LI's Kathy Collins-Globuschutz reflects on trailblazing boxing career as MSG set to host first all-female card

It's been 24 years since Kathy Collins-Globuschutz's last fight. Yet she has never been more sure of who she is.

"I will always be a fighter," she said. "I was born to be a fighter. I just loved competition."

Collins-Globuschutz became the first Long Islander to win a women's world boxing title in 1997 and the first to fight in a featured bout at Madison Square Garden. She understands her place in history and how far the sport has come.

"Our generation, they didn't want us fighting," said Collins-Globuschutz, now 54. "It was really hard to break through. When they opened the door, I just ripped it off the hinges."

Thirty years ago, the New York Golden Gloves allowed women to enter its tournament for the first time. It was the springboard for Collins' career and was considered a major breakthrough for the sport.

On July 11, Brooklyn's Amanda Serrano and Ireland's Katie Taylor will headline the first all-female boxing card at Madison Square Garden. Serrano and Taylor are expected to earn multi-million dollar purses.

"There are women who are fighting today, who decided to go to a boxing gym because they saw Kathy Collins on television," said Hall of Fame promoter Lou DiBella, who has worked with female champions Serrano, Heather Hardy and Long Island's Alicia Napoleon. "At a time when no one made any money in women's boxing, when there was no real career path, Kathy Collins was a trailblazer. She shouldn't be forgotten."

Stepping into ring

In 1994, Collins-Globuschutz moved to Plainview from Marietta, Georgia, and was attending Suffolk Community College. Her plan was to be a nurse. She played numerous sports in high school but academics were now taking too much of her time. She began to look for a way to lose weight and found The Academy of Boxing for Women in Huntington Station.

One year later, she entered the Golden Gloves. Collins-Globuschutz reached the finals while two other Long Islanders — Peggy Donovan Ward and Micki Pryor — won titles.

"But that was it for the amateurs," Collins-Globuschutz said. "There were no other tournaments. No metros. No nationals. No Olympics."

Frankie Globuschutz, her manager, the owner of the gym and her eventual husband, convinced her to turn pro. He reached out to Dennis Rappaport, who managed top Long Island fighters like Gerry Cooney and Eddie Davis. Rappaport was promoting cards at the Westbury Music Fair.

"To be honest with you, initially I had ambivalent feelings about women boxing," Rappaport said. "Early on, what they lacked in technique or seasoning, they overcome with heart. They really came to fight. I met Kathy and Frank, and they were terrific. So, I decided to give it a shot. Kathy ended up with a successful career."

Collins-Globuschutz had grown addicted to the discipline of training and the physical challenge of overcoming her opponents. Boxing became an obsession. And while she always had the heart, she dedicated herself to becoming a complete fighter, modeling her style after Evander Holyfield. For her early four-round fights, she was paid just $100 per round.

"You couldn't make a living at first," Collins-Globuschutz said. "Very few people supported us; even my Mom was against me fighting. She was upset that I dropped out of school. Everybody asked me, why would you do this? Why? Because I loved everything about it. Then Don King took a chance on Christy Martin."

That's when the public's perception of women's boxing began to evolve.

Her big break

King was promoting Mike Tyson's heavyweight title defense against Frank Bruno in March of 1996. He decided to add a women's bout to the live pay-per-view telecast. Martin and Deirdre Gogarty fought like they were inside a phone booth. Neither backed off. At the end of six grueling rounds, they were both bleeding and Martin won the decision. The next day, more people were talking about Martin than Tyson. One month later, Martin was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

At the time, Andrea DeShong was the only woman to have beaten Martin in a ring. King wanted to make a DeShong-Martin rematch, but Deshong needed a tune-up fight. The pool of women who were fighting was still relatively small, so Collins-Globuschutz got the call.

"I had a total of three amateur fights and two pro fights and DeShong had all this experience," Collins-Globuschutz said. "But this time I was getting $200 rounds for six rounds. I thought, what's the worst-case scenario? The money will cover my tuition to go back to nursing school."

The fight took place in Madison Square Garden's Theater and was televised by the USA Network. Martin was ringside doing color commentary. It was the first women's fight inside the Garden.

"I beat her from pillar to post," Collins-Globuschutz said.

Thinking outside the box

With a decisive win over DeShong, Collins-Globuschutz embarked on a five-year odyssey to get Martin inside the ring. Over that span, she married Frankie Globuschutz and won four world titles. As her reputation grew, it became increasingly difficult to find sparring. So Globuschutz made a calculated decision: he dropped "Women" from the title of his gym and simply called it "The Academy of Boxing."

"We needed guys to start coming to the gym because I needed sparring," Collins-Globuschutz said. "Sure enough they started showing up and I'd spar with guys."

In 2001, King brought Martin to New York to meet Collins at the Garden. It was on the undercard of the Felix Trinidad-William Joppy middleweight title fight. At the news conference, King said of Collins-Globuschutz that she was "curvaceous, dynamic and beautiful." Of Martin, he simply said, "She fights like a man."

At the time, no one seemed insulted over King's comments. And no one in the Garden was complaining after the fight. It was a tough, close bout. Collins-Globuschutz gave as good as she got but lost a close 10-round majority decision. One of the judges scored the fight a draw.

"That fight created the first six figure paydays for two women in the Garden, which nobody ever thought in a million years that we would get there," Collins-Globuschutz said. "And now these girls are making millions."

When women's boxing returns to the Garden on July 11, it will be the third fight between Serrano and Taylor. Their previous bouts have been wars with Taylor winning narrow decisions both times. They each reportedly made over $6 million for their second fight and are expected to make more than that for the third. There are also two other women's title fights on the all-female card.

Collins-Globuschutz has two adult children and has exposed both of them to boxing. Frank III is an amateur boxer with a 2-0 record. Savanah has used boxing for fitness and is pursing a law degree at Hofstra. Kathy and Frank still own the gym in Huntington Station and will be watching the big fight from home.

"I am absolutely ecstatic for them," Collins-Globuschutz said of today's fighters. "I am glad to have been part of this history. I am so happy to see how far the sport has come."