Watch Right to Fight (2023) Full Movie For Free
Transcript
00:00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03 I had a long, very fast left jab, not so fast these days.
00:00:12 Throw the left hand, and then come--
00:00:15 because they're looking at this one,
00:00:17 and then I would hit them at this one.
00:00:20 They said I had dynamite in both hands.
00:00:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:25 It never occurred to me that I was doing something
00:00:29 so outrageous.
00:00:30 [CHEERING]
00:00:33 We can't stop it.
00:00:34 We can't stop it.
00:00:35 We want national information.
00:00:37 My orders are, make it stop or we arrest you.
00:00:39 We were challenging the norm, and that
00:00:42 was frightening people.
00:00:44 A woman is not made to be a fighter.
00:00:47 It should not be tolerated.
00:00:50 Nobody in the whole United States
00:00:52 wanted women in the ring, period.
00:00:54 Bodies are made to be punched.
00:00:56 Women ain't made to be hit and dressed.
00:00:58 It was unbelievable.
00:01:00 They have rules to stop women from boxing.
00:01:04 A woman could never be a boxer just by the fact
00:01:07 that a woman's role of being a subordinate.
00:01:11 What the fuck, man?
00:01:12 I'm going to kick some ass.
00:01:13 You know, I'm going to fuck somebody up.
00:01:15 Bam, bam, bam.
00:01:18 All the rage, the hate, the--
00:01:20 you guys are not going to stop me.
00:01:22 This is something I want.
00:01:24 But nobody ever told the story.
00:01:26 The history of women's boxing is an amazing story,
00:01:31 but it has been totally erased.
00:01:34 After I left the sport, I went on the internet thinking,
00:01:38 well, there's got to be a lot of things
00:01:39 about the pioneer female boxers.
00:01:42 And to my dismay, there was virtually nothing.
00:01:45 We disappeared.
00:01:48 There was Kat Davis, Lavon Lutien,
00:01:51 Pat Bonita, Lady Tiger.
00:01:54 Women are wonderful and great.
00:01:56 Lady Tiger, champion of the world.
00:01:58 Where are these fighters now?
00:02:03 What happened to them?
00:02:04 And why have they been erased from history?
00:02:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02:13 Well, it all started with fencing.
00:02:39 When I saw the '72 Olympics, I got so inspired.
00:02:45 I decided to be a fencer.
00:02:47 I wanted to be up there winning an Olympic medal
00:02:52 because I was the best.
00:02:53 So I signed up to a fencing club at Louisiana University.
00:03:01 I turned out to be very gifted at it.
00:03:06 My trainer, he said, you need to move to New York
00:03:09 to study with Chaba Eltesh.
00:03:12 He was the best coach in the world at the time.
00:03:16 But I knew my mom wouldn't approve.
00:03:20 My dad died before I was born.
00:03:23 So I was raised by my mom.
00:03:25 And when my mother and I interacted,
00:03:29 it was a lot about the old South stuff.
00:03:32 She wanted me to stay a little doll.
00:03:36 I just couldn't do the girl thing.
00:03:37 I just wasn't cut out for it.
00:03:42 My fencing was a big disappointment to her, I think.
00:03:46 But I thought, you know, fuck it.
00:03:48 I packed up, headed to New York on a bus.
00:03:51 With $100 in my pockets, I was pumped.
00:03:56 I was very excited to meet Chaba.
00:04:06 I was going to meet the pope.
00:04:10 Chaba came in, and I asked him if he would teach me saber.
00:04:15 And he said to me, in a very stern voice, young lady,
00:04:21 I don't teach women or cripples saber.
00:04:26 And he actually hit me across my leg with his weapon
00:04:30 and drew blood.
00:04:35 Sliced me up.
00:04:36 I was heartbroken.
00:04:40 It was just because I was a woman.
00:04:42 Well, by 1972, the women's movement
00:04:50 had made some progress in the courts.
00:04:53 We will make real the promise of equality for all.
00:04:56 But in the real world, we were still treated
00:05:01 as second-class citizens.
00:05:04 Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in favor of women.
00:05:06 I mean, I think every man should own one.
00:05:09 There have been 73 astronauts in our space program,
00:05:12 but never any women.
00:05:14 A real woman don't want to be equal with a man.
00:05:16 And a real man don't want no woman being his equal.
00:05:18 And if she don't like it, put out, find another one.
00:05:23 I went back to my apartment.
00:05:25 I only had a few dollars left.
00:05:27 But I said to myself, I am not going back home.
00:05:31 I have to make it work here.
00:05:33 So I got some newspapers.
00:05:36 And I started looking for a job.
00:05:38 And I was going through and circling
00:05:40 the ones I was interested in.
00:05:42 And then I came upon this one that says,
00:05:45 "Wanted-- women boxers."
00:05:48 It sounded like a assembly line, boxing up things.
00:05:51 I said, ah, that sounds like something I can do.
00:05:55 This guy answered the phone.
00:05:57 His name was Sal.
00:06:01 You're not a fighter, are you?
00:06:03 It turned out it wasn't boxing goods.
00:06:05 It was the sport of boxing.
00:06:08 I'd never heard of women boxing.
00:06:11 I was a little bit taken aback.
00:06:13 You know, this naive Southern girl,
00:06:16 he was a larger than life Italian-American boxing
00:06:19 trainer.
00:06:20 So we arranged to meet.
00:06:22 When I first saw you walking out the door,
00:06:24 that I thought you were going to be some kind of an animal,
00:06:26 she opens the door, and here comes this good-looking blonde.
00:06:29 And I said, oh, hell, man, this is her girlfriend.
00:06:31 And you in, you in.
00:06:31 I thought he was really dumb, because he just
00:06:34 sat there with his mouth open, and he wouldn't say anything.
00:06:36 And I started to say, you know, what did I--
00:06:38 did I say something wrong?
00:06:40 And finally, he shut his mouth and says, get in.
00:06:42 We're going back to the gym.
00:06:43 The first thing he wanted me to do was hit the bag.
00:06:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:06:48 It felt pretty good.
00:06:50 I mean, it works just like fencing.
00:06:58 To be a good fencer, you have to have
00:07:00 the head of a chess player, the arms of an orangutan,
00:07:05 and the footwork of a ballet artist.
00:07:09 So I had the arms of an orangutan.
00:07:11 [LAUGHS]
00:07:13 [INAUDIBLE]
00:07:14 Sal said he was going to make women's
00:07:16 boxing the next big thing.
00:07:18 He got the idea from a woman named Lady Tiger
00:07:22 after seeing her in the gym and training.
00:07:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:07:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:07:31 I was born in New York, Harlem.
00:07:37 Growing up in the projects was an all-bed.
00:07:45 We played jump rope.
00:07:50 We played double dutch.
00:07:52 Used to get into little street fights, little scraps.
00:07:57 When I fought, I would scratch.
00:07:59 And they called it Tiger marks.
00:08:01 So I got the name Tiger.
00:08:02 My father was an alcoholic.
00:08:11 He sometimes would get drunk, and he would lie down
00:08:14 in the lobby of the building.
00:08:17 People would actually rob him of the money for our rent, food,
00:08:22 and everything.
00:08:23 And it was all gone.
00:08:27 I loved my father, but that made it a little difficult for me.
00:08:33 One day, I came home, and I saw my father
00:08:36 watching Muhammad Ali.
00:08:39 He was going through the motions as if he was in the ring.
00:08:45 I look at my father and his enthusiasm,
00:08:48 and I felt that energy myself.
00:08:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:08:53 We would actually shadow box together in the apartment.
00:09:00 I said, you know what?
00:09:01 I think this is something that I want to do.
00:09:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:09:07 And when I told my father that I was interested in boxing,
00:09:12 he didn't say, oh, no, that's not for girls.
00:09:16 No, he didn't have that attitude at all.
00:09:19 So I went looking for somewhere to train.
00:09:23 I went from gym to gym, but they would laugh at me and say,
00:09:26 this is not a sport for women.
00:09:29 No one would take me in.
00:09:30 Women's boxing in the early '70s was--
00:09:38 it really was more or less non-existent.
00:09:40 When I started reading boxing magazines,
00:09:42 along with the Charles Atlas ads to get bigger muscles,
00:09:46 with ads for apartment boxing, and they
00:09:50 were selling these 8-millimeter films of women boxing,
00:09:54 sometimes topless.
00:09:56 And that was the extent of women boxing
00:09:59 in the '60s and early '70s.
00:10:03 I was determined to be a boxer, so I made business cards.
00:10:10 On the card, it said I was the first female boxer.
00:10:15 Eventually, a trainer accepted me,
00:10:17 and he brought me into his gym.
00:10:19 It was old-fashioned.
00:10:31 They initiated me with beating me up.
00:10:35 Busted lip, black eye, bloody nose.
00:10:42 They were like trophies to me.
00:10:45 The first time I saw Lady Tiger in the gym,
00:10:48 I thought, that's odd.
00:10:49 I hope she has her own dressing room.
00:10:52 There was no bathroom for women.
00:10:55 They had to tell their fellows to get out.
00:10:58 I started to take a shower there.
00:11:00 Then I noticed that they had a peephole.
00:11:04 Oh, my goodness.
00:11:05 I kept coming back.
00:11:11 I started getting better and better.
00:11:15 I eventually earned their respect.
00:11:19 But one day, someone at the gym told me,
00:11:22 the State Athletic Commission has a rule.
00:11:27 No women can be licensed as a boxer.
00:11:32 So legally, I can't box.
00:11:36 I said, what?
00:11:37 I said, what are you talking about?
00:11:40 And what the hell is a boxing commission?
00:11:43 100-- no, 189--
00:11:47 188 pounds.
00:11:49 188 pounds.
00:11:52 The purpose of a boxing commission
00:11:54 is to supervise the sport.
00:11:56 A boxer has to be licensed by the State Athletic Commission.
00:12:00 The manager has to be licensed, even the announcer.
00:12:03 Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement here.
00:12:06 A boxing license represents everything,
00:12:08 because without a license, you can't box professionally.
00:12:12 You wouldn't get paid, so you can't make money.
00:12:16 In those days, the most powerful boxing commission
00:12:18 was New York State.
00:12:21 It was home to Madison Square Garden, the most famous arena
00:12:23 in the world.
00:12:24 It had more famous boxers than any other state.
00:12:28 So it was logical that the headquarters for boxing
00:12:31 should be New York City.
00:12:33 Because New York was the leader, other states followed.
00:12:37 They copied their book.
00:12:39 It was almost word for word--
00:12:41 Pennsylvania, Illinois, California.
00:12:46 They all thought that women do not belong in a boxing ring.
00:12:49 It's as simple as that.
00:13:04 Prospects for women back then was like kitchen, pregnant,
00:13:12 raising the babies, cooking.
00:13:18 I was 16 when I got married and I got pregnant.
00:13:21 And I was 17 when I had a second kid.
00:13:24 I was caged.
00:13:26 There was no freedom.
00:13:28 When I was 18, I thought I was going
00:13:31 to have a nervous breakdown.
00:13:32 I really wanted to commit suicide, to be honest with you.
00:13:34 My best friend and my cousin came and they said,
00:13:42 we're taking you to the gym.
00:13:44 Let's get you out of the house.
00:13:45 So we went to the San Pedro Locker Club.
00:13:51 I didn't have any money, so they snuck me in.
00:13:54 My best friend, she said, yeah, come on downstairs.
00:13:56 They got a boxing ring down there.
00:13:58 I said, wow, really?
00:13:59 Let's go check it out.
00:14:01 So I started hitting the bag.
00:14:02 I could feel like all the madness, the chaos,
00:14:14 the evil thoughts.
00:14:15 They all came out of my hands.
00:14:17 So many years of pain that I didn't
00:14:22 realize was going to come out.
00:14:23 My childhood, even though everything was weird,
00:14:30 everything was wonderful, bad things
00:14:33 happened to little kids.
00:14:36 And it did.
00:14:39 I think I was four, the latest five.
00:14:44 Oh, yeah.
00:14:44 Oh, yeah, somebody in the family.
00:14:47 Oh, yeah.
00:14:48 And everybody hid it.
00:14:49 It was a dirty little secret, dirty little lies.
00:14:53 Oh, you can't be telling the truth.
00:14:56 I'm a little girl.
00:14:58 I'm going to make this shit up.
00:15:00 When I met that heavy bag, that became my best friend by far.
00:15:05 Hitting something, hitting somebody was an outlet.
00:15:09 I like that part.
00:15:11 And lo and behold, here comes this big woman down the stairs.
00:15:16 I thought, shit, man, that bitch is going to turn around
00:15:23 and start telling me shit because I hadn't paid.
00:15:27 She's seen us box, and she liked what she's seen.
00:15:30 She said she wanted to be the first female boxing manager
00:15:35 and wanted me to be a pro-female boxer.
00:15:40 That was the first time I met Dee Knuckles, the manager
00:15:44 of San Pedro Locker Club.
00:15:47 Dee also told me that it was against the law
00:15:49 to box in California.
00:15:56 And you want me to do this?
00:15:59 She said, you'll go ahead and start boxing,
00:16:02 and I'll start doing what I need to do to find out where
00:16:05 we're going to go from here.
00:16:07 I didn't have nothing else going on in my life,
00:16:09 so I said, fuck it, why not?
00:16:10 New York State wasn't letting us box,
00:16:19 but I thought that I could change their minds.
00:16:22 So I decided to put on an exhibition
00:16:25 to show what real female boxers could do.
00:16:30 An exhibition is just a sparring match,
00:16:32 and we don't need a license.
00:16:34 It should never be mistaken for a real fight.
00:16:37 I needed an opponent, and I immediately
00:16:40 thought of Killer Diane.
00:16:43 I met her when I was a teenager.
00:16:45 You know what, I really don't want to talk about that.
00:16:54 [KISS]
00:16:56 No, let me stop.
00:17:00 That was just a joke.
00:17:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:17:04 Lady Tiger, she called me Killer Diane, and it stuck.
00:17:09 I had several fights under my belt,
00:17:13 but they were all street fighting.
00:17:17 Eventually, I found a venue that might accept us.
00:17:22 I was so, so happy.
00:17:24 Tiger and I were the first to try to put
00:17:27 on an exhibition like that.
00:17:29 It was on an all-male card, and we were the only females.
00:17:33 We were on the under undercard, OK?
00:17:37 That was like we were just kind of penciled in.
00:17:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:17:42 So I get to the venue.
00:17:49 My father's with me.
00:17:51 Next thing I know, I was told that we
00:17:54 would have to wait until all the men fight before we fight.
00:18:00 Oh my goodness.
00:18:01 So it's 8 o'clock, then 9 o'clock.
00:18:10 I thought it would never happen.
00:18:12 But I see the people coming in more and more,
00:18:15 and they're hyped because they wanted to see female boxers.
00:18:18 Oh, women box-- oh, I gots to see this.
00:18:23 At about 12 o'clock, they allowed women to go on.
00:18:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:18:30 [BELL RINGING]
00:18:33 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:18:36 We put on a good exhibition.
00:18:44 I realized that I had a dynamite hook.
00:18:48 You know, I was a legitimate hooker.
00:18:51 [BELL RINGING]
00:18:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:18:55 But out of the blue, a man says, those women should be shot.
00:19:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19:05 They considered female boxers fourth-class citizens.
00:19:09 They degraded you.
00:19:12 My father went berserk.
00:19:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19:15 Started to fight the guy.
00:19:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19:19 And it became a disaster.
00:19:22 It was distracting.
00:19:24 I couldn't concentrate.
00:19:26 It made me feel very angry.
00:19:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19:30 They had not taken it serious.
00:19:32 Thus, when I realized that women need to get a boxing license,
00:19:38 the license would make us legitimate.
00:19:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19:44 So I decided to go to the State Athletic Commission
00:19:50 to apply for a boxing license.
00:19:54 New York was the mecca of boxing.
00:19:58 That was where it was so important to be
00:20:01 licensed in that state.
00:20:04 I saw another female boxer called Jackie Tanawanda.
00:20:08 She was applying for a license also.
00:20:13 It was a relief.
00:20:14 I have someone else that's interested in boxing.
00:20:19 Me and Tana, you see, I'd like to get the license.
00:20:23 I'd like to very much fight in Madison Square Garden.
00:20:27 I had an interest in getting me and my family out
00:20:31 of the ghetto.
00:20:33 And I thought that boxing would be the vehicle for that.
00:20:37 So I wish I was there at that meeting.
00:20:42 Will they accept it?
00:20:44 Will they give me a license?
00:20:47 I don't know what they thought.
00:20:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:20:52 I had been coming along well with the training.
00:21:00 And I felt confident that I could box very well.
00:21:06 Sal was very anxious for me to get in the ring.
00:21:10 Come here.
00:21:11 You're doing the same thing as the other night.
00:21:13 Your head is way up.
00:21:14 Get the shoulder into it, man.
00:21:16 That's how you got to get--
00:21:17 So the next thing, he's organizing an exhibition.
00:21:20 I guess it's time to get in and find out what I can do.
00:21:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:21:26 If you knock down and the bell rings, the count continues.
00:21:31 You have to get up.
00:21:32 I can't be saved by the bell.
00:21:33 You can't be saved by the bell except for the last ring.
00:21:36 I get in the dressing room.
00:21:38 And that's when I started thinking, I'm an educated woman.
00:21:42 And I'm going to go try to beat somebody up.
00:21:45 I was having a complete existential meltdown
00:21:47 by that time.
00:21:48 So it's time to go fight.
00:21:55 We get in the ring.
00:21:56 We started boxing.
00:21:57 Boom, boom, boom.
00:21:58 She came up with a hard right and hit me in the nose.
00:22:03 And it hurt.
00:22:05 So I went back to the dressing room.
00:22:07 And I had to talk to myself in the mirror,
00:22:11 blood running down my lips.
00:22:13 And I said, this is never going to happen again,
00:22:18 or you're going to get out of this.
00:22:20 We went back to the gym.
00:22:22 Sal said, if you keep that arm in their face,
00:22:28 you'll never get hit.
00:22:29 The push, she can't even see where she's going.
00:22:31 And you throw your left foot to her face.
00:22:33 Sal was going to make sure I didn't get hit,
00:22:36 because he wanted to sell this face.
00:22:38 Come on, get the elbow down, OK?
00:22:40 He made me a deal.
00:22:43 He was going to be the promoter.
00:22:46 I was going to be the product.
00:22:48 Sell me, baby.
00:22:49 Make me some money.
00:22:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:22:54 Well, I'm looking at the notes of the athletic commission.
00:23:13 You have two women who applied.
00:23:14 They call practically every day.
00:23:16 Well, they were persistent.
00:23:18 The women have had no experience,
00:23:20 and they are in different weights.
00:23:22 Who are they going to fight?
00:23:24 You can't have them fight with men.
00:23:26 And I see Frank Morris is the commissioner who said this.
00:23:29 I had a lot of respect for Frank Morris.
00:23:31 He's old school boxing.
00:23:33 I don't think women should be referees, judges, or boxers.
00:23:37 Boxing is for men.
00:23:39 Oh, boy.
00:23:41 The doctors on the commission are not in favor of it.
00:23:44 The impact of a blow can hurt a woman.
00:23:46 The impact of a blow can hurt the women physically.
00:23:50 Oh, I got to take a deep breath on that one.
00:23:53 [BREATHING DEEPLY]
00:23:56 That's-- OK, this is what they said.
00:24:01 If you get hit in the stomach, you
00:24:03 won't be able to have children.
00:24:06 Oh, please.
00:24:07 Give me a break.
00:24:10 They were turned down.
00:24:13 I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
00:24:15 You know, I want this opportunity.
00:24:17 I want to--
00:24:18 I want to fight.
00:24:19 Then, in September 1975, everything changed.
00:24:27 The first professional fight between women
00:24:33 was sanctioned by the state boxing commission
00:24:35 after pressure from women's rights groups.
00:24:37 Carolyn Spencer says she learned her trade settling
00:24:40 fights when she was a bartender.
00:24:43 I was like, women boxing?
00:24:45 Are you kidding me?
00:24:47 It was the first woman to ever fight in the state of Nevada.
00:24:52 This was a serious thing.
00:24:54 I was so happy, you know.
00:24:56 I was thinking that this is a step forward.
00:25:00 I was training in decomps.
00:25:04 She says, I want you to hear this,
00:25:05 because this woman in Nevada had been licensed.
00:25:09 Oh, shit, I'm not alone.
00:25:10 Thank you, Jesus.
00:25:12 Nobody's beat my record, and nobody's knocked me out.
00:25:15 How many fights?
00:25:16 I've done one.
00:25:17 But Nevada has always been an anything goes kind of place.
00:25:24 Everything's legal.
00:25:26 Because we couldn't get license in the state of New York,
00:25:29 what we needed was a real big state, like California.
00:25:33 So Dee and I agreed.
00:25:35 The game plan is to go to Nevada to get a license,
00:25:43 come back to California.
00:25:45 Once you go pro, you can't go amateur no more.
00:25:51 So then I would say, I want my license in California.
00:25:56 So they had to let me get my license.
00:25:58 Dee Knuckles found an opponent for me,
00:26:04 and her name was Kim Mabee.
00:26:07 I was happy.
00:26:08 I was excited.
00:26:10 But the public, they don't want women boxing.
00:26:14 Women boxing?
00:26:16 It's like a comedy thing.
00:26:18 I mean, it's very embarrassing.
00:26:20 Women ain't made to be hitting the breast, face like that.
00:26:25 Your body's not made to be punched.
00:26:27 A woman could never be a good boxer.
00:26:31 How could any woman who, just by her daily existence,
00:26:34 weights on men, how could they possibly go in the ring
00:26:38 and start throwing punches?
00:26:39 Women think that they can really do
00:26:46 the things that men can do.
00:26:47 I don't really think so.
00:26:48 I don't think it's a sport for women,
00:26:55 because they're not physically constituted to be boxers.
00:26:58 It's just not a sport for them.
00:27:00 [GUNFIRE]
00:27:02 The morning the day before the fight, I get a call from Dee.
00:27:06 She said that the gym had been burned.
00:27:09 They didn't burn the whole gym.
00:27:16 It was the area where my stuff was at.
00:27:19 And the policeman had to come.
00:27:23 Dee told them she's had a lot of death threats.
00:27:26 And I was like, what death threats?
00:27:29 They want to hurt you, Pat.
00:27:32 She hands me the letters.
00:27:35 They were predominantly males being vicious and mean,
00:27:41 things they would like to do.
00:27:42 And who sends all these letters threatening?
00:27:46 Who wants to hurt me and my children
00:27:47 when I didn't do anything to nobody?
00:27:49 All I wanted to do was box for crying out loud.
00:27:52 What the fuck?
00:27:53 Can somebody give me a break?
00:27:56 Dee kept the letters from me because she
00:27:58 thought that if I had any inclination to this stuff,
00:28:02 I would stop boxing.
00:28:04 But you know what?
00:28:05 All the rage, the hate, the--
00:28:08 you guys are not going to stop me.
00:28:09 You can't.
00:28:10 You can't.
00:28:11 This is something I want.
00:28:12 I'm ready for it.
00:28:27 For the first time in California boxing history,
00:28:29 two women squared off in the ring tonight.
00:28:33 There's 10,000 people there.
00:28:36 They had the police escort me into the ring
00:28:38 because they were afraid that somebody was going to shoot me.
00:28:41 You get in the ring, and you got the crowd that doesn't
00:28:51 like what you're doing.
00:28:53 So you really heard that hate.
00:28:55 [CROWD ROARING]
00:28:58 You actually really heard it from more of the women.
00:29:03 You know, these fucking broads, you know, check them out.
00:29:05 They think they can fucking fight,
00:29:07 and they're nothing but a bunch of little bitches.
00:29:08 I'm only 20 years old.
00:29:14 Scared shitless.
00:29:19 And if things weren't already complicated enough,
00:29:23 I was carrying a secret that nobody knew.
00:29:25 I got a routine physical from my physician.
00:29:32 He gave me a clean bill of health,
00:29:37 but indicated that I was pregnant.
00:29:40 And then he said, so you can't box.
00:29:47 I don't want the baby to get hurt, but at the same time,
00:29:51 I know that I have to do this.
00:29:53 It was about becoming somebody.
00:29:56 So I said, you have to change this.
00:30:00 I want to fight.
00:30:02 Poor guy, he didn't know whether to trust me or not.
00:30:03 But he said, OK.
00:30:10 I told Dee that I was pregnant.
00:30:13 Dee was like, so are you going to fight?
00:30:15 And I said, well, hell yeah, I'm going to fight.
00:30:19 Showtime.
00:30:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:30:23 There's Kim Maybee.
00:30:27 Oh my god.
00:30:28 I was 5'4".
00:30:29 She was 6'1".
00:30:30 I'm like a little looking up at her like, oh shit,
00:30:33 I'm going to get killed.
00:30:36 It's a mismatch, but I was thinking, let it stop me.
00:30:39 They were-- all of a sudden, I started
00:30:44 hearing the different, you know, the changing of the minds,
00:30:48 the tone in their voices, you know.
00:30:50 Like, wow, I think they enjoyed it.
00:30:57 But all of a sudden, she went for my stomach.
00:31:00 The reality kicked in, the baby.
00:31:03 And it was like, oh shit.
00:31:04 So then I start covering up more.
00:31:06 She clocked me.
00:31:08 And it was like, whoa.
00:31:17 And then the referees in front of me going like this,
00:31:19 pat, pat.
00:31:20 And the fight was over.
00:31:25 She ended up winning, but I didn't care because I did it.
00:31:29 And I was ecstatic.
00:31:30 I accomplished what I wanted.
00:31:34 Which was?
00:31:36 Which was being the first female licensed in California
00:31:40 and the first fight in California.
00:31:42 And I became California's first pro female boxer.
00:31:48 And the baby that I had nine months later
00:31:55 was healthy as can be.
00:31:59 Tonight's fight did make boxing history.
00:32:01 Fighter and audience agree there is
00:32:03 a place for women in the ring.
00:32:09 Once Pat Panita was licensed in the state of California,
00:32:13 it was like a domino effect.
00:32:15 Other states started issuing licenses.
00:32:20 Oregon, Washington, Utah, Connecticut,
00:32:24 and the list goes on.
00:32:26 How much does she weigh, Commissioner?
00:32:30 746 pounds.
00:32:34 130 pounds, fine.
00:32:36 Very good.
00:32:39 Sharon Albury at the beauty party.
00:32:41 At the same time, 21-year-old Zenda Foster
00:32:43 was finishing her day at work.
00:32:45 That night, the two women met.
00:32:48 The first professional fight between women in Washington.
00:32:51 Women are beautiful and great.
00:33:05 I left New York and I did a tour.
00:33:08 And I was the first to fight in Canada, Pennsylvania,
00:33:15 Connecticut.
00:33:17 We're going to see a film clip of the first female boxing
00:33:20 match in the history of Connecticut.
00:33:23 Observers say there was no question the fighters
00:33:25 were of professional caliber.
00:33:28 They said, you know, they thought that I was crazy.
00:33:30 A woman wanting to box?
00:33:32 I showed them my sincerity.
00:33:33 And they saw what I could do.
00:33:35 There were other women in smaller states
00:33:43 that were getting licenses to fight.
00:33:46 So Sal and I decided to just go down and apply
00:33:50 for a license in New York.
00:33:52 We marched down to the commissioner's office,
00:33:56 filled out an application.
00:33:59 And I gave it to the New York athletic commissioner
00:34:01 at the time.
00:34:02 And he looked me straight in the eye.
00:34:05 And he tore it up in front of me and put it in the trash can.
00:34:12 What a fuck you moment.
00:34:14 So you don't think they should grant women
00:34:15 their license in New York?
00:34:16 Definitely not.
00:34:17 Not as fighters.
00:34:18 They want to do it as wrestlers, which is an exhibition.
00:34:22 That's fine.
00:34:22 But as fighters, where they can actually get hurt,
00:34:24 I'm very much against it.
00:34:25 Without New York on board, the sport
00:34:31 wasn't going to go anywhere.
00:34:35 Women needed to be able to have a license in that state.
00:34:41 I wanted to be the first to fight in New York.
00:34:43 But I wouldn't have that opportunity without a license.
00:34:46 And then I got a call from a lady
00:34:48 by the name of Dee Knuckles, who said that she
00:34:51 would manage me in California.
00:34:54 My family was very skeptical about it.
00:34:57 They were saying, you don't know this lady.
00:35:01 How do you know it's not a setup?
00:35:03 But I took a chance.
00:35:05 I took a gamble.
00:35:06 I left and went to California.
00:35:09 Dee Knuckles had a gym.
00:35:19 And I met Pat Pineda there.
00:35:21 When I first met Tiger, I thought, this bitch is crazy.
00:35:27 But I liked her because I knew her heart was
00:35:29 in the right place and she was the real deal.
00:35:31 Dee Knuckles wanted California to be
00:35:36 the center of boxing for women.
00:35:38 I was at the after school program for troubled kids.
00:35:45 And Dee Knuckles came in and said,
00:35:47 are you girls interested in doing any fighting?
00:35:51 Sure, I am.
00:35:52 Lydia, she was the leader of a gang at 15.
00:35:55 She actually had a killer instinct, bottom line.
00:35:59 I had the power.
00:36:00 Boxing, it sparked something in me.
00:36:06 It felt good to punch somebody legally,
00:36:09 like you're not going to go to jail.
00:36:11 You have the right to do it.
00:36:14 The women are just kind of popping up everywhere.
00:36:18 There was Diane Severson, Princess Red Star,
00:36:22 and LaVon Lutien, the grandmother.
00:36:26 I passed my age and I thought, oh boy,
00:36:29 will I be able to pass an EEG or EKG, which is
00:36:33 the one that checks the heart.
00:36:34 But anyway, I passed it.
00:36:36 I just told them I was 29, but I had to be closer to 40.
00:36:41 They didn't guess that I was an old lady.
00:36:46 And then there was me.
00:36:47 I wanted to be a police officer, but they said
00:36:51 I was 1/2 inch too short.
00:36:54 I used to do exercises every day trying
00:36:56 to get up to that height.
00:36:59 But instead, I got into women's boxing.
00:37:03 I wanted to be part of history.
00:37:07 We had the same goal in life, to be taken seriously
00:37:11 as professional fighters or professional athletes.
00:37:16 We saw the importance that we needed
00:37:18 federations that would rank the women just like the males.
00:37:21 So on the West Coast, they set up the WBB,
00:37:24 the Women's Boxing Board.
00:37:26 And Lady Tiger was ranked on the top.
00:37:30 There was nobody that could compete with her.
00:37:33 Lady Tiger Premier.
00:37:35 [CROWD CHEERING]
00:37:37 Throws kisses to the audience and shows
00:37:39 that she's definitely a showman.
00:37:40 I sparred with her quite a few times.
00:37:47 You know, she was hard to hit.
00:37:48 She's a pro, and she's special.
00:37:51 It's because she always kept her head down.
00:37:54 She had strategy about her.
00:37:56 I'm not one to brag, but I have to admit that I was pretty good.
00:38:05 And then I heard about a fighter on the East Coast.
00:38:09 I see Cat Davis making her way into the ring.
00:38:17 In the East Coast, Sal had set up another federation, DWBF,
00:38:21 or the Women's Boxing Federation.
00:38:25 Sal and I decided to go around the country
00:38:28 to these other states outside New York.
00:38:30 Cathy Cat Davis!
00:38:37 I was winning all my fights.
00:38:46 The winner, by a knockout, Cathy Cat Davis.
00:38:49 So on the East Coast, with the WBF, we had Cat at the top.
00:38:59 On the West Coast, with the WBB, Tiger was ranked at the top.
00:39:05 There was a rivalry there, and Tiger,
00:39:08 she wanted to beat her ass.
00:39:10 I really, really wanted to fight Cat Davis because she
00:39:14 was in my weight class.
00:39:15 But I never heard from her or any of the people
00:39:19 that was working with her.
00:39:21 Sal was involved with all the business of it.
00:39:23 He found out who I was going to fight.
00:39:26 So I don't know exactly what was going on there.
00:39:30 But we were focused on New York.
00:39:33 Without the New York Athletic Commission on board,
00:39:36 women's boxing was going nowhere fast.
00:39:39 I had to get that New York license.
00:39:42 So we decided to do this protest exhibition.
00:39:46 We'd get a lot of publicity.
00:39:47 The Athletic Commission was livid.
00:39:54 [SCREAMING]
00:39:57 You got to stop it.
00:39:58 These guys are from the New York Athletic Commission.
00:40:01 The Boxing Commission says to Mr. Manning, you got to stop it.
00:40:04 Oh my god, I think she should do what she wants.
00:40:06 I think she should do what she wants.
00:40:08 You got to stop it.
00:40:09 Oh my god, I think she should do what she wants.
00:40:11 She has her rights.
00:40:13 What difference does it make if she wants to fight?
00:40:15 She should be able to fight.
00:40:17 Let's get this out of here.
00:40:18 What are you going to do, arrest everybody that's involved?
00:40:21 Is it necessary?
00:40:22 They don't have any jurisdiction over it.
00:40:24 They should go out.
00:40:25 We don't have a license.
00:40:26 So I don't think they can do anything
00:40:28 to lock us up for misdemeanor, maybe disturbing
00:40:30 the peace or something.
00:40:31 My orders are, make it stop or we arrest them.
00:40:34 So they couldn't arrest him because he's a guy.
00:40:37 And it's perfectly legal for him.
00:40:39 But for me, they would have to arrest me for being a woman,
00:40:43 which was silly.
00:40:44 Why did the commission call the police the other day
00:40:46 and stop you?
00:40:47 Well, simply because it's not legal.
00:40:51 It's not legal for a woman to box.
00:40:53 In California, I was really struggling to make a living.
00:41:03 It's a wonder I wasn't on the boulevard with a tin cup.
00:41:08 We couldn't make as much money as men.
00:41:11 I realized that we needed a big boxing promoter
00:41:16 to get the sport going.
00:41:18 What does a boxing promoter do?
00:41:24 He hustles and sells.
00:41:25 He convinces the boxers to fight, the money men
00:41:28 and television executives to invest,
00:41:30 and the public to watch.
00:41:31 In the mid-'70s, there were two major promoters,
00:41:34 and that was Don King.
00:41:35 Today I'm standing in the glory of the Lord,
00:41:37 again being blessed by him who sits high and looks low.
00:41:40 And Bob Arum.
00:41:41 My name is Bob Arum.
00:41:43 I'm the attorney for Muhammad Ali.
00:41:45 Both promoters operated from New York,
00:41:48 and basically, they monopolized the sport.
00:41:51 We have taken on all the big institutions,
00:41:53 such as Madison Square Garden,
00:41:54 and all the major ones across the world.
00:41:57 Boxing is closer to show business
00:41:59 than it is to any other professional sport.
00:42:02 If the fighter is good and he has charisma,
00:42:05 you've got a gold mine.
00:42:06 They have to pay me $8 million that night.
00:42:08 What they pay him is their business,
00:42:11 but they have to pay me $8.
00:42:12 We had to think about how women should market themselves.
00:42:16 We realized how important setting our image was.
00:42:20 Boxing was a man's sport.
00:42:23 It is aggressive.
00:42:25 It's not pretty.
00:42:27 But in the media,
00:42:29 women were expected to just be prim and proper.
00:42:34 So I made sure everywhere I showed up,
00:42:36 I got makeup on, hair done, everything.
00:42:40 Or the men would have felt threatened.
00:42:44 You have to ask yourself,
00:42:45 what are you willing to compromise
00:42:47 to get where you want to go?
00:42:50 Dee Knuckles, she tried to make me like a showgirl.
00:42:53 And someone tried to pick me up
00:42:55 because he thought I was a hooker.
00:42:57 I didn't understand it.
00:43:01 Because I didn't really know what a hooker was.
00:43:03 I was innocent.
00:43:05 You know?
00:43:07 [music]
00:43:09 One fighter that didn't compromise with anything?
00:43:13 Tiger.
00:43:15 Definitely Tiger.
00:43:17 [music]
00:43:22 No, I didn't shave my head for boxing,
00:43:25 but now it's considered a trademark.
00:43:28 I like to be unique.
00:43:29 I like to be different.
00:43:30 That's one of the reasons I have the shaved head.
00:43:34 People might think that it was a masculine move,
00:43:39 but you don't have to have hair to be a woman.
00:43:43 For me, it was important to be an individual.
00:43:50 She was ahead of her time,
00:43:53 where we were all tunnel-visioned.
00:43:58 There was never any doubt in my mind
00:44:00 who was going to be the poster girl.
00:44:03 She's a 23-year-old, 5'10", 135-pound blonde
00:44:06 named Kathy "Kat" Davis.
00:44:08 And of course, the logical question is,
00:44:10 what's a girl like you doing in a sport like boxing?
00:44:13 She was a beautiful-looking blonde,
00:44:15 really easy on the eye.
00:44:18 She was in the magazines, the newspapers.
00:44:23 I was the first woman on the cover of Ring magazine.
00:44:27 It created such a controversy,
00:44:29 and the people who still didn't want us to have a license
00:44:32 were incensed.
00:44:34 When I saw Kat Davis on the cover of Ring magazine,
00:44:38 I thought, "Okay, how low can Ring magazine go?"
00:44:43 Kat Davis set the benchmark
00:44:46 for how other women should market themselves in the sport.
00:44:51 Sal wanted me to be more feminine,
00:44:53 and he said he didn't want to be associated with feminists,
00:44:58 with those kind of women, he said,
00:45:01 so that it would be more acceptable
00:45:06 to a wider range of people.
00:45:08 How many men have you hit?
00:45:10 Never hit a man in my life.
00:45:11 You're kidding.
00:45:12 No, I'm not a fighter outside the ring.
00:45:14 Outside the ring, you're a...
00:45:16 I'm a pussycat.
00:45:18 Sal moved to a central apartment,
00:45:20 and we lived together, just the two of us.
00:45:25 The arrangement was we were still manager and boxer.
00:45:32 Uh...
00:45:34 But he was trying to create a relationship
00:45:40 other than just boxing.
00:45:44 He actually put the rumors out
00:45:46 that we were engaged and going to get married.
00:45:51 But it was a lie.
00:45:54 And I would debunk that.
00:45:56 I would say, "No, we're not engaged."
00:46:00 But after a while, everybody took it as the truth.
00:46:06 ♪♪
00:46:12 Well, there's always a lot of the boxing trainers
00:46:26 that want to have sex with you.
00:46:28 And if you didn't go with them,
00:46:30 they would say that you were gay, you know.
00:46:34 Dating, it was a little difficult.
00:46:38 One day, a guy was walking me home,
00:46:40 and then a lady in the building said,
00:46:42 "Tiger, when is your next fight?"
00:46:44 And he said, "Fight? Oh, you're a boxer?"
00:46:46 And I never saw him again.
00:46:48 [ Laughter ]
00:46:51 I really wanted to be married
00:46:54 and have maybe two or three kids.
00:46:56 But boxing was my priority, you know,
00:47:00 and I had to do it while I was young.
00:47:02 That was the sacrifice that I made to box.
00:47:05 Women should be able to participate in all walks of life.
00:47:08 This is America, and everything should be open to everybody.
00:47:11 Tiger was a one-woman campaigning machine.
00:47:14 She was, like, nonstop, 24/7,
00:47:17 out for any female that wanted to box.
00:47:20 Most of my fight was outside of the ring,
00:47:24 going on a hunger strike.
00:47:26 [ Indistinct shouting ]
00:47:28 Picketing, commission meetings.
00:47:31 I wrote letters, petitions,
00:47:34 all of these things to promote female fighters.
00:47:38 Lady Tiger did everything
00:47:41 to change the minds about women's boxing.
00:47:44 I had my doubts about women boxing,
00:47:49 but, hey, it looks sensational to me.
00:47:52 I mean, if they got the guts to do it
00:47:54 and the determination, I think they should try.
00:47:56 Would you like your sister to box?
00:47:58 Yeah, I would like my sister to box.
00:48:00 Every time Don King came to California,
00:48:05 I would be right there to ask him to promote women's boxing.
00:48:10 Eventually, he said that he would.
00:48:13 Don King, he said he promises to use women's boxing,
00:48:16 so I want everybody to put pressure on him
00:48:18 because he made that promise to us.
00:48:20 [ Cheers and applause ]
00:48:22 All right!
00:48:28 Suddenly, I'm hearing from Don King, Bob Arum,
00:48:31 the big promoters,
00:48:33 and they want to put me in Madison Square Garden,
00:48:35 the biggest venue in town,
00:48:37 which was a big deal.
00:48:40 I would be making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:48:44 Time for a party, baby!
00:48:47 [ Laughs ]
00:48:49 Why didn't Don King offer you a contract?
00:48:55 That's a good question.
00:48:58 [ Sighs ]
00:49:03 Finally, we were on the verge of getting legitimacy,
00:49:06 but the one caveat was we had to have a license in New York,
00:49:10 which we hadn't gotten yet.
00:49:12 We needed help with the fight.
00:49:15 I graduated in 1974,
00:49:20 and the first time I went to court,
00:49:23 the judge looked at me and said,
00:49:25 "When's the lawyer coming here?"
00:49:27 And I said, "Judge, I am the lawyer."
00:49:30 I met Cat and Sal,
00:49:33 and they told me women were prohibited
00:49:36 from getting a license to box in New York,
00:49:39 and I said, "Well, that doesn't sound right."
00:49:42 The New York State Athletic Commission
00:49:45 said that women's boxing would possibly lead to pornography.
00:49:51 I was seeing two women boxes, you know, everybody's fantasy.
00:49:57 "This could cause irreparable harm to the image of the sport
00:50:01 and ultimately act to the financial detriment
00:50:04 of those whose livelihoods depend upon this activity,"
00:50:07 meaning men.
00:50:09 I felt the denial of licenses to women
00:50:12 was a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution,
00:50:16 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of being a woman.
00:50:21 They can sue.
00:50:23 The attractive blonde boxer served papers
00:50:25 on the New York State Athletic Commission today,
00:50:28 requiring the commission to show cause
00:50:30 why she's being refused a license to box in this state.
00:50:33 Beautiful, all right.
00:50:35 Now, you're going to step in under and bring the uppercut up, right?
00:50:40 Maybe we were moving toward getting a boxing license,
00:50:44 but behind the scenes it was getting more tense.
00:50:48 All right, get ready.
00:50:51 Work. Go ahead now.
00:50:54 Sal was putting more pressure on me to be his wife.
00:50:58 He was very insistent.
00:51:01 You know, he would kiss me and hold me.
00:51:05 I realized how controlled I felt.
00:51:09 [footsteps]
00:51:11 I needed an escape from that,
00:51:18 so I enrolled in a university.
00:51:21 I was teaching women's studies.
00:51:28 I walked into class,
00:51:31 and there halfway back was this really striking woman.
00:51:36 I was immediately curious about her.
00:51:40 I had a women's studies professor.
00:51:43 She would talk about different things in her life that she was doing--
00:51:47 rock climbing and traveling.
00:51:50 And I started noticing I was envious of her.
00:51:54 Her freedom was very alluring to me.
00:51:58 I didn't know women boxed.
00:52:02 She told me about the relationship between manager and athlete.
00:52:08 This sounds like pimp and prostitute.
00:52:11 No wonder this woman is uncomfortable.
00:52:14 You know, every month we would get together and do something.
00:52:19 And one afternoon we were hanging out,
00:52:23 and she leaned over and kissed me.
00:52:29 It changed my whole life.
00:52:32 I knew I had been denying something,
00:52:38 only half of me living.
00:52:43 Being gay was a horrible thing.
00:52:55 It was...
00:52:59 It's hard to explain the gravity of what happened to you
00:53:07 if you came out as being gay.
00:53:10 It's so senseless.
00:53:12 You love a person, and you have to pay for it in such a dire way.
00:53:21 A gay is not a creation of God.
00:53:25 There is hope for the homosexuals that if they're willing to turn from sin,
00:53:30 they can be ex-homosexuals,
00:53:32 the same as there can be an ex-murderer, an ex-thief, or ex-anybody.
00:53:36 A lot of people, male and female, are homophobic.
00:53:40 And people think, "Oh, are they this or are they that?"
00:53:44 Instead of, "We're just women that are interested in boxing."
00:53:48 [thumping]
00:53:52 Beverly and I, we couldn't see each other very often,
00:53:58 so we started exchanging letters.
00:54:00 One day Sal found a love letter that she had sent me.
00:54:04 And he blew up.
00:54:10 Sal said it was going to tear women's boxing apart.
00:54:17 We were doing something that upset the roles we have in society.
00:54:23 If we were exposed as gay,
00:54:28 it would confirm all of the naysayers that it was just a gay thing.
00:54:34 Sal gave her an ultimatum, him or me.
00:54:42 Foolish move on his part.
00:54:44 Because it's pretty clear to me what she's going to choose here.
00:54:49 It was the best thing for the sport,
00:54:58 for me to be straight.
00:55:01 So I decided to break it off.
00:55:09 [somber music]
00:55:13 It felt like a huge disappointment.
00:55:19 Dare I say, almost betrayal.
00:55:24 It was such a sacrifice.
00:55:36 But I had to make it to get the license and change history.
00:55:41 I was 27, three years out of law school,
00:55:48 with very little experience,
00:55:51 suing New York State, you know, a division of New York State,
00:55:55 on what the hell was I thinking?
00:55:58 Then I discovered Kat's license was denied
00:56:03 on the recommendation of the Medical Advisory Board.
00:56:07 But I subsequently learned that the Medical Advisory Board had never met.
00:56:13 Gotcha.
00:56:15 How stupid are you?
00:56:18 You're going to do something, at least do it right,
00:56:20 so you don't get caught.
00:56:22 Then I received a call,
00:56:27 and they told me that the court agreed
00:56:32 that prohibiting women from being licensed to box in New York State
00:56:37 was unconstitutional and discriminatory,
00:56:40 and that I could call Kat and say, "You're getting a license."
00:56:45 It just, it was wonderful.
00:56:47 Wow, yes!
00:56:49 A recent state Supreme Court decision
00:56:51 allowing women the right to fight professionally.
00:56:54 Things were really rolling,
00:56:58 so I blew out to New York.
00:57:02 [train whistle]
00:57:04 The day finally comes,
00:57:12 and I go right down to the State Athletic Commission.
00:57:16 I can't believe we finally got this far.
00:57:22 Fingerprints, pictures, and they're going to accept it all.
00:57:27 They're going to give out the boxing license
00:57:31 to Jackie Tanawanda, Kat Davis, and myself.
00:57:36 We have three women with us today
00:57:39 who are among the first to apply for licenses within this state.
00:57:43 They gave us our license,
00:57:46 the little piece of paper that we had fought so hard for.
00:57:49 And we got it!
00:57:53 And we got it!
00:57:56 Oh, my God. It was a big thing.
00:58:04 The money was going to come.
00:58:06 Everything was going to come with it.
00:58:08 The New York license wasn't just a piece of paper.
00:58:11 It was a symbol of achievement.
00:58:14 New York was the final piece of the puzzle.
00:58:20 This was a massive deal.
00:58:23 After waiting all that time,
00:58:45 I should have been happy.
00:58:48 But what they did was,
00:58:51 they handed Kat Davis the license first.
00:58:55 Even though Jackie and I were the first to apply,
00:59:01 you know, everybody knew getting the license first means a lot.
00:59:06 Lady Tiger wasn't happy, and she was grumbling a bit
00:59:10 because she and Jackie had been trying for a license before me.
00:59:15 And they were a bit annoyed that the cracker got the license first.
00:59:20 I feel hurt for Tiger.
00:59:24 It's like they shouldn't have done it that way to her.
00:59:28 Kat was white. The great white hope.
00:59:32 And in boxing, that was a big thing.
00:59:35 Although all three of them got the license,
00:59:39 it was clear that it was all about one of them.
00:59:43 Our guest's name is Kat Davis.
00:59:46 Kat Davis was on this TV show.
00:59:51 What are you going to fight in Madison Square Garden, and could you fill it?
00:59:54 Oh, yes, definitely I should.
00:59:56 On that TV show.
00:59:58 The financial independence I have now is mainly through boxing, from boxing.
01:00:04 And good management.
01:00:06 And good management, and good publicity.
01:00:08 And what else did you tell me to say?
01:00:11 Now that we've got the license,
01:00:13 the deal at Madison Square Garden was going to come through.
01:00:16 I got an offer of $150,000.
01:00:20 I'm a native New Yorker, and I wanted to fight at Madison Square Garden.
01:00:30 And I wanted to fight Kat Davis, but that didn't happen.
01:00:37 I never had an opportunity to fight in New York.
01:00:41 I got my license, and I was never able to use it.
01:00:50 I had no other choice but to go back to California.
01:01:06 I was in really bad shape financially.
01:01:09 And a friend of mine told me about another way of making money.
01:01:15 Apartment boxing.
01:01:17 Oh my goodness.
01:01:19 Shit.
01:01:31 It was women that would box businessmen who got off on it sexually.
01:01:38 That's what they wanted to spend their money on, was getting their ass kicked.
01:01:42 And they loved it.
01:01:44 You don't get naked, you don't take off your clothes, nothing like that.
01:01:48 But some people might call it a form of prostitution.
01:01:59 It meant that I was able to pay my rent and pay my bills,
01:02:03 so that I could continue with my career.
01:02:07 But with women's boxing, you don't know what to expect.
01:02:23 A couple of weeks after Lady Tiger and Kat Davis got their boxing licenses,
01:02:29 an article came out in the Village Voice.
01:02:33 It dropped a bomb in the sport.
01:02:37 Kat Davis is a kinky media phenomenon, a product of the great American hype machine.
01:02:42 Kat is a lady boxer who is white, blonde, and pretty.
01:02:46 White, pretty, and not what she appears to be.
01:02:50 Her manager, Sal Aljuri, is a tank artist and accused of fight fixing.
01:02:56 Sal and Kat were known for being a little underhanded.
01:03:11 I'm sorry. I shouldn't say bad things about people.
01:03:16 But when they offered a fight to me, I told them that I was out of shape.
01:03:22 That I hadn't been working out.
01:03:24 So I told them I don't think I should do it.
01:03:28 They said, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's just an exhibition."
01:03:34 I got on the ring with Kat Davis, and boy, I'm telling you, she came on like gangbusters.
01:03:42 Ooh, that's a good right backhand, baby.
01:03:45 Ooh, that's a good right, no left.
01:03:47 Another one, another one.
01:03:49 My trainer says, "They're serious about this fight. They're going to beat you up."
01:03:54 Ooh, that's a good right, baby.
01:03:56 Ooh, that's a good right.
01:03:58 I don't know that's a good right.
01:04:00 My trainer, he saw how defeated I felt over the whole scenario.
01:04:07 It caused me to quit, and that made me sad.
01:04:10 She's hurt.
01:04:12 Sal Algeria and Kat Davis, they just were not good for the boxing picture.
01:04:19 It was really shocking when this article came out.
01:04:25 I don't know if she knew or had any kind of idea that Sal was fixing her fights.
01:04:35 I don't know.
01:04:40 [CROWD CHEERING]
01:04:42 I really can't remember any fights that looked like they were fake.
01:05:05 Kat Davis, who in 16 fights has won 15 by knockouts.
01:05:09 When somebody hits the ground with a thud, that's a real knockout.
01:05:16 Nobody could say, "I was a fake."
01:05:19 Maybe she knew and was in on it.
01:05:29 Or maybe she had no idea and truly believed she was a great fighter.
01:05:35 I'm standing on the business end of a punching bag.
01:05:47 The women's lightweight boxing champion of the world, so certified by the Women's Boxing Federation.
01:05:53 Have you ever been hurt, knocked out?
01:05:56 No.
01:05:57 What happens when you do?
01:05:58 I don't think it'll ever happen.
01:05:59 When do you defend your title next?
01:06:01 Well, my next fight is a non-title fight in Atlanta, Georgia.
01:06:05 Ernestine was like my daughter.
01:06:10 She was such a sweetheart.
01:06:12 And she'd come down to the gym and sit there and watch the guys.
01:06:15 And I started teaching her how to box a little bit.
01:06:18 She just wanted to stay in it and wanted to be a boxer.
01:06:21 So I took her to Georgia, and she met Kat Davis.
01:06:25 I heard that Sal talked with Ernestine's manager before the fight
01:06:29 and said, "Your girl got to lose."
01:06:32 "She has got to lose because a black girl has no market value."
01:06:38 I thought that was just mean, but it's reality here.
01:06:44 It's reality.
01:06:51 Sal Algeria's under the impression that Ernestine Jones was going to get beat up.
01:06:55 But they didn't know that Ernestine wasn't coming out there to play around.
01:07:01 I started boxing. Everything's going all right.
01:07:10 I kept that left jab out.
01:07:13 Everybody was all around. They were just waiting for Kathy to lower the boot.
01:07:18 A jab is something that everybody thinks they can't nobody can get away from.
01:07:21 Ernestine threw a right hand over the top of it,
01:07:24 and she just stiffened up like the board fell down.
01:07:27 Flat out. Just lay there like a canoe or something.
01:07:31 It was like she was going to float away.
01:07:33 I thought it was over with.
01:07:35 It was the first time I got knocked out.
01:07:37 The referee's counting.
01:07:39 I went to the corner, and I told Sal, "I can't feel my feet."
01:07:46 They stood Kathy up, and Ernestine threw the same smart punch.
01:07:50 And Kathy, she was just laid out.
01:07:55 Looked dead.
01:07:57 Algeria came up there and told me to get out of the ring.
01:08:03 I don't know what for, but she hurt bad.
01:08:06 And they put that infant nitrate underneath her nose.
01:08:10 That wakes people up that get knocked out.
01:08:15 I must have been in an outer consciousness.
01:08:17 They started to fight back up.
01:08:23 This time, Kathy didn't even throw a punch.
01:08:25 She lay in there the third time. I said, "That's it. The fight's over."
01:08:33 I said, "This girl is going to have brain damage.
01:08:35 You can't knock a person out three times in one night."
01:08:38 Yeah, it keeps out cold.
01:08:45 They carried her out, took her to a hospital.
01:08:47 Ernestine had a purpose, and it wasn't to make the money.
01:08:53 It was to knock the air out of Sal Algeria's dream.
01:08:57 And that's what happened.
01:09:00 But Sal called it a no contest.
01:09:04 There was nothing we could do.
01:09:13 Well, I kind of struggle with memory because my brain isn't quite together.
01:09:18 I had a stroke seven years ago.
01:09:20 But I'm not stupid. I can still carry on.
01:09:24 It's just that I can't, you know, there are blank spaces.
01:09:29 The article on this fight was devastating.
01:09:33 For Kat and for the sport of women's boxing,
01:09:39 this boxer is supposed to be the great white hope of women's boxing.
01:09:45 But, you know, all the potential deals dried up.
01:09:52 The corruption didn't just end there. It was also in California.
01:09:58 In the boxing world, there were those that took it really seriously,
01:10:04 and there was those that just did it for the money, you know.
01:10:09 Dee Knuckles scheduled for me to fight Cora Weber.
01:10:12 I had to be on my Ps and Qs with her ass because the white girl was tough, believe me.
01:10:17 But before the fight, Dee Knuckles says, "You don't have to do anything but drop."
01:10:22 I didn't even understand what the word "drop" meant
01:10:26 until I finally realized that means for me to hit the canvas.
01:10:29 You know, and Dee Knuckles is sitting there.
01:10:34 She goes, "It's just, all you got to do is just drop, Lillian."
01:10:37 "We'll pay you a little extra, you know."
01:10:39 Very hard for me to understand why would they do something like that to me
01:10:53 when I put all my heart and soul into what I'm doing.
01:10:56 You know, they wanted to build up a white girl.
01:10:59 I don't think Cora Weber, I don't think she knew.
01:11:06 But Dee Knuckles, I was pissed off at that bitch.
01:11:09 I said, "I'm not dropping."
01:11:12 And boy, did I fucking go nuts.
01:11:22 I'm not dropping. I'm not dropping.
01:11:34 I'm not dropping.
01:11:35 You know, and we had a draw.
01:11:43 I didn't know the business was so crooked like that.
01:11:50 It's not going to get anywhere because if women are doing that,
01:11:53 let it be, and I'm out. You know, I'm out of it, so.
01:12:02 I was going to bet against her at the fight.
01:12:04 I thought maybe I could trust Dee.
01:12:07 But I later found out that she had bet against me at the fight.
01:12:12 She did, bitch. She did.
01:12:18 She bet against me because she knew I was pregnant.
01:12:23 And she knew that I wasn't going to win.
01:12:26 And she did get a new car.
01:12:28 And so it pissed me off so bad when I turned around
01:12:31 and said, "Thank you, Dee."
01:12:33 After that, I was done.
01:12:35 If Dee was here today, shit, I'd call her on everything.
01:12:39 I said, "You know you fucked up.
01:12:41 "You know you screwed us all."
01:12:43 But I would also tell her thank you.
01:12:46 Because I wouldn't be Papineta,
01:12:48 California's first pro female fighter,
01:12:51 if it wasn't for Dee Knuckles.
01:12:53 [Dee Knuckles, California]
01:12:56 We were trying to build up the sport and the phony fights
01:13:08 and all the things was letting us down.
01:13:12 But I couldn't let that bother me.
01:13:15 Then someone put on an all-female fight card.
01:13:23 That's the first time that happened anywhere.
01:13:26 All-female fighting.
01:13:31 I was honored to be amongst female boxing greats
01:13:39 and making history.
01:13:41 And I was crowned world champion.
01:13:52 [crowd cheering]
01:13:55 But I don't even have a trophy to prove it.
01:14:01 Once you work hard enough to get to the top of your profession,
01:14:06 the top of your sport, that you win a certain kind of respect.
01:14:09 Tiger won the world lightweight championship for women.
01:14:11 How much did you make?
01:14:13 About $1,500.
01:14:15 You see, it's so embarrassing that I really don't like to mention it.
01:14:19 When Hagler's making $3 million,
01:14:21 and it's just a shame that Miss Piggy gets more publicity than we do.
01:14:25 You know, really.
01:14:27 We'll be right back.
01:14:28 And around this time, I'm getting a little older.
01:14:31 I would like to have a nice husband.
01:14:34 So there was a guy that would come to the gym.
01:14:42 He'd keep himself in shape.
01:14:44 And he was part of a motorcycle gang called The Chosen Few.
01:14:49 They wore leather, and they kind of wore roughnecks.
01:14:54 But I enjoyed them.
01:14:56 I rode on the back of the bike, and it was a whole lot of fun.
01:15:01 It was really a cool relationship.
01:15:05 One day, we drove to Las Vegas.
01:15:09 [motorcycle engine]
01:15:11 In Vegas, they have a lot of chapels there.
01:15:20 This marriage chapel, that marriage chapel.
01:15:24 And we got married just like that.
01:15:27 Sal wanted me to continue to box.
01:15:34 I was denying this part of me that had been repressed for so many years.
01:15:41 And I had to start living an authentic life,
01:15:49 or I was just done with living.
01:15:53 It was my time.
01:15:58 So I packed up at night, so Sal wouldn't know anything about it,
01:16:03 and headed west.
01:16:06 I drove three nights to get across country to California.
01:16:17 And I met Beverly on my birthday in Yosemite.
01:16:30 Oh, it was such an incredible feeling of freedom.
01:16:35 Finally, I could be me.
01:16:43 After I got married, it got a little more complicated.
01:16:58 He thought that he owned me.
01:17:01 It became a disaster. He started being abusive.
01:17:05 One day, I was at my apartment.
01:17:09 I got out of the shower, had a bathrobe on,
01:17:14 and he said, "You coming with me?"
01:17:16 And I said, "No, I'm not going."
01:17:18 He was pulling me, and he had a pistol.
01:17:22 He hit me in the stomach and everywhere.
01:17:27 It was pretty bad.
01:17:29 Everybody expects Tiger to be a tiger.
01:17:40 Being strong in most situations,
01:17:47 it's very difficult to uphold that type of thing.
01:17:54 [music]
01:17:57 So I went to the hospital.
01:17:59 They said, "You know, you're pregnant.
01:18:01 You know, you're pregnant."
01:18:04 And I was like, "Wow."
01:18:07 If I had stayed there in California,
01:18:13 I knew I would have either killed him
01:18:18 or he would have killed me.
01:18:21 It was nothing else, no ands, ifs, or buts.
01:18:25 So I had to get out.
01:18:28 I decided to leave California permanently,
01:18:41 which also meant that was the end of my boxing career.
01:18:47 And I had to start a life all over with my son.
01:18:51 I thought that through boxing I would be able to buy a house
01:19:03 for my family and get out of the ghetto,
01:19:08 but it didn't work for me.
01:19:12 I'm ready to leave.
01:19:13 Let me put everything in place for you.
01:19:16 Let me put this, the hat.
01:19:18 Oh, yeah.
01:19:19 Get out this.
01:19:22 This one, put this.
01:19:24 My eye drops.
01:19:25 I put eye drops on the afternoon, remember?
01:19:29 Don't worry for this.
01:19:31 Yeah.
01:19:32 Okay.
01:19:33 Okay.
01:19:34 So...
01:19:35 [kissing]
01:19:36 Okay, thank you so much, Carmen.
01:19:39 See you tomorrow, baby.
01:19:40 Okay.
01:19:44 Good night.
01:19:47 Have a good night.
01:19:48 Good night.
01:19:49 I'm going to lock the door.
01:19:52 [door opens]
01:19:54 [door closes]
01:19:56 [door closes]
01:19:59 [music fades]
01:20:02 [traffic noise]
01:20:06 [traffic noise]
01:20:09 Ted.
01:20:34 How you doing, Ted?
01:20:36 Is this the tiger?
01:20:37 Yes.
01:20:38 Oh, my God.
01:20:39 Here, give me a hug.
01:20:41 I want a hug.
01:20:42 Oh.
01:20:43 I want a hug.
01:20:44 Oh, you're in a wheelchair, too.
01:20:45 Yeah, I'm in a wheelchair.
01:20:46 Oh, gosh.
01:20:47 I walk like I should be.
01:20:48 Oh, you sweetheart.
01:20:50 How are you?
01:20:51 We're looking pretty good for old girls.
01:20:53 Oh, my God.
01:20:54 We are old already.
01:20:55 Yeah.
01:20:56 I want you to have a seat.
01:20:58 Wow.
01:21:01 Oh.
01:21:04 When you think about those days,
01:21:06 I still can't believe how badly we were hated
01:21:08 and how much we--
01:21:10 Oh, yeah.
01:21:11 --how badly we were treated.
01:21:12 Yes.
01:21:13 It's so mixed up in my mind what happened.
01:21:16 Yeah, so why did Sal--
01:21:18 you know, did you know that Sal was doing all this crooked stuff?
01:21:22 No clue.
01:21:23 Wow.
01:21:24 I was--
01:21:25 You were innocent and all.
01:21:26 I was just this golden girl.
01:21:28 Right, right.
01:21:29 And I think that was the whole pitch that he put forward.
01:21:34 And I just--
01:21:35 I didn't like it because it was a lie.
01:21:37 Exactly.
01:21:38 And he wasn't a bad man.
01:21:41 He was just a hustler.
01:21:43 So that was what he was.
01:21:45 Was he your boyfriend or what?
01:21:46 No.
01:21:47 But he was--
01:21:48 He wanted to be my boyfriend.
01:21:49 Oh, he--
01:21:50 And he wanted to be married.
01:21:51 Get out of here.
01:21:52 Yeah.
01:21:53 But also, I was trying to figure out who I was sexually.
01:21:56 I ended up being gay.
01:21:58 Wow.
01:21:59 But that was a big turmoil for me.
01:22:02 Yeah, I was--
01:22:03 Yeah, it must have been hard being gay
01:22:05 and not being able to express that part of your life.
01:22:09 Well, it was.
01:22:10 But at that point, I wasn't even admitting it to myself.
01:22:13 Wow.
01:22:14 But let me ask you something.
01:22:15 I want to know--
01:22:16 OK, when we were all licensed, you
01:22:19 were given your license first.
01:22:20 Mm-hmm.
01:22:21 Did you think it was fair?
01:22:22 I would like to know.
01:22:23 I didn't actually notice.
01:22:25 I wasn't that in tune.
01:22:26 I wasn't that politicized at that time.
01:22:31 But it didn't dawn on you that you were
01:22:33 getting a lot of publicity there?
01:22:35 Oh, yeah.
01:22:36 That dawned on me, because it was obvious.
01:22:37 Mm-hmm.
01:22:38 You know, that was obvious.
01:22:39 It was obvious.
01:22:40 And it hurt a lot.
01:22:41 Yeah.
01:22:42 And it was because it was so unfair.
01:22:44 And it was so unjust.
01:22:45 OK.
01:22:46 I'm so sorry we didn't get a chance
01:22:48 to get to know each other.
01:22:51 You were my adversary.
01:22:53 You know, Sal made you out to be, you know,
01:22:56 this person I didn't want to have any contact with.
01:23:00 So he wouldn't let me interact with you
01:23:03 or any of the other gals.
01:23:05 That's not nice.
01:23:06 I didn't know any of them.
01:23:08 OK.
01:23:10 I think we would have been great friends.
01:23:12 I think so, too.
01:23:13 Yeah.
01:23:14 Look who's coming.
01:23:15 That looks like Pat.
01:23:16 Pat Panetta.
01:23:17 Oh, my god, Tiger.
01:23:19 Yeah.
01:23:20 Oh, hug me, hug.
01:23:21 Oh, I want to hug.
01:23:22 I want to hug.
01:23:23 Oh, my god.
01:23:24 Oh, she is wonderful to hug.
01:23:25 Hi, how are you?
01:23:26 You look skinny.
01:23:27 How do you do that?
01:23:28 You don't want to know.
01:23:29 [LAUGHTER]
01:23:30 That's Cat.
01:23:31 Cat.
01:23:32 Oh, my god, nice to meet you.
01:23:33 Oh, yeah, I don't think I've ever met you.
01:23:35 No, you've never met me.
01:23:36 No, no, no.
01:23:37 Oh, gosh, who is she?
01:23:38 Oh, my god.
01:23:39 No.
01:23:40 Oh.
01:23:41 Oh, no.
01:23:42 Sue, too.
01:23:43 Sue Fox.
01:23:44 How you doing, Sue?
01:23:45 Wait a minute.
01:23:46 I don't think I've ever met you,
01:23:47 but I've talked to you on the phone, haven't I?
01:23:49 Yes, you have.
01:23:50 Yeah.
01:23:51 Oh, my god, it's awesome.
01:23:52 And me and Sue go way back.
01:23:54 I love that.
01:23:55 How are you?
01:23:56 Oh, my god.
01:23:57 I'm so angry we never became friends.
01:24:00 You know, I know we've all had maybe horror stories
01:24:03 and everything.
01:24:04 I know I've had my share--
01:24:05 And it was hard.
01:24:06 --and the suffering was unbearable.
01:24:08 I mean, come on, I had two kids.
01:24:10 I was getting out of the marriage.
01:24:12 You had it tough.
01:24:13 Trying to get babysitters, trying to get to the gym.
01:24:16 You know, it took me years to understand what we had done.
01:24:19 Exactly.
01:24:20 I didn't realize it at the time.
01:24:21 I just thought we were doing something everybody hated.
01:24:24 I know.
01:24:25 Well, we didn't get accepted.
01:24:28 We need this documented.
01:24:30 This is our story.
01:24:32 Yeah.
01:24:33 When I look back at the sport,
01:24:35 we were not erased from the record books
01:24:38 because of controversy or corruption
01:24:41 or because no one cares about women's boxing.
01:24:44 We were written out of history
01:24:46 because it's men who have always written the history of boxing.
01:24:51 And they didn't think our story was worth telling.
01:24:55 Well, we're determined to set the record straight.
01:24:59 They can't take that away from us.
01:25:01 Yeah.
01:25:02 We were erased.
01:25:03 We are not erased now.
01:25:05 This is why I'm getting emotional.
01:25:07 I'm gonna start crying.
01:25:09 I'm so happy to be with all you guys.
01:25:12 Exactly.
01:25:13 It is wonderful.
01:25:14 You know, it's healing.
01:25:16 It's amazing.
01:25:20 We're all here.
01:25:22 Let's make a circle of power.
01:25:24 You better believe it.
01:25:25 All right.
01:25:26 Yes!
01:25:27 I love all you guys.
01:25:28 I really do.
01:25:29 Nobody can take what we did,
01:25:31 that's our history, away.
01:25:33 We're free again.
01:25:35 We're actually free at last.
01:25:36 At last.
01:25:37 Yeah.
01:25:45 While none of us made millions or fought at Madison Square Garden,
01:25:50 we were the spark that started a fire that's burning brightly today.
01:25:55 [cheers and applause]
01:25:59 [music]
01:26:03 [cheers and applause]
01:26:06 [cheers and applause]
01:26:22 [music]
01:26:28 [music]
01:26:31 [music]
01:26:35 [music]
01:26:39 [music]
01:26:42 [music]
01:26:48 [music]
01:26:55 [music]
01:27:06 [music]
01:27:09 Lady Tiger.
01:27:22 [cheers and applause]
01:27:24 On September 1978, for a moment of first-time and granted licenses,
01:27:28 titleless advocate for women in the sport,
01:27:31 Marian "Lady Tiger" Truvier.
01:27:34 I love you.
01:27:36 Love you.
01:27:37 She was always Lady Tiger's goal to have a belt.
01:27:41 She was a trailblazer.
01:27:43 Lady Tiger now has a belt.
01:27:46 Thank you.
01:27:47 Thank you.
01:27:48 Thank you.
01:27:50 [cheers and applause]
01:27:53 Thank you.
01:28:00 Thank you.
01:28:01 Thank you.
01:28:02 Thank you.
01:28:04 Thank you.
01:28:07 Thank you.
01:28:09 Oh, my God.
01:28:11 Oh, thank you.
01:28:14 [music]
01:28:18 [music]
01:28:21 [music]
01:28:41 [music]
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01:29:04 [music]
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01:29:27 [music]
01:29:30 [music]
01:29:39 If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this program,
01:29:46 help is available online at sky.com/viewersupport.
01:29:51 [music]
01:29:54 (electronic music)
01:29:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]