Rijker Trains Foes To Fight Holm

LAGUNA PUEBLO – It’s a shame Lucia Rijker and Holly Holm couldn’t have met under different circumstances.

Still, the current circumstances are interesting enough.

Albuquerque’s Holm (31-2-3, nine knockouts) is rated by boxrec.com as pound-for-pound the best female boxer in the world.

Not that long ago, Rijker held that distinction. The Netherlands native retired from the ring undefeated in 2004, just as Holm’s career was blossoming, and became known to many as the evil Blue Bear in the Oscar-winning movie, “Million Dollar Baby.”

Holm is 31; today is Rijker’s 45th birthday. Thus, though they’re similar in size, there was never much of a chance they would meet in the ring.

Friday, for the second time, Holm and Rijker will meet not as boxer vs. boxer, but boxer vs. trainer. Rijker pupil Diana Prazak (11-1, seven knockouts) of Australia is scheduled to face Holm in the main event of a card at Route 66 Casino Hotel.

Prazak, much shorter than Holm and far less experienced, will be an off-the-charts underdog.

Rijker welcomes the challenge.

“She’s a very powerful fighter,” Rijker says of Prazak. “… She left her family to be here and to have the opportunity to fight pound-for-pound the best. Hey, that’s her dream come true. So she’s living her dream.”

In January 2009, Rijker pupil Myriam Lamare lost by unanimous decision to Holm at the Hard Rock. Friday’s bout was to have been a Holm-Lamare rematch, but the Frenchwoman withdrew, citing a shoulder injury.

Rijker was training Prazak to fight Albuquerque’s Victoria Cisneros on Friday’s undercard, and Prazak quickly volunteered to fight Holm instead.

Holm’s promoter, Lenny Fresquez, has described Rijker as obsessed with the idea of beating Holm – sentiments echoed at a Wednesday news conference by Mike Winkeljohn, Holm’s trainer.

“(Rijker) is set on beating Holly,” Winkeljohn said. “She keeps working people against Holly; it’s kind of a funny thing.”

Asked about her alleged obsession, Rijker found that funny.

“I think I represent great fighters who keep coming to me and asking to fight Holly,” she said. “We’ll fight anyone; we just happen to be here again.”

In addition to Lamare and Prazak, Rijker has worked with U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Marlen Esparza, MMA champion Ronda Rousey and former Holm foe Ann Marie Saccurato – though Rijker wasn’t in Saccurato’s corner for either of her losses to Holm.

Her “Rijkerstriker” training method, Rijker believes, has made Prazak a better, more versatile boxer.

“Diana is a diverse fighter, especially because of how she used to train and how she works with me,” she said.

“We’ve worked on different things.”

Rijker noted Holm’s vast advantage in experience but then referenced a couple of major upsets in recent boxing history: Hasim Rahman over Lennox Lewis and Lamon Brewster over Wladimir Klitschko.

“In boxing,” she said, “anything’s possible.”
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal