The newly formed International Women's
Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF) has announced the scheduled induction of
Regina Halmich into the initial class of seven women to be honored on
July 10 in Fort Lauderdale, FL., in conjunction with a US National
Female Golden Gloves tournament. Halmich is generally recognized as the
boxer who, during the decades of the 1990s and 2000, brought the sport
of female boxing to sold out popularity in Germany while also
establishing credibility for the sport throughout Europe, with her
finely honed ring skills.
Halmich enters the IWBHF along with Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker, two
of the most highly regarded professional boxers during the 1990/2000
era; Barbara Buttrick, a pioneer female boxer in the 1940s and 50s, who,
today, continues to be active in the sport; Bonnie Canino, a highly
ranked professional boxer during the mid1990s and early 2000 years, who
is currently a major contributor to the sport of amateur female boxing
in the United States as both a highly sought after coach and a promoter;
Christy Halbert, a former professional boxer, a current boxing coach and
a leading force behind the successful effort to bring the sport of
Women’s boxing to 2012 Olympics and Jo-Ann Hagen, a top ranked
professional boxer, during the 1950s, whose award will be posthumous.
Regina Halmich's professional career began in 1994 and in her tenth
professional bout (June '95), she captured the Women's International
Boxing Federation (WIBF) flyweight title with a ten round win over Kim
Messer. From that point, until Halmich retired from the ring in 2007,
she defended her title an incredible forty five times, beating, in the
process, such highly ranked fighters as Elena Reid, Maria Jesus Rosa,
Wendy Rodriquez, Viktoria Pataki and, in Halmich's final bout (November
'07), Hagar Shmoulefeld Finer. Over Hamlich's thirteen year professional
career, covering fifty-six bouts and four hundred and fifty-five rounds,
the only blemishes on her record were a loss to American Yvonne Trevino.
As with Halls of Fame for other sports, the IWBHF's first class of
inductees is a special assemblage of the best of the best from the sport
of Women’s boxing. The seven women being inducted in July represent an
impressive gamut of ring skills, coaching abilities, promotion
capability and on-going, present day contributions to the sport, a group
into which Regina Halmich has been awarded a richly deserved inclusion.
