
Speaker 3: People aware of what's truly happening.
Speaker 2: What I love about this is this morning I went
Speaker 2: to secondary college and spoke to some young girls and
Speaker 2: I was talking on topic of you know, I was
Speaker 2: asking about the podcast and who I speak to, and
Speaker 2: I said it. You know, I started it by wanting
Speaker 2: to talk to people who had been through the Ringer,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to know why some people go through
Speaker 2: the ringer and come out stronger, and why some people
Speaker 2: go through the ringer. And it's like an anchor, I said.
Speaker 2: But at some point, very early on, I decided at
Speaker 2: the same time or I wouldn't mind speaking to people
Speaker 2: who have done incredible shit. You know, your ultra endurance athletes,
Speaker 2: your people that have just gone above and beyond. And
Speaker 2: I said, within no time, I realized I was having
Speaker 2: the same conversation. So when you look at the athletes
Speaker 2: and the business people and the people that have got
Speaker 2: somewhere where you want to be, you've got to understand
Speaker 2: that beneath that they've overcome something, every bit is big.
Speaker 2: On the on the flip side, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Hey dude, I'll be home in July. I'll come and
Speaker 3: speak with you happily. Because we need, we need to
Speaker 3: get we need to we need to have a voice,
Speaker 3: you know, because for those who can't for those who
Speaker 3: can't speak. And but if I if I do a
Speaker 3: big circle and go back to boxing, in my case
Speaker 3: of boxing gave me that voice.
Speaker 4: Yes, because while I was always a fighter, I had
Speaker 4: never dealt with my own bullshit, and I well, I
Speaker 4: put it away like it was nothing, and waxing now
Speaker 4: gave me the strength to be able to deal with it,
Speaker 4: to meet people who had also experienced it and dealing
Speaker 4: with it together. So all these all these things, they
Speaker 4: all make, they all collide, they all join.
Speaker 3: The world is really small, and people share a lot
Speaker 3: more than we give it credit for.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite quotes that I read at some
Speaker 2: point was I heal out loud because my silence nearly
Speaker 2: killed me. And you know, we talk about people that
Speaker 2: overshare and the stuff that I isn't it, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: love it. It's last don't tell people to shut up
Speaker 2: sometimes when people Yeah, there's a lot of bullshit people
Speaker 2: post and share online, but you know some of those people,
Speaker 2: I know, I went through a stage of I don't
Speaker 2: know how to reach out one on one, but I
Speaker 2: know how to start to just be honest and go,
Speaker 2: fucking this is what's going on, you know, and you've
Speaker 2: got to let do that. You don't want to shut
Speaker 2: them down and put them back in their quiet box.
Speaker 3: There's always going to be hate, yeah, always.
Speaker 4: There's always going to be people who agree with what
Speaker 4: you're doing, and there's always people that don't.
Speaker 3: That's just the way this is.
Speaker 4: After the Hall of Fame, there was an article I
Speaker 4: did in the Guardian and the only reason I got
Speaker 4: that article in the Guardian is because one of my
Speaker 4: good mates knew the new a journal from the Guardian
Speaker 4: and he's like, don't does anyone is anyone writing about
Speaker 4: your Hall of Famer? I was like, no, mate, nothing's happened.
Speaker 4: And Nick was like, hey, I know a dude, who
Speaker 4: who's going to want to write the story?
Speaker 3: And he did so.
Speaker 4: From from everything like that happens of nobody wanting a
Speaker 4: piece of what are being inducted, okay, it's another thing
Speaker 4: of one person saying now saying, you know, that's bullshit.
Speaker 4: We should we should talk about this is incredible what
Speaker 4: you've achieved. And if it wasn't for Nick, I never
Speaker 4: would have had that article.
Speaker 3: In the in the Guardians.
Speaker 4: So it's another example of just really good people that
Speaker 4: you meet that are a part of your team, you know,
Speaker 4: a part of the people that help help build you up.
Speaker 2: It's such insanity. I remember when those very early corporate
Speaker 2: fights I had, and you know, you have to sell
Speaker 2: your twenty tickets to pay for your involvement of being
Speaker 2: in it. And it was so funny because people there
Speaker 2: was such a I don't want to watch girls fight,
Speaker 2: you know, like fine natural or whatever, like oh yeah,
Speaker 2: as soon as people in the room, I remember, there
Speaker 2: can't I don't even know. This guy was a real
Speaker 2: estate Gary Pierre, and they they'd been at the fight
Speaker 2: and there was this this video turns up online where
Speaker 2: they're talking about but going to this fight and they're like,
Speaker 2: the women were incredible, and they literally named with hers.
Speaker 2: There was this blonde girl called Tiffany and she was
Speaker 2: it was like, I was nuffy because I was like
Speaker 2: it was my first fight, but you know, they were raving.
Speaker 2: You get people in the room and you give them
Speaker 2: a bunch of novices and it's the women who they
Speaker 2: loved the technical aspect of the fighting, and it was
Speaker 2: just it just stood out to me so much, like.
Speaker 3: Isn't it awesome? Yeah, yeah, so good.
Speaker 2: It's so good, like you know, once given a chance,
Speaker 2: once once did all that bullshits out of the way.
Speaker 2: It's like, sit down and watch these women are making.
Speaker 3: Amazing It's just it's just words. It's literally just words.
Speaker 4: There's we have these predivined values in life still of
Speaker 4: what men should be doing and what women should be doing.
Speaker 3: You know, and your name is this, So I'm going
Speaker 3: to pay you five hundred, you know, thousand for your
Speaker 3: fight or whatnot.
Speaker 4: For me, all it does is is it makes me
Speaker 4: sad number one, that my own country hasn't acknowledged what
Speaker 4: we've achieved.
Speaker 3: And on the other hand, it makes me just want
Speaker 3: to speak up a little bit louder and.
Speaker 4: Say, hey, we're all doing this. Look what we're doing,
Speaker 4: and you can shut us down for as long as
Speaker 4: you want, but.
Speaker 3: We still did it. Like we still did it eventually.
Speaker 3: Another restraint is going to win pounds for the pound,
Speaker 3: right man or woman?
Speaker 4: But I did it first, and they better remember like
Speaker 4: I did it first, and they even though they might
Speaker 4: not have wanted to speak about that or report it,
Speaker 4: they can't take away that happened, you know. So there
Speaker 4: we have our little ego little bursts on there, and
Speaker 4: it's just the reality is are you going to keep
Speaker 4: us alive?
Speaker 3: Sometimes? You know? I love I love that.
Speaker 2: I had Caitlin Parker on the show recently and she
Speaker 2: just won the bronze medal for Australia, right, so the
Speaker 2: first female boxer in Australia to bring over the medal
Speaker 2: and I'm like, mate, And I don't know if she'd
Speaker 2: thought about it that way that I'm like, mate, do
Speaker 2: you realize like we can chicks can go there and
Speaker 2: win medals again now? But you you're the first, she
Speaker 2: did it first, Like you're the first. No one could
Speaker 2: ever do it for the first time again and just
Speaker 2: the kind of look of acknowledgment. She was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: like that's a forever thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's isn't incredible?
Speaker 2: Yeah, acredible. Are a piece of Australian sporting history. You're
Speaker 2: a piece of international sporting history forever.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2: That's really very fucking cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of cool.
Speaker 4: I'm a little I never got it from getting from
Speaker 4: being on the piss one though and saying hey let's
Speaker 4: go bogs to speaking to you right now in my
Speaker 4: house in LA and.
Speaker 3: Wanted to go looking forward to coming home again.
Speaker 2: You know, it's frustrating as it feels it also I
Speaker 2: have I really love the story start to finish. You're like, yep,
Speaker 2: still not because it means right now your voice is
Speaker 2: as powerful, if not more, for the underdogs, Like I'm
Speaker 2: all for representing the underdogs, Like who thinks they're an underdog?
Speaker 2: I thought I was so shit when I was boxing,
Speaker 2: but it was just like some seed of tenacity let
Speaker 2: me made me hang on. I was like, I might
Speaker 2: be the shiitest, but fuck yeah, you don't know how
Speaker 2: much I can wear and how hard I can work.
Speaker 2: I've got those two things, and I'll just find a way.
Speaker 3: It takes a warrior to get in those roots win
Speaker 3: all loose. Yeah, you've got to be a warrior, you know.
Speaker 3: You can't fight with that two people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, and even a journeyman who takes a fight just
Speaker 4: for the purse, for no other reason then for the purse,
Speaker 4: the fact that they get in that ring and that
Speaker 4: they're willing to do that knowing that their chance of
Speaker 4: what we all see the padded records in boxing, okay,
Speaker 4: And there's obviously the fans out there that don't understand
Speaker 4: we're building a career. There's lots of them, we all
Speaker 4: know that. But it takes a lot of courage for
Speaker 4: a journeyman to.
Speaker 3: Get in there knowing that their likelihood of winning.
Speaker 4: Is pretty bloody low, you know. So it takes a
Speaker 4: lot of courage in this sport. And we see as
Speaker 4: well a.
Speaker 3: Lot more now, or maybe we're just more aware of
Speaker 3: it now. There's a lot more people getting hurt in
Speaker 3: the ring, you know, sometimes fatally. So the courage it
Speaker 3: takes to step in there is you can never take
Speaker 3: that away. You can never not give that enough credit.
Speaker 2: What is what's the future hold for you? What's what's
Speaker 2: important now?
Speaker 4: Well, I'd love to I'd love to help out to
Speaker 4: work more with our youth, do you know, Amen? And
Speaker 4: and just and I do a little bit of it,
Speaker 4: but not enough, is the truth. If people don't know
Speaker 4: who you are, they don't want you to work with them,
Speaker 4: do you know, Amen?
Speaker 3: But I on the side, like I said before, I
Speaker 3: work for myself. I'm working in it.
Speaker 4: But I'd love to to put more effort into our
Speaker 4: youth because I think not I think they are our future.
Speaker 4: They're the ones that will shape us. They're the ones
Speaker 4: that will define how we keep walking forward, whether it
Speaker 4: be in Australia or the United States. If we don't
Speaker 4: put that effort into the youth coming through now, the
Speaker 4: world looks pretty bleak, do you know what I mean? So,
Speaker 4: especially like look all we've just spoken about in this
Speaker 4: time together. So it's that that's really I think where
Speaker 4: the where the focus is. And at the same time,
Speaker 4: it's hard to keep me out of the gym, do
Speaker 4: you know what I mean? So I'm still at the
Speaker 4: gym training each day. I still have the passion for
Speaker 4: the for the sport, and even though I'm retired, I
Speaker 4: still love I still love hitting the bag and getting
Speaker 4: the ring and shadow boxing, so yeah.
Speaker 2: I love it your best? Can you where? Do you
Speaker 2: want to promote anything? Do you want to point their
Speaker 2: listeners in a direction to check you out? Follow you
Speaker 2: find you.
Speaker 4: Have?
Speaker 3: I haven't really got anything, is that honest?
Speaker 4: But you can find me on social media, like just
Speaker 4: like everybody else through Facebook and the install and just
Speaker 4: what we're doing is just trying to let people know
Speaker 4: about the youth around us, and we're.
Speaker 3: Trying to support them. So yeah, hit us up for
Speaker 3: that if we if we can be of any assistance.
Speaker 4: But I think, just more importantly, just don't forget where
Speaker 4: we all came from, because if we if we forget that,
Speaker 4: we lose sight of what we've number one, what we've achieved,
Speaker 4: and what we're capable of doing and still almost left
Speaker 4: still to do.
Speaker 2: You're really good. I've enjoyed this. I mean I knew
Speaker 2: i'd enjoy it, but I've enjoyed this way more than
Speaker 2: I thought you've and You've got such awesome passion and energy.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much. I can't wait to see
Speaker 2: you next.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, I can't wait to come home.
Speaker 2: Thanks Di, she said, it's now.
Speaker 3: Never I got fighting in my blood. It's got