After winning two fights at the Women’s World Championship Tournament in Qinhuangdao, China, Garfield alumna Queen Underwood lost by one point to Norway’s Ingrid Egner. The tournament is also the 2012 London Olympics qualifier, so Underwood’s chances of making it to the games are now slimmer.
Underwood must now wait to see if the Olympic Tripartite Commission will grant her a spot in the games. (UPDATE: Emmanuelle Moreau at the International Olympic Committee says the Tripartite Commission will meet “sometime in June.”)
Girlboxing reports that the Queen of the Ring lost the bout 26-25 after a big fourth round comeback. After losing the first two rounds 6:4 and 8:5, Queen tied the third 6:6. Then she had a thunderous comeback in the fourth, scoring 6:10, just one point shy of tying the bout.
The Queen has been training hard with her eyes on the prize for years. Training at Cappy’s Boxing Gym at 22nd and Union, Underwood fought her way to the number 1 spot in the country, a position she still holds five years later.
Businesses in the neighborhood helped her get going down the Olympic road as best they could, but the financial needs to get to the Olympics are intense. Queen opted to train with Tacoma Boxing Club last summer, and has been working toward her goal ever since.
Her training has been trying both physically and emotionally. She went public to the New York Times in February with painful details from her childhood. Her father sexually abused her and her sister for years, something she has largely held inside until recently. Her story of fighting back and empowering herself has been inspiring people around the nation for months, through the national print media to The View to Anderson Cooper (who she punched in the stomach):
Stay tuned for more as the Queen waits to see if she will get a chance to fight for the crown… I mean, gold.
May the decision fall her way.
Ditto. “May the decision fall her way.”