Tonya Harding wins Oregon Fight!!!

[Leo]

Tonya Harding Wins 1st Oregon Boxing Bout

ANDREW HINKELMAN
Associated Press

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. - Tonya Harding won her home- state boxing debut on a unanimous decision Friday night.
The self-titled "America's Bad Girl" entered the ring to a chorus of boos from the crowd of about 1,800 at Chinook Winds Casino, but left to mostly cheers after an easy victory.

Dressed in black and flanked by an entourage of six, the disgraced former U.S. figure skating champion (3-1) looked overweight and was clearly winded by the end of the first of four rounds against Emily Gosa.
The entire fight barely elevated itself above a drunken street brawl, with both boxers running to the center of the ring at the fight's start and stumbling through the first few seconds after colliding.

Gosa, making her professional debut, looked better suited to be a ring-card girl than a boxer, and fell down early in the fight. Harding also stumbled to one knee, but neither was credited with a knockdown, and that's as close as either fighter came to hitting the mat.

Harding had decidedly more power than Gosa, snapping the younger woman's head back on several occasions and drawing blood from her right nostril in the second round.
Gosa, from Sulligent, Ala., got in some decent punches of her own, but none of the shots had the power to faze Harding.

As Harding left the ring - again protected by her phalanx of bodyguards, trainers and hangers-on - she was taunted by several fans, one who suggested she bring her hubcap next time, a reference to a domestic dispute in which Harding attacked her then-boyfriend with a hubcap.

Harding's skating career ended in 1994 after she was linked to an assault plot to keep rival Nancy Kerrigan out of the Olympics. The plot failed, even though Kerrigan was clubbed on a knee. Harding acknowledged hindering the attack investigation.

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YES!!

UPDATE: Here is a link to Photo's of Tonya and Gosa just before the bout..

http://www.womenboxing.com/news8.htm

[chicklicker]

Where you get all this info is byond me!Thank you for it though.The reports of the fight do not make it sound as Tonya is going to make much more of this.She clearly would get hurt if she had to fight a more experinced fighter but it is an honest living and hope she can keepout of trouble.

[Leo]

Harding hears a boo

Spectators deal their own blows in Tonya's first Oregon fight.

DAN ITEL
Statesman Journal

June 14, 2003

LINCOLN CITY — We can't help but watch.
It's the instinct that makes turning heads at car wrecks inevitable — or making a spectacle of others' misfortune.

What happened Friday night at Chinook Winds Casino might be called an unfortunate spectacle: Tonya Harding making her Oregon boxing debut in front of more than 1,000 leering spectators.

She won a unanimous decision against Emily Gosa, a native of Sulligent, Ala. Gosa was boxing for the first time — with four weeks of practice under her belt. Harding's record goes to 3-1, all by decisions.

What could be discerned through the flailing arms and misdirected punches was a somewhat dominating victory by Harding, who goes by the ring moniker of America's Bad Girl.
"I feel great," Harding said. "I have a lot of training and practice left to do."

The former Olympic figure skater and convicted felon also has some work to do winning over Oregon fans again. She made her ring approach, surrounded by three bodyguards, to mostly boos from the crowd.

The long-anticipated bout started with both fighters charging the center of the ring, punches flying.
Harding knocked down Gosa somewhere in the fray but it was ruled a fall.

Harding went down once, which also was ruled a fall. Gosa seemed almost as entertained as the raucous crowd. She bounced around wearing a broad smile and suddenly became a crowd favorite.

"I loved it," she said. "The rush. The adrenaline. I'll try to put on a better show next time."

If people came for a boxing match, they had to be disappointed. If they came for a freak show, they got exactly what they wanted.

It seemed especially entertaining for those who came armed with cracks about tire irons and flying hubcaps. "Go back to your trailer," one fan yelled.

"Whether people like me or not," Harding said, "they bought the tickets and are paying my salary."

The second round was more of the same, wild punches with little, if any, technical fighting. Both began to tire and slow to even more boos.

"It didn't hurt," Gosa said. "I was taking it. I thought she would be tougher."

Throughout the final two rounds, Harding outmatched Gosa in athletic ability, some resemblance of boxing skill and mainly desire.

"I know how hard I work," Harding said. "This is a heck of a lot harder than training for skating ever was."


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Here is a link to this story with a photo of Tonya punching Gosa in the face:

http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=63132

[Leo]

Here is a link to More Photo's of the bout:


http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/...=UTF-8&p=tonya harding&c=news_photos

Hopefuly it works..


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I want to take time to thank " Terry Hall " for posting on a newgroup, links to photo's of tonya's bout last night!!

I also want to thank " Terry Hall " for thanking me in the June 13 2003 edition of the Portlandian..

Thank you Terry!!!

[Leo]

Tonya Harding wins fight, not fans

Published: June 14, 2003

LINCOLN CITY - Tonya Harding is a long way from her triple axle days.

Last night in Chinook Winds Casino, the 32-year-old former world class figure skater fought her fourth career boxing match against a little known (well, better say unknown) boxer out of Sulligent, Ala. - the Alabama Slamma.'

It was Harding's triumphant return home to the Pacific Northwest.

The Portland native-turned-Vancouver resident was greeted with mostly boos. There were some jeers and even some swearing from the crowd who seemed to hold bitter animosity against the local star who has embarrassed herself - and those Pacific Northwesterners who stood by her - time after time.

There was no love for America's Bad Girl.

Her competition, whose name was actually Emily Gosa, was fighting for the first time in her career. Not only was it her first professional fight, but it was the first fight that she had been to. Not only was it the first fight that she'd been to but it was also the first time she had seen a fight. The first time she had ever put on tape.

Her only apparent qualifications for fighting against the former Olympian was that she was "a private person," according to her trainer and the man who set up the match, Tommy Locastro.

Gosa also had the added incentive of a recent divorce, putting her in a situation where she needed some extra money.

When asked what made her want to get out there against Harding, the perky Alabaman responded in her southern drawl, "For the rush."

Good enough.

As for Harding's reason for continuing a boxing career that was comical from its humble beginnings on Celebrity Challenge against lounge singer/Bill Clinton mistress Paula Jones?

"I sure as heck don't want to be sitting around doing nothing," Harding told a pack of Portland-area media outlets after the fight.

"I want to be doing something athletic. It doesn't get more athletic than this. It's fun. Getting hit in the face is fun."(?)

Harding sure as heck isn't sitting around doing nothing. She trained five months for this fight and she charged out against the 5-foot-3 Gosa like she wanted it to end in the first five seconds.

The Slamma, pig-tails and all, withstood the opening barrage by Harding. The Slamma did buckle a bit in the first round but quickly bounced up from the mat and came back swinging her short arms wildly in the direction of the Bad Girl. Harding even dropped to a knee at one point.

Harding responded by focussing her make-up blackened eyes on the tiny, elusive target.

The Bad Girl threw punch after punch, but the Slamma refused to go down. The Slamma even responded with a few punches of her own - some may have even landed.

The cat-and-mouse game went on for four rounds and in the end ... it was .. hold your breath ... Tonya Harding by unanimous decision.

Harding's professional record improved to 3-1 with no knockouts. The Slamma fell to 0-1 in what may have been the end of a not-so-illustrious career. The judges scored it 40-36, 40-36, 40-36.

Tonya said that she was going to relax after the fight by, "going down and playing the slots," in the casino. A class act all the way.

As for the local fans that have lost faith in America's Bad Girl?

"Whether or not people like me or not, they bought the tickets to pay my salary," Harding said. "Maybe some day I'll get a better name."

In case you may have missed the big fight, dubbed the "Commotion at the Ocean," in Chinook Winds last night, don't worry. Harding is only in the first year of a four-year contract.

There will be plenty more chances to catch her traveling freak show.

Morgan Ryan is a sports reporter for the News-Register.

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NOTE: When you go looking for posts about Tonya Harding One has to face the fact that they are almost aways negative in some way about her..

I desided to post this one because it does have news content worth posting..

There is one however from the Oregonian Newspaper site that was down right crule about Tonya's fight last night so I desided not to post it Here..

UPDATE: June 17 2003. the Oregonian seems to have become very vindictive when it come's to Tonya for some reason, The bout was last friday the 13th but they just posted yet another negative review of the fight!!

I will not go in to details but I will say that its just as bad as the first review of the fight...And Tonya..

[Leo]

This come from another Lincoln oregon newspaper:



Exhibition boxing at its finest?

By CHAD RICHINS

The News Guard

Even though last Friday's Commotion at the Ocean IV was more of an exhibition card than a pure boxing event, the entertainment value was hard to count out.
While it was not exactly family entertainment, the event had plenty of attractions.

Many of those present were drawn by the unrivaled novelty of seeing former figure skater and all around bad girl Tonya Harding mix it up in the ring with neophyte and Alabama mother-of-two Emily Gosa. Gosa, who looked to be outweighed by at least thirty pounds, danced into the ring in pigtails, smiling and mugging cutely for the cameras. Harding, who no longer claims to hail from Oregon, came on like grim death, looking tense and resigned as she made her way through the crowd to the ring. At one point Harding barked at onlookers who pressed too close, yelling, "Get off of me!" As Harding approached and entered the ring a chorus of boos resounded in the close quarters of the convention center, seemingly making Harding more determined.

Anyone who was in attendance to see the boxing version of the WNBA had another thing coming. This would be no exhibition of boxing skill or fancy footwork. This was your cousin Nancy at a keg party beating up Unidentified Freshman Girl. As Katherine Dunn of the online boxing magazine Cyber Boxing Zone remarked at ringside, "It's the butterfly versus the fishwife."
At the first bell, the women clashed rudely at center stage, Tonya using her bulk to plow some nicely aimed shots into the face of Gosa, whose nose was soon bloody. The fight went the entire scheduled four rounds, devolved into a slap fest and ended with lots of hugs and Tonya as the recipient of a unanimous decision.

The other big draw of the night, the Butterbean versus Troy Roberts fight, lasted only 54 seconds. Twice the length guessed at by one ringside fan, but short of the extended thrashing most hoped for. Within seconds, Roberts was on the ropes sideways with his head an immobile target for Butterbean's thanksgiving-turkey-sized fists, one of the two times the referee was forced to call an end to a bout for the safety of a fighter.

The other fighter who received a big fugget-about-it from the ref was another Troy (go figure), this time Troy "Country Boy" Weida. Similar to the earlier bout between local boy Vic Branson and Billy Thompson, the Norris-Weida bout was an example of the inevitability of speed and skill overcoming a slightly bigger and slower fighter. Both norris and Thompson methodically landed punches about the head and shoulders of their opponents, mechanically destroying their ability to fight back. At close range it was evident that just one of Norris's jabs that leaked over the top of Weida's gloves and glanced off his head would have been enough to floor 90 percent of the men in the room. This was confirmed when Weida, after the fight and still wearing his gloves, wandered out of the room in a daze wearing a cowboy hat.

The only real flash of brilliance all night was young Reggie Davis, former Olympic hopeful and Portland resident who dismantled first the offense then the defense of one Cebian St. Pierre of Haiti. Davis' flashy combinations made the crowd roar with delight and made his opponent reel. St. Pierre was no harmless bum, but his quirky, squatting fighting style and big right hand were no match for Davis's obvious talent and professionalism.
"It was just a matter of us getting to him," said Davis' manager Rudy Garza of his fighter's opponent. "He was kind of awkward."
Garza spoke positively about Davis' future, saying he was already looking for other opportunities.
All in all a jolly good show, if slightly surreal. The capper being Robbie Kneivel entering the ring to announce an upcoming "world-record Pepsi truck jump" that will take place in August at Chinook Winds.
So if you want to see some boxing, go to Vegas, but if you want to be entertained and see some interesting match-ups, the Commotion at the Ocean is hard to beat.


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I just wanted to add that Nancy Kerrigan is starting to come out of the woodwork so to speak..

She now on the cover of "International Figure Skating magazine looking I must admit, Sexy as hell..

And Better then the last time I saw her I can tell you..

I guess with all this News in the media on Tonya winning her boxing matches has gotten to her..

[Leo]

For the first time we not only have photos of Tonya Boxing we now have video clips we can look at..

NOTE: this is a link the WBAN Women's Boxing site..

For some reason ( Petty comes to mind.) its about the Girl Tonya beat Emily Gosa and not so much about Tonya..

Well there are some nice photos of Tonya beating the hell out of Gosa And for the First time ever MPEG video clips of the fight!!!

Now we can finaly see what Tonya looks like in the ring..

Here is the link:

http://www.wban.org/gosa061303.htm


I can tell you from what I see Tonya looked dam good!!


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NOTE 2 : I noticed that they posted the very same news storys on the fight that I have posted here...Plus the very negative one's From the Orgonian newspaper I refused to repost here..

Ahhhhhhhh Hmmmmmmmmm??

[chicklicker]

Once again thanx for the info Not the greatest videoclips but it was something.I try to be objective and think after reading accounts from this fight that it may be time for Tonya to move on. She is not going to be a draw if she keeps fighting inexperienced fighters.She will probably get her *** kicked if she fights somebody with real experience.Even so I still would like for some network to pick up one of the fights just out of curiosity

[Leo]

Originally posted by chicklicker
Once again thanx for the info Not the greatest videoclips but it was something.I try to be objective and think after reading accounts from this fight that it may be time for Tonya to move on. She is not going to be a draw if she keeps fighting inexperienced fighters.She will probably get her *** kicked if she fights somebody with real experience.Even so I still would like for some network to pick up one of the fights just out of curiosity

Your welcome Chick..

Your feelings that Tonya should move on are shared by alot of people..

But there seem to be a reason why she's being put with inexperienced fighters..

Here is a story from the "Portland Tribune"


Please, Tonya, no tomato cans

June 20 2003

By Kerry Eggers


Team Tonya's Traveling Circus will march on, though the ringmaster isn't sure where next the tents shall be pitched.
_ _
"We don't have anything lined up yet," says Brian Young, Tonya Harding's Mississippi-based boxing promoter. "We have offers from several different parts of the country.

_ _Young said he expects to have a site and date "in the next 14 days."

_ _Terrible Tonya should have knocked out neophyte Emily Gosa last week at the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City. Trainer Will Massie had flatly predicted a KO but seemed only mildly fazed by his boxer's four-round decision.

_ _"The other girl should have been knocked out," Massie says. "Tonya wore herself out the first two rounds. It was OK. It could have been better. We will go back to the gym and take it from there."

_ _Gosa, who works in a Sulligent, Ala., pawnshop and took the fight because "it will pay for my divorce," was recruited by Young sidekick Tommy LeCastro on barely more than a moment's notice. Her fighting experience was "just (in the) back yard," LeCastro says. "You know, like sparring against girls and guys with your hands up."

_ _LeCastro acknowledges that he didn't want to pit Harding against a real boxer.

_ _"It's hard to match Tonya, with the
experience she's got," LeCastro says. "If you threw her in against somebody who was a good amateur with 40-some fights, she'd get killed."

_ _Therein lies the problem. The public won't take Harding seriously unless her handlers do, and unless they put her in the ring against a legitimate opponent.

_ _Since Harding's loss in her debut in Memphis, Tenn., in February, Young has been careful to match his protégée with tomato cans incapable of an upset. Young's Prizefight Promotions has signed Harding to a four-year contract and can't afford to have her lose as it parades her around the country, offering fans the sleazy appeal of a circus geek.

_ _Harding could thrive for a while as the "heel," the fighter the public loves to hate. The majority of those who paid good money to witness the Lincoln City spectacle sipped ****tails and laughed at and booed Tonya as she failed to put away Gosa in the final two rounds. If that hurt Harding's feelings, she wasn't letting on.

_ _"Whether people like me or not, they bought the tickets and are paying my salary," Harding told reporters.

_ _LeCastro, incidentally, says he will continue to train Gosa. He says Harding wouldn't go for a rematch.

_ _"You know why?" he says. "She'd lose."
_ _•_Meanwhile, Harding's former boxing manager-trainer is planning to take her to court.

_ _Jeff Hargis' attorney, David Collins, has prepared a breach-of-contract lawsuit that he says probably will be filed in a Tennessee circuit court by today.

_ _"Jeff holds an exclusive contract with Tonya for management and training services," Collins says from his Nashville office. "She sent him a letter saying he was fired but gave no reason. We will be asking for monetary damages. I can't tell you the exact figure, but it is substantial."

_ _Harding says she fired Hargis last month and hired his assistant, Massie, as her trainer. Hargis served as Harding's trainer through her first three pro fights. Massie trained with her and worked in her corner in last week's victory over Gosa at Chinook Winds Casino.

_ _"She can't fire me," Hargis says. "I am not an employee. She has a four-year contract with me as manager and trainer. We will see what happens in court."

_ _The Nashville-based trainer says he would be willing to renew his working relationship with Harding, "but I don't think she's interested."

_ _Harding did not return phone messages relayed to her by Massie.

_ _"She said to tell Jeff he is on the waiting list," Massie says.

_ _Hargis says his dispute with Harding included her insistence to train out of a motel suite in Vancouver, Wash.

_ _"That is not conducive to a sound training environment," Hargis says. "It is time for her to start learning how to box."

_ _Hargis says he objected to Harding's affinity for night life, which he says interfered with her training. He laughed when told that Harding claims she is satisfied with her progress after four pro fights in five months of training and was glad she didn't break her nose against Gosa, as had happened in her previous bout.

_ _"At this point, she is still going the distance with a novice, a Paula Jones-type fighter, and that's disappointing," Hargis says. "To Tonya, her new training regimen kept her from getting her nose broken again. To the rest of the world, an ability to throw punches would better keep her from getting her nose broken."
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[Leo]

There is no news about Tonya at this time and when there is I will post it here..

So for those of you who are wondering about the lawsuit filed against Tonya Harding by her Agent/manager I have to say I'm just as much in the dark as you are..I can't find anything about it!!

In the meantime as I reported here Nancy Kerrigan seems to be coming out of the wood work..Here's a link to a little update on whats been happening with her lately..


http://www.southbendtribune.com/stor...g_barriers.sto