By Eion Jardine
Gwendolyn O Neil is, by a long way, the most successful female boxer this country has ever produced.
Don’t believe me? Just check her record.
Twenty-nine fights, eight losses and two draws, says her career record but O’Neil has racked up a slew of records locally.
Not only was she the lightweight champion of Guyana but she is also a two-division world champion and all that being just five feet, nine inches tall.
O’Neil won the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) light heavyweight title twice in 2004 and 2008, won the Women’s International Boxing Council (WIBC) light heavyweight title in 2004, won the WIBA heavyweight title in 2010, won the Global Boxing Union (GBU) heavyweight title in 2010 and the UBF heavyweight title in 2015.
She also won the Guyana light heavyweight title in 2003.
O’Neil has fought a record nine times for world titles at three different weight classes and won a record five times.
She is the first local female boxer to win a world title and her storied career has seen her fighting Laila Ali, daughter of `The Greatest’, the late Muhammad Ali twice.
Born August 11, 1969, O’ Neil is of Amerindian descent and there are conflicting reports as to where she was born.
Although her birth place is listed as New Amsterdam, there are reports that she was born in the jungle and that the travails of jungle life as a young girl growing up
helped mould her to become the fighter she eventually became.
She is known as the `Stealth Bomber’ but that is a misleading moniker as there was no stealth to O’Neil’s approach although the bomber part was somewhat accurate.
Her career is filled with ups and downs and gladiator type battles beginning with her debut bout against Kim Quashie in Trinidad and Tobago, July 31, 1999 where she lost by a knockout.
She was to avenge that defeat a mere two fights later when she scored a TKO on June 3, 2000 in Quashie’s Trinidad and Tobago homeland.
She also fought Margaret `Chico’ Walcott on four occasions winning the first encounter on points in 1999, drawing the second in 2001, defeating Walcott again at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on May 24, 2003 for the vacant Guyana light heavyweight title.
Her final bout against Walcott took place in 2006, April 22 and O’Neil won by a TKO at the National Park.
In between she suffered surprise defeats the first to Melissa Charles at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Boxing Day 2001 when she was disqualified and a majority decision defeat to Veronica Simmons at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in 2002.
The trilogy with Quashie took place at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on May 4, 2002 and though the venue and the country had changed to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Guyana, the outcome was still the same a TKO win for O’Neil.
A TKO win over Geraldine Cox at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground in Linden followed and a TKO win over Krystal Lessey at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex in Barbados put her career back on track and put her in line for her first world title fight.
That fight against Kathy Rivers took place on May 29, 2004 for the WIBA light heavyweight title and O’Neil won by a unanimous decision.
She then scored another unanimous decision over Leesey before travelling to Atlanta, USA to fight Ali.
That fight took place at Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia and Ali took the vacant WIBA light heavyweight title with a third round stoppage.
Having beaten Leesey twice, getting another victory over her was a no-brainer and O’Neil duly won a unanimous decision on Boxing Day 2004.
A points win over Pamela London and her final victory over Walcott set the stage for the second Ali fight.
The fight for the World Boxing Council’s and the WIBA super middleweight titles took place at the Emperor’s Palace, Kempton Park, South Africa and was won by Ali, this time via a TKO in the first round.
Ali retired after that fight but O/Neil has gone on. She fought Carlette Ewell for the vacant WIBA world light heavyweight title and won a split decision on June 6th 2008 and fought Ewell again three months later on November 1st 2008 losing a unanimous decision for the WIBA light heavyweight title.
Two years later she fought Veronica Blackman on June 5th 2010 at the Princess Hotel for the Global Boxing Union World title and the vacant WIBA heavyweight title and won a unanimous decision,
She then added another WIBA light heavyweight to her collection when she defeated Laura Ramsey at Fort Myers via a unanimous decision on September 11, 2010.
The next year she defeated Pauline London via a split decision on October 28, 2011 to win the WIBA heavyweight title at Thirst Park.
Four years later she fought Sonya Lamonakis for the vacant Universal Boxing Federation UBF heavyweight title and won a split decision. 2015 July 4th.
O’Neil fought earlier this year on February 29 but lost a rematch to Ramsey by a TKO in round four of the six round contest held at the St Petersburg Marriott, Clearwater, Saint Petersburg.
The coronavirus pandemic has slowed professional boxing down to almost a craw but come 2021, O’Neil, once she has not called it a day, will be looking for world title number six and I am sure it is not beyond her.
Stabroek Sports salutes Gwendolyn O’Neil for her contribution to professional boxing in Guyana and inducts her into this newspaper’s Hall of Fame.
