was quite flexible from my gymnastics
days so I thought I’d be pretty good
at kicking boys in the head. Well, my
mom preferred I just did the martial
arts. She thought kickboxing was too
rough. But I’d just go to the gym and
then miss my bus and hang around for
the kickboxing workouts to start.”
An amazingly successful amateur
kickboxer, she just wasn’t getting
enough fights. So her coach said to
her, “You want to make money, try
professional boxing.”
“I thought, ‘Well, why not? If I can
make money at it, sure,” she said. “So
I had to learn to box right from the
start. I was a beginner. But when I was
17, I turned pro. I was under age and
they had to sneak me into the Casino
in Rochester, Minn., to fight my first
pro bout.”
To get fights, Gerula has fought in
Casinos all over North America, from
Biloxi, Miss., to Las Vegas, Nev., to
Worley, Idaho, to Atlantic City. And not
one of her fights was easy.
“I order to get fights, I’d go anywhere
and fight anybody,” she said. “For the
most part, I was supposed to be the
opponent for up-and-coming star
American fighters, but I never backed
down. In every one of my wins and
every one of my losses, I fought as
hard as I could until I had nothing
left.”
These days Gerula trains with
Winnipeg’s Elite Boxing and MMA
coaches Kent Brown and Dejan
Paunovic. Brown will have four
fighters on the Oct. 22 including
Gerula, Zafar Sacranie, Kyle Oliveira
and Lee Laquette.
“Olivia’s amazing, she’s awesome,”
said Brown, the former Canadian
Olympian. “She’s just an incredible
person. She’s a great mom, great
fighter, great person. This girl coming
into Winnipeg to face her is going to
get her ass kicked. Olivia is ready to
fight right now. She has a game plan,
she’s in great shape and, hey, she’s the
world champion. What more can you
say?”
Although she’s a nurse, and mom to
son Cedric, 18, and daughter Sydney,
15, she’s been working a minimum of
three hours per day, six days per week
at Elite. She’s ready to go.
“This will be a big night for our
family,” Gerula said. “It’s at the Casino
but it’s a plus-14 event so Sydney
will be able to watch me fight live for
the first time. Both kids have seen
me on pay-per-view and my son has
been to a couple of fights, but it will
be Sydney’s first live fight and it’s
exciting.”
Gerula is currently ranked No. 1 in
Canada and No. 8 overall in the
World. Her goal is to fight for the
BKB, WBA and WBO Boxing titles next.
Tickets for High Stakes Havoc II are
available at Vernaus Autobody located
at 160 Higgins Avenue in Winnipeg or
by calling 204-982-4540. l
Olivia Gerula
High Stake Havoc II Card
(subject to change):
1. Zsolt Daranyi (Toronto) vs. Damion Hill (Minneapolis) – 154 lbs
2. Mike Walchuk (Toronto) vs. David Whittom (Quebec City) – Heavyweights
3. Lee Laquette (Winnipeg) vs. Noel Harding (Brandon) – 147 lbs
4. Kyle Oliveira (Winnipeg) vs. Stephen Zea (Toronto) – 130 lbs
5. Zafar Sacranie (Winnipeg) vs. Antoine Robertson (Minneapolis) – 118 lbs
6. Krystian Dzienski (Miami) vs. Jonathan Poirier (Montreal) – Heavyweights
7. Stan Surmacz-Ahumada (Edmonton) vs. Dale Daniels (Winnipeg) – Heavyweights
8. Main Event: Olivia Gerula (Winnipeg) vs. Carla Torres (Cleveland, Ohio) – 125 lbs
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