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Steward Trying to Salvage Rijker-St. John Fight
By David A. Avila (May 26, 2003)
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Busy training his heavyweight champion and three junior welterweights, Emanuel Steward is attempting to salvage a marquee fight at the Staples Center that won’t happen unless it is televised.
Steward’s only female fighter Lucia Rijker was primed to fight Mia Rosales-St. John on the under card of the Lennox Lewis title defense against Kirk Johnson on June 21, but the Mexican-American fighter pulled out because of lack of TV coverage.
Rijker (15-0, 14 KOs) is training in the Poconos Mountains with Lewis, Hector Camacho Jr. and Ricky Williams who are all preparing for upcoming bouts. The highly touted female junior welterweight is anxious to fight
after a year lay off.
“I’m working on a couple of things to get it on television,” said Steward.
“I hadn’t told her (Rosales-St. John) about it yet because it’s not finalized.
Steward said there are plans to include Rijker and Mia’s fight on television on a tape delay basis with HBO. Both Steward and his protégé Rijker believe it’s a fight deserving of television coverage.
“Mia’s right. It should be on television,” Steward said, adding that he is trying to convince HBO that a fight of this magnitude would draw fans.
“We’re talking about three of the four most popular women fighters in the world,” said Steward naming Rijker, Rosales-St. John, Laila Ali who is on the card and Christy Martin who is not on the card.
Rijker burst on the professional boxing scene in 1996 after a long success in the world of martial arts. Several times she was a kickboxing world champion but turned to boxing and met with dramatic success.
For years Rijker has chased Martin hoping for a chance to showcase her skills against one of the most famous women boxers in the world. It may happen according to Steward.
“I’ve been talking with Christy Martin’s people and we could get a match probably in December,” said Steward. “It might be on ESPN or some other station, we’re working on that right now.”
Rosales-St. John (27-3-1, 13 KOs) said the offer of $30,000 to fight one of the best women fighters in the world was not enough, but worse, the fact the fight would not be televised literally turned her off.
“This is a big fight, It’s a marquee fight that deserves to be on television,” Rosales-St. John said. “I want to fight Lucia but on a televised fight.”
Rijker wants the fight too.
“So does Mia want to get her ass kicked on television?” Rijker said.
Rosales-St. John has been taking all comers in the past year including a bout with Martin that ended in a decision and another with lightweight champion Jennifer Alcorn that also ended in a decision.
“I like to fight,” Rosales-St. John said, adding the prestige of fighting someone of Rijker’s caliber is something she can’t turn down. “There is so much exposure I could get from it. But it doesn’t make sense to have a fight like this with no TV.”
Fighting Rijker would be her greatest challenge to date. But the Mexican-American brunette remains unfazed.
Whether or not Mia agrees to fight, Rijker will still appear on the card if they can find an opponent.
“Oh Lucia is still going to fight on the Staples card,” Steward said. “We’ll find somebody if Mia doesn’t want to fight. But I’m hoping I can change her mind.”
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