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Gwendolyn O’Neil wins UBF women’s heavyweight world title
Gwendolyn O’Neil displays her freshly won UBF belt at the Miami Airport on her return from the fight.
Gwendolyn O’Neil fight – Gwendolyn O’Neil (right) punches Sonya Lamonakis during their UBF title fight in St Maarten.
St. Maarten played host once again to Guyana’s Queen of Boxing, Gwendolyn “Stealth Bomber” O’Neil, and she rose to the occasion on Saturday once more, despite the tremendous odds she was going up against after taking a three and a half year layoff from professional boxing. Her opponent was Sonya Lamonakis, the IBO heavyweight world champion from Greece and the #1 ranked heavyweight in the world. The ring rust and the weight difference were just some of the obstacles that O’Neil aka “Big Red” had to deal with at the LB Scott Sports Auditorium in Philipsburg St Maarten.
Lamonakis weighed in at 258 pounds, a whopping 45 pound advantage over ‘Big Red’ who weighed in at 213 pounds. Despite a slow start, which saw O’Neil trying to shake off the rust, she came on strong in the championship rounds to secure the victory by split decision and win her fifth boxing world title.
The ‘Stealth Bomber’ showed signs of the layoff in the early rounds as Sonya Lamonakis used her weight advantage to lean on O’Neil and slow up the quicker Guyanese fighter. But from round six the tide started changing and O’Neil started to use her reach advantage to pepper Lamonakis face every time she tried to close the gap followed by left right combinations. The tenth and final round was O’Neil’s best round as the fighter seemed to find new life and rained punches from all angles on Lamonakis who had no answer for the warrior spirit that uplifted ‘Big Red’ to victory.
O’Neil, who is now a five-time boxing world champion while at the same time a mother of five children, thanked the fans, her management team and God for the heart stirring win which put her back on top of the world heavyweight boxing scene. A huge crowd favorite, ‘Big Red’ fought to chants of “Gwendolyn, beat and beat out” in reference to her pre-fight TV-Carib interview when the quick-witted O’Neil said “I have respect for Sonya but I come here to beat her and then beat out”.
In a statement from Gwendolyn’s management team, Basil Boyce, CEO of Golden Bow & Arrow Promotions, LLC said; “We are grateful, humbled and honored to represent Big Red at this pivotal time in Guyana’s history as the country seeks to reconcile and unite to elevate Guyana. It’s a real reason to celebrate a true hero and bring home another boxing world championship belt to Guyana. The late Andrew “Six Head” Lewis must be dancing also because Big Red dedicated this fight to his passing and also to the late great Patrick Forde, her former trainer, and another Guyanese boxer who fought for the world title in 1981.”
Gwendolyn’s boxing record now stands at 19-7-1 and she is expected to fight in October and December 2015 again. Her goal is to have ten world championship belts before she retires from professional boxing, a feat unheard of in women’s professional boxing.
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