« Dana White’s final act with Keith Kizer & Steve Mazzagatti on The Ultimate Fighter | Home | Fight Opinion Radio: Josh Gross (@yay_yee) on media honesty, MMA drug usage, oversaturation »
The story on Andy Foster/California approving an over-50 female fighter versus a 300 pounder; Byars wins unanimous decision
By Zach Arnold | May 22, 2014
YFrog image by Francisco Salazar – click to enlarge
This Friday night at Quiet Cannon in Montebello, California, Ed Holmes under the All-Star Boxing banner will be promoting a fight between two unique female fighters.
Keela Byrd Byars, supposedly in her mid-to-late 50s, has allegedly been lobbying promoter Ed Holmes to book her on one of his fight cards for about a year. Initially, she wanted to fight former world champion Martha Salazar. That was rejected. Byars eventually was approved for a license from the California State Athletic Commission a couple of months ago. However, Chairman John Frierson stated that the commission would only sanction fights involving properly matched opponents.
According to Athletic Commission documentation, Andy Foster issued Byars a temporary license and stated that he would personally approve her opponent. John Frierson, Mary Lehman (former boxer), and John Carvelli approved the temporary license. The only one who voted no was Dr. VanBuren Ross Lemons.
Byars is in her 50s and, according to a source at Thursday’s weigh-ins, is in the low 200s for weight. The opponent she will be facing on Friday night in Montebello will be Bridgette Davis, a boxer who supposedly is in her 40s and weighed in the upper 290s on Thursday. Neither fighter currently has a profile on Boxrec.
The athletic inspector who did the weigh-ins on Thursday was Raul Oseguera, considered the #2 inspector (behind Mark Relyea) in Southern California.
According to boxing writer Francisco Salazar, the fight between Byars and Davis will be an attempt to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
It turns out that the over-50 female boxer Andy Foster approved to fight a 40-something 300-pounder is nearly 60.
— FightOpinion (@FightOpinion) May 25, 2014
Update: Over-50 Keela Byrd Byars beat 300-pounder Bridgette Davis by unanimous decision in 4-rounder tonight in Montebello. Raul Caiz Jr. was the referee. The athletic inspectors who worked the show included Raul Osegueda, Fight Opinion critic Joe Ulrey, Joe Borrielli, and Larry Ervin.
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The age disparity does not bother me as much as the weight disparity. This has got disaster written all over it.
[…] New York’s athletic commission denied Luis Resto a second’s license. It appears California is a more forgiving place for cheaters and approving a 59 year old woman a fight against a 300-pounder. […]
[…] two years ago, we wrote a controversial article about Keela Byrd Byars, a late 50-something 200-pound boxer who had been trying for years to get licensed by the […]