The Challenger: Szilvia Szabados

In those two months of heightened media attention on women’s boxing, Szabados’ role cannot be underestimated. In challenging Shields in her second professional fight, the Hungarian fighter was the other half of the first televised event headlined by female boxers. She fought in Shields’ backyard in a bout that was meant to test Shields’ market value in a male-dominated industry. And both women delivered.

Hailing from the city of Miskolc, 180 kilometers (112 miles) northeast of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, Szabados started her professional boxing career in 2014 after four years of volleyball. “Everybody was shocked when I chose boxing t at the age of sixteen,” she wrote in an email. “I chose a sport where you are on your own, a sport that is rough and aggressive. Boxing is not made for girls but I fell in love with it anyway. I made my choice, I wanted to become a fighter!”

On her first year as a pro, she won five successive victories in Budapest and Slovakia. She has 26 bouts under her belt with a fight record of 16-10-0, of which seven victories were won by KO. In just three years as a professional, Szabados has fought not just in Hungary and Slovakia, but also in Germany, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States.

Szabados said she was introduced and then inspired to take on boxing while watching fights by Hungarian boxers such as Istvan Kovacs, Karoly Balzsay, Mihaly Kotai, and Zsolt Erdei, who became one of her favorite boxers. “We watched the Rocky movies as well,” she wrote, with a smiley face.

Szabados is managed by Zoltan Petranyi, himself a professional boxer in the men’s heavyweight division, who has fought since 1994 and has racked up a fight record of 55-22-0. Szabados found Petranyi the way I found her: through Facebook.

“I started to train in a little boxing club in Miskolc. After two months I asked about the possibility of going to a competition. The trainer said he does not support competition, he just trains people. I was sad, but on older trainer in the gym, Gabor Takacs (who was also a great boxer in his days) came to me and said he can offer a manager to me. And he offered Zoltan Petranyi. First I searched for Zoltan on Facebook, after that I got an appointment to travel to Budapest and meet him. After that I became his boxer,” she wrote.

After a year of going pro, Szabados traveled to Germany to challenge Nikki Adler for her WBC super middleweight belt, in a 10-round bout that tested the Hungarian’s mantle. That bout was the most difficult in her career, Szabados said.

“One of my heaviest opponents was Nikki Adler. After that fight I said to myself if I was able to go the scheduled ten rounds in that match, I can do everything in the future. I got cut in my right eyebrow that blooded heavily and I kept going and fought bravely,” she wrote. While she lost by decision, that fight might have built her reputation as a tough opponent.

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