Shannon Birmingham quit boxing for unfair rules
Martial Arts and Women's Boxing are rarely discussed
You've probably never heard of Shannon Birmingham, right? She was not a famous Olympian or a medal winner or an actress in your favorite movie or the singer on the radio. So how the heck are you supposed to know who she is? You're not. I didn't know anything about her either, until I read about her while reading a record of Tonya Harding's short-lived boxing career. According to the roster, Tonya Harding won three fights and lost three fights. One of the fights that she won was in Gulfport, Mississippi against opponent Shannon Birmingham.
I couldn't find much information about Tonya's boxing career and I could find nothing about Shannon Birmingham's boxing career except that it only spanned for one year: from 2003 to 2004. She was from Hamilton, Alabama. She also had six fights, but only won one fight against Kimberly Richardville. (Boxing stats provided by boxrec.com)
My curiosity had me digging for more information. So I found a "Shannon Birmingham" listed in Alabama and there was a phone number. I called. I asked her if she had ever been a boxer. She asked who I was and I told her that I was writing a story about women in boxing and martial arts. She then agreed to let me interview her.
Shannon Birmingham was born in Dallas, Texas, but moved to Alabama during her teen years. Born on April 1, 1973, Shannon recently celebrated her 50th birthday. She never married and runs her own daycare.
Shannon explained that she had attended karate and tae kwon do classes after she graduated high school. She had been working as a waitress and was constantly being harassed by male diners for dates. She felt unsafe especially having told many of the men that she did not want to go on a date with them. She was living alone in a small studio apartment and she felt as though she had no protection.
As she progressed in martial arts training, earning her blue belt in Tae Kwon Do, she was expected to attend tournaments. They were expensive for her to attend, but her instructor insisted that she compete in order to excel in the sport. She attended two tournaments and lost both "fights", but did win a First Place trophy in "forms" which is a non-fighting event.
She explained that the fights were unfair. She was following all the rules of the "ring" which included no punching or kicking in the face or below the belt. But her opponents would continually break this rule and regardless how many legal points she had scored, once they had broken the rules, Shannon could not fight anymore. To her, broken rules meant it had gone from a sport to personal, and that wasn't the point of the tournament.
She gave up martial arts for awhile and felt confident enough in her ability to defend herself if a threatening situation might occur. Then at the end of 2002, while she was unemployed and homeless, a traveler on a bus told her about the women's boxing opportunity. Since she had some experience in martial arts and since she was interested in finding out how lucrative women's boxing could be, she got involved.
Shannon stated that there was a difference from the martial arts tournaments compared to the boxing. Most of the time in boxing she was actually coached to lose. Of her six fights, she was coached to lose for the sake of financial gain and she became very disillusioned with the sport discovering that most of the fights were fixed. After six fights, she was done. There wasn't enough money in it to make it worth it and she couldn't even enjoy it as a sport because it was usually rigged.
I thanked her for explaining her brief boxing career to me. She then told me that soon after she quit boxing she began to work at a daycare and has been doing that kind of work ever since. She said that watching children play nicely and teaching them not to fight is much more satisfying than watching or participating in women's fighting matches.
About the Creator
Shanon Angermeyer Norman
Gold, Published Poet at allpoetry.com since 2010. USF Grad, Class 2001.
Currently focusing here in VIVA and Challenges having been ECLECTIC in various communities. Upcoming explorations: ART, BOOK CLUB, FILTHY, PHOTOGRAPHY, and HORROR.
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Comments (2)
I’m sorry to ask this, but are you sure you had the right Shannon Birmingham? I know the Shannon Birmingham who were in these fights, but she no longer going by Shannon Birmingham since she remarried. Although I do like the article you have done, I just want to inform you that you may have gotten the wrong Shannon. To find more details about the fighter the website https://boxerlist.com/boxer/shannon-birmingham/140443 gives more details including her actually birthdate.
This is a really cool discovery that you've made! This has been a big issue with boxing in the past, and martial arts tournaments are interesting in general because of their "rules".