Heather Hardy

Heather Hardy (also known as Heather "The Heat" Hardy) is an American professional boxer holding the WBC International Female Super Bantamweight title.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} She also is a divorced single mom and trainer living and working in Brooklyn, New York.^[3][7][8][9] She trains for upcoming events and teaches clients at Gleason’s Gym.^{[3][6][10][11][12]}

Family

Heather was born on January 25, 1982 to John and Linda Hardy.^[1][2][12] She has two younger siblings, Kaitlyn and Colin.^[12] Her brother holds a job in the Navy, while her father used to be a clerk at the New York Stock Exchange and now volunteers at a local church.^[6][12] Her late grandfather, Artie Corr, was a firefighter and an amateur sports photographer in his spare time.^[12][13] Hardy’s sister, Kaitlyn, has a son, while Hardy has a daughter of her own named Annie.^{[3][6][9][12][14]} Hardy had married her highschool sweetheart in 2004, but after some hard times the pair divorced in 2010.^{[6][9][12][14]} This is around the same time that she got her start in boxing.^[3][6][9]

Living in

Heather Hardy was raised in Gerritsen Beach, a South Brooklyn neighborhood located on a remote peninsula sandwiched in between Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park.^{[1][2][3][4][6][9][10][11][14][15]} Her family has lived in this area for around six generations, starting off when her great-great grandmother immigrated here from Scotland in 1929.^[6][7] The small town has roughly 5,000 residents, mostly of Irish and Italian descent.^{[1][3][9][12]} It is known to be a working class community; the majority of the residents have jobs in firefighting, teaching, nursing, or sanitation.^[9][12] Gerritsen remains a very secluded part of New York, with only one road that goes in and comes out of the area.^[12] Since most folks don’t leave or enter the area, the people living here have known each other for many years and are very close.^{[1][3][6][9][12]} However, after Hurricane Sandy hit Heather and her daughter moved to an area about 12 miles away called Dumbo.^[6]

Rape

A major moment in Heather’s life came at the age of 12 when she was raped by a then 29 year old marijuana dealer from her neighborhood.^[9][12] Heather said that it happened after she had passed out from smoking too much pot, and she woke up being raped.^[9] She said she tried to scream and push, but it didn’t work.^[9] Afterwards, she thought that it was her own fault because she had been smoking marijuana and hanging out with the wrong sort of people.^[9][12] Looking back, Heather says that she thinks her attacker had drugged her on purpose.^[9] Heather did not speak up for a decade about her rape, not even to her own family, because she was scared of “how it will affect everyone else”.^[12] Heather has opened up and told her story because she wants to empower young women to not back down and teach men to empathize with women.^[12] Additionally she wants to help survivors, saying that “rape is a life sentence. I’ll never get over it; I’ll just keep trying to live with it”.^[12]

After all this time, Heather has neither confronted nor taken any legal action her rapist and wonders if he has any other victims.^[9][12] Hardy says "I've seen my rapist back in the neighborhood multiple times, and even as an undefeated titleholder, I'm scared to death… I've never been afraid in the ring for even a moment. I love to think I could totally beat the shit out of him, but I'm terrified”.^[12] The memory of this experience still haunts her; she said "I never told anyone this but even at 33, I still wake up screaming. 'Get off, me! Get off, me!' I can still feel his weight".^[9][12]

Education and graduation

Heather Hardy was known to be very good in school.^[6] She was also characterized as being very determined from a young age.^[6] At school, she got good grades and participated in sports like soccer and softball.^[6][12] At one point, she was ambitious enough to want to become first female pitcher for the New York Yankees.^[14] Instead, Heather went on to major in Forensic Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.^{[6][8][12][14]} She graduated at the age of 22.^[6]

She intended to join the police department, but her plans derailed when she found out that she was pregnant with her daughter.^[14] She got married at around the same time.^[6] Heather did not enjoy being a wife or a stay-at-home mother, stating that she “felt like a guy in a dress”.^[6] Subsequently, she and her husband had a falling out and filed for divorce.^[6] Her ex-husband left Heather and their daughter after using up the family’s savings and has not paid child support since.^[9][12]

Heather and her daughter moved in with her younger sister, Kaitlyn, and her son to live in an illegal apartment.^[12] Heather had to support herself and her family by working a series of jobs, sometimes three to six at any given time.^[3][6][9] Her resume included selling lights, delivering books to public schools, teaching exercise classes, and online marketing.^[3][12] In 2012, there was an electrical fire in the family’s apartment which destroyed the majority of their belongings.^{[3][6][9][12]} Additionally, there was no insurance money to cover the damages because the apartment was illegal.^[12] While the apartment was being rebuilt by her landlord, Heather moved with her daughter to live with her parents.^[7][12]

Hurricane Sandy

Heather hadn’t been sleeping on her parent’s couch for long when Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012.^[6][9][12] Her parent’s two-bedroom house was only one of the many other homes flooded rapidly during the storm.^[7][12] The water seemed to come in through every crack in the floor, and within minutes it was already knee-deep.^[7][14] The family had to be evacuated through an upstairs window since the pressure of the tides blocked them from using the doors; Heather said that they got out just in time.^[7][14] Having escaped with their lives, afterward the family had nothing: no water, no transportation, no heat.^[14] They didn’t even have a home. It was destroyed in the flood, and her parents had to move into a local church where her father volunteered.^{[3][6][7][9][12]} Likewise, the remainder of Gerritsen’s 2,500 homes had lost power, but the community was determined to recover.^[12] It took around two years for the family to rebuild their home with new additions to account for Heather and Annie.^[7][12] Still, rebuilding resulted in a series of obstacles for the family. For example, drywall had to be replaced, a fallen tree needed to be relocated, dust and mold had built up, and numerous electricity and heating issues had to be dealt with.^[7] Meanwhile, Heather focused on working to help out financially. Since trains and buses no longer ran as a result of the storm, she had to run nine miles to get to work and taught her clients in the dark.^[14] She even opted to sleep in her office in hopes that a client would drop by, so she could make some money to help out her family.^[14]

Two years after Hurricane Sandy hit, Heather left Gerritsen Beach and moved to Dumbo, a neighborhood about twelve miles away, to secure a better future for her daughter and be closer to Gleason’s Gym.^[6][9][12] Prior to the move, her long commute involved waking up before dawn and taking a bus and two subway trains to reach the gym.^[6] Even though she is farther away, Heather still maintains contact with her family. For example, her sister regularly babysits and her mother helps out with groceries and offers rides.^[6][8]

Start in fighting

Heather started boxing in 2010 when she was going through a rough patch in her life: she was working a series of miscellaneous jobs to support her daughter, sister, and nephew and finalizing a divorce with her husband who would not pay child support.^[3][6][9] For a two year period, Heather felt lost; she wanted “some kind of focus”.^[14] Heather’s sister, Kaitlyn, recommended joining a gym that had opened up near their home to relieve stress, and Heather agreed because wanted to get in shape after having her daughter.^[1][8][12] Late at night after work, she went to the gym, where initially she took yoga classes, but later somehow ended up kickboxing.^[8] She says that she was attracted to boxing because she felt that she could be herself without having to live up to labels like mom or wife and that “boxing was the only thing that felt completely [hers]”.^[6][8]

Within three weeks of training, Heather Hardy, a 28 year old rookie, had her first fight in front of a average sized audience in Long Island, and won.^{[1][3][8][12]} Even though her first fight was just meant for fun, it helped her find out that boxing was her calling.^[6][11][14] Regarding her first time in the ring, Hardy said "I'm shy by nature, so walking to the ring was like heading to the gas chamber. I'm probably exaggerating the crowd size, but it felt like I was in the Macy's Parade. When I got to my corner, a cousin told me to pretend a tiger was dropped in the ring and only one of us was getting out alive. I pummeled that girl so bad. And for the first for the first time in my life, I felt like something was all mine. Ever since, I've had the passion to beat up the world. I still fight that way”.^[12] Shortly after, she quickly began winning other kickboxing and Muay Thai titles.^[15] Her determination and passion were soon noticed when she caught the eye of a professional trainer who offered to let her train at Gleason’s Gym.^[1][8] Heather Hardy began to grow in popularity on the boxing scene and soon became known for her tenacity and determination in and out of the ring.^[12] In regards to what others thought about her fame, she mockingly said “'Yeah right, who's this little blonde white girl with the braids?' They knew me quick because I started tearin' ass".^[12] Despite her newfound popularity, Hardy remains humble; she can still be found selling tickets before her fights and training clients at Gleason’s.^[3][6][15] Heather knows that she has a long way to go since women’s boxing is in such bad shape, but remains hardworking.^[12] Hardy’s yearly salary is estimated to be about $40,000, the majority of which comes from clients she trains at Gleason’s, not boxing.^[12] Her sister, Kaitlyn, says "I always tell her, 'You're famous, you just haven't been paid like it yet'”.^[12]

Boxing career

More current information and further details can be found at BoxRec.^[2]

Heather “the Heat” Hardy first started training at Gleason’s Gym with Alicia Ashley, former World Boxing Council champion, but after losing her second amateur fight she went to work with Alicia’s older brother and trainer, Devon Cormack.^[1][3][6] Since then they have grown extremely close and Devon, a former kickboxing champion himself, has served not only as a mentor and manager, but also as a close friend.^{[1][3][6][8][9][12]} The pair pool their money together, and Devon has helped out with living arrangements.^[6] Heather said “We’re together in everything…I know other fighters, married to their trainers. We’re not, but we might as well be”.^[6]

The switch paid off. After only 11 months of training, Heather won the Metro and Regional title along with the USA Boxing 2011 National title.^[1][8] A year later, she received the NYC Golden Gloves Featherweight title and the honor of the Best Female Boxer of the Tournament.^[1][8] That same year she decided to try her hand at professional boxing.^[1] On August 2, 2012, Heather Hardy made her professional debut at the Roseland Ballroom against Mikayla Nebel of Ohio.^{[1][2][9][12]} Heather’s determination and drive can be seen well before the moment in the four round bout when she was knocked down and stood back up to continue, but rather on the morning of the fight, when she and Devon set up shop in Times Square to sell $13,000 worth of tickets.^[9] She knew that she needed to show an important spectator in the audience that night, Lou Dibella, that she was a prized fighter, and that she meant business.^[9] In the end, she did just that: the result was a unanimous decision of 38-37, in Hardy’s favor.^[1][2][9]

Later on in 2013, Lou Dibella, a prolific boxing promoter, signed a long term contract with Hardy, his first and only female fighter.^{[6][9][12][15]} 2013 continued to be a terrific year for Hardy because in October she won the Super Bantamweight UBF Inter-Continental Title, and in 2014 she showed no signs of stopping.^[2][8]

That year she was able to earn and win five professional fights, which is extraordinary considering most female fighters only get about two.^[2][9] In June 2014, she fought in the first professional female fight at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and was able to sell $24,000 worth of tickets.^[2][9] In November, she had her first ten round match and won the title of WBC International Female Super Bantamweight champion.^[2][9]

She returned to Barclay’s for her third time on May 29, 2015 to fight Floridian native, Noemi Bosques, in a eight round fight which was not scheduled for air on television.^{[2][3][4][12]} She was surprised to have won by split decision and a rematch was planned for the Super Bantamweight title at Barclay’s on December 5, 2015, which Heather also won.^[2][4][12] On August 1, 2015 in Brooklyn, Hardy was up against Renata Domsodi, a Hungarian fighter, to defend her title, and the fight was called when a bloodied Domsodi was KO’ed barely into the seventh round.^[2][12] Even with all of her successes that year, Heather was at a crossroads in her life when she considering switching to fighting in the MMA because the decline in women’s boxing.^[4][15] She witnessed all of the accomplishments that MMA female fighters like Rousey and Holm had received and was thinking about making the transition.^[4][15] However, she decided against it, saying “I’d never done any of the ground game before and my coach said my boxing was OK and I needed to be great something. So I said, ‘Let’s be great at boxing.’ I’m not great but I’m pretty damn good".^[4]

In 2016, Heather made major strides for women’s boxing by landing a televised gig on NBCSN against Shelly Vincent.^[2][15] The scheduled ten round fight, took place on August 21 at 9 p.m. at the Ford Amphitheater in Coney Island, New York.^[2][15] Heather emerged victorious from the fight and, as of August 2016, remains undefeated.^[2][15]

In the media

Following her rise to fame, Heather has been a prolific voice for women’s boxing. In 2013, shortly after women’s boxing was declared as a featured sport in the 2012 London Olympics, an independent film director named Natasha Verma tackled the subject of the gender wage gap in boxing through her film “Hardy”.^[10] She interviewed Hardy on her experiences and talked about how she was changing the face of a generally male dominated sport.^[10] The film reached a funding goal of $10,000 online, and the movie went on to be screened at many film festivals.^[9][10] In 2014, another movie, called “The Heat”, was made about Heather by PBS Indie Films.^[14] Heather also made a brief appearance in an advertisement for Visa and Under Armour called “Break It”.^[12]

On June 28, 2016, Heather Hardy partnered with Dove on their #MyBeautyMySay campaign.^[16][17] They posted two videos: Beauty on your own terms, a compilation video of a variety of women including Heather, and a personalized video, called Heather’s story.^[16][17] As of August 2016, both videos have collected around a total of 14 million views together.^[16][17] In the promotional videos, Heather gives some background about how she took up boxing as a hobby, but now fights professionally and wants to draw attention to female boxers.^[17] For the majority of the video, Heather talks about her relationship with beauty and her profession.^[16][17] She spoke about how, at one point people, wrote her off as just a little blonde girl with pigtails and told her that she was to pretty to fight.^[17] In response to this, Hardy said “‘Cause my face has nothing to do with my boxing. I’m ranked No. 1 in the country, and No. 2 in the world,” along with “Beauty isn’t something that I feel it just is something that you are. It’s something that comes out of you. It’s not something you’re wearing. I can still be beautiful with my black eye”.^[16][17] She shared similar viewpoints in her 2015 interview with Yahoo Beauty on confidence, beauty, motherhood, and femininity.^[8]

Women in boxing

Even with Hardy paving the way for women, boxing, for the most part, remains a male dominated sport.^[3][15] Female boxers still face a myriad of obstacles. For example, there is a large pay gap between men and women in the sport because lots of major television networks will not televise female fighters on their airwaves.^{[3][8][9][12]} Due to this, promoters will not recruit women boxers since they won’t make any profit.^[3][9] These problems have persisted for the past two decades and have led to the decline of women’s boxing.^[4][12][15] Despite these difficulties, Heather has a lot of people in her corner who support the work she does. Consider, the owner of Gleason’s Gym, Bruce Silverglade; he acknowledges that there is a serious disadvantage for girl fighters in the sport, yet encourages female fighters, like Hardy, to continue boxing.^[6] Additionally, Hardy has a promoter to help her out while most female fighters do not.^[9] With this backing, Heather fights back and challenges people’s expectations of her. To be remembered, she knows that she will have to work harder and put on a good show every time she enters the ring.^[6] And with a record of 18-0, she is doing just that.^[2]

Holm versus Rousey stance

Before the highly anticipated UFC Bantamweight Championship fight between Holly Holm and Ronda Rousey was broadcast from Australia on November 14, 2015, Heather Hardy came out supported Holm, a prolific former boxer.^[4][15] Hardy hoped that Holm’s win would bring more attention to women’s boxing.^[4] Putting aside her favoritism, Hardy said that both fighters performed the best they could and each one displayed their strengths: Holm showcased her boxing skills while Rousey displayed her judo expertize.^[4] Heather applauded this fight overall because it showed two powerful fighters, and demonstrated that there are many talented female fighters out there.^[4] Hardy hopes that this fight will alert many promoters and television stations to consider promoting female fighters because she knows that it’s a worthwhile investment.^[4][15] To prove her point, Hardy referenced Ronda Rousey, saying that Dana White took a chance when he signed her and it paid off after she got mainstream attention and exposure.^[4][15] Hardy remains optimistic towards the future of women’s boxing and wishes that other female fighters will get recognized just like Holm and Rousey have.^[4][15]

References