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MOTHER EARTH NEED YOU |
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| Green peace USA |
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>"An enlightened person by perceiving God in all - looks at a learned person, an outcast, even a cow, an elephant, or a dog with an equal eye."
-Bhagavad Gita |
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Helga Risoy, born and raised by her grandparents along with five uncles on an island in northern Norway. Her home was on a small island and her school on another island, requiring Helga to row to and from school every day.
Right: Childhood home.
Below: Helga with grandparents Reidar and Esther and two of the youngest uncles, Tore and Aasmund. |
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| With a large family and a lot of activities Helga learned to become independent at a very young age. After school she always had to work at the farm or helping her grandfather who was a fish monger. All 5 uncles and grandmother played instruments and sang. Helga learned how to play guitar and organ at early age, and made up her own songs. Other hobbies she had growing up was to take care of sick or wounded animals and birds. She also loved to draw and paint pictures. Like everyone from the islands she had to leave home to get an education. At the age of only 15 years old she left home and ended up going to art/advertising school. |
After advertising school and a short trip in the army she moved to the capital city of Norway, Oslo. There she took jobs in advertising agencies, and started with another activity that ended up being her "passion" for many years to come, kick boxing and boxing. She started her own advertising agency at the age of 20 which she ran until she left Norway in 1992. |
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| European Heavyweight Champion Steffen Tangstad and Helga. He promoted her first amateur boxing match in Oslo, Norway. |
The historic first women's amateur boxing team from Norway in the first international tournament in Sweden. In the middle trainer Helmer Boberg with Helga and the rest of the girls. |
Achievements
In 1985, she achieved black belt in karate, and in 1989 she became the Norwegian national champion in kick boxing and ultimately, she became the World Champion in kick boxing in Berlin, 1991. During this time, she also competed as an amateur boxer winning the "Norway Box Cup" in 1988; and as a team captain, represented Norway in the first international competition held for women in Sweden in 1989.
From 1987-92 she was a board member in The Norwegian Amateur Boxing Association fighting for women's boxing. At the time she was the only woman in the world to be a board member in an amateur boxing association. At the same period she was the editor/writer and photographer for the Norwegian magazine "BOXING". |
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Leaving Norway
The International Amateur Boxing Federation banned women from competing in boxing internationally in 1991, and since professional boxing is not legal in Norway, the only way she could continue boxing was to leave the country.
After moving to the U.S., Helga wound up in Los Angeles and started to train at her hero Benny The Jet's gym. A boxing trainer, Herschel Jacobs "adopted" her and she started to train professionally.
There were no women's boxing at all at the time in the U.S. For one year she had to network across the U.S. to find women boxers and promoters that were willing to put a bout together. Boxing promoters laughed at her, and people did not take her seriously. |
A nice trophy for the world kick boxing champion. |
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Photo taken the day Helga arrived in Los Angeles, and it just happened to be the day before the riots in 1992.
Trainer Herschel Jacobs "Jake" was Helga's first professional trainer. A middleweight from New York who fought heavyweights like Ken Norton and "Hurricane" Carter. He fought a even match with Norton in 1972 and beat Carter in 1962. Jake trained Helga for her first two professional fights in Las Vegas. He moved back to New York and Ken Adams and Mario Macias took over as trainers. |
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Meeting Don King
Don King had a press conference in Los Angeles, and Helga went. She introduced herself as a professional boxer, and King smiled. He invited her to come to Las Vegas to meet him the following weekend. Helga rented a car, drove through the Mojave desert and went to the fights at the Mirage hotel where Chavez was the headliner. Don King and Helga were sitting privately, talking for two hours. She finally asked him, "Are you willing to put two of the best women's boxers on your card?". He sat quietly, thinking for a long time before he answered "Yes, I will do that, send me some tapes of your fights". |
Fighting for Top Rank
She never sent Don King the tapes, because right after that she got her first fight with Top Rank on March 4, 1993. This fight was held at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Most people had never seen women boxing before so they were stunned and surprised. Helga moved to Las Vegas and continued to box.
Her third fight was showed on national television, and other promoters began to put women boxers on their cards. Don King kept his word and signed up Christy Martin, who is an exciting fighter to watch. Women boxing started to take off seriously. |
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Visiting Larry Holmes restaurant in Philadelphia. Larry Holmes from the left, Helga, Emanuel Steward and Luther (Emanuel Stewards trainer from Detroit).
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Training with Emanuel Steward. |
Historic fights
Since Helga Risoy was one of the first women boxers in the new generation of women boxers she always had to prove to everyone that women should be in the sport of boxing. The commissioner Marc Ratner in Nevada said, "Helga Risoy was the first woman to fight in Las Vegas in almost twenty years, she is one of the true pioneers, she started it all". Risoy fought the first women bout in Las Vegas, Mississippi, and the North West. She participated in the first professional boxing match for women in Mexico, December 12. 1994. Also she went back to her Scandinavian roots, and fought the first professional women bout in Denmark, October 21. 1995.
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Helga basically grew up in a boxing gym studying, training, and teaching others. This photo is from the legendary Johnny Tacco's gym i Las Vegas. When Helga first came to Vegas no boxing gym allowed her to train there because she was a woman, but Johnny Tacco welcomed her with open arms. She never forgot that.
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1. Winning World title. 2.Knocking out Delia Gonzalez. 3. Winning her first title belt in the North West. 4. Visiting Lennox, and former trainer and boss Emanuel Steward. |
Hard road to go…
It was not easy to get fights. After fighting for Top Rank, Helga began to fight for other promoters as well. She was at the gym every day, but no fights. About 90 % of the fights she was promised were cancelled.
She waited and trained and trained and waited, and it was frustrating and hopeless. Time was running out for Helga, who now had been training and fighting for 20 years. She said in an interview following her last fight, "Both my hands and my right elbow have been bothering me for the last two years. I am now losing to girls that I probably would have easily beaten as an amateur, so it is time for me to " hang them up", for good".
Helga Risoy retired as a boxer in 1997, but is still living in Las Vegas. After retirement she worked as an international matchmaker and event coordinator for Emanuel Steward, her former trainer.
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| Visiting Sundance, Utah, May 2007. |
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Helga is currently a songwriter and singer, living in Las Vegas. She often go hiking in the mountains, enjoying the quiet beautiful nature that gives her great inspiration for her songwriting.
"Boxing is in the past, the door is closed and locked. It is great just to have a normal day jobb, and still have time to go to the gym and work with my music" says Helga. She has written 15 songs, but they're still work in progress. With vocal instruction and still more to learn she plan to record a CD in the future.
She perform for Recodence and Acoustic Invasion locally in Las Vegas. |
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