Lucia Rijker suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon and is out of her scheduled July 30 fight with Christy Martin. There was quite a bit of confusion at the outset as this fight was announced; throughout the cocoon-like world that is women’s boxing, many fist-flinging females thought they it was going to be an all-women’s show and aspired to get on the card, only to suffer disappointment when finding out differently.
While the Rijker-Martin fight didn’t promise opportunity to other pugilists of the distaff set, it represented what might have been a golden opportunity for bettors. Rijker was listed at less than 4/1 out there (in fact, -333 at Pinnacle), and many of the boxing people I’ve spoken with told me she should have been at least 10/1.
Rijker’s injury quashes what was potentially the biggest night ever for women’s boxing, but even worse, it puts a damper on the interview we did with Martin last month at the Hall of Fame weekend in Canastota. It’s worth listening to anyway, so if you’re interested, click here or below at the “podcast” icon.
