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Fightin’ spirit

Tonya Harding is throwing herself into a new passion

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Feb 11, 2003, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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VANCOUVER, Wash. Ñ The boombox belts a steady beat from Morris Day and the Time as the fighter shadowboxes.

“Helps rhythm,” trainer Jeff Hargis explains simply.

For the next four hours, the fighter goes through a daily routine, honing the technique and footwork, always moving, graduating to glove-to-mitt work and finally to light sparring.

Six days a week, the fighter prepares for her first professional bout in the relative privacy of the hotel conference room.

Tonya Harding is not just any rookie.

The Milwaukie native and Vancouver resident smoked hapless Paula Jones in a televised celebrity boxing match last year. But this is for real. On Feb. 22, she will meet another pro boxing novice Ñ Samantha Browning, 21, of Mantachie, Miss. Ñ in a four-round bout on the undercard of a Mike Tyson show in Memphis, Tenn.

It’s the first of three pro fights scheduled in the near future for the 5-foot-1 Harding, who will compete in the 120-pound bantamweight class.

It’s different from the figure-skating universe in which the 32-year-old Harding thrived in the early ’90s. That world changed forever in 1994, with the celebrated Nancy Kerrigan incident that led to shame, a $100,000 fine, 500 hours of community service and a lifetime ban from the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

In the years since, headlines have trumpeted mostly bad news. There have been two failed marriages, two short jail terms Ñ one for battery on a boyfriend in the famed “hubcap” incident, the other for a drunken-driving conviction while still on probation for the former offense Ñ and the embarrassment of eviction from her apartment for failure to pay rent.

The latest charge, two months ago, a potential violation of probation when a friend with whom she was riding was stopped with two unopened beer bottles in the back seat of his pickup, was thrown out of court by a Clark County, Wash., judge.

Harding has been fodder for newspaper columnists and comedians across the country, and she doesn’t appreciate it.

But the one-time Olympian is nothing if not resilient. She is determined to make the transition from champion in one sport to champion in another.

Harding and Hargis, 42, a former kickboxing champion from Nashville with whom she has been training for three months, sat down with the Tribune to discuss her new career and her long-held feelings about misconceptions perpetuated by the media.

Trib: After the Paula Jones debacle Ñ a mismatch to say the least Ñ what whetted your appetite to get into the ring again?

Harding: That was for celebrity boxing. I had one hour of training to prepare for that. I knew nothing except to go in and start punching. I thought Jones did pretty good. It was just supposed to be basically for fun. She got me with one early, and it moved my headgear, and I was like, “Wait a second.” It kind of ticked me off, and it was, “OK, bye.”

That kind of inspired me to think about boxing (as a career). I had gotten offers before; I talked to (promoter) Brian Young, and he said, “You really want to do this? If you are serious, we will do it.” I said, “I’m serious. Let’s do a trial run.” And once we got started training, I found I really enjoy the athletic part of it. It is such a gladiator sport. There are no politics involved. It is a one-on-one thing. You step in the ring, and it is whoever’s better. It doesn’t matter what you wear, what you look like, how you fight, as long as you win.

Trib: You think you can win a world title?

Harding: I do. I’ve finally found something I really enjoy doing. I thought about race-car driving, but I couldn’t get into it. It was fun, but it wasn’t me. It’s not physical enough. In boxing, it’s all about hard work and athletic ability. And I love competing, I really do. Being in front of the cameras doesn’t bother me.

Trib: What is your motivation in this boxing endeavor?

Harding: The best revenge is success. I have had a lot of ups and downs, like everyone. You have a past and a future. I don’t ever want to dwell on what has happened in my life, so I think about what is going to happen the next day. Success and wanting to feel self-pride is my motivation.

Trib: You feel vengeful about the things that have been said and written about you?

Harding: Well, sure, who wouldn’t? If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be human. People have doubted me my whole life Ñ “You will never succeed, never amount to anything.” My revenge is, “Yes, I am going to succeed, in whatever I do.” If I’m going to put my mind and heart and soul into something, I am going to succeed in it.

Trib: How much does the lifetime skating ban bother you?

Harding: It really doesn’t matter. I had my time. Gosh, I skated 24 years. You can look at all the young girls Ñ I mean, they are only 14 years old, and they can do what I was doing. It’s a younger sport. Jumping into the air 4 feet and landing on your rear end, it kind of hurts more than just falling to the floor (in a boxing ring).

I am very happy about my career. It was something I did, and I did it great. I loved skating, and I still do. But it’s time to move on to something else.

Trib: You had a lot of accomplishments during your skating career, but what you are most remembered for is the Kerrigan incident. Your reputation has taken a beating since. Do you have regrets?

Harding: No. Life is already planned out. What happens to you, you deal with. You get kicked down, you get back up, and you go on. I consider myself the Energizer Bunny.

Trib: You mean life is planned out by a higher being?

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