Boxing champ wants to give back to Ja

BY LIVINGSTON SCOTT Observer staff reporter

Sunday, February 05, 2012

AT age 44, Jamaican-born American-based WBC world Super Bantamweight boxing champion Alicia Ashley says she still feels in excellent condition and has no plans of quitting anytime soon.

She has also expressed a desire to stage at least one fight in Jamaica, the country of her birth, before eventually hanging up her gloves.

Ashley, the former IWBF Featherweight, WIBF and IFBA Super Bantamweight champion who won her WBC Super Bantamweight crown after stopping Christian Ruiz in June last year, is set to defend her title in Mexico in March.

Now in the twilight of her career, she says one of her ambitions is to fight in front of a Jamaican audience as she believes this could go a far way in promoting and exposing women's boxing locally.

"That's in the works... trying to get a fight for me here (in Jamaica).... Last December a fight was almost finalised but it didn't work out, so hopefully by end of year we will have something," she said.

"I have my title defence of the WBC in Mexico in March and we have the rights to televise it live in Mexico, but we're also trying to get Jamaica to pick up that telecast and show it here so the people in Jamaica can actually see me fight," Ashley told the Sunday Observer at the recent Jamaica-Cayman fightcard at Barbican.

Ashley, who goes by the name 'Slick' due to her quick combinations and fast foot movements, said if the fight was to be shown in Jamaica it could do a lot to influence more women to get involved in the sport, which is one of her objectives.

"I want to really try to give help to the programme and whoever is in it... and that's one of the reasons why I feel if my fight is televised here it makes more interest for the girls, and I think that is the first step," she added.

Although women's boxing is not very popular in Jamaica, Ashley is convinced that with the right effort the sport could grow at a phenomenal pace because of Jamaican's athletic prowess.

"Most countries have females as part of the (Olympics) event before they could be added, so we will need a few more years in Jamaica...," she said.

"We're very athletic so instead of five years, we can use two to three... to get into that competitive mode. But it would really take a lot of backing and support for the women to get to that level," she conceded.

Meanwhile, the former Rockfort resident said as long as her body tells her to she will continue to fight and she does not feel like stopping soon.

"I'm in great shape and I'm not feeling any pains or discomfort... I've never been knocked down; I don't get cuts and injuries, so physically, I'm in great shape," she said.

Ashley was born in Kingston and attended Seaward All-Age School. She grew up along Maxfield Avenue, then moved to Rockfort for some four years before she leaving Jamaica at age 11.

She got involved in boxing by chance as she was a professional dancer before a career-ending knee injury forced her from the profession.

"In New York I got a scholarship and danced for all of the big companies... professionally until I injured my knee... It was a really bad injury, a torn meniscus, and that's where it ended," she said.

Following the injury, she had a lot of extra time on her hands with very little to do and eventually picked up an offer from her brother who was always encouraging her to get involved into karate. That led her into the sport she now glorifies.

"My brother at the time was doing karate when I was dancing and for years he tried to get me into it, but I had no interest until I got injured and needed rehab and needed to just do stuff," he said.

"Then I got into kick-boxing... but because... you just have to kick seven or eight times and then you can punch for the rest of the round, a lot of boxers get into it.

"... I learned boxing to get better at kick-boxing, so it wasn't like I just got into boxing; it was really for the next sport... and then I realised that I liked boxing," she explained.

"I wasn't thinking about being world champion or anything like that when I started boxing... In New York the amateur competitions are very flawed, but every year it would get bigger... and after about five years... there weren't a lot of women.

"Then someone said, 'how about the pros' and then I realised that there is something that I can do with this, so I started on that course, but I really didn't have any aspirations of being a world champion, until the opportunity presented itself.... But once I got my first one (title) I wanted to win them all," she said.

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Boxing champ wants to give back to Ja