Promoter pushes for equality in the ring, empowering women fighters

Pull quote: At Fighters Club, we prided ourselves on giving the highest-paid female bout that has ever taken place in SA. – Terry Ann Hart, boxing promoter

Boxers, especially females, will enjoy a motherly love in Terry Ann’s heart, and this confirms the general belief that no one understands a baby’s cry better than a mother.

They have been crying for attention from mainstream boxing promoters who have not bought into the idea of featuring females in their tournaments.

Failure to provide care impacted negatively on their careers, and a number of female boxers fell by the wayside.

A professional construction manager with a proven successful record of accomplishment, Hart is a newcomer in the promotion of boxing matches.

She trades under the banner of Fighters Club.

She made an everlasting impression in her maiden tournament – the Battle at the Farm – which took place at Silver Lakes in Pretoria on November 8.

It was dominated by females, and Bernice Ferreira won the SA junior lightweight belt after defeating Nozipho Bell over 10 rounds.

Hart explained that looking back at her purpose in life, it was always to uplift and empower other females, and boxers in particular.

She says to take it to the next level in SA; someone had to do it.

“Someone had to pick up the flag and raise it,” Hart said in an exclusive interview with the Sowetan.

For the record, the pioneer female boxing promoter in SA was Gladys “Noforty” Tsenene, who obtained her promoter’s license in 1995.

But the first tournament to feature females was staged by Mbali “Don Queen” Zantsi in Durban.

Noni Tenge made her professional debut against a Brazilian foe in 2007.

Four years later, “She Bee Stingin’, which is Tenge’s ring name, became the first woman in Africa to win a legitimate world championship.

She claimed the IBF welterweight title after dethroning defending champion Daniella Smith via a fourth-round knockout in Brakpan on June 11 2011.

Provincial governments got involved, and credit to Muditambi Ravele, Boxing SA’s first female chairperson, for her pleas.

But the pool became smaller, making it difficult to consistently match female fighters within specific weight divisions.

Even supposed women-only tournaments organised to celebrate Women’s Month in August ended up featuring male boxers, defeating the whole purpose.

It turned out as if female fighters were being done a favour when in fact it was the SA Boxing Act of 2001 which officially allowed women to become professional boxers and licensees in the country.

Before this act, female professional boxing was prohibited.

Hart is not in competition with her colleagues who have done their fair share. She wants to contribute towards empowering women.

Already she has set a date, February 28, to kick off next year’s events at the same venue as her first tournament.

Hart made it clear, though, that it’s not easy to become a promoter in SA, adding that the build-up to her maiden tournament took a lot of tenacity from their side, especially as females.

“A lot of the times when you find yourself out there, especially because you are a first-time promoter, the sponsors, or let’s call them partners, do not really want to dip 100%,” she said.

Carol Tshabalala, an accomplished sports broadcaster and producer who is often referred to as SA’s “First Lady of Sport”, was in attendance during the exclusive interview in her capacity as the ambassador for Hart’s company.

“They will give you something, but you are gonna find that you are gonna carry this on your back, and you have to find, obviously, different kinds of means to make it happen,” said Hart.

“For any other promoting company out there, they need to know it’s not just a walk in the park.

“There are going to be nights leading up to the fight; you’re gonna be doing all-nighters just getting all the necessary administration and safety precautions and all those types of things involved taken care of.”

All that leads to pre-fight medicals, official weigh-ins and the actual day of the event.

“There’s challenges that are gonna be thrown at you,” she added.

“In any particular business, it’s about how you can navigate those challenges and, obviously, still come out with the end results.

“For ourselves at Fighters Club, we prided ourselves on giving the highest-paid female bout [SA junior lightweight bout] that has never taken place in this country.

“For that to become a reality, and for me, it hit really deep to see, on the night, the joy and the gratitude from the female fighters being acknowledged to such an extent.

“We made it, really, about the fighters and giving back to the fighters and females so that we can set the standard going forward.”

Hart said on the night, there were lots of ups and downs.

“But at the end of the day, from what was portrayed as a first for Fighters Club, I think we nailed it in the sense that I don’t think there was a single person that did not enjoy that atmosphere,” she said.

“We brought in a couple of extra entertainments; with that food and the service were on point, and if there was any disappointment, we voluntarily sorted those things out so that we could say nobody, really, ended up in a bad light.”

Going forward from what they took out of the build-up and the night of the event, to 2026, Hart said:

“We have noticed that a lot of other promotion companies are changing the narratives as they are raising the standard.

“We had a song that came out on the night that we had collaborated with a DJ so that we could make it unique to the situation. A lot of the things that we are going to be doing for our tournament on the 28th of February are going to be about love because February is a month of love.”

Hart revealed they will do a countrywide activation, which includes approaching various institutions, gangsters and correctional services.

It is in that tournament where Jarred “Hollywood” Silverman – a reformed former inmate who served time for attempted murder – will be in action.

He’s had three fights since being released: two wins and a loss in a WBF title fight in Georgia last weekend.

“We want to say let’s be happy and focus on love,” said Hart.

“Let’s change the narrative of fighting each other and [put] the energy in the ring where it is controlled.

“Our vision is always about getting fighters more opportunities and the right exposure. Our main female fighter is Smangele ”Smash” Hadebe [who was abused as a child].

“There will be a lot of advertising and activation through Hollywood Bets and then as well through iME Connect, which are two of our main partners, along with SABC, which will broadcast our tournament live on a Saturday evening slot.”

“I have, basically, taken what was there and what was lacking, trying to put a lot more emphasis on bringing entertainment back into boxing. I want to bring boxing back to the No 1 sport in the country,” she added.

Hart said there are a couple of events scheduled for the whole of next year. “People are going to look forward to our events; we have five tournaments set out for next year already. Our tournament will be 50% female and 50% male with the aim of developing future SA stars.”

The planned events include a Pro-Am TV series which will feature four weight divisions – lightweight, welterweight, junior middleweight, and middleweight.

“We will feature 24 fighters and 13 weeks of training to create this live reality show,” she said.

“The public will be involved in voting on who goes out and who goes on to be in the finals.

“Finalists will automatically feature in our August tournament in Mbombela Stadium.”

Hart said that tournament would be followed by the Boxing League, which will happen towards the end of November.

“We need to bring back that waking up at 4am spirit to watch boxing. I have a big vision; watch the space,” she said in her parting shot.

Sowetan

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