(Montreal) Mary Spencer will play her fourth professional fight on Saturday. At 37, it’s safe to say it’s been a very long road.
Posted at 2:51 p.m.
Spencer has fought 177 amateur fights, won three world championships and the Pan American Games, in addition to being a pioneer in her sport by participating in the London Olympics, the first to welcome female boxers.
It is also for this Olympic participation that her career among professionals was delayed.
“I remember that I was offered for the first time to become professional 17 years ago, in Russia, she told Wednesday during the public training presented at the Academy of boxing Ramsay. I had just won my first World Championship and was walking down a flight of stairs to the locker room when a portly woman in a fur coat blocked my way to offer me a professional contract on the spot! They pulled me out of there, because I had to go to anti-doping, and I never saw her again. But seriously, I had aspirations. I wanted to participate in the Olympics, which were not open to female boxers at that time.
“So I did all the international competitions I could take part in. When we learned that women would participate in the Olympics (in 2009), we also learned that only three weight divisions would be open, but not mine. So I had to go up to the average or give up the Olympics. So I made the leap from 64 kg to 75 kg. I won a world title at this weight, I won the Pan Ams at 75 kg, and I went to the Games at 75 kg. »
Spencer lost in her first fight in London, in the quarter-finals, against eventual bronze medalist Jinzi Li of China.
“Afterwards, I spent almost two years being depressed by my performance, to such an extent that I walked away from boxing. I had also lost my trainer at that time. Six months before the Games, he had been involved in a serious car accident, sustaining severe head trauma. Luckily he’s still alive, but I lost him as a coach. My performances were getting worse and worse, and I needed to think about whether I still had the desire to box. »
This reflection led her to the Canadian Far North.
“I went to Kashechewan, in northern Ontario. I stayed there for a few years, somewhat incognito. I played sports with young people. My job was to develop activities so that young Native Americans would not hang out in the streets. I opted for basketball, because I didn’t want to touch boxing. But the young people found images of me on the internet, and they asked me why we were playing basketball. “You’re okay at basketball, but you’re much better at boxing!” they told me! »
“I had brought my boxing gear anyway, so I took it out. By teaching them boxing, my passion came back,” she said.
Inevitably, it did not go unnoticed.
“During one of my trips back home, Windsor at that time, over the Christmas break, a couple of coaches from Detroit offered me to turn pro. They had a plan to have me box at 168 pounds (super middleweight) and be an opponent for Claressa Shields. It was around 2017, and Claressa was placing her pawns at that time: pro boxing was opening up to women. Me, I said to myself that these guys did not know me if they believed that I was a super-average. When I fought at that weight among amateurs, I was always above my weight. If I turned pro, I was going to do it on my terms, at 147 pounds. »
After a few more amateur fights, she made the leap to the professionals. She now lives in Montreal, where she boxed under the tutelage of Ian McKillop. Then, the pandemic knocked out boxing.
“There were a lot of people fighting elsewhere on the planet, so I managed to get a few fights, some at a bit higher weight than welterweight, and then I met a great promoter and here I am ! I can’t wait to show all the work I’ve done and all the baggage I’ve accumulated in 20 years in boxing. »
The Montreal public will be able to see it for the first time on Saturday, when Spencer (3-0, 2 K. -O.) will be one of the headliners of the gala presented at the Casino de Montreal. In Beatriz Aguilar (7-6-1, 1 K. -O.), she faces for the first time an athlete with the winning record – what her detractors have criticized her for so far.
“I try to have the best opponents possible. That said, all the opponents I faced in the pros were not those with whom I had signed a contract, said the 37-year-old pugilist. I learned on my flight to Mexico that I was going to face a girl with a record of 4-16-1 (in her first fight, editor’s note). I was not thrilled at all. I beat her in one round and figured if these girls wanted to get in the same ring as me, then I was going to make them pay the price. »
But she has big ambitions and Eye of the Tiger Management, who recently signed her, intends to move her up the ranks quickly, whether at 147 or 154 pounds.
“My primary goal in pro is to fight Shields at my weight. I’ve fought her twice in her weight division; I would like to do it at 147 pounds. But it is clear that I see other women with belts and I did not go to the professionals for a fight. One of them is held by a girl here in Quebec: it is clear that I want to put my hand on it”, she affirmed, speaking of the title of the International Boxing Federation of super-mi -medium (154 lbs), owned by Marie-Ève Dicaire.
At 147 pounds, American Jessica McCaskill holds all four belts. Spencer has the Chicago athlete in his sights. But at 37, will she have the time to accomplish all her goals?
“People tell me I don’t have time, but as far as I know there is no age limit. My body at 37 is in the best condition it has ever been,” she said.