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Sunday, January 30, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: Royce Feour
Sjauw hopes heavy training brings lightweight title
Female boxers come to Las Vegas for the same reasons their male counterparts have been coming here for more than 30 years.
They perceive Las Vegas as the place of big fights, action and opportunity. The women also come with hopes and dreams of world championships.
One relative newcomer to Las Vegas who is getting a title shot in her next fight is Marischa Sjauw, from Suriname, a former territory of the Netherlands on the Atlantic coast of South America.
Sjauw will challenge Zulfia Koutdussova of Russia for the International Female Boxers Association lightweight championship Feb. 11 in Kenner, La. The card, which includes two other IFBA title fights, will be televised by ESPN2.
Sjauw, 28, has been living in Las Vegas for eight months since signing with manager Greg Hannley and becoming part of his Prince Ranch Boxing stable.
Hannley said: "Besides Laura Serrano, (Sjauw) is the best female fighter pound-for-pound. Nobody at her weight class could beat her. The first thing is to get her the world title. We are looking at a fight in New Zealand in March and then just basically having her go after the different belts one after another."
Serrano, the Women's International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion, is also part of Prince Ranch Boxing.
Sjauw is 13-4-1 since turning pro in 1993. She lived in Holland from 1977 to 1998, when she moved to the United States to further her boxing career.
Sjauw said she has improved since she being trained full-time the last few months by former World Boxing Association junior lightweight champion Roger Mayweather of Las Vegas.
She has worked with other trainers, including the well-respected Jesse Reid, but not on a full-time basis.
Sjauw is coming off a good performance in taking a one-sided victory over Isra Girgrah in a four-rounder on the Mike Tyson-Orlin Norris undercard Oct. 23 at the MGM Grand Garden.
Two judges gave Sjauw all four rounds, and the third gave her three rounds against Girgrah, who was the IFBA's No. 5 lightweight contender.
"(Girgrah) was very tactical. People thought very highly of her," Sjauw said. "I think my body shots, hooks and combinations I learned from Roger (made the difference)."
Girgrah had fought Christy Martin, the most visible women's boxer by far, to a close eight-round decision in 1997.
Marcel Niessen, Sjauw's husband, said Sjauw's impressive fight was a combination of the preparation under Mayweather and the corner work of Reid.
The Sjauw-Girgrah fight, coming as it did after the controversial Tyson-Norris no-contest, drew little media attention of its own, disappointing Sjauw and Niessen.
"All of the press was gone to the (Tyson) press conference," Niessen said.
But Mayweather is high on Sjauw's potential to gain more media attention.
"(Sjauw) has more discipline than the others," he said. "She is determined to be the best. I think that is what separates her from other girls. Her own self-drive and motivation make her exceptional."
Mayweather said she is very coachable.
"She overtrains," he said "She runs eight miles a day, which I cut her down from doing. She (spars) 10 rounds -- with guys, not girls -- which most girls don't do."
Mayweather said Lucia Rijker, a native of Holland, is the only woman around Sjauw's weight class who might defeat her. Rijker is the Women's International Boxing Organization junior welterweight champion. As in men's boxing, various alphabet-soup sanctioning organizations bestow women's title belts.
Reid similarly praises Sjauw.
"She is a good fighter. She is probably one of the best around right now. Marischa is a real good boxer. She is tough. She can do a lot of different things. She is a real good athlete, and she is in tremendous condition. She is like an Olympic athlete -- a hard-working girl. Sometimes she works too hard. She is going to do very well."
After turning pro at 21 in 1993, Sjauw went 6-0-1 in bouts in the Czech Republic, Holland and the Ukraine and won the WIBF European welterweight championship.
But she never defended her European belt.
"There was no future in Europe. That's why she quit for 2 1/2 years," Niessen said. "As soon as you get a name, nobody wants to fight you anyway."
Sjauw lost her U.S. debut on a six-round decision to Lisa Ested in Atlantic City on March 21, 1998. Sjauw said she was weak from being sick two weeks before the fight.
"I was really ill, but I still wanted to come over. I wanted that fight. That was an opening to come to America," she said.
Two months later, Sjauw lost another fight in Atlantic City, dropping a 10-round decision to Kathleen Collins for the WIBF lightweight title.
"I took it on one-week notice. I said OK because every opportunity in America you take as a Dutch girl," she said.
Sjauw also said she had to lose 12 pounds in three days to make the 135-pound limit.
She also lost her next fight, a four-rounder to Daisy Ocasio in Lake Worth, Fla., to make it three consecutive defeats in the United States. Once again Niessen said there were extenuating circumstances surrounding the loss, including that Sjauw's opponent outweighed her by at least eight pounds.
"Marischa won the fight, but they didn't give it to her," Niessen said.
Sjauw's most recent loss was a 10-round decision Feb. 20 to Jane Couch for the WIBF welterweight title in Teeside, England.
After that loss, Sjauw accelerated her schedule and won five fights in 2 1/2 months.
Royce Feour's boxing column is published Friday and Sunday. He can be reached by phone at 383-0354, fax at 383-4676 or e-mail at Royce_Feour@lasvegas.com.
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Printable version of this story
Marischa Sjauw, a native of Suriname who has been living in Las Vegas for eight months, works out with her trainer, Roger Mayweather.
Photo by Christine H. Wetzel.
ROYCE FEOUR
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