Beautiful But Deadly - Erin Toughill (1 of 2) - 11/24/2003
by Michael DiSanto

I remember when I first saw womens professional boxing. It was 1996 and I was watching the new phenom, Christy Martin, as she faced some untrained weekend warrior. As the match began, it became apparent that only Martin had any idea what to do in the ring. Nevertheless, the quality of the fight was somewhere in the neighborhood of watching third year amateur boxers battle one another. That may sound insulting, but it is simply the truth. The bout lacked all the things that make boxing beautiful crisp, precision punching; ring generalship; cat-like defensive skills; and just raw power. Instead, it looked like a sloppy street fight between rival bullies.

Oh how times have changed. Nearly eight years later, womens boxing has grown to the verge of mainstream acceptance. Now, such recognized stars as Laila Ali (daughter of former World Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali), Mia St. John and Martin herself headlined headline pay-per-view bouts, headline ESPN2-level bouts, fight on the undercards of major title fights, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and even command lucrative endorsement packages. Womens boxing is for real folks. And the competitors have grown with the sport.

Today, there is another young superstar on the rise. Her name is Erin Toughill. Make no mistake about it, Erin would easily hold her own in a beauty contest with Laila Ali or Mia St. John, but she is also a complete fighter and neither Ali nor any other womens boxer would want to pick a fight with her outside of a boxing ring. You see, Toughill is not only a professional prizefighter, but also an accomplished mixed martial artist.

Erin Toughill is 4-1-1 (1 no contest) in professional boxing. The no-contest was in her one very high profile fight against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, the daughter of legendary World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier. Ironically enough, her professional mixed martial arts record is also 4-1-1. Suffice it to say, Erin can put you to sleep with a devastating straight right hand or make you tap furiously from a perfectly applied armbar or choke. Simply put, shes the real deal and women boxers in the super middleweight division and women fighters thinking of fighting for a welterweight title had better take notice. Erin Toughill is coming shes coming for titles, endorsements, the whole ball of wax!

InsideFighting: So how did your fight go on Friday? Give me a rundown of what happened.

Erin Toughill: I fought a girl named Kuulei Kupihea and her brother, which I actually found out later, is Kuai Kupihea who used to train with Chris Brennan, but I think hes back in Hawaii now. Anyways, the girl came in with no pro fights and only a few amateur fights, but I was expect a tough fight anyways. No girl travels 2000 miles to lay down and die! We were actually training for a right hander we thought she was right handed and she came out of the gate as a right hander, but then she switched to southpaw and I was like oh my God! because that changes everything, as you know. Basically, it was a shut out 40-36, I won every round. I was the aggressor. I dominated her and everything, but she was tough and hard to knock out. I know if it was a 6 round fight that I definitely would have stopped her, but sometimes those 4 round fights go so fast and when you get warm its already over. You know, I think I broke her nose in the 4th because she was bleeding everywhere. She was tough and had a lot of heart, but I controlled the fight and was the more technical fighter with more experience. But for me it was a good learning fight because I havent had any experience with southpaws and she was a tough southpaw, so it was good.

IF: It was boxing right?
Erin: Yes, it was boxing.

IF: Erin, why dont you give our viewers a summary of your background growing up, your background both in terms of boxing/MMA as well as other sports you played.
Erin: Ive always been an athlete. My dad was a track & field star throwing the discus. My mom was a marathon runner. Weve pretty much been in sports since we could walk. We started out with soccer, so I was a huge soccer player for a big portion of my life. Then we tried gymnastics, but then I turned out to be 510 and they were like nope, you cant be doing that anymore. I actually first started getting interested in Jiu-Jitsu when I was about 15 or 16 back in 1993 when I first saw the UFC. I had a few cousins who were a lot older than me who were just starting to get into it and they thought I should try it. Lets see, Ive been doing kickboxing since I was 18, so Ive been doing that going on 10 years. But I didnt actually start doing Jiu-Jitsu until I was about 20. I currently hold a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. You know, Ive been boxing throughout the entire time, but Ive really been dedicating myself to it the last 3 or 3 ½ years since I started my professional prize fights. Ive been professionally fighting for over 4 years, and I keep training my boxing and my Jiu-Jitsu and all that. Im always training.

How does your family feel about your fighting career?
Erin: Theyre super supportive. Theyre really supportive. I think my dad probably wouldnt mind if I stopped tomorrow because Im always his little girl type of thing. But theyre super supportive and always try to come to my fights. I think the biggest thing, though, is that nobody wants to see their family or friends get hurt. Thats really the only thing that theyre concerned about, but they know that my life is dedicated to my training. I dont just train 2 times a week and expect to go in there and win. I think that if youre prepared, I always tell them, that you should be okay.

IF: Tell me about a typical training week when youre not preparing for a specific fight.
Erin: Im normally in the gym at least AT LEAST 5 days a week, sometimes 6. And obviously I do my boxing at least 1-2 hours a day. I usually try to go to Jiu-Jitsu several times a week, and thats about 2 hours. Maybe twice a week Im doing weights depending on what Im doing. And I try to run several times a week as well. So I guess Im there 2 to 5 hours a day. Thats pretty much all I do. Even when Im not at the gym training, I work at the gym training people or teaching classes and stuff like that.

IF: How does that change when youre preparing for a boxing match? Do you alter your focus to just on boxing and how long is your training camp?
Erin: Optimally, for any fight youd want for any fight depending on the length of it at least a month and a half to get your wind and your sparring. See, the one thing Im not going to do when I dont have a fight coming up is sparring. I may do that once a week, so I stay sharp, but otherwise you dont want to get punched in the head like 4 times a week. As a fight approaches, thats what we really focus on is the sparring. To be good in your sport, you really must train hard in it.

IF: Talk to me about the difficulties in entering the realms of boxing and MMA from a womans perspective?
Erin: I think the biggest difficulty is the training. We dont have the luxury ofYou know all my training partners are men. In all the years Ive been training, I think Ive maybe trained with 2 girls. I think thats probably the biggest thing because guys always have the advantage of strength and technique and stuff like that. The other side of that is training with the boys makes you a better fighter. It makes you stronger. But its taxing, so thats probably the biggest difficulty always training with men. Sometimes its like my God, when am I gonna get to beat someone up? You know! Oh, and the running and all the cardio. Thats one thing I dont always like to do is my running and my sprinting, but thats a must. What else I think the biggest thing is to make sure that youre emotionally or mentally into it because I really believe that 80-90% mental. Sure, the other 20% is physical so you have to train hard, but you need to be emotionally and mentally into it too.

IF: How difficult has it been for you getting fights?
Erin: The no rules fighting is super difficult its ridiculous. And thats the main reason that I started the boxing. You know, the big name in womens boxing is Laila Ali and she happens to be in my weight division, which is great. So that gives me something to strive for and I hope to compete against her. All my no rules fights have been in Japan Ive fought there 5 times. Ive also fought in Aruba. But its really hard because there just arent many girls my size that are doing it. I fight between 165 and 170 pounds for the no rules stuff. I was supposed to fight 2 or 3 times in the last year here in the [United] States, but for whatever reason it fell through. You know, its just everything. But with the boxing there are more girls, so its much easier to get fights. Even there the big classes are still probably like 135, so being a bigger girl always makes it tough to find fights.

IF: Have you had any problems fighting for smaller, less heralded promotions? I know thats something that they guy fighters complain about all the time.
Erin: For boxing or no rules?

IF: Mixed martial arts.
Erin: Yeah, I dont know what it is. I was supposed to fight for this show in Iowa it was actually over Thanksgiving weekend and weve known about this for the last 2 months. I was like great! Then we got an email from this boxing promoter to fight in December and I thought it was too close to my other fight. I mean, they were going to be about a week apart and Im not going to fight 3 times in one month because thats just too much. So I tracked [the Iowa promoter] down and said okay if were going to do this that I need part of the money upfront, I want the contract, and all this stuff, but we didnt hear back from him even after two weeks. Im sure youve seen that [Internet] Forum, the Underground?

IF: Sure.
Erin: So I went on there and blasted him! I was like what do you think Ive been sitting around waiting for you? And everyone informed me after the fact that hes probably the sleaziest and has the worst reputation in the business. But you take that chance that you take in these small unsanctioned, fly by night shows. You just want to fight, so you take that chance. You know, you just put that trust in them so that you can have a fight to focus on. But its kind of ridiculous. The only [MMA] shows that seem like theyre working are like SHOOTO and the UFC and stuff like that, but there arent any women fighting in them, so that doesnt help much.

IF: How do the male fighters react to you when you meet them at a Pride FC or UFC event or major boxing matches like de la Hoya-Vargas?
Erin: I guess as far as the boxing word goes I just blend in. I dont think my name is as synonymous with boxing as it is with the no rules stuff. But thats definitely my goal. They do see me and they definitely know that Im an athletic girl. I mean Im 510, 165 pounds and in shape, you know?

IF: Definitely.
Erin: So I generally get a lot of stares [laughs], but generally people recognize me when I go to no rules fights. But its a catch-22 because some of them are like oh my God and theyre scared of me, while others are intrigued by it and theyre like wow, what do you do or Ive seen you fight. So its negative and positive I guess.

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