By SOLANGE REYNER, Associated Press WriterDANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP)—It’s Saturday morning and Bonnie Canino is strapping on her black 14-ounce boxing gloves. She puts her headgear and mouthpiece on and waits for her first opponent. For the next hour, Canino spars with about a dozen of her boxing students. Men and women, all of them younger than her 46 years, most of them larger than her 5-foot-6, 126-pound frame. She doesn’t lose. “I want to open doors for other female fighters,” she says. And that’s why she won’t stop fighting, inside or outside the ring. Canino, a former women’s world champion, is the tournament organizer for the National Women’s Golden Gloves competition, which starts Wednesday in Hollywood, Fla. It’s a labor of love for Canino; if she’s lucky this year, she’ll break even financially, which almost never happens. The $20 registration fee she charges fighters only goes so far. But Canino presses on, saying she does this to give women “a chance to shine,” something she says they don’t often get an opportunity to do in the sport—there’s no Olympic glory and the pro circuit doesn’t pay enough to make a living. “People looked at me like I was crazy,” said Canino, who started boxing in 1979. She can laugh about it now. But to Canino, the opportunities for female boxers are still laughable, too. “Nothing’s really changed,” said Christy Halbert, the chairperson of a USA Boxing women’s tournament administration committee. Even though the Golden Gloves is a USA Boxing-sanctioned event, Canino doesn’t receive any money from the sport’s organizing body to offset her costs. In 2003, when she first hosted the event, she lost $9,000. So far this year, she’s $8,000 in the red, paying the bills with her personal credit cards. “I try not to think about it,” Canino said, “especially when times are tight.” Canino is renting out a back portion of her house just to make ends meet. “Hopefully this year I break even,” a smiling but stressed Canino said. Halbert and Canino are fighting for amateur programs that will nurture talented fighters because there isn’t much money on the pro circuit. Most top female pros can make between $4,000 and $5,000 a bout, a sliver of what men draw in the ring. “There are a few women who have broken that barrier, but that’s not the case everywhere,” Halbert said. Pete Fernandez, a pro-boxing promoter out of Tampa who has worked with Canino before, says there should be change. Canino says the bouts draw well and that the finals are always sold out. But sponsorship deals are slim and she won’t charge more than $10 to general-admission spectators. “She needs more help than what she gets to help develop her fighters,” Fernandez said. “Right now she has zero.” Even with nominal registration costs, some women say they can barely afford to get to South Florida and fight. Franchon Crews, a four-time national champion, works as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore. It will cost the 21-year-old Crews around $1,300 to fight in the event. “This is a hell trip right here, because the Golden Gloves for women is different,” Crews said. “It’s held apart from the boys, who do get funded.” Caroline Barry, a 10-time national champion who has medaled three times internationally, is putting herself in debt to fund the trip. Barry, a certified athletic trainer who lives in Colorado Springs, got some money from private sponsors but is putting the rest on her credit cards. Christina Swanson, a lifeguard who lives in Hollywood, says one of the reasons she didn’t turn pro is because the event is local. “Since the gloves are here and I don’t have to spend the money, I’ll fight,” Swanson said. The three are hoping that the International Olympic Committee allow their sport into the games in 2012. Among sports scheduled to be on the 2012 Olympic program, boxing is the only one without women’s events. “There are so many people worldwide that want to see changes,” Halbert, a former professional boxer, said. Changes are taking a long time on both the national and international level. Halbert says it’s been difficult to find equity in boxing in the U.S. on both the amateur and pro circuit. Canino knows all about the problems. But she’s learned to look past them, at least for one more year. “There’s no reason for me to sit here and cry about it,” Canino said. “The girls should be able to shine now.”
