Olivia Gerula: Training basket

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2016 (2917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Olivia Gerula’s professional boxing career has spanned nearly 20 years.

Seven years ago, she became a world champion for the first time. Last year, she did it again.

At 36, she still recalls a conversation with her mother early in her career at which point she said she’d retire after 20 years of fighting. With that date looming , Gerula wants another world title. A trifecta and the perfect way to go out — on top.

An aspiring kickboxer and Muay Thai practitioner, boxing wasn’t initially on her radar. She began as a competitive gymnast and a high-calibre soccer player.

“I had really big, tree-trunk legs and I have flexibility and I figured I could kick guys in the head,” Gerula says. “At 14, I convinced my mom to get me into martial arts. A year-and-a-half later, I had already won a Canadian title and a North American Muay Thai title; my coach went to my mom and said I was really good and asked if I could fight. My mom didn’t know I was kickboxing at the time.”

Gerula’s first boxing bout came in 1997. Since then, she’s spent two decades ranked in the top 10 in the world and currently sits in that No. 10 spot.

“I was never a boxer. I had to go backwards, almost,” she says. “I was a fighter. I had good strength. I may not be the best boxer out there, but one of the biggest things is my conditioning — I will outwork you, cardio-wise, because that’s something I can control.”

She admits her career has been a rocky road. She’s 17-16-2 over her 35-bout career, according to boxrec.com. She lost her most recent fight this past February by TKO.

“I’ve pretty much always stepped into something else’s backyard and fought there,” she says.

She’s not making excuses, but the realities of women’s boxing are much different then men’s. “I’ve had to fight for every fight I’ve ever won. And some of those fights I lost, I won those, too.”

The level of respect Gerula receives now is much higher than when she first started out, she says.

“When I fight started, guys would yell at me while I was walking to the ring. Then, I’d go in there and throw down and I’d be walking back and the same guys would be slow clapping saying, ‘Damn, that was good,’” she says. “There’s still a huge gap between men and women when it comes to money. I was sitting with the WBC title — the same one owned by Floyd Mayweather — and they’re getting $40 million per fight. Getting $40,000 is unheard of on the women’s side of the sport. Unfortunately, it’s still a man’s game.”

Still, Gerula is standing behind her daughter’s decision to follow in her footsteps.

“I’ll be nervous about it, but boxing is boxing,” Gerula says of her daughter, 15-year-old Sydney Pereira. “A lot of people just look at it as a brutal sport. There’s a lot of strategy and finesse. And she won’t be fighting at the level I am for a long time. But I am going to support her through it.”

When she’s not training for a fight, Gerula is in the gym. She’s a certified personal trainer and has been working out of Shapes for the last 10 years. She also runs classes for the city as a boxing and kickboxing trainer and has her own company, www.championtraining.ca.

As one of the longest-competing female boxers in the sport, Gerula still doesn’t look at herself as a matriarch. The words “role model” are often thrown around, and she’s proud of that.

“I never set out to become a world champion. My goal was to leave a lasting impression on the sport and to be remembered in the sport as a good fighter. Boxing has been really good to me and I’ve tried to be really good to it back. But I’m not done paving ways yet,” she says.

The road to her title shot begins as early as next month. She’s expecting to fight again in May or June. If she can string together a couple of wins, she could have her shot sometime in early 2017.

“It’s not the be-all, end-all, but I want one more,” she says. “I lost my WIBA title in our last Winnipeg show. I’m still confused as to why I lost it, but I want the rematch. It’s not about the belt. I want to right the loss.”

Favourite workout: Pad work with my coach, Kent Brown.

Favourite workout music: My walkout song is Ludacris’ Move Bitch. I’m a hip-hop girl. I love Limp Bizkit — it’s terrible.

Fitness tip: In boxing, keep your damn hands up. Give as good as you get and then give a bit more. Conditioning is huge and key — it’s everything.

What’s in your fridge: There’s two Olivias — the one that is training and the one that is eating whatever she wants. Right now, milk, yogurt and veggies, most of it is healthy.

Guilty pleasure: Licorice and ice cream. Cheesecake is all good, too.

Have an idea for the Training Basket? Contact Scott at scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca