Raging Belle

Vermont teen Cora Thomas wins her second national boxing title

BY STEVE GOLDSTEIN • sgoldstein@sevendaysvt.com

As for the sport known to its followers as the “sweet science”? You could say boxing found Thomas — rather than the other way around.

Over the past decade, boxing has jumped the ring ropes and set up shop in fitness centers, enjoying a renaissance on the exercise A-list along with yoga and indoor cycling. Large franchise operations, such as Title Boxing Club, as well as neighborhood gyms, offer classes that attract the young and not-so, gym rats, trend chasers, and folks who just want the physical skills to defend themselves.

Self-protection and confidence building were Kim Thomas’ goals for Adele, her younger daughter, when she took her to a fitness center in 2018. Cora tagged along, and gym owner Mariah Yates suggested that she put on some gloves and try spar-

Get in a boxing ring with Cora Thomas. Stand three feet away from her, dead center in the ring, well away from the refuge of the red, white and blue ropes. Hold up your hands, ensconced in thickly cushioned target mitts, and invite the teenager to whale away. Feel what seems like an electric shock run up your arm, dissipating in your jaw.

At five feet, seven inches tall and 125 pounds, slender as a whippet, Thomas, 16, doesn’t physically intimidate opponents. Until they get hit, that is. And hit again. With her steely determination to persevere, Thomas looms large in the ring.

Last month, in Independence, Mo., the Fairfield teenager won her second national title, the National Silver Gloves boxing championship, beating the top-ranked fighter in her 15- to 16-year-old, 125-pound division. Considering the only glove she wore before taking up boxing five years ago was a softball pitcher’s mitt, Thomas has had a meteoric ascent.

“At 11 years old, she was punching harder than most 14-year-old boys,” said Hans Olson, who trains her at Rail City Boxing Club in St. Albans. “She’s got real serious natural power, God-given power, something that you can’t really teach.”

Cora’s father, Charlie, said he first saw her potential when his then-6-year-old daughter was doing gymnastics. “She had strength and athletic ability beyond her years,” he said. “She’s determined and strong-willed — not just physically but mentally.” ring. After the session, Olson, whose boxing operation is at the same gym, said Yates pulled him aside and told him, “This kid, she’s pretty good. She hits really hard. She retained everything I told her.”

And boxing is not even her best sport. Thomas is the star shortstop and pitcher for Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, good enough that the junior may attract college scholarship offers.

Olson sparred with Cora, then told Charlie and Kim that she had potential and he was willing to train her. “Hans knew right away that Cora was a talent that doesn’t walk through the doors all the time,” said Charlie, who owns Thomas Pride Trucking in Fairfield. “So Hans was very excited.” A licensed boxing coach himself, Charlie knew what he was in for. “It is a commitment,” he told Seven Days. “It’s a financial and time commitment. There’s lots of traveling. Hans told us as much, but we were like, ‘We’re all for it. We are in 100 percent.’”

Olson was introduced to boxing by his father, who boxed in the Navy and later trained his son. After trying wrestling and hockey and flirting with going on the road with his rock band, Olson moved to Canada and resumed serious training as a boxer. When injuries forced him out of the ring, Olson moved to St. Albans and, with local trainer Luke Tatro, established Rail City Boxing Club in 2018 to acquaint local youths with the sport.

Under Olson’s tutelage, Thomas progressed quickly. “It is such a good workout,” she said. “People really don’t understand how much goes into it. It really keeps you focused.” Apart from the fitness aspect, Thomas said, boxing has taught her sportsmanship and brought new friends into her life.

The rap on boxing tends to be how dangerous it is. After all, success depends on your ability to inflict more pain than you receive. Were Cora’s parents concerned about the risk of injury to her? Charlie Thomas drew a comparison between his daughter’s competition and other contact sports that often pit large bodies against smaller ones.

“There are not many sports where the athletes competing are within two years in age of each other and within six pounds of one another,” he noted. “There are five judges, a doctor and a referee, with the athletes wearing padded gloves and headgear.”

USA Boxing did not recognize female boxers until 1993. As the body that governs the sport in the U.S., it now sponsors many events, including several for women amateurs. Among the latter is the prestigious Silver Gloves, the junior version of the venerable Golden Gloves.

Thomas first entered the Silver Gloves in 2019. Apart from the competition, which she relished, Thomas appreciated the sense of community among boxers. After being defeated in the first round of that 2019 tournament by a boxer named Zoe Griffith, Thomas told the St. Albans Messenger, “I lost the fight, but we became best friends. The irony is that best friends met each other by punching each other in the face.”

The Silver Gloves provided Thomas her moment straight out of the first Rocky movie. No, not running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but using a crushing loss — Rocky went down to Apollo Creed — as a learning experience and motivational tool.

At the 2020 national tournament, Thomas faced Ayhnae “the Beast” Harte of Chesapeake, Va. During the bout, Thomas took a standing eight count — meaning the referee temporarily halted the fight to see if she was fit to continue. Harte was the decisive winner. “It was a tough loss,” Olson reflected. “That was probably the only time where she’s been soundly defeated “

Thomas immediately told Olson she wanted to fight Harte again.

Then COVID-19 hit, and it was a year and a half before tournament boxing resumed. Thomas went to the 2022 Silver Gloves nationals, and fate put the Beast squarely in her path in the first match. At the time, Harte was ranked second in the country in her weight division of 15- to 16-year-olds, Olson said.

Thomas showed up with something more than improved footwork or a better hook: resolve. “The first fight fueled me rather than took me down,” Thomas told Seven Days. “I knew my talents. I knew what I could do.” Thomas watched film of Harte and found a vulnerability she thought she could exploit.

Once the bell rang, there was no doubting Thomas, who had a plan to “stun” Harte with power. The decision was close, but Thomas prevailed. “It was a great win,” Olson recalled recently. “Just a really great way to get redemption against the girl that beat her most decisively. Thomas won her next two bouts and claimed her first title.”

In early February, Thomas repeated as national Silver Gloves champ, beating USA Boxing’s top-ranked Yazmin Rosales of Milwaukee, Wis. Now, Thomas is focused on the upcoming softball season and perfecting her windmill delivery to baffle hitters. After a recent trip to explore colleges, she’s decided to pursue a career as a forensic psychologist.

Though she has aged out of Silver Gloves and boxing scholarships from colleges do not exist, Thomas said she will find her way back into the ring. “The next big thing would be Golden Gloves,” Thomas explained. “But I have to be 18 and my birthday is really late, so I have two years to wait. I’d love to find a club team in college. I want to find a gym that offers boxing every day.” ➆