Esther Phiri | |
---|---|
Born | Lusaka, Zambia | June 14, 1987
Nationality | Zambian |
Statistics | |
Weight(s) | Bantam weight |
Boxing record | |
Total fights | 19 |
Wins | 14 |
Wins by KO | 5 |
Losses | 1 |
Draws | 3 |
No contests | 1 |
Esther Phiri (born June 14, 1987) is a Former World Female Boxing Champion Zambian boxer. Esther was stripped of her title after her retirement. [1] Esther is the first female Zambian boxer to get international recognition and accolades. She became world champion after defeating Belinda Laracuente. [2]
Phiri was still a teenager when, after the death of her father, she made a living selling fruit and vegetables. She became a mother at age 16. Boxing was a way for her to escape poverty and support her own child, and the children of her older sister, who had died. [3] She was encouraged by Anthony Mwamba, a former boxer she met in 2003. [3] [4] Her first fight was in 2005. She won the GBU (Global Boxing Union) intercontinental belt for lightweights on June 30, 2007, at the expense of Radostina Valcheva and then retained it by beating Belinda Laracuente on 1 December 2007. [5] The following year, she won the same belt but in the lower super-featherweight class.
Phiri became WIBA welterweight world champion after beating Duda Yankovich, May 29, 2010. Other important fights won by this boxer are those against Lely Luz Florez, in 2011, and Monalisa Sibanda, in 2012. [6] She also invests in real estate. [7]
The documentary film Between Rings , released in 2014, was created by her cousin Jessie Chisi. It tells Phiri's story, how she left her marriage to pursue a career in boxing, and remains torn between her own goals and her family and societal expectations. [8]
19 fights | 14 wins | 1 loss |
---|---|---|
By knockout | 5 | 0 |
By decision | 9 | 1 |
Draws | 3 | |
No contests | 1 |
No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
19 | Draw | 14-1-3 | Sandra Almeida | TD | 3 (10) | 2015-05-22 | Government Complex, Lusaka | interim Women's International Boxing Association World Welterweight Title |
18 | Win | 14-1-2 | Everline Odero | PTS | 8 (10) | 2014-12-20 | Chez-Ntemba, Lusaka | |
17 | Win | 13-1-2 | Monalisa Sibanda | KO | 7 (10) | 2012-02-17 | Mulungushi Conference Centre, Lusaka | International Boxing Organization World Female Super Lightweight Title Women's International Boxing Association World Super Lightweight Title |
16 | Win | 12-1-2 | Lely Luz Florez | UD | 10 (10) | 2011-01-29 | Mulungushi Conference Centre, Lusaka | vacant International Boxing Organization World Female Super Lightweight Title Women's International Boxing Association World Super Lightweight Title |
15 | Win | 11-1-2 | Duda Yankovich | UD | 10 (10) | May 29, 2010 | Mulungushi Conference Centre, Lusaka, Zambia | vacant Women's International Boxing Association World super lightweight title |
14 | Draw | 11-1-2 | Terri Blair | SD | 10 (10) | 2009-11-28 | Mulungushi Conference Centre, Lusaka | vacant Women's International Boxing Association World Super Lightweight Title |
13 | Win | 10-1-1 | Viparat Lasuwan | TKO | 4 (10) | 2009-04-26 | Hood Restaurant, Nairobi | |
12 | Win | 9-1-1 | Hondi Hernandez | TKO | 5 (10) | 2008-10-04 | Woodlands Stadium, Lusaka | Global Boxing Union Female World Super Featherweight Title |
11 | Win | 8-1-1 | Elina Tissen | UD | 10 (10) | 2008-04-26 | Woodlands Stadium, Lusaka, Zambia | vacant Global Boxing Union Female World Super Featherweight Title |
10 | Win | 7-1-1 | Belinda Laracuente | UD | 8 (8) | Dec 1, 2007 | Woodlands Stadium, Lusaka, Zambia | |
9 | Win | 6-1-1 | Radostina Valcheva | RTD | 2 (10) | 2007-06-30 | Woodlands Stadium, Lusaka, Zambia | |
8 | Win | 5-1-1 | Monika Petrova | UD | 8 (8) | 2007-03-18 | Mulungushi Conference Centre, Lusaka | |
7 | Win | 4-1-1 | Kelli Cofer | MD | 8 (8) | 2006-12-02 | Moi International Sport Centre, Nairobi | |
6 | Win | 3-1-1 | Patience Master | PTS | 6 (6) | 2006-10-22 | National Sports Development Centre, Lusaka | |
5 | Win | 2-1-1 | Patience Master | KO | 2 (4) | 2006-05-27 | International ConventionCenter, Harare (Salisbury) | |
4 | Win | 1-1-1 | Patience Master | SD | 4 (4) | 2006-05-06 | Nchanga Mine Club, Chingola | |
3 | NC | 0-1-1-1 | Monalisa Sibanda | NC | 1 (4) | 2005-10-15 | Mbare Netball Complex, Harare (Salisbury) | |
2 | Loss | 0-1-1 | Fatuma Zarika | PTS | 4 (4) | 2005-08-21 | Moi International Sport Centre, Nairobi | |
1 | Draw | 0-0-1 | Jota Sumaili | PTS | 4 (4) | 2005-07-23 | Mindolo Dam, Kitwe | |
Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
John Lee Anthony Tapia was an American professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2011. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the unified IBF and WBO super flyweight titles between 1994 and 1998, the unified WBA and WBO bantamweight titles between 1998 and 2000, and the IBF featherweight title in 2002. His 1999 loss by decision to Paulie Ayala was named the Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine.
Belinda Laracuente is a women's boxing competitor from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, where she lived from 1989 to 1998. Her nickname is Brown Sugar.
Dora Webber and Cora Webber are twin sisters who participate in women's boxing. They are from the U.S. state of California. It is believed that at one time, they were the only set of twins to actively participate on boxing's women's leg.
Tracy Michelle Byrd is an American female boxer.
Nonito Gonzales Donaire Jr. is a Filipino American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes from flyweight to featherweight, and is the oldest boxer in history to win a bantamweight world title, as well as being the first three-time champion in that weight class. Donaire has also held world championships in three consecutive decades: the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s, being the sixth boxer to do so after Evander Holyfield, Manny Pacquiao, Bernard Hopkins, Erik Morales, and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Katie Taylor is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She is the undisputed and lineal world lightweight champion since 2019, and the undisputed and lineal world super lightweight champion since 2023.
Daniel Jacobs is an American professional boxer. He is a two-time middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 2018 to 2019 and the WBA (Regular) title from 2014 to 2017. Nicknamed the "Miracle Man," Jacobs' career was almost cut short in 2011 due to osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He went on to make a full recovery after spending 19 months out of the sport, meanwhile recovering from severe operation-induced injuries generally perceived as crippling.
Cecilia Carmen Linda Brækhus is a Norwegian professional boxer and former kickboxer. She reigned as the undisputed female welterweight boxing champion from 2014 to 2020, and is the first woman in any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously. Brækhus is also one of only 11 boxers in history, female or male, to hold all four major world titles simultaneously. She also held the IBO title from 2016 to 2020.
Jessie Vargas is an American professional boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBA (Regular) and IBO super lightweight titles in 2014, and the WBO welterweight title in 2016. As of August 2021, he is ranked as the world's eleventh best active welterweight by BoxRec.
Jesús Gabriel "Jessie" Magdaleno is an American professional boxer who held the WBO junior featherweight title from 2016 to 2018. He is the younger brother of boxer Diego Magdaleno.
Amanda Serrano is a Puerto Rican professional boxer, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. As a boxer, she is the unified featherweight world champion, having held the WBO title since 2019, IBO title since 2021, IBF title since 2022 and the WBA title since 2023. She is the only female, and Puerto Rican, to win world titles in more than four weight classes, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most boxing world championships won in different weight-classes by a female, having held 9 major world titles across seven different weight classes.
Claressa Maria Shields is an American professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the undisputed female middleweight title from 2019 to 2020; and the unified WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two- and three-weight world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of October 2022, she is ranked the world's best active female middleweight by BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN and The Ring.
Duda Yankovich is a Serbian-born former boxer and mixed martial arts fighter. She has been living in Brazil since 1999. Yankovich was the Women's International Boxing Association (WIBA) 2006 light welterweight world champion.
Catherine Phiri is a Zambian professional boxer. She held the WBC female bantamweight title from 2016 to 2017 and challenged twice for the WBC female super-bantamweight title in 2017 and 2019. As of May 2022, she is ranked as the world's tenth best active female super-bantamweight by BoxRec.
Marie-Ève Dicaire is a Canadian professional boxer who is a 2-time IBF female light middleweight champion from 2018 to March 2021 and from December 2021 to November 2022. In 2013, she was named athlete of the year by Boxing Quebec. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's second best active female light middleweight by The Ring and BoxRec.
Jessie Chisi is a Zambian film director and screenwriter.
Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story is a documentary film co-written and co-directed by Zambian filmmaker Jessie Chisi, and Finnish director Salla Sorri. The film is about Esther Phiri, Chisi's cousin, who left her education and prospect of marriage to embark on a boxing career, and became seven-time world welterweight champion.
Jessica McCaskill is an American professional boxer. She is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the undisputed, IBO, and Ring female welterweight titles since 2020; the WBC female super lightweight title from 2018 to 2020; and the WBA female super lightweight title from 2019 to 2020. She also challenged for the WBA lightweight title in 2017. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's best active female welterweight by The Ring and BoxRec, and the third best active female, pound for pound, by BoxRec, and fourth by The Ring and ESPN.
Yazmín Rosita Rivas Hernandez is a Mexican professional boxer. She has held world championships in three weight classes, including the WBA female super flyweight title in 2005; the IBF female bantamweight title from 2011 to 2013; the WBC female bantamweight title from 2014 to 2016; and the WBA female super bantamweight title in 2018.