August 2004 Yolanda Swindell Yolanda Swindell is one woman you don't want to mess with. After boxing for just three years and with only four professional fights, the Houstonian is ranked 8th in the world in the super middleweight division by the International Female Boxing Association and 6th in the world by the Women's International Boxing Association. Her only defeat was a four-round majority decision loss to locally well known Valerie Mahfood, who is ranked 3rd in the world by the WIBA and fourth in the world by the IFBA. HBS caught up with her where she works out for two hours each morning at the Prince Gym in northeast Houston. With surprising hand speed, coordination and power on both the heavy and speedbags, it becomes evident within seconds that Swindell is a world class boxer. She is also an engaging and articulate conversationalist. HBScene--Why did you get into boxing? YS -- I hurt my achilles tendon playing softball and I gained a lot of weight so initially I was needing something that was extreme enough to help me shed the pounds and I just got bit from the bug. I had the first fight and then I was gone after that. HBScene -- You say you got bit by the bug. What does that mean? YS -- I just love the competition. Basically to me it comes down to two things: conditioning and sheer will, and I'm so competitive that sheer will just plays a major part in it. So as soon as I realized it was my will versus someone else's will I was hooked. Every day I come in here, it's addictive, I can't get enough. HBScene -- There are some people that might see a contradiction between femininity and being a boxer. How do you reconcile the that with yourself? YS -- I am a boxer first. Even though I am a female. When I'm in the ring I'm a boxer. So what I see is again, it's just will. It's my will versus someone else's will. Although when men watch the sport, men being raised by women they're going to view it as 'Oh my God, its a woman getting beaten up, what if it was my mother, what if it was my sister?" Initially their protective spirit is what comes out and that's why men don't want to watch women boxers at first. I think secondly a lot of women have that have been shown don't have a lot of skill and they're used to seeing top-notch men with a lot of skill being showcased. Once you get a lot more women fighters in the ring then I think you'll have a lot more people supporting us. You'll see a lot more women carrying their femininity in the ring but still being, I hate to use the word "masculine" or "tough" because that's what's considered masculine in the ring but once we get out then we'll be as feminine as they would expect us to be outside of the ring. But I believe there is no need for femininity inside the ring because you're catching blows. HBScene -- Tell me about your childhood. Did you get into trouble? Were you were a tomboy? YS -- Yes I was a tomboy. No I wasn't in a lot of trouble but I would say I was in a fair amount of trouble. But I didn't have a rough upbringing. I am a child of a single parent home so that was difficult in itself but I didn't really have to prove myself. A lot of the times when I did fight it was just in protection of my sister. HBScene -- Tell us about the first time you got in the ring. TS -- The first time I got in I got in with another woman who actually went easy with me so it was a great experience. I was ready to go the next time. I sparred with my trainer after that and he went easy with me so I was feelng great. Then I got in with another gentleman who did not take it easy with me and I woke up with the whiplash and the "Everlast" tattooed on my forehead and at that moment I said "Okay, that's boxing and either I'm going to take the blows like I did when I played basketball or I'm going to quit". And nothing in me wanted to quit so I got some Epsom salts and some alcohol, soaked and went back the next day and had a different outcome as far as soreness. I still got ate up but it was a learning experience. Every time I get in the ring I learn something new. HBScene-- You mentioned your trouble in finding opponents. YS -- My last fight was with Valerie Mahfood back on January 15th and it took a year and a half since my third fight before I got that fight. Here we are almost in August and I haven't had an opportunity to fight since. Basically I'm only offered the top three, which would be Ann Wolfe, or Valerie Mahfood, but no one's ever offered me an Ali fight. And I have not asked for that fight. It's not that I don't think I can successfully compete against a Mahfood or a Wolfe, it's just that I don't have the fight experience under my belt that I would like to have and I think that goes towards confidence. However since I did lose the fight to Mahfood I would love an opportunity to avenge that loss. Hopefully we'll be fighting in a couple of weeks in Dallas. I have my fingers crossed. Something has got to give. I've got to get an opportunity and it might come down to the point where I'm going to have to step up against one of the extremely high caliber women and be on T.V. and just put it all on the line. HBScene -- You're 33. You're in pretty good shape and you don't see yourself stopping anytime soon? YS - I'm going to stop when I turn 35 without a doubt whether I have a fight from here on or not. Just because the sport is so demanding you have to give 110% of yourself and I think at 35 my body might not respond the way I would like it to respond. And I want to keep my good looks too. ------------------ Swindell--2-14-06 Super Middleweight Yolanda "Stonehands" Swindell Yolanda Swindell was one of the first people to be interviewed for this website, in July of 2004. Since then, while compiling a record of 3-3-2 with two knockouts, Swindell has maintained her top ten world ranking the entire time. Although she normally trains out of the Prince Gym on Houston's near North Side with trainer Creed Fountain, I caught up with her after a recent workout at the Savannah Boxing Club. What follows is a re-post of part of the original interview, followed by her answers to some newer questions. HBS - It's been a long time. Tell us about your most recent pro fight. YS - The last fight I had was against Valerie Mahfood in Coushatta. It was our third match, so it was a rubber match. We got a draw but to be actually honest we really won that fight. But I want to give her a lot of credit. She did come in as a last minute replacement so maybe she wasn't at the top of her game, as if she'd had enough time to train. But it was a good fight. We had been fighting rather regularly the whole year and it was my second fight within about 30 days so I felt real sharp. Her punches were crips but she wasn't able to land a punch on me the first two rounds. It was only after a headbutt in the third round that she was able to get to me. But we went right back to work in the fourth round. HBS - What about the fight before that? YS - It was in August in Baton Rouge, right before Hurricane Katrina hit and I fought Laura Ramsey (of Florida). We lost on a split decision. One judge saw it my way, the other judges saw it her way. But to be absolutely honest we beat her to the punch. The only thing was, I was letting her push me around because she had jumped on me the first round. She just out-muscled me when we were getting close she was just able to walk me back to the ropes. I guess maybe that's what the judges saw. I had her hurt and dazed in the third and the fourth and even the second round. So we'll take it as a learning experience. We didn't fight the game plan we should have. We sat there and brawled with her when we probably should have boxed. If we would have boxed I would have won it easy, hands down. So we'll get another chance to fight her again. HBS - We we spoke originally you mentioned that you were having some trouble getting fights. Is that still a problem for you? YS - No it's not a problem for us getting fights. We've been offered three fights, all of them pretty much title fights with the exception of the Ali fight that we were offered in December to fight in Germany. But Aasa Sandell, the girl we fought in March of 2005 actually took the fight. We passed on the fight. We had no way tog et a passport and I wasn't really traingin regularly, with work and everything. I wasn't in the gym like I should have been to take that fight. HBS - It seems like you've been in the gym lately though, based on your performance today. You did quite well. YS - Thank you. Well you know it was Akondaye's first time back in the gym sparring. It was my first time back in the gym since I last fought Akondaye's last fight when I came and I fought with her and we had Valerie Mahfood here right before Akondaye fought her last fight. So I haven't really been sparring. I've been in the gym, working out, but not really sparring. We'll be here Thursday. Hopefully we can get some regular work. Hopefully this fight that we're looking at on the 10th of March takes off (against Angela Simpson in Detroit). There's no guarantees. We haven't signed a contract but we're always hopeful.