For Fans of “Ladies" Boxing,' It's Bout Time in Manhattan
By Michael Powell
Sasha Allen is no Jack Dempsey. This sophisticated Lady - that's her ring moniker - knows soaps better than slugouts. Workouts are a bore and getting hit in the face is downright annoying.
"But boxing is a little glamorous," the St' Johns University Journalism student said after her bout last night with Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. "It beats waitressing"
The Great American Clubhouse at 333 E. 60th Street in Manhattan has a new racket : "Gorgeous ladies" with 16 ounce gloves performing before an appreciative crowd of punch-drunk young accountants, bankers and reporters. It’s known as ladies' boxing but promoter Billy Dean is glad to call it by another name:
"Sexploitation! Sure, sex sells" Dean said as ge watched five of his "fighters" limbering up. “These ladies are very gorgeous and very glamorous"
Glamour, as defined by Allen, means having to be persuaded to job on mascara and eye shadow and parade into Billy Dean's boxing ring “Some of my friend’s thinks it’s a little stupid" she acknowledged.
stupid is not a word the owner of the Great American Clubhouse would apply to themselves. Glowing flags and television screens adorn the walls and blue nude statues reach toward the ceiling as Billy Dean's "Knockouts Foxy Fighters" provide the entertainment.
"We think it's the future, the nineties." said co-owner Marco Ricotta. " The ladies are a form of show biz."
Ricotta said he and Dean want to upgrade ladies' boxing - bring in class, bring in stars,
Kimberly Clark is part of that move. She's a former penthouse pet who appeared in the magazine's centerfold, though the editors just wanted one breast exposed, confided the West Babylon LI resident.
“They like to have me in the ring because Penthouse brings in a good crowd," she said, a tiny golden crucifix dangling into her cleavage. "I have four [pinup] posters nationwide."
Clark's job is to parade in the ring between rounds "She wouldn’t dare take a swing at us" confided one foxy fighter. Then again few "merely gorgeous" women would last long in the ring with the women from Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn Heights. At the gym women train and spar for hours on end learning the uppercut and bob and weave.
"We sweat and wear really yucky clothing" said Kathering Coladner, a real estate agent who has trained at Gleason's for months.
Dean said his goal is to see ladies' boxing attain at least the same level of legitimacy as men’s professional wrestling.
