Louisa Hawton: In Search for A Second World Title
By Felipe Leon
There might not be a more important night in Australian Louisa “Bang Bang Lulu” Hawton’s life than Saturday, September 8th. That night at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, the 33 year-old mother of two will take on Mexican Brenda “Bonita” Flores for the vacant WBC atomweight title in a scheduled ten rounder. The championship bout will be part of the undercard of SuperFly 3 presented by 360 Promotions.
The fight will be streamed on WWW.360Promotions.us.
Though diminutive in stature, Hawton (8-1, 4KO) is an even 5 feet, but huge in heart, she has made big sacrifices to get to that night including leaving her native Perth but more importantly, her two kids behind in search of her dreams.
“That has been one of my biggest challenges I believe,” Hawton stated in an exclusive interview with ThePrizeFighters.com. “I believe that is why it took me so long to come out here and get in the mindset. As a mother it is very hard to leave your children. I believe what I am showing them and the lessons that I am teaching them are far greater and hopefully will come back to show them later when they grow up. They stay with their father Chris, we are great friends, they are happy children in a loving home and if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be out here.”
One thing that has helped is the technology and the ability to be able to speak to them regularly through video chat and the like. “It is such a blessing for us to be able to FaceTime and see each other. You can just hang out, you get on the FaceTime and sitting next to them and they are talking to you like if you are in their room with them. It definitely has been a great help for them but probably more for me since I miss them so much.”
Hawton found herself in a ring under the bright lights like many other female fighters, in a white-collar gym looking to stay in shape along with a close friend.
“I’ve been boxing for a little under five years,” she stated. “I pretty much got into the sport because my friend at the time wanted to do my fitness classes and needed a companion. She brought me along and I got in the gym and basically just fell in love. It reignited the athletic being inside of me. It stole my heart and I got excited. It was good place for me to be. At the time I was going through a hard time in my life so I really feel that it saved my life. It gave me good purpose, drive and desire.”
Boxing wasn’t Hawton’s first foray into world-class competition or pain as a consequence of it. In a previous life Louisa was a professional skateboarder, a job she feels gave her a running start in her new career.
“When I was in my teens I was a competing in the world circuit for skateboarding, traveling around the world getting to do that,” she reminisced. “It was such an epic time of my life and I think there are lot of similarities with boxing like the balance and movement, it makes me feel free. It makes me feel like the athlete I always wanted to be so when I found boxing it gave me that spark again skateboarding used to give me.”
“It all hurts but it is all part of what you do. When you enjoy and love what you do you don’t feel it as much as someone who will just get on the board or get in the ring and take a couple to the face,” she answered when asked about the parallels between the two sports. “I think it is pretty similar. I think boxing has lot more in demand with your fitness, a lot more discipline; you have to get up and do all your work. You have to prepared to be fit enough to get in the ring. The wear and tear on your body is more demanding in boxing but when you go down big gaps on a skateboard it is painful too. I think it is pretty similar.”
Beginning her boxing career a bit late in life compared to the majority of female fighters, Hawton had no time to spare and decided to join the paid ranks after a couple of amateur fights.
“I had two amateur bouts and pretty much went straight into professional,” she explained. “It just attracted me a whole lot more. The whole show, the whole event, the lights, the music, the excitement, the crowd. Everything like that excited me, I didn’t think too much of the amateurs. At the time it was pretty hard to get match up and my weight. I was just given the path straight into the professionals.”
In March of 2014 Hawton stepped into a ring for the first time as a professional without any headgear and with smaller gloves to take on Thai Nongaen Phosuwan.
Hawton won a four round unanimous decision.
“It was a big buzz, a great excitement. I was pretty chuffed,” she remembered. “I was actually used to sparring with no head gear, we didn’t really spar with headgear but we were using 10-ounce gloves to spar. I actually find it more strange wearing all that gear. It was a good fight. Definitely learned a lot from there and progressed along the way. My professional career has been my apprenticeship as well to learn. Everyday I am learning.”
Hawton strung together five more wins in the next 24 months collecting a regional title along the way. In the summer of 2016 Hawton traveled to Japan to face Kei Takenaka for the vacant WBO light flyweight title. The fight was the Australian’s first in a year.
Hawton captured the title with a unanimous decision.
“I had been chasing, my whole vision was to be fighting for a world championship. It my mind it was what I was after, it wasn’t about how quickly or when I was just hungry,” Hawton explained. “I was offered the opportunity to go up two weight classes and fight for the light flyweight title. Originally it was meant to be against the champion in South Korea. After some setbacks it took about ten months for me to get in the ring and fight for that title with the opponent and country changing.”
“When I got to Japan, I was overjoyed with the emotion of finally getting there and finally fighting for the world title,” she said. “The day that we fought was so hot, it was about 90-percent humidity, steaming, we were sweating before we got in the ring. When I got the belt around me I didn’t have many words, I was just happy and emotional feeling for me that finally I had that fight and we accomplished what we set out to do.”
Hawton reached the top of the sport without a promoter in her native Australia and because of that, it became difficult to defend the world title. She was eventually stripped of the belt.
After a number of trials and tribulations, Hawton found herself in an ideal situation which many female fighters can only dream about, signed to a world class promoter in Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions, trained by a veteran in Jimmy Montoya and managed by the well-connected Elvis Grant Phillips of Grant gloves.
“After I won the Asia Pacific title I came out here but I never really had the vision that I would be staying in Australia,” Hawton explained. “Didn’t see it for me to be able to grow as an athlete. I had to come to the land of where it is everything. To be in the United States, I traveled over here to have a look and check it out.”
“I met people and kept doing my thing,” she continued. “I found my way of how I could come out here and get those opportunities. I met Elvis on Instragram and we started chatting. He opened up the doors to meet me and the rest is history. I have a great team, a great support system, and super hyped to be working with Tom Loeffler and 360 Promotions since my favorite boxer is GGG and to be under that banner and working with that team is amazing.”
Unfortunately for Hawton her first fight with her new team in tow didn’t end as she expected. Last March on the undercard of SuperFly 2 Hawton faced tough Mexican veteran Anahi “Panterita” Torres for the vacant WBC International 108-pound title.
Torres won via unanimous decision handing Hawton her first loss as a professional.
“I was pretty gutted but it’s part of the game,” she said regarding losing her undefeated record. “The fight was easy to get the match up and again it was at 108 pounds, which is heavier than what I have been fighting. She is definitely a veteran, she has been in a lot of world championship fights and I knew that coming into the fight.”
“I felt my timing was a little bit off and my movement,” she said. “I guess I needed to shake off some ring rust. It was all a learning curve and make the adjustments and figure out what to do to be more me in the ring. It was part of the journey and you take what you can from it. Take the positives and the negatives and grow from that.”
Since moving to the United States, Hawton’s opponents have changed from Asian to Mexican with her next opponent Brenda Flores (12-4-1, 2KO) her third from south of border in a row.
“Mexicans are known for being tough fighters and they are,” she says matter-of-factly. “They can take hits, they can give hits, and they are going to be there standing in front of you. I think with Asians there is a little bit more technique-based but Mexicans are hearty, like the Filipinos, they are warriors.”
Flores, a veteran of 17 fights, has never fought as light as 102 pounds and holds an advantage in experience as far as fights, but not at the world-class level. She has never held a world title and only challenged for one.
“I know her record is quite good and has fought some good fights, some championship fights, “Hawton said of her next opponent. “She is hearty, she goes the distance and she throws a lot of punches. I know that she is coming to fight and she wants to win the world title as much as I do.”
We’ll see who actually does more on September 8th.
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(Photo by Carlos Angel)
To listen to the complete interview, please visit BlogTalkRadio.com/2MinRound