By: Sean Crose
If you’ve been following the game of boxing over the previous decade you then most likely know who Heather Hardy is. Nicknamed “The Heat,” the New Yorker earned appreciable reputation by being an motion fighter who knew how you can win. As a results of dedication, and coaching beneath famed coach Hector Roca (who she known as Papa), Hardy earned herself the WBO world featherweight title after a terrific rematch with Shelly Vincent in 2018. Hardy misplaced that title to the good Amanda Serrano that subsequent yr, and, after dropping a call to Jessica Camara in 2021, appeared able to experience off into the proverbial sundown. Appearances, nevertheless, could be deceiving.
For it’s been introduced this week that Hardy might be dealing with Serrano once more in a rematch set for August in Dallas. Not solely will Hardy get an opportunity to regain her WBO title, she additionally stands to win the WBC, WBA, and IBF featherweight titles as effectively ought to she succeed. In quick – the veteran fighter stands on the cusp of changing into an undisputed champion. Not that Hardy faces a simple activity. Serrano is called an all time nice for a cause. Aside from having earned world titles in quite a few divisions, Serrano is nothing if not the image of practiced, excessive finish boxing whereas within the ring. Hardy, nevertheless, is able to grasp the second.
“I’ve had it on my mind all year,” Hardy says of the rematch. “I have to go out guns blazing, in honor and in memory of Papa.” Indeed, Roca, Hardy’s coach and mentor, handed away at 82 years of age earlier this yr, an occasion that clearly moved Hardy deeply. “We spent every day of 2021 together,” Hardy says of the late Roca, “rebuilding my confidence, my boxing technique, and the day before he died we sat on his hospital bed and he told me: ‘Everyone thinks you passed your prime, but you didn’t hit it yet. This is your year, baby.’”
Sure sufficient, Hardy, who’s now in her early 40’s, has solely fought twice since her loss to Camara. She gained on each events, however Hardy’s most up-to-date battle, a February victory over Taynna Cardoso, noticed the previous titlist look significantly spectacular. What was notable that night time was the sheer stamina Hardy confirmed. For spherical after spherical, she merely outboxed an opponent roughly seven years youthful than her. It was a efficiency of observe, to make certain. Still, though Hardy has known as out Serrano for a rematch, she is grateful for the chance she’s now been offered with.
“Not everyone gets second chances,” Hardy says, “and I was prepared to go out on this loss, but am very grateful to Amanda and her team for giving me the shot.” Of course, there are nonetheless the naysayers on the market (maybe they haven’t seen the Cardoso combat), however Hardy is keen to show such folks unsuitable. “Everyone is talking about I’m old,” she continues, “and how I already lost, and how I don’t deserve the shot. But don’t sleep on an 80s baby from Brooklyn, New York. We are built different. I promise you, I’m not your mamma’s 40. I’m not just coming to fight, I’m coming to WIN.”
Indeed, typically age is just a quantity.
