"I'm not sure what the thinking was behind that matchmaking strategy." That was Isra Girgrah, in February '20, upon the news of her induction into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF), recalling her first professional boxing bout in February ‘95. It is a noteworthy recall since it is, also, a perfect scene set for the path this athlete took embarking into one of the most difficult of female sports, Women’s boxing. Girgrah eschewed the customary primer of an amateur career, learning the fundamentals of the sport, primarily, thru a year of arduous gym work. And, instead of an inexperienced opponent for her debut in the professional ring, she chose to be matched with Deirdre Gogarty, a highly ranked Irish fighter, a ten fight veteran who was on a path to fight Christy Martin in one of the then fledgling sport’'s first seminal bouts. It was a singularly difficult way to begin a professional  career and it ended, as expected, with Gogarty winning on  a third round TKO. But the pattern of taking fights that provided her the opportunity to move forward in the sport had been established for the Yemeni born fighter. Indeed, Isra Girgrah would eventually, over a nine year career, put together a career that would match her with every top featherweight in the sport.

 

Isra Girgrah's career, overlapping the new millennium, 1994-2003, encompassed 33 bouts, 177 rounds and resulted in a sterling 28-3-2 record. The statistics, by themselves, signal a very successful career, but numbers alone do not tell the full story of just how skilled this fighter was. Her three career professional loses came, as previously noted, in her debut bout, against Deidre Gogarty and against Christy Martin and Marischa Sjauw.  Those three fighters, at the time of the bouts, had a cumulative winning percentage of 84%. The Martin bout, taken by Girgrah on two weeks notice, was the first professional female bout in what, at the time, was still referred to as the "mecca" of boxing, Madison Square Garden. But Girgrah's career is, in sum, one heavily skewed towards wins and the highlights include a roll call of the top fighters in the weight class. In February 'O2, she scored a decisive win over Tracy Byrd, long considered, due to her “hard to figure” tenacious style, a “tough out.” The following year, Girgrah strung together a trifecta of wins that perfectly capped her nine year career. In March, she handed Laura Serrano the first loss in the Mexican fighter's outstanding career. In August Girgrah won a hard fought eight rounder over Melissa Del Valle, who owned a 28-1 record at the time and concluded the year with a ten round win over slick southpaw Jo Wyman, capturing the IFBA super featherweight title.

 

Three months later, in March  '04,  Isra Girgrah, at the culmination of an eighteen fight winning streak, retired from professional boxing, turning her attention to promotion of the  sport full time, an activity she had engaged in during the latter stages of her active career. Upon her retirement, she noted that "With better athletes and improved training techniques, women boxers are getting better and better.....there is a new breed of fighter now with a lot more skill." A postscript to those words could have convincingly added that Isra Girgrah epitomized those "better and better" boxers, who during the final years of the previous century and the first years of the current one, triggered a pattern of growth of Women's boxing, a trend that continues today and it is why Isra Girgrah was voted, deservingly, into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF). The August ceremony is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas.