Perozzi eyes ring return

Giving birth has not slowed professional boxer  Teresa Perozzi down.

After a four-hour labour, Gabriel Ezekiel Perozzi Outerbridge was born at the 40-year-old’s Warwick home at 3:45am on March 21. 

The reigning WBA (World Boxing Association) middleweight champion was doing CrossFit every day up until the day of the birth to keep in shape. 

A week after, she was back in the gym. “Honestly, I felt amazing,” she told the Bermuda Sun.

Asked if there are any boxing lessons that can be used in motherhood, the southpaw answers concisely: “Patience and discipline.”

She says Gabriel will be involved in her boxing career, just as her first born — 16-year-old Micah — has been. 

Perozzi has not skipped a beat. She still trains, works as a massage therapist and cares for her newborn as well as eyeing her next fight, which she hopes will come in September at the Fairmont Southampton against Yajaira Hernandez from the Dominican Republic. Perozzi and Hernandez were slated to face off last November, but the fight was delayed because of Perozzi’s pregnancy.

The Bermudian was concerned the WBA would strip her of her title because of the amount of time between fights. They did just that but it became a moot point, as she was reinstated as champ since the title remained vacant during her time away from boxing.

Now, Perozzi is hoping the autumn bout with Hernandez will become a reality. That fight, however, still needs approval from boxing authorities, specifically the WBC and WBA after Hernandez’s defeat last month to Argentine Paola Gabriela Casalinuova.

The Argentine knocked  Hernandez down in the seventh and the referee stopped the fight. It marked the third time Hernandez had suffered a knockdown during the fight. That bout, said Perozzi, was considered controversial. Hernandez protested the referee stopping the fight and, furthermore, the judges and the referee were Argentine,  which facilitated more grumbling.

The loss might complicate things: Perozzi’s September bout was intended to unify the WBA and WBC (World Boxing Council) belts but the authorities for those two organizations may not want Perozzi to fight Hernandez, since the latter would be coming off a loss.

Perozzi, whose pro record stands at 9-4-3, hopes it will still happen. She said Hernandez, whom she described as an aggressive boxer, “deserves” the fight.

Perozzi did not watch her prospective opponent’s last fight and has no plans to. 

“To be honest I never look at footage of my opponents. I prepare for everything. You need to. You just don’t know what they’re going to come with.”

She plans to begin to properly train for the bout beginning in June. 

“The training will at first get me tuned back up. We’re going to work on bag work, technique work. I won’t spar until six to eight weeks before the fight.”