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By Thomas Gerbasi - Tori Nelson is slacking off. It used to be that she juggled three jobs and a boxing career. Now she’s down to “only” two jobs to go along with life as a world champion and a single mother of two teenagers. She even took this week off.
What’s going on here?
She laughs.
“This week I’m off from everywhere so I can train for this fight on Saturday.”
That’s what life is like for female boxing champions these days. Far removed from the million dollar paydays and premium cable dates, fighters like Nelson instead have to work a day job (or two) and keep plugging away in the gym in the hopes that one day, the rest of the sport’s establishment will give them their due. It’s a day the 37-year-old Ashburn, ******ia native believes is coming. Not today, not tomorrow, but eventually.
“I do, but right now it’s slow,” she said. “I thought it was going to make a big breakthrough once Claressa (Shields) won the (Olympic) Gold medal. If it was a guy, it would have been so different. But being that she’s a female, it was just like ‘oh, okay, she won the medal.’ But I feel that it’s coming.”
And until then, Nelson works, fights, and is a mother to her 19-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. Between sessions in the gym, where she also works, she picks up a shift at IHOP, and though it’s an exhausting schedule, she doesn’t complain about it. And it’s not just about paying the bills and making ends meet. It’s about setting an example and proving a point. [Click Here To Read More]
What’s going on here?
She laughs.
“This week I’m off from everywhere so I can train for this fight on Saturday.”
That’s what life is like for female boxing champions these days. Far removed from the million dollar paydays and premium cable dates, fighters like Nelson instead have to work a day job (or two) and keep plugging away in the gym in the hopes that one day, the rest of the sport’s establishment will give them their due. It’s a day the 37-year-old Ashburn, ******ia native believes is coming. Not today, not tomorrow, but eventually.
“I do, but right now it’s slow,” she said. “I thought it was going to make a big breakthrough once Claressa (Shields) won the (Olympic) Gold medal. If it was a guy, it would have been so different. But being that she’s a female, it was just like ‘oh, okay, she won the medal.’ But I feel that it’s coming.”
And until then, Nelson works, fights, and is a mother to her 19-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. Between sessions in the gym, where she also works, she picks up a shift at IHOP, and though it’s an exhausting schedule, she doesn’t complain about it. And it’s not just about paying the bills and making ends meet. It’s about setting an example and proving a point. [Click Here To Read More]
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