As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Friday, January 08, 2016

Initiation Night... Friday, January 8

They say "what happens at the Fight Club stays at the Fight Club" but I don't know who "they" are and I've never even seen the movie it comes from so I don't know what they are talking about.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, so I'm talking about it.

Tonight I was invited out to Cabbagetown Boxing to watch their Fight Club in action but when I entered the club and noted just how many female fighters were involved in it I jumped at the invite to get involved.  All it took was Queen Spar to ask me if I wanted to jump in and I was "YES!!!".  Dropped my bag of gear, threw off my jacket and shoes, and geared up for sparring.

I trained a few rounds with one female boxer and then a couple with another but then Queen Spar told all fighters to step out of the ring.  "You stay in, Amy", she told me.  I stood there and watched as all the fighters left the ring and Queen Spar took down the ropes that had divided the large club ring into quarters for us to train in with a partner.  
Then, one by one, each female fighter stepped into the ring to fight a one minute round with me and just as the round finished the next fighter jumped in to take me on.  I was challenged by 6 different fighters, 6 minutes.  Six rounds of dealing with totally unpredictable punches, combos, styles, and levels.  And don't even get me started on how much the fighters varied among themselves -- a green boxer, one professional boxer, and boxers much taller and heavier than me.

It was challenging and it was intense.

There was definitely pressure on me to not only represent as I was the only boxer that wasn't a member of that particular boxing club and I am a pro boxer, so I gave it my best effort.  

I was inititated into the Fight Club and I passed.

Honestly, it was so amazing to be there training with these female fighters.  They all were so positive and, for me personally, having trained in Korea and not having had a similar female-only experience as such, I felt so blessed to be a part of it.  Their Friday Night Fight Club is a weekly thing apparently so I definitely am going to be an active fighter in it.  The experience was very cool and the fighters were all very supportive.  
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