Jeannine Garside

Jeannine Garside couldn’t help but notice the doubts hidden beneath the well wishes.

Days before her first world title fight on November 18, the 27-year-old super bantamweight from Windsor, Ontario, was greeted with the usual hugs, handshakes, and greetings from those who hoped that all would go well in her bout with Lisa Brown.

Such expressions of good luck came with a caveat, though, with some wondering whether the 3-0 pro could handle the champion, a five-year veteran with 15 fights to her credit. They didn’t come out and say as much though.

‘You know, if you lose, it’s okay,” they would tell her. “Don’t worry about it.”

Garside, gracious as usual, would nod and respond like a fighter would.

“I know, but I’m not gonna lose.”

She can smile about it now, and maybe even understand why these people had concerns, but you can be sure those doubts never entered her mind.

“I think a lot of people didn’t know where I stood as far as my talent level and my abilities. They care for me and hope the best for me, but it kinda gave me the thought that maybe they weren’t so sure that I was gonna win.”

On that fall night in Edmonton though, Garside put on a clinic, dropping Brown en route to a near shutout ten round decision to win the WIBA super bantamweight crown. It was a shocker to many.

“A lot of people thought I was gonna get crushed because I didn’t have the experience of the other girl facing me. A lot of people didn’t think that I could do it, but I didn’t surprise my coaches and I didn’t surprise myself,” she said. “I didn’t surprise (promoter) A Ring of Their Own because they had seen me fight and they knew I had what it takes. I had worked really hard, and the only thing I was really nervous about was that it was going to be my first ten round fight and that my opponent had experience in ten round fights. I was concerned about that, but I did the work in the gym to cancel that out. I got in there, and no matter what anybody said, I was focused, I was well prepared, I didn’t let myself get intimidated, and I was able to pull it off.”

And when it was over, she just had one thing to say: “If you don’t know, now you know – I’m the best.”

She laughs, as if taken aback by her own bravado.

“It sure doesn’t hurt to be confident in this sport, and you have to believe in yourself,” she explains. “You have to believe you’re the best, otherwise it’s gonna be difficult to be the best.”

As a world titlist in only her fourth pro fight, she’s got a good headstart on that goal. But before you chalk her up as just a novice whose victory says more about the state of women’s boxing than her own skillset, here’s a little background:

Taking up boxing after seeing Christy Martin’s bout with Deidre Gogarty, Garside tore through the amateur circuit in Canada, compiling a 40-5 record that included four national championships and numerous international victories. So before she even set foot in a professional boxing ring, her experience dwarfed that of most of her peers. Add in the fact that she is trained by former female fighting standout Margaret Sidoroff, and you’ve got a fighter, in Garside, who may not lose anytime soon – if at all.

That’s an albatross that was hung around the neck of ‘Mean’ Margaret back during her all too brief three year career – a stint that saw her win three world titles in two weight divisions while compiling an 8-0-1 record. Sidoroff was too good for her own good, and suffered all the requisite setbacks that go along with that type of talent – not being able to get fights, taking short money to get fights, and suffering a lack of exposure because she didn’t have a gimmick, other than being perhaps the best female fighter in the world, pound for pound. When Sidoroff suffered the only blemish on her record – a disputed draw with Wendy Rodriguez – she walked away from the sport as a competitor and never looked back.

“I think at that point, there wasn’t a challenge for her, and as a woman, there’s one thing that’s different for us from the men, and that’s that there comes a time when you want to focus on your family and settle down,” said Garside, the mother of a two-year-old daughter. “And when you have children, it’s your responsibility to take care of those children. I have my one daughter and I’m able to balance things out, but I’d like to give her a brother or sister, and at this point, until I finish boxing, I just think that it would be too much. Margaret came to the point in her life too where she decided that the next challenge she wanted to face was raising a family and moving on. She didn’t see anything else out there for herself. I look up to her for doing that and making that judgment. She’s young and she could probably still go out there and fight, but when she decided that was it, that was it. I think that’s great. She’s still giving back as a coach and she’s making a difference.”

Sidoroff (who also won her first world title in her fourth pro fight) is also able to relate to Garside’s struggles in and out of the ring in terms of getting fights, getting the right exposure, and being too good to be just 4-0.

“She is just like me in the sense that she loves the sport and she doesn’t see anything negative about it,” said Garside of her coach. “She loves coaching now and passing on what she’s learned to me. We really don’t look at the negativity of how we might not get the representation that we want or whatever; we just keep pressing forward. Some of the things that happened to her are similar to things that have happened to me, and they encourage me to keep going. After my first fight, it was eight months before I got another fight and I was getting really discouraged. Margaret said that she had to wait at least eight months between fights at one point. So I said, ‘okay, I’m hanging in there.’”

Not that it’s easy.

“I try to stay positive, but it is tough sometimes,” she said. “I’m training my butt off, I’m not getting any fights, and if I do get a fight, I’m not making money, and it takes everything I’ve got to do it, but I’m doing it because I’m passionate about the sport. I love the sport, and it’s been a dream of mine to be a world champion ever since I started boxing. So I just try to keep things in a positive light and I try not to get negative about some of the downfalls of it because there are a lot of downfalls for the men too.”

But at least when men get into the ring, the assumption is that they have a certain level of skill and deserve to be there. Women don’t get that benefit of the doubt, and that’s unfortunate, especially for fighters like Garside, who not only know how to fight, but who have paid their dues in this sport and came up through the proper channels in terms of an amateur background. Garside has come up this way for a reason – to be the best – and while there may be negatives to life in the pro game, there are positives as well.

“We get an opportunity to sort of found the sport and become advocates for it, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” she said. “I didn’t take the easy route, I didn’t turn professional after a short stint in the amateurs; I did my time in the amateurs, which most successful men do, and I’ve been following in the footsteps of how the men become good. And that’s what you have to do – you do your time in the amateurs, become pro and then it gives us a chance to become pioneers in this sport.”

And now she’s a world champion, just four fights into her career. It’s a goal some fighters take years and years to even get close to – the pinnacle of a lifetime of work. Garside’s already here. What could possibly top this?

“I’m up there, so now I’ve got to stay up there,” she said. “I’ve still got a lot to prove and you’ve got to maintain for a while. I love doing it, I love being up there, there are different weight classes out there, and the minute somebody says ‘yeah, she beat her, but she’ll never beat so and so,’ now you’re like ‘okay, now I’ve got something to prove.’ As a true, natural born fighter, there’s never a lack of inspiration to keep going. It’s what you love to do.”

In 2006, Garside will get her chance to show that love to more and more people under the ‘A Ring of Their Own’ banner, and maybe, just maybe, she’ll have an easier road to travel than that of her trainer.

“I’m looking forward to a busy year, and it’s just incredible,” she said. “I’m so excited about that. I don’t think I’ll have to struggle like I had just to get started. We’re gonna go out there and fight the best. We’re gonna put on great shows and show what female boxing’s all about.”