7 minute read
Nothing is Going to Stop Me Highlighting NYC Boxer, Erin Bauwens
Nothing is Going to Stop Me
by Warren Rosenberg
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Erin Bauwens
Given the prominence of women in today’s athletic competition, it’s hard to imagine that in 1896 Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, said that “an Olympiad with females would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper”, largely because “no matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.” Thankfully this has been disproven time and again in modern athletic competition and here we feature one example. On November 18, 2022, Erin Bauwens, a young boxer from Brooklyn, New York, and fighting out of Gleason’s Gym, prevailed over her opponent, Daisy Terrones a member of the U.S. Army’s West Point Boxing Club, at the Legacy Boxing Club in Wayne, New Jersey. In doing so, she improved her amateur boxing record to five wins against only one loss. A determined competitor, Erin stated that, “I always envision myself winning, I always envision myself coming out on top, no matter how rough
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Above: Erin Bauwens (blue) in her recent bout against West Point’s Daisy Terrones (black). Photo courtesy Justin aka ArtByZest (@artbyzest on Instagram) Facing Page: Erin and her coach Leon “Cat” Taylor at Gleason’s world famous Boxing Gym in Brooklyn. Photo courtesy - Erin Bauwens
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Above: Erin Bauwens with her team from Gleason’s posing with the belt from her win on November 18th. Photo courtesy - Justin aka ArtByZest (@artbyzest on Instagram)
the battle to get there is. This is important - I go into the fight thinking it is impossible for me to fail. I learned the visualization skills in part from my strength and conditioning team, CounterStrike Combatsports, and I also took some of this from a book I read called The Cus D’Amato Mind. Cus emphasized that confidence was integral to fighter success, and its true - once I’ve been able to build up my mentality in the way I have, I haven’t lost and do not plan on doing so.” Take that, Baron Pierre de Coubertin!
Besides being a boxer Erin Bauwens is also an attorney, a graduate of the Syracuse University Law School, and is a member of a four person team providing in-house legal counsel for Gympass. Erin told us that she first started boxing in 2018, “I was working as a corporate lawyer in a big firm with insane hours and working out has always been my stress release. I’ve always wanted to try boxing, so when I realized there was a boxing gym near my new apartment I decided to check it out”.
In relating her law school training to her preparation for a fight, Erin noted that “when preparing for mock trials, I would think of different arguments or responses opposing counsel would present and plan how I would respond and counter. I would put myself in their shoes and try to consider their plans of attack. I would look for weaknesses in my case and plan defenses in the event they were exposed. I do similar work when I prepare for a boxing match - while in the amateurs you often know little to nothing about your opponent and matches are so short it’s difficult to come up with a true game plan, the week up to my fight I visualize every second of the match - from making weight, to waiting for my bout, to walking into the ring, through every round of the fight until finish. I see the fight happening in every way I can imagine it, especially situations that create adversity - maybe
I’m down a round, maybe I get caught with a hard shot, maybe I get a standing 8 count - and more importantly, I think of how I will recover and keep moving forward.”
Training at the world famous Gleason’s Boxing Gym in Brooklyn, NY under the tutelage of Leon “Cat” Taylor and frequently consults with friend and fellow boxer, Kurt Scoby. At Gleason’s Erin is surrounded by the memorabilia of long-past champions, and the presence of current champions including several we’ve featured previously in MetroSports Magazine including Maureen Shea, Keisher “Fire” Mcleod, and Melissa St-Vil.
Erin has great respect for boxer Claressa Shields whom she regards as “absolutely fearless and on a different level than anyone else she competes with and she also has a really fun fighting style - her last fight against Savannah Marshalls showcases this, she has a lot of swag in the way she fights and as someone who is pretty much always the shorter fighter, I learned a lot watching her fight inside against Marshall. Most importantly, she is not afraid to take hard fights. Marshall is the only person she’s ever lost to, and after this last fight she made it clear she is more than willing to have a rematch. I think that’s the attitude every champion should have - to want to consistently fight the best.”
One can’t help but notice Erin’s growing collection of tattoo art, the first, a shamrock, acquired when she was nineteen. Since then, the collection has grown and serves as way for expressing herself and memorializing important milestones in her life. “The sleeve on my left arm is still in progress and it’s a Norse mythology sleeve. It’s being done by Maks at Bang Bang Tattoo. My last name, Bauwens, originates from the Viking conquest of Normandy (according to the internet, anyway), and I’ve always been a nerd about mythology. I like Norse mythology specifically because I find it to be less “romantic” than Greek and roman mythology - it’s not as dramatic, and the gods and goddesses are mortal, just like humans, and I appreciate the simplicity in that the stories are often about aspects of everyday life. I also love that in Norse mythology, the god of war (Tyr) is also the god of Justice. I think those two concepts fall hand in hand, both in legal practice and in combat.”
“I do have several tattoos relating to boxing - one is on my right bicep, it’s Roman numerals dating the first boxing class I took (October 19, 2018) with boxing gloves hanging from the date
Above: Photo by Heather Hardy via Erin Bauwens Below: Photo courtesy Erin Bauwens
(this was done by Ihor Kaika @Dead.tattooer). A second small one is down my neck, in cursive it reads “en garde” which also in part relates to being an attorney - I’m not sure if this is actually true or not, but during law school orientation a professor told us the word “attorney” comes from back when arguments were settled with duels, the start of which involved two fighters about-facing, taking several steps away, and then they would pivot and face their opponent upon hearing “a tourner” (French) and the duelers were eventually replaced with modern-day lawyers. Hence, “attorney”.
“Finally, I have a more detailed piece on my back of a tiger, the skyline of Manhattan, and some caging around it. The image of the bridge/skyline is based on a picture I took from the area we were training in Brooklyn Bridge Park during the pandemic, when gyms were closed. The look of fierceness and determination in the tiger’s eyes speaks to me, and the grittiness of the piece itself between the caging surrounding the image and the splashes of color worked in with the trash polka style says a lot about who I am as a person and a fighter. It’s a very complex and beautiful piece, it was done by Dimitri at First Class Tattoo.” In getting back to the importance of boxing, her comfort in the boxing community, and her goals as a boxer, Erin closed our interviewM by saying, “Aside from the actual love of the sport and appreciation for the discipline it’s taught me, what’s most important (and what will always be there even after I retire) is the community and family I have through it. My coach is like my dad, I lacked a sense of belonging in the city until I found my family at Gleason’s. Knowing I have a support system through there is priceless, and I think that whether it’s boxing, yoga, or something outside of sports, everyone should find something that makes them feel the way I feel through boxing.”
With respect to her boxing career and long-term goals, Erin unapologetically stated, “I see myself becoming a world champion. The second I stepped into the ring for my first exhibition sparring match, I knew it is what I’m meant to do. Ever since then I’ve put work into adjusting other aspects of my life to allow me to pursue this goal. I know I have the discipline, commitment, and team that will get me there, and I want to take it as far as I can go.”
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Above: Photo courtesy of Erin Bauwens
