Her father died when Esther was in grade 6 and the family fell on hard times without his income. Esther lived with her grandmother in the low-income urban township of Mtendere and joined her selling groceries and second hand clothes in the market. She dropped out of school and became a single mother at age A turning point in Esther's life came about when the international NGO Africa Directions started a youth-centered HIV-awareness project in the area, combining health education and sport.
Esther was the only girl in a physical training program that focused on boxing. She had been a tomboy from an early age was also motivated by boxing videos so she took the training seriously despite the negative reaction of some of the young males around her.
Her talent for boxing soon became obvious and she was referred for further training to former Zambian amateur champion Anthony Mwamba, who had made it to the quarter finals of the Olympics. Mwamba has since prepared Phiri at his Independence Boxing Gym. Sumaili had won both of her previous bouts on points, against debut boxers. Esther was not discouraged. In October she went to Zimbabwe, where she twice took on Monalisa Sibanda, retiring after the first round in the first contest on October 15 and losing by TKO in the second round of their second bout two weeks later.
Training continued on her return, and then she took on pro debut boxer Patience Master from Zimbabwe at the Nchanga Mine Club in Chingola, Zambia on May 6 , winning by a four-round split decision — her first win in the ring. This time she knocked Master out in the second round of their scheduled four-rounder.
Esther was then picked to participate in the six-bout all-female "Fists of Steel" Africa vs. Cofer had previously fought in several full world title bouts but was returning to the ring after surgery for a broken hand sustained in her last match. The late pairing meant Esther was over-weight for the bout with Cofer and she spent a few grueling hours in the gym before weighing in to shed 2 kg and meet the target of Petrova, who has been a regular if often over-matched opponent for top fighters in Europe at bantamweight or featherweight including Anita Christensen , Esther Schouten , Bettina Csabi , Iwona Guzowska and Cathy Brown fell to with this loss while Phiri improved to 1 KO.
Writer Hone Liwanga reported that "Zambia's Esther Phiri showed that women can compete in spheres most people think least likely when she traded explosive punches with Bulgarian Monica Petrova in an international boxing tournament in Lusaka. Attracting over 8, impressed spectators, Zambia's first ever international female boxing bout challenged gender stereotypes as the two exhibited professional boxing skills rivaling that of male counterparts.
The staging of the prestigious event on 18 March was not only good for the two female boxer or Zambia, but for gender activists as well. Boxing is known to be the men's sport in Zambia, and indeed most of the world.
The two women put that myth to rest as they competed in an action-packed 8-round bout. With each blow, one could just imagine how many people watching could never imagine a woman in a boxing ring.
Ms Phiri, who was in a class of her own, delivered vicious punches against her challenger Ms Petrova, whom she defeated to retain her title as the Women International Boxing Federation WIBF super featherweight champion.
But I was afraid of the final decision in case the points did not go in my favour. The publicity following Phiri's wins made her a household name in Zambia. Billboards with her picture line streets and she is now rich by Zambian standards, Phiri, her daughter, and her mother are able to live in a middle-class Lusaka neighborhood, and Esther, previously illiterate, is being sponsored to finish her education.
Valcheva fell to after an obvious mismatch. Her rise to the top has been thanks to talent and sacrifice certainly, but also to her managers' shrewd choice of opponents. Her modest record with two knockouts since turning pro in includes three victories against the same opponent Patience Master ; a win against Monika Petrova, who dropped to with the decision; and a controversial split decision over American Belinda Laracuente.
That bout came in a stretch in which Laracuente fought nine times in 16 months, losing seven times and winning once, leaving her with fewer career wins 23 than non-wins 22 losses and three no-decisions.
Another of Phiri's victories was in Kenya against Kelli Cofer , who was a last-minute substitute when the scheduled opponent failed to show. Having beaten Tissen for the world title in the spring, Phiri will fight Saturday night in Lusaka against Arizona boxer Hondi Hernandez for the vacant Global Boxing Union lightweight title.
She originally was slated to fight American boxer Angel McNamara, who had not fought for two years. When McNamara abruptly withdrew from the fight at the end of August, she was replaced by Hernandez, who is for her career and lost by TKO 30 seconds into the third round of a bout in February. Of course, with a jumble of governing bodies and the vaguest of scheduling structures, there is a certain haphazard nature to boxing matchups no matter the gender or level -- quick, name the three current men's heavyweight champs and their next logical opponents.
Phiri earned million Zambian kwacha for her title fight against Tissen, and this weekend's purse is double that. Four-hundred million kwacha is a princely sum in Zambia, but not as princely as it sounds. With an exchange rate of 3, to the U. And the Zambian kwacha is worth drastically more than the currency of neighboring Zimbabwe, which has been so ravaged by an annual hyperinflation rate of 9 million percent that its banknotes recently were printed with an expiration date.
In other words, times are difficult in this area of the world. I was scared guys would go and kill her for the money. Journey to Zambia for a look inside the world of boxer Esther Phiri. Poverty is a fundamental part of most boxing stories -- precious few boxers choose their sport because they have easier, less painful, more lucrative career options -- but there is Western poverty and then there is African poverty.
Men balance huge loads of firewood and charcoal on their bicycles along Lusaka's dusty roads while women crouch along the roadside selling the charcoal for fuel. Elderly women can be found methodically crushing small stones into even smaller bits for sale as material to spread when heavy rains flood the walkways. One of the few growth industries is the sale of coffins, which are advertised down the street from the health ministry.
Impoverished by her father's death from malaria when she was girl, Phiri left school after the sixth grade and was pregnant at To feed herself and her daughter, Eunice now 9 , she sold potatoes, chickens and vegetables in a public market on the crowded streets. She bought the food wholesale in the early morning, then cooked and re-sold it for a modest profit.
There are worse neighborhoods in Lusaka, but this one is extremely poor. Life is easier now. After Phiri beat Petrova, Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa who recently died and the government gave her a three-bedroom house in a middle-class neighborhood where she is raising her daughter and the four children of a sister who died of complications from childbirth.
During a visit to her old neighborhood this past spring, Phiri hugged and chatted with the vendors in the market as well as her former neighbors in the compound. She stopped by the old shop where she got her hair styled -- she often wears it in cornrows -- and laughed with the owner. When the local boys and girls recognized the champ, they began chanting "Esther Phiri!
She was selling bloody chickens! That's why she has so much support from the average people here. They know she's one of them. Mwamba -- a former soldier and Olympic boxer, and a current trainer, promoter and preacher -- steered a heavily used sedan, its brake drums moaning, down Cairo Road in the center of Lusaka toward yet another planning meeting for Phiri's April bout against Tissen.
He had ducked out of the hotel via the back stairs and alley, hoping to avoid a crush of fans seeking freebies, but was quickly recognized driving down the street. As he juggled calls on three cell phones, fans gave chase, begging for free tickets.
This is a universal truth of sports. Whether it is a baseball game in the States or a boxing match in Africa, everyone, regardless of financial circumstances, wants a free ticket. Mwamba was driving the sedan because he loaned his heavily used convertible to an official with the Global Boxing Union who was overseeing the Tissen bout. That he had any car to drive is a reflection of how far he'd come since starting his Exodus Stables boxing club in when he was so poor he had to walk several miles to the gym.
Phiri began training with Mwamba after she had been introduced to boxing during an HIV awareness program in Just as it was for Mwamba, getting to the gym was difficult -- she says she had to take four buses. Phiri also had to endure people heckling her and telling her she was wasting her time. A woman boxer? In Zambia?
She wasn't Hilary Swank and this wasn't some Clint Eastwood movie. Get real. She's mad! She's more like a daughter to me. Stables might seem an odd term for an athletic program, but it's almost fitting when you see the training gym.
The facility is a foot-byfoot whitewashed slab of a building with only four old punching bags -- five, if you count the old Goodyear tire that hangs from a bar on the wall. There is one battered speed bag, but when its cord is broken, the boxers instead punch at a tennis ball dangling from a cord.
The only ornamentation: two wall calendars, one depicting the "Last Supper," the other Phiri holding what is perhaps the next meal she has bags of rice in each hand.
The boxers have extra incentive not to get knocked down in the lone ring, because there is no canvas, just a painted concrete floor. If the punch doesn't knock you out, the landing will.
Mwamba's nickname is Preacherman, and he says his plan when starting Exodus Stables was to preach the Gospel to boxers. But Esther Phiri, she has the heart. She will run those 20 km, even 30 and finish. She has the heart to do it. I treat her just like a man. It's to her advantage. She can now drive in her car to the gym, a journey that used to take her four bus rides. Share this on:. From street kid to world champ, Zambian single mum Esther Phiri is making her mark in the boxing ring.
Gallery: Zambia's Queen of the Ring. I've got that courage to push myself, to say 'let's go Esther.
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