Theme Park at its Darkest

Sarah with Joe Nader, her trainer, after her recent win over Daniella Smith in New Zealand

Sarah ‘Missy’ Howett continues her march toward world domination on April 28 when she fights Sarah O’Connell for the ANBF Australian boxing title. 

Hi Sarah, how are you feeling?

I’m still recovering. It takes a bit of time to get over a fight.

Injury?

Exhaustion. The build-up takes a lot out of you. It was 9 weeks’ in the lead-up to this one.

How long have you got off until your next one?

I’m back in training this week. There’s 18 days until the next one. I’m fighting Sarah O’Connell, from Queensland, for the ANBF Australian title, at 60kg. My last fight was at 64.

That’s a lot to lose!

Tell me about it! I haven’t been 60kg since I was sixteen. My normal fight weight is 63.5. At the moment, I have about 6kg to lose, hopefully without too much sauna. I’m severely cutting down on what I eat – I have to lose muscle as well. Sarah normally fights at 58, so we agreed on 60.

How many fights has she had?

She’s had about 30-40 fights. Originally, she was a Thai boxer.

How many fights have you had now?

I’ve had 11 fights. 10 wins and one loss – I lost my first pro boxing fight. That’s 1 kickboxing fight, 5 modified Thai, and 5 boxing. 2 of those were amateurs.

That sounds like a very steep curve.

I had two amateur boxing fights, but I couldn’t get any more opponents. I had to go pro – there wasn’t any choice.

What made you switch from kickboxing to Boxing?

After Gladiators (Sarah featured as Viper in the relaunch of the television series), I went to Sydney and fought Sandy Furner. I KOed her in the fifth round and took her title, the South Pacific WKA. Then I picked up a pretty major sponsor and went to the WBC convention in China, at the end of 2008, where I met Don King and Barry Michael. One of the main things I learned there was that people said I should pick one – I chose boxing. There’s a bit more of a career in it.

What’s your trajectory with all this?

There’s a possible WBF world title in the middle of the year. Joe [Nader] is going to try to make it happen in Melbourne. I’d also like to challenge the girl who beat Daniella for her IBF world title (Sarah recently defeated Daniella Smith, a former IBF world champion).

What are you doing for sparring?

I was sparring with Susie Ramadan, leading up to her fight. She’s 54 kilos; bantamweight. She’s good to move with; she’s damn quick. Keeps you on your toes. At Powerplay [gym], I’ve been sparring with Jacinta Pascalides. She’s only 18, but she’s becoming incredible.

What are you expecting from Sarah O’Connell?

I think she’ll be quick on her feet and won’t want to come close. I’ll just have to be ready on the night. Fighting her at distance is good for me, but I don’t mind fighting either way.

Sarah has recently been ranked ninth in the world. Look out!

This entry was posted on April 14, 2012 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Journalism, Kickboxing with tags ANBF Australian boxing title, Barry Michael, Daniella Smith, Don King, Gladiators, IBF world boxing title, Jacinta Pascalides, Joe Nader, Powerplay Gym, Sandy Furner, Sarah O'Connell, Susie Ramadan, Viper, WBF world boxing title. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.