Heather Hardy could be female boxing’s brightest hope for commercial appeal right now. She is scheduled to fight Renata Domsodi in an eight-round bout on the undercard of Garcia-Malignaggi this Saturday.
This fight will be Hardy’s third straight scheduled contest inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York where Hardy lives, although she’s fought at the venue four times total. She is enjoying her growing recognition and believes that staying active is the key to growing not just her popularity but that of the entire sport.
“I really do believe we’re getting a lot exposure now. When I had my first fight back in April, everyone was so surprised when they saw me take off my clothes and get on the scale. I think they all thought I was someone’s wife. By my second fight in May, people were kind of like ‘that’s that fighter,’ so it’s important to stay part of the conversation,” Hardy told Nestor Gibbs of Tha Boxing Voice
It is purely coincidental that Hardy is fighting on the same night as the biggest female fighter in combat sports, Ronda Rousey, who will compete on PPV against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.
Hardy has the look and the personality to attract commercial interests, but she will have to produce exciting fights to put female boxing in an overall better place. However, she is making efforts to at least separate herself as an attraction with the help of others urging her to build a brand. After all, female MMA was not nearly as big until Rousey herself began to build her own reputation.
“My clients have been hounding me for like 13 fights now that I need to start taking care of my appearance. I came to work this morning and one of the girls I was teaching dragged me into the bathroom and put my makeup on and brushed my hair,” Hardy said while laughing.
Female boxing can be very entertaining, and if you watch networks that show female fights such as beIN Sports then you know that they offer a similar pace to that of the smaller weight classes in the men’s division. The girls will throw hands and aren’t afraid to be hit, but it will take someone with some sharp skills and real power to propel the fight genre.
Hardy possibly has what it takes, but she has the daunting task of rebuilding a sport that has never really been that big in the first place.
