Stacey “Stay Lo” Reile holds the distinction of winning the first International Boxing Federation (IBF) female featherweight title. Reile is now also the first female featherweight champion of another sanctioning body: the newly formed Global Female Boxing Guild (GFBG). The sanctioning body is solely for women’s boxing and does not sanction title fights for men. Reile was recently presented the GFBG featherweight championship belt at a ceremony in Miami Beach, Florida. When Reile obtained the IBF female featherweight title in 2011, it was after she won a boxing match against Dahiana Santana. This is different from how she obtained the GFBG featherweight title because she did not have to fight anyone to receive it.
Although it is uncommon for a sanctioning body to crown a champion without a fight, it is not without precedent. The World Boxing Council (WBC) stripped heavyweight champion Leon Spinks of his WBC title and declared Ken Norton the WBC heavyweight champion in 1978. Spinks had defeated Ali to win both the WBC and WBA (World Boxing Association) heavyweight titles. Spinks chose to defend against Ali in a rematch instead of fighting Norton who was ranked by the WBC as the No. 1 contender and the mandatory challenger. Therefore, only the WBA heavyweight title was at stake in the Spinks vs. Ali rematch which Ali won. Another example of a sanctioning body declaring a champion without a title fight was when the International Boxing Federation (IBF) was founded in 1983. WBC heavyweight champion Larry Holmes expressed his desire to be the IBF heavyweight champion. Holmes relinquished the WBC title and accepted recognition from the IBF. This helped to establish the IBF as a credible and legitimate organization by declaring the highly regarded Holmes as one of its champions.
Reile made a short speech after accepting the GFBG belt. “This belt is beautiful. It is great to be female featherweight champion of the world again. I was rated No. 2 in the featherweight division by BoxRec after I defeated Crystal Delgado. I was also the No. 1 ranked contender by the WIBF (Women’s International Boxing Federation). I never got a title shot when I was rated so high. No one gave me an opportunity and I deserved one. I had to wait almost a year to get a fight and it was not for a title. I would have beaten anyone in the featherweight division, including Ina Menzer. I wanted a rematch (against Menzer), but never got one,” Reile said.
Reile has received three title shots in the female featherweight division. Reile lost the first two which were both in Germany and were filled with controversy. In Reile’s first title shot, featherweight champion Ina Menzer punched Reile to the head after the bell rang to end the third round. Reile was knocked down in round four and got up from the knockdown, but the referee stopped the fight. Reile returned to Germany for her second title shot against Elina Tissen. Reile punched Tissen to the head which caused Tissen’s gloves to touch the canvas.
This was supposed to be counted as a knockdown, but the referee did not enforce that rule. The fight went the distance and Tissen won by a controversial unanimous decision. The judges were so biased that even if the referee counted the knockdown, Reile still would have lost. Reile defeated Dahiana Santana and won the vacant IBF female featherweight title by split decision. Even though Reile is now the GFBG featherweight champion, Reile stated that she is amenable to fighting in another weight class instead of featherweight. “I am willing to fight in the super bantamweight (junior featherweight) division, but I would rather fight at featherweight,” Reile said.
GFBG President and Chief Executive Officer Ron Scarfone made a statement as to the reasoning for declaring Reile as the GFBG featherweight champion. “When a sanctioning body of professional boxing is in its infancy, it struggles for legitimacy. By declaring a former world champion such as Reile as one of our champions, it provides recognition to the GFBG. She is still one of the best female featherweight boxers in the world. I have seen her training in the gym and she is in tip top shape. Her sparring has been excellent. She is not ranked because she has not had a fight in about four years. There are world champions that defend their titles against creampuffs instead of the legitimate contenders. The sanctioning bodies allow this because they still collect their sanctioning fee which is all they seem to care about. Reile has always been willing to fight in foreign countries and fight the best boxers in the world. Reile will have one year to defend the GFBG featherweight title or the title will become vacant. Regardless of whether she is able to defend the title within a year, she can still keep the belt that was given to her today,” Scarfone said. After his speech, Scarfone asked if there were any questions from the audience. He did answer the questions, but felt that he could have been more thorough in his answers. Therefore, he elaborated on his answers and this has been transcribed in Question and Answer (Q & A) format:
Question: What made you decide to create the GFBG?
Answer: I know that there are many sanctioning bodies in existence, so people may say that there should not be any more. However, there needs to be more accountability in boxing. When Reile was the No. 1 ranked contender by the WIBF, she never got a title shot which would have been a rematch against world featherweight champion Ina Menzer. Boxers such as Reile are being excluded from getting title shots because the sanctioning bodies will protect certain champions. They will let these world champions fight whoever they want in title defenses. The GFBG world champions will have mandatory title defenses against the best available contenders.
Question: You said in your speech that the GFBG is going to recognize BoxRec.com for its world rankings. Why did you choose BoxRec?
Answer: I looked at many of the sanctioning bodies to see how they handled their rankings. Some created their own world rankings which are usually not computerized. However, the International Boxing Organization (IBO) does have its own computerized rankings. The Universal Boxing Organization (UBO) recognizes BoxRec to rank male and female boxers. WBAN.com which is not a sanctioning body has its own computerized rankings and it ranks only female boxers. The Global Boxing Union (GBU) recognizes two different computerized rankings: BoxRec for male boxers and WBAN for female boxers.
I prefer a computerized ranking system because rankings done by computer are unbiased. Even though computerized rankings do not take controversial decisions and stoppages into account, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. However, different computerized ranking systems are not identical to each other. Some boxers are ranked in the same place, but others are not. World Boxing Federation (WBF) female featherweight champion Stephanie Ducastel is ranked No. 12 by BoxRec, but is not ranked by WBAN. Ducastel was ranked No. 30 by WBAN a month ago, but now she is not ranked at all. The WBAN featherweight rankings now end at No. 29.
Instead of creating my own computerized rankings, I decided to recognize one that already exists. One advantage that BoxRec has is that its rankings are updated daily whereas the WBAN rankings are updated monthly. Another advantage that BoxRec has is that it ranks all active boxers. There are no arbitrary cut-off points to rank boxers in each division. I also looked at past history and was the ranking system right in predicting who was better. One situation that came to my mind was when Jeannine Garside fought Ina Menzer. I read an article that stated that Menzer was annoyed that Garside was rated above her on BoxRec because Garside had three losses on her record and Menzer was unbeaten. Garside rose to No. 1 in the BoxRec rankings at featherweight after she won by knockout over Lindsay Garbatt. Her ranking rose because she had a knockout win against a good opponent. Her three losses were all for world titles and they were against good opponents. They were all losses by decision with two of those losses by split decision. Her losses did not affect her ranking as much because of the caliber of opponent she was fighting and because her losses were by decision and not by knockout. The BoxRec rankings proved to be correct because Garside defeated Menzer by unanimous decision.
Question: How do you think Reile would do against the best boxers in the female featherweight division?
Answer: I think that a fight against any of the top ten in the featherweight division is winnable for her. In my opinion, she is among the top five in the world at featherweight right now. I already know that she is better than Elina Tissen who is ranked No. 10 by BoxRec. Reile already fought Tissen for the GBU female featherweight title. Reile should have won by decision. I believe that there was bias from the judges and referee. The GBU Office is in Germany and Tissen is German. The contract that Reile had to sign was one-sided. If Reile won, the contract stated that Tissen had to get a rematch against Reile. However, there was no statement in the contract like this if Tissen won which she did because of the judges and referee. Reile never got a rematch even though it was a controversial decision.
If Reile is prepared physically and mentally and has a good game plan for whoever she is facing, then she should do well. When she fought Ada Velez, she had other things on her mind such as her mom dying of Stage 4 lung cancer. She also had no game plan for what she was going to do against Velez. She was not fully prepared, but she did try her best during the fight and was competitive against one of the best female boxers pound for pound even though she lost. I also don’t believe that her training was as good because she was in anguish over her mom’s health deteriorating. Reile’s mom only had about a month to live.
Reile is capable of beating any of the top female featherweight boxers, but she has to have a specific game plan depending on who she is scheduled to fight. Reile was at her best when she defeated Crystal Delgado. She had a game plan and she was prepared. She knew it was very important for her to win after her loss to Menzer, so she was very dedicated. I watched video of Delgado boxing on YouTube and created a game plan for Reile. She followed my advice and she won. Also, it is important to have a good trainer in your corner and to have others there for support, especially when a boxer has to travel to the opponent’s home area. I went to Texas to attend that fight, so I was there to support Reile along with Jessica “Jag” Aguilar who is a world class MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter.
If it is possible to see video of a future opponent’s previous fights, then someone has to watch them and create a game plan. If no video is available, then it is more difficult to make a game plan, but it is still possible. If there are articles about an opponent’s past fights, then someone has to read them to find out anything about punches she prefers to throw and style of fighting. The opponent’s height and reach will also be factors in what kind of game plan will be needed. Reile is strong and has one punch knockout power. Her hands are huge. It seems that she inherited this trait from her father who also has big hands. She was ranked No. 2 by BoxRec before, but she could be ranked No. 1 by BoxRec in the future if she wins a fight against any of the other featherweight champions or legitimate contenders.
Question: What was your advice to Reile for her fight against Delgado?
Answer: I can recall two main points. The first was that I told her to stay away from the ropes. Delgado had a style of constantly coming toward her opponent. If Reile had her back against the ropes, Delgado could smother her and lean on her while time ticked away. If that were to happen, the judges could falsely perceive that Delgado was winning the fight. I also told her to throw punches non-stop because of Delgado always coming forward. If you keep chopping a tree, eventually the tree is going to fall. That is what happened to Delgado in the sixth and final round. Reile did not want to leave the fight in the hands of the judges after what happened in Germany.
Question: Did you think that Reile would become a world champion?
Answer: She was already a top ten contender in the super bantamweight division when I first met her, but I interviewed many other contenders who never became world champions. It is not easy to become a world champ. Not having enough ability is the main reason why a contender will not become a champion. Some contenders may be good enough to be in the top 25 in a weight class, but not good enough to win a world title. Another reason is that there often are biased judges in favor of the champion when he or she only makes title defenses in his or her home country. If Reile was a German boxer, she would definitely have been a world champion for a few years because she would have the judges in her favor and get easy title defenses like Tissen does. Reile also does not have a promoter and it would be easier for her to get fights if she did.
Lack of support is another reason why a boxer may not become a world champ. Reile did not always have a trainer that she could rely on to travel with her to a foreign country. Because more money can potentially be made, a trainer will typically prefer to train a male world-class boxer. She has had good trainers in the past, but they spend most of their time working with the male boxers because they can make more money. When you compare a male and female boxer in the same weight class with the same level of skill, the male boxer will usually earn more money. However, female boxing is popular in Germany. A world champion like Elina Tissen can make a living as a boxer with all of the support that she receives financially from corporate sponsors and a team of nine people helping her. Reile works full-time as a trainer at a spa. It is a good job to have as an athlete because she gets to exercise while she is training others, but she has to do her own training for boxing in addition to her full-time job. There is not enough money for most women to make a living only from boxing.
Reile would talk to me about other things besides boxing such as numerology which I was unfamiliar with at the time. She was recognizing patterns of numbers or repeating numbers that she was seeing in her life. Shortly after that, I began seeing the time of 11:11 often. For example, I would look at the clock on the oven or in my car or my watch and it would be 11:11. It happened too often to be just a coincidence. I looked on the Internet and other people experience the same thing. It seems to have something to do with a sign that I was on the right spiritual path.
About a month before Reile’s title fight against Tissen, I felt that Reile was underestimating Tissen considering that the fight was in Germany. I thought that she would be able to beat Tissen assuming that the judges and referee were impartial. However, a boxer from another country cannot just be dominant. He or she has to be very dominant just to eke out a decision in Germany. Because of that, I predicted that Reile would deserve to win a decision, but she was not going to get it. That was what ended up happening. I was busy with assignments for a Master’s degree and full-time work, so I decided to take a break from boxing. I was writing articles for her and filming her workouts, but I just felt that I needed to focus on myself. After I stopped helping her, I stopped seeing 11:11 regularly.
A few months later, she received the title shot for the first IBF female featherweight title. The title was vacant because this was the inaugural title. Her opponent was Dahiana Santana of the Dominican Republic. On the night of the IBF title fight, I was at a Miller’s Ale House restaurant eating dinner. I ordered a root beer and Zingers which are what the restaurant calls their boneless chicken tenders. The waiter got my order wrong because instead of giving me Zingers, he gave me chicken wings with the bones. He offered to take the food back and bring me what I ordered, but I was hungry, so I just accepted the error and ate the wings. When I got my receipt, I noticed that the total cost for the chicken wings and root beer was $11.11. If the waiter did not get my order wrong, then that would not have happened because there was a price difference between the Zingers and the wings. I felt that this was a sign that Reile was going to become a world champion and that my help in the past with her boxing career was not in vain. Reile won by a split decision.
For her first title defense, she had to fight Santana again. The IBF wanted an immediate rematch. It was obvious that Santana was going to be more motivated to win because she lost the first fight. The fight arguably could have been stopped in round nine when Reile hit her in the body and hurt her, but the referee ruled it a low blow and paused the fight which allowed Santana to recover. Santana won by unanimous decision, so Reile was no longer the champion.
Question: Are you still seeing the eleven eleven numbers?
Answer: It has been happening more often lately and sometimes when I least expect it. I was recently at a gas station and paid $20 to fill my gas tank. When I was done, I noticed on the gas pump that I put 11.11 gallons in my car. Reile sent me a text message at 11:11 about a month ago. Those are just a couple of instances, but there have been more.
Question: Why did you name your sanctioning body the Global Female Boxing Guild?
Answer: I decided that it would be only for female boxers because it would be difficult to get quality matchups for the world championships in men’s boxing. The top male boxers usually either have a belt already or are seeking a belt from one of the major sanctioning bodies. I looked at other lesser known sanctioning bodies to see what the quality of their world champions were. My definition of a world-class boxer is that the boxer should be ranked at least in the top 25 of his or her weight class. However, there are exceptions to this. The heavier weight classes for the women do not have as much depth of talent. There may be less than 25 female pro boxers in the entire division such as heavyweight. In that situation, probably only the top 5 are world-class.
The WBF and GBU have world champions for men and women, but most of their male world titles are vacant. They each have only one male world champion who is ranked in the BoxRec top 25 of his weight class. Their male world champions are usually in the 50-100 range for a BoxRec ranking. However, all of their female world champions are ranked in the BoxRec top 25 of their weight class. I did not want to have a situation like the WBF and GBU with having male world champions that are not world-class or having most of the titles vacant. It is obviously more difficult for a new or lesser known sanctioning body to attract the best male boxers. This was different many years ago because the IBF and WBO (World Boxing Organization) could get the male world-class boxers as their world champions soon after they were formed. Now, there are them along with the WBC, WBA, and IBO.
With five major sanctioning bodies in existence, it is harder for other sanctioning bodies to get the top talent for its male world champions. The male world-class boxers, if they are not holding a world title, would prefer to have a minor or regional title from a major sanctioning body such as a Silver title or an Inter-Continental title. It would probably be more lucrative for them and it would possibly be a steppingstone to a world title shot with that major sanctioning body. The WBC has Silver titles for the women, but I do not think that minor titles for the women will be offered by the other major sanctioning bodies in the future. Since there is not as much money to be made in female boxing, I think that the women would prefer to be the world champion of any sanctioning body even if it is a lesser known one such as the GBU or the WBF. Also, there are more opportunities for women to be a world champion than the men because there are sanctioning bodies just for female boxers.
The sanctioning bodies that are exclusively for women have to use either the word women’s or female in their name. One of the words world, international, global, or universal is used to show that it is worldwide. Of course, the word boxing or boxers has to be in there. Then, to show what entity it is, one of the words council, association, organization, federation, union, syndicate, or foundation is used. When I searched on Google, I discovered that there are many sanctioning bodies that I never knew existed. Every combination of words that I could think of was already in existence except for the words Female Universal Boxing Syndicate. If I named it this, then the acronym would be FUBS. I then realized why no one else was using it. People would say it is F*** You Bull S***. If you take away the word Female, then the acronym is UBS and people would say it is You Bull S***. Even Reile was saying the same thing, so there was no way that I was going to call it that.
I decided that in order to be original, I had to use a different word for the entity. In order to find the word that I needed, I looked in a thesaurus to get synonyms for the word organization. I found the word guild and then I looked in a dictionary for its definition. It means an organization. I know people would tend to think of a guild as a medieval organization, but it can also mean any organization with related goals and interests. I liked that the words Global and Guild both start with the letter G. I thought it would make the logo look symmetrical and I like having the G sound twice. The word Women’s is in the name of the majority of sanctioning bodies that are just for women, so I chose the word Female in order to be different than them.
Question: With the success of former world champion professional boxer Holly Holm in MMA and her winning the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) female bantamweight title, do you think that there will be a mass exodus of women leaving pro boxing to become MMA fighters?
Answer: I think it is impossible for that to happen right now simply because there are currently only two weight classes for women in the UFC: strawweight and bantamweight. I know that Holm made it look easy when she defeated Ronda Rousey, but it is not easy. Holm was one of the best female boxers pound for pound and she was an amateur kickboxer before becoming a pro boxer. She dedicated herself to MMA and improving her skills. She is also very athletic. However, former boxers who switch to MMA may not always attain the same level of success that they had in boxing. Jessica Rakoczy was a world champion in pro boxing and retired with a 33-3 record. She became an MMA fighter and is now with a losing record at 1-4. Reile was thinking about switching to MMA, but it would be too difficult at this point in her career to make that transition. In the future, if the UFC ever adds more weight classes for the women, then there will be more options for female boxers or female athletes who want to participate in combative sports.
Question: What do you think women’s boxing needs to do to become as popular as women’s MMA?
Answer: Women’s boxing is popular in Latin America. When Reile was in Costa Rica and won the IBF female featherweight title, she was treated like a celebrity by the people. She would walk down the street and people would instantly recognize her. I think we have to look at why women’s MMA is more popular than women’s boxing in the United States. Women’s MMA is on television. The lack of popularity and money in women’s boxing is related to not usually being on television. Female boxers who are televised will get paid more.
If the rounds for women’s boxing are three minutes instead of two minutes, the female boxers would have to get paid more because they would be scheduled to work more. In the world title fights, women are scheduled to fight ten rounds instead of twelve. The difference in duration of rounds and amount of rounds when compared to the men creates not only a disparity in pay, but it also makes it seem as if the women are inferior and incapable of fighting three-minute rounds or going the distance in a twelve-round fight. The women in MMA fight five-minute rounds and five rounds in championship fights which is the same as the men in MMA. If female boxers had the same duration and amount of rounds as male boxers, I believe that it would help women’s boxing tremendously. In fact, I think this is the most important thing and it could be done instantly if the sanctioning bodies changed their Rules and Regulations. As I stated in my speech, the GFBG requires for its world championships that each round will be three minutes in duration and the amount of rounds will be twelve. The only exception to this will be if the boxing/athletic commission that has jurisdiction over the GFBG title fight mandates otherwise.
Better matchups need to be made when the champions are defending their titles. There are boxers who are given title shots over and over again. Helen Joseph has already lost two world featherweight title fights and she was scheduled to be in a third one against Amanda Serrano. Serrano’s opponent was changed to Olivia Gerula who also has been in many title fights. Serrano knocked out Gerula in the first round. Elina Tissen defended her featherweight titles against Jasmina Nadj in two of her last three fights.
I think the sanctioning bodies should film the championships that they sanction if they are not televised and put them on YouTube or their own website. This would enable people to see women’s boxing at the highest level more often. Because women’s boxing is often not televised, even for the title fights, there is less scrutiny and more boxers are being robbed when they fight in an opponent’s home country. Some boxers do not want their fights to be viewed so that future opponents cannot learn what their tendencies are and strategize against them. They also do not want people to see controversial decisions or stoppages. Elina Tissen’s fight with Reile is only on the Internet because Reile put it there. I believe that Tissen and her trainer Maiki Hundt do not want anyone to see that fight because Reile was robbed by the judges and the referee. They prefer people to see Tissen win by TKO against Juliette Winter who has a losing record, so that is on YouTube.
Women’s boxing also needs more and better writers. More insightful articles need to be written. Interest in women’s boxing will increase if there are more interesting articles for people to read. The Ring Magazine has only two pages for women’s boxing in each issue: one article and a women’s top ten pound for pound list. In addition to the brevity of its coverage, the women’s pound for pound list is flawed. It ranks two women in the featherweight division, but has Jelena Mrdjenovich at No. 4 and Edith Soledad Matthysse at No. 10 even though Matthysse defeated Mrdjenovich by unanimous decision. Since the magazine stated that the verdict by the judges was just, why was that not reflected in their pound for pound rankings? What if Ronda Rousey was ranked ahead of Holly Holm on a women’s MMA pound for pound list even though Holm defeated Rousey? It would not make any sense and what The Ring Magazine did does not make sense either.
I also want to comment on the book titled A History of Women’s Boxing by Malissa Smith. There is no mention in the book about the International Boxing Federation and that it started sanctioning women’s world championships in 2010. The book was published in 2014, so it should have been included. I think it is historically significant when a major sanctioning body begins to sanction world title fights for women. Reile won the first IBF female featherweight title, but she is not mentioned in the book.
Question: With all of her training and fight videos that Reile has on the Internet, do you think that any of her opponents in the future will gain an advantage by watching them?
Answer: Reile is not concerned about that at all. She wants her fans to see her in action. She believes that she is always improving, so whatever video of her is being viewed is not the version of Reile that her opponent is going to be fighting. She has recent training videos on the Internet, but her last pro fight was about four years ago. Her other fights are obviously older than that. I think that Reile may be one of the most difficult boxers to prepare for which is one reason why some boxers do not want to fight her. She has punching power in both hands and she is athletic. Any opponent or her trainer could watch video of Reile and create a game plan, but that plan still has to be executed.
Question: Can you tell us about the appearance of the GFBG belt and who made it?
Answer: Reile’s name Stacey “Stay Lo” Reile is engraved on the left side panel and the words World Featherweight Champion are engraved on the right side panel. The font type is Segoe UI Black. I looked at different kinds of fonts and chose this one because I thought it looked the best. There are red rubies on the borders of the side panels. The belt has blue leather with a red trim. The logo in the middle of the belt has a diamond shape like the S-Shield from Supergirl, but with the letters GFBG inside instead of an S. I got the idea because Reile wore a Supergirl outfit for one of her fights. World champions are supposed to be super, so it made sense. The words Global Female Boxing Guild are in the border of the GFBG logo. The letters GFBG are in the logo with a boxing glove and upside down triangle. An upright triangle is a symbol of masculinity, but an upside down triangle symbolizes femininity. I designed the boxing glove by looking at an actual boxing glove to use as a reference while I was drawing it. The red, yellow, and blue colors are similar to Supergirl, but they are not the same.
Johnny Najjar of Masis Boxing Belts crafted the belt. This belt was made with superb craftsmanship. Masis makes the championship belts for many sanctioning bodies of boxing. Masis also makes championship belts for wrestling, MMA, and corporations. Anyone can buy a custom championship belt from Masis, but not the belts for the sanctioning bodies. Those belts are sold exclusively to those organizations. This is also true for the GFBG belt. I am the only person who can purchase a GFBG belt.
I chose the colors and created the logo and belt design on the computer using Crayola Art Studio software. It has many features and is easy to use, but anything created on it is pixelated. Because of that, Johnny had to redo the logo and belt design on Adobe Illustrator software which uses vector graphics. Johnny was able to duplicate the logo exactly as I had done it except that he increased the size of the font on the words Global Female Boxing Guild which is fine. I had high expectations for this belt and Johnny exceeded my expectations.
Johnny makes the best championship belts and you can see his work on the Masis Boxing Belts website which is masisboxingbelts.com
Question: What is your response to critics who may think that Reile cannot make a successful comeback after being inactive for about four years?
Answer: She has only been inactive in that she has not fought professionally during this hiatus, but she has still been training. There are other boxers who take long layoffs and come back successfully. I can give you an example from women’s boxing. Sandra Almeida of South Africa went on a five-year hiatus. She came back in 2014, had three fights, and is now rated No. 4 by BoxRec at welterweight. She is scheduled to fight for the WBF female welterweight title next month. It is not far-fetched to come back from a long layoff. As long as the boxer keeps in shape and trains to improve while they are “inactive”, it can be done.
Question: How did you get involved in boxing?
Answer: I started watching boxing in 1985 when I saw the first Larry Holmes vs. Michael Spinks fight which was for the IBF heavyweight title. Before the Internet existed, I used to get my boxing news from KO magazine. I thought that it was better than The Ring magazine. I did freelance writing for The Miami Herald newspaper and one of my articles was about a boxing gym in South Florida where contenders such as Ricky Quiles and Donovan “Razor” Ruddock were training. (Ruddock fought and lost to Mike Tyson twice). I was on a boxing forum in 2006 and found out about a new website that was looking for writers, so I joined. I was a boxing fan, so seeing and meeting world-class boxers and trainers that most people just see on television was a great experience. I never got paid unless you consider receiving press credentials for boxing events as a form of payment. With a press credential, I could get in for free and I usually sat ringside. I would sometimes be on the apron taking photos as well as writing. I attended a boxing event in Hallandale, Florida in 2006 and Reile was in one of the bouts scheduled. That was the first women’s boxing fight I ever saw. I decided to interview Reile and film one of her workouts for the website.
At first, I was just a writer and photographer/videographer for the website. When I looked at the articles from the other writers on the staff, I saw so many mistakes with spelling and grammar that I volunteered to be the editor as well. The editing became more time consuming as our staff grew. I was spending so much time editing because the writers were making the same mistakes repeatedly. They were often not fact-checking their articles either. I thought that their writing would improve in the future, but it never did. It was taking me too long to edit their articles and after a year of doing it, it was not enjoyable to me anymore. After I stopped being the editor, the owner of the website chose one of the other staff members to be the editor. The new editor was not capable of doing the job. I was seeing mistakes in the articles that I would have corrected before they were published. As a result, the website declined in quality and ended a few months later. I started writing for East Side Boxing in 2008 because there was a lot of misinformation on the Internet about Reile’s fight with Ina Menzer, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Question: The article that you just referred to (From a Dream to a Nightmare: The Ordeal of Stacey Reile) had a different viewpoint than other articles about Reile vs. Menzer. How can you justify your viewpoint as being right?
Answer: I wrote in my article that people could view a video of the fight, but that is not true anymore since the video is now blocked for viewing on YouTube by Universum Box-Promotion. I will talk about the punch that Menzer threw and landed after the bell. When I paused the video immediately after the bell rang to end the third round, I saw that Menzer was not in the process of throwing the punch. It is revisionist history if any writer tells a different story. After the late punch, Reile staggered a little and the referee touched Reile briefly to make sure that Reile did not fall. If the punch was legally thrown, then the referee would not have done that.
Obviously, the referee knew that it was not legally thrown and so he chose to intervene like he did so that Menzer would not have to be penalized. Regarding the fight when it was within the time of the rounds, people have different opinions just like judges have different opinions. However, if you just look objectively at punches landed, Reile should have won at least two of the first three rounds. The fight was stopped by the referee in the fourth round. I am not going to talk about the rest of the article because anything else I say would be redundant. I justified my viewpoint in the article. People can read the article if they want to know more. (Link to article: https://www.boxing247.com/weblog/archives/121989)
Question: Where can people find Reile on social media?
Answer: Most of her fights are on YouTube. Her username on YouTube is stayLo1. They can find her on Instagram at www.instagram.com/champstaylo, Facebook at www.facebook.com/staylo305, and Twitter at www.twitter.com/champstaylo