Olivia Curry is looking to become an unlikely titleholder and introduce the world to a new face in the women’s middleweight division.
Curry will face Kaye Scott as the co-feature on Friday at the Fox Theater in Detroit. The ten-round bout will be contested for the vacant WBC middleweight title. The bout will be telecast on DAZN.
Curry, 7-2-1 (2 KOs), started boxing on a whim. The 35-year-old from Chicago attended Northwestern University as a film major with a minor in French. Muay Thai was offered at a discount rate for students, but when she couldn’t get matched for a Muay Thai fight, she enrolled instead in the Chicago Golden Gloves.
“I didn’t know about the USA Boxing track or anything about the amateur tournaments,” Curry said. “When I was 26, I saw that there were these other tournaments, Easterns, Westerns, nationals, and I started trying to do that more often.”
Curry believes she had about 30 amateur fights. Her experience is the opposite of Scott’s experience in the sport. Scott, 4-1, is a 41-year-old from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, who suffered a shocking upset loss in her last fight to Desley Robinson in December. Scott has competed internationally as an amateur for years. Curry believes handing Scott her second straight professional defeat will prove she belongs at the top of the sport.
“Every boxer wants titles,” Curry said. “I might not have that amateur experience, but I have learned on the job. I am confident that if I can beat someone who was on a national team, an Olympic team, and had 100 amateur fights, that I really belong at the world-class level.”
Curry took the road less traveled to the top of the division. She lost her third fight in Mexico to Karina Avila Ortiz. Her early loss comes from starting the sport late, but also the lack of depth in the women’s middleweight division. Prospects and contenders often walk side-by-side and are matched up early, especially in her division.
“There aren’t the B-level fighters,” Curry said. “You fight nobodies or people at the same stage in their career as you. Then you have to take a risk at some point.”
Curry knows this too well. After winning five regional fights after her first loss, she fought Shadasia Green when few would pick up the phone. Green was on a nine-fight knockout streak, and Curry had to move up to the super middleweight division for the opportunity. She credits her coach, Trinidad Garcia, who told her she’d have to make a jump at some point. Curry would take Green the distance, losing a unanimous decision.
Green hasn’t recorded a stoppage victory since that fight. Curry has been molded by it.
“I have just accepted that it is part of the sport and part of the division,” Curry said. “I was going to learn on the job.”
Curry hopes that even with a late start, she can get to the title and bring an entertaining style that causes people to care about her.
“If these fights are good, and on my side I intend to make them good, it gets some more eyes on the middleweight division, and more opportunities in the future,” Curry said.