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5'2" flyweight Ria Ramnarine from Carapichaima, Trinidad
was born on October 12, 1978.
She has been involved in numerous contact sports, including karate, ju-jitsu, kickboxing, and Muay
Thai, since 1995.
She has had to fight for most, if not everything, she has in life today as one of Trinidad's top
women fighters.
One of the very few things she did not have to fight for was her own individuality. With two sisters and two brothers, Ramnarine was the eccentric one.
Not coming from a sports-oriented family, being involved in contact sports professionally made her stand out.
"I always loved sports, but
I was not allowed to participate in any since it was feared (by my Dad) that it
would distract me from my studies. I was on the cricket team once though, in
primary school and I also did some cheerleading in high school, (our team came
third)!", Ria told
WBAN's Sue Fox in a July 2003
interview.
In August of 1995, she joined the Fine Line Gym in Chaguanas, where she is still a member, and where she does her weight training.
"I really wanted to do this so I paid my first fees with one dollar bills and coins I’d saved up",
says Ramnarine.
The gym also offered classes in aerobics, karate, ju-jitsu, kick-boxing and boxing. Two months later she started karate and after a long wait of two years, Ramnarine finally edged her way into the kick-boxing class.
“Like most parents, Dad almost freaked out and Mom was overly concerned about me getting hurt”, added Ramnarine.
Nevertheless her parents became her #1 fans, and she says their support and that
of her siblings has been tremendous.
After just two months of kickboxing training, Ramnarine fought her first fight,
which ended in a very controversial draw. Not to be discouraged, she continued
her training and after over a year she got her chance again, this time scoring a
second-round KO.
With just two fights under her belt, Ramnarine had already created a reputation and ran out of local competition. Her coach, Bharath Ramoutar, knew that she was especially good with her hands, so he opted to have her box also.
On December 3, 1999 in Port of Spain, Trinidad , Ria (110 lbs) made her boxing debut scoring a 3rd round KO
over Wilma Skeete (112 lbs).
Having just lost a kick-boxing fight (2 weeks before) to world champion kickboxer and Muay Thai fighter, Vanessa Bellegarde, Ramnarine was thrilled with her victory.
“Whenever I fall, I get up right after, brush my pants and move on…so when I lose a fight, I like to get right back in the ring as soon as possible,"
she said..
Ramnarine, like others in the sport involving kickboxing and boxing, she has gotten into mismatches that either was by weight, experience, or in most cases, both. Ramnarine told WBAN that in only one of all of her fights, she has outweighed her opponent---and that was only by one pound!
Ramnarine recalls some of the fights that stood out, and told WBAN of a four-round kick-boxing bout against Vanessa
Bellegarde in Canada. The world champ was 13 pounds heavier and on her home turf. It was Ramnarine's third fight, but even though she was much lighter and less experienced, she stood toe-to-toe with her, earning the respect of the crowd.
Ramnarine tried to force the fight using her hands but Bellgarde's kicking
skills proved to be too much for her.
On May 3, 2000 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Giselle Salandy, then aged 13, won a
four-round decision over Ria.
On May 21, 2000 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Ria won a four-round decision over
Erica Benjamin in a kickboxing bout (this has been reported elsewhere as a
boxing bout, but Ria assures me that is incorrect).
On August 5, 2000, in Antigua, Claudette Alexander (122 lbs) of the Netherlands
Antilles won a six-round decision over Ria (112 lbs). Ramnarine fought bravely against
the much taller Alexander, who improved to 2-0 (1 KO).
On February 10 2001 in Trinidad, Ria (112 lbs) won a four-round rematch with
Wilma Skeete (115 lbs) of Trinidad, who fell to 0-3.
On March 10 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Ria (110 lbs) knocked out
Adanna Francis (122 lbs) of Siparia, Trinidad in the fourth round. Francis
fell to 1-1 with the loss.
 On July 27, 2001 at Convention Center in Niagara Falls, New York,
IFBA Junior Featherweight champion
Leona Brown (116 lbs) moved to 9-7 (4 KO's)
with a TKO over Ria (110 lbs) at 0:24 of the fourth round. Ramnarine told WBAN:
“
Leona was
hard but then again, I was under weight and not altogether totally prepared
psychologically, my mind just was not in the fight. Before I went to the
weigh-in I was 108 lbs. We thought if the weight difference was too much, they
would not allow me to fight, and I did not travel all the way to the USA not to
fight! So, any way, I ate a lot before the weigh-in to ensure I was heavy
enough! I know now that it was not exactly the smartest thing to do
... This was a turning point in my career, a wake up call. My coaches and I
discussed it and decided that being at a disadvantage 99% of the time was not
worth it. I won’t refuse a chance to fight but at the same time the pros and
cons have to be weighed. There’s that saying, getting your feet wet without
drowning."
On December 26, 2001 at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana,
Ria (110 lbs) won an eight-round split decision over Shaundel Thomas (112 lbs)
of Guyana. Ria dominated the fight landing clean one-two's and
uppercuts to her more aggressive opponent, who was intent on landing a big right hand. Ria's movement
around the ring helped her frustrate her opponent. "Shaundel
Thomas made me work for my victory! She was good", says Ramnarine. The fight was promoted by the Guyana Boxing Board.
© Copyrighted Photo taken by Durell Wambolt
On July 12, 2003 at Chaguanas Indoor Sports Centre in Chaguanas, Trinidad, Ria (110 lbs) easily won a six-round unanimous (60-54) decision over pro debut fighter
Vicki Boodram (112 lbs) of Princes Town, Trinidad.
Ramnarine and Boodram had the
boxing fans off their seats in this action-packed six-rounder. The
Internet Express online news source described the fight as the
following: "Ria
Ramnarine, five feet two inches and coming in at 110 pounds, grabbed all the
plaudits from super welterweight Floyd Trumpet in the first of a series of
monthly professional bouts staged by Cosmic Promotions last Saturday night.
Ramnarine had the Saith Park crowd in Chaguanas jumping off their seats as
she pounded out a unanimous six-round decision over game and promising Vicki
Boodram."
On November 8, 2003 at Sun Center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Erin Linley of Calgary won the WIKBA Women's Flyweight (47.8 kg)
World Muay Thai title with a 5-round unanimous decision over
Ria. Linley outworked Ramnarine in the clinches using her knees and punches
to the midsection that Ramnarine was unable to block or counter effectively.
In the later going Linley was able to work a tiring and battered
Ramnarine against the ropes and in the corners. backwards to the ropes.
Ramnarine said, “A WIKBA title was on the line and we were at least the same weight. Had I won that fight, contact sport in Trinidad would have gained immediate recognition and attention from the government and sponsors. But though I lost, it was a major achievement in that it was the first time a Trinidadian officially fought Muay Thai, and at such a high level too."
(Go here
to read Erin Linley's account of this fight.)
 On July 31, 2004, at Saith Park
Indoor Arena in Chaguanas, Trinidad,
1,500 boxing fans saw Ria (105 lbs) win an eight-round unanimous (79-75,79-73,
78-74) decision for the
WIBA Iberian-American Mini Flyweight title over Diedre (Dee) Hamaguchi (5'
1½", 105 lbs) of Harlem, New York, USA. There were no knockdowns but both
exchanged hard punches throughout the exciting bout and left the arena with
lacerations under their right eyes. Ramnarine went toe to toe with
Hamaguchi, and told local reporters after the fight "I did not fight
normally, I like to hit and move. I can't say why I did but I tried to
adjust to her style and it worked out in the end." Ramnarine admitted
that she was hurt in the fourth by a stinging combination from Hamaguchi.
But she was able to stay on her feet and came back to win the bout, urged on
by shouts of "Ria, Ria, Ria" from her supporters and scoring freely with
combinations to Hamaguchi's head. "I am trained to take hard
punches because I train with guys and get hit pretty hard. I have
conditioned myself to overcome the really tough shots", she said,
adding. "Diedre is strong and really came to fight. I am happy to win
this bout in front of my supporters." Hamaguchi, who had
fought much of the bout with a grin on her face, said "I really wanted to
win the title but Ria fought well. I would have been happy for a draw, but
then you can't win them all. I was grinning because I was enjoying the
fight, I love to fight." Hamaguchi fell to 1-7-2 (0 KO).
On May 27, 2005 at
the Jean Pierre Sports Complex in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Ria (104½ lbs) won the
WIBA Mini-Flyweight World title over Yvonne Caples (104½
lbs) of Berkeley, California by a very controversial 10-round split
decision. Ramnarine went down in the second round after she missed
with her right and Caples caught her with a clean left to the jaw, but Ria came back
with a game effort later.
Trinidad and Tobago judge George St Aude and Derek Herbert from
Barbados both gave Ramnarine the fight 97-93, while Andre Thorne of Guyana
had it 97-93 in favor of Caples
Trinidad
Express reporter Ian Prescott
wrote that
"In the first round, Caples had the edge, setting up the local
contender with the long right jab. Ramnarine was always open to be hit
by her opponent's left and was stopped in her tracks every time the
American connected. Ramnarine tried bobbing and weaving, but she was always that second
slower than Caples, who stuck the jab out and moved away before
Ramnarine got set to throw her fists. A quick left from Caples sent
Ramnarine to the canvas in the second round.
Caples looked the better fighter, mixing up her punches, jabbing to
the head and stomach and dishing out the occasional uppercut and hook.
Ramnarine, on the other hand, wasn't getting anything off.
Caples won the fourth round and looked good landing a left to
Ramnarine's jaw. At that stage, every local supporter was worried, but
Ramnarine had a better round, and might have actually won the fifth.
The sixth saw Caples sticking out the jab and disappearing out of
range. She also landed several lefts flush on Ramnarine's face, but the
round was fairly close. A wicked uppercut tilted Ramnarine's head backwards as Caples
rushed out at the start of the seventh round and proceeded to dominate.
Ramnarine looked to undo the damage by being more aggressive in the
eighth. She threw a few combinations, but Caples again landed the
cleaner punches. Ramnarine landed a solid right to the American's jaw
in the ninth, but Caples delivered good combinations. And by the tenth
round, all but Ramnarine's most loyal fans were silent.
The final round was the best of the fight as the T&T pugilist
mixed it up. Caples, though, landed the cleaner, harder punches and
clearly won the round...not according to two of the judges, who saw it
as a clear loss for the American."
Prescott also reported that "Many in the local boxing fraternity
felt Caples had won by a landslide.
Tansley Thompson, a local boxing promoter, manager of Commonwealth
Games silver medallist Kertson Manswell and former close associate of
ex-WBA light heavyweight champion Leslie
"Tiger" Stewart said that while he is no boxing judge, Ramnarine might not have
won a single round. "If any of my boxers have to win like that, I'd rather lose," Thompson
said. "From what I could see, it was a case of Ria needing a knockout to
win the fight."
Analysis of the scorecard by the Trinidad Express showed that
the judges
who favored Ramnarine also did not credit Caples with a 10-8 round for the knockdown. Match
supervisor Molly Boxhill said Herbert was aware that Ramnarine had hit the
deck, but did not see it as a knockdown, despite the fact that referee Tommy
Thomas sent Caples to her corner and gave Ramnarine a standing eight count.
According
to WIBA President Ryan Wissow "Yvonne absolutely dominated Ria for
the first half of the fight, but Ria kept the pressure on and Yvonne tired a
little, slowed down just enough for Ria to win some rounds down the stretch.
This fight was not the worst robbery I've ever seen, it was a competitive
and entertaining fight. Ria showed me a lot just by her heart and her
conditioning which was excellent. She took a lot of clean shots early on and
kept coming, kept throwing punches. She wasn't as accurate as Yvonne but she
threw more punches, especially in the late rounds, and Ria was the one
coming forward most of the fight which may have also swayed some rounds her
way. Caribbean and South American judges score heavily for aggression."
Controversy had surrounded the staging of the fight from the
outset after Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board president Melchior Taylor refused to allow
it to go on without an all-local panel of judges. Taylor's
decision was backed by members of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board of
Control who felt there were competent judges in the country. WIBA President
Ryan Wissow wrote about the
judging issue: "The Trinidad commission was only
going to allow Trinidad judges to work this title fight. We had to beg
them to let us bring in two neutral judges. The judges were selected by
Molly Boxhill, the WIBA Vice President. The Guyana judge had Yvonne winning
the fight, but the Trinidad judge and Barbados judge had Ria winning. ... I requested that a Trinidad judge named McKenzie
Granger work this fight, but Taylor insisted on ... St Aude ... who scored
it for Ria." On May 31, 2005 Wissow stated that Ramnarine
must face Caples in a rematch or be stripped of the WIBA title. He said he disagreed with the decision
but did not want to make Ramnarine feel she is less than a champion. He made
it clear that the judges' decision was final and Ramnarine had nothing to do
with it. He said he is attempting to arrange the rematch in Las Vegas, and that Ramnarine may have one other fight before facing Caples again.
On July 14, 2006 at Central Regional Indoor Sports Auditorium,
Saith Park, Chaguanas, Trinidad, Ria Ramnarine successfully defended her
WIBA mini-flyweight title with a ten-round unanimous (99-92,98-92,99-91)
decision over Guyana’s Stephanie George. According
to Walter Alibey of Trinidad and Tobago Newsday: "Although she looked
rusty, the effects of the long lay-off, Ramnarine was able to withstand an
aggressive George who came out throwing punches and the aggressor throughout
the fight. Ramnarine said she felt confident after the first round when she
rocked George with a left hook but the Guyanese came back strongly in the
latter part of the round. Ramnarine intelligently and skilfully
devised a plan to dance around her opponent and connect with her punches
since George was content to fight square-on. George’s attacks were countered
with a left or right hook followed by a left or right upper-cut. Midway in
the contest, points were evenly shared with the Guyanese being the aggressor
and Ramnarine tagging her around the ring. The versatile Ramnarine said she
did not really have a game plan. 'All I did was what my coach told me to do
and that was all.'”
According to Ian Prescott of the Trinidad and Tobago Express:
"Although Ramnarine seemed to have clearly won the fight, many of the rounds
were very close. The local fighter seemed to have justifiably gotten the
edge because of her better boxing technique, which allowed her to accumulate
points, while her Guyanese opponent was concentrating on landing one big
knockout punch. The aggressor throughout, George tried several times to
connect with a booming roundhouse right hand to Ramnarine's jaw. Most times,
she missed, but did land one big punch in the third round, which drew
concern from the pro-Ramnarine crowd."
On September
9, 2006 at Bördelandhalle, Magdeburg, Germany
Regina Halmich (111½ lbs) of Karlsruhe, Germany TKO’d Ria (110½ lbs) at
0:54 seconds in the sixth round in a scheduled 10 Main Event for Halmich's
WIBF Flyweight title. Halmich improved to 51-1-1 (16 KO's) with the win.
On March 7,
2009 at Jean Pierre Sports Complex
in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Ria returned to the ring and
TKO'd Nancy Bonilla of Camuy,
Puerto Rico at 0:20 in the eighth round of a scheduled 10-rounder for the
WIBA Junior Flyweight title. Bonilla, who was a late substitute on the card,
fell to 3-6 (1 KO). On July 31, 2009 at
the Indoor Sports Arena in Saith Park, Trinidad and Tobago Ria Ramnarine
(105 lbs) won a ninth-round technical split decision over Ana Fernandez (105
lbs) of Petare, Venezuela in a scheduled ten-rounder
for the WBA Interim and CABOFE Strawweight belts. The fight was stopped
after Ramnarine suffered damage to her eye after a clash of heads in the
ninth round. Ramnarine finished the round but did not come out for the
tenth. According to the referee, the fight was stopped on the advice of the
ring doctor, so it went to the scorecards instead of being declared a TKO
for Fernandez. Ramnarine won the fight by a split decision after two of the
three judges T&T’s George St Aude 87-86 and Guyana’s Eion Jardine 87-85
scored in her favor, while Canada based Trevor Arno scored it for Fernandez
87-85. The decision was seen as very controversial by many of the fans, who
turned out to give support to the hometown Ramnarine but many ringside
observers felt that Fernandez had done more than enough to win the fight.
Fernandez's record fell to 10-4 (7 KO's).
On January 2, 2010 at Central Indoor Regional
Auditorium in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, Ria
Ramnarine (108 lbs) of Trinidad won an eight-round unanimous
(80-72,80-72,79-74) decision over Paulina Cardona (108 lbs) of Barranquilla,
Colombia. According to a fight report received by WBAN, Cardona had
the reach advantage so Ramnarine tried to fight inside. At times, Cardona
caught Ramnarine with the jab while Ramnarine tried to get in but Ramnarine
would score right afterward. Ramnarine seemed to have Cardona in trouble at
times, especially with some very effective body shots. One of the most
lively rounds was in the seventh round when Ramnarine appeared to be almost
chasing the Colombian around the ring and delivering hard punches. After the
fight, Ramnarine said she simply tried to fight by thinking more in the ring
and was satisfied with her performance, although she knows that there are
areas she needs to work on, as there is always room for improvement.
Ramnarine described Cardona as a game and somewhat awkward fighter.
Cardona dropped to 14-7-4 (6 KOs).
On April 24 2010 at Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, Ria Ramnarine (104 lbs)
fought to a majority draw with Etsuko Tada (102 lbs) of Kyoyo, Japan for the
WBA Straw and Interim WIBA Straw-weight titles. Ian Prescott
reported for the Trinidad and Tobago Express that "Ramnarine put up a
gutsy performance in her mandatory challenge for Tada’s (WBA) title,
fighting to a majority decision draw, which allowed the 28-year-old Tada to
retain her belt. However, Ramnarine put up her best performance in a local
ring, and went a long way towards erasing memories of the farce last July
which saw her awarded a controversial victory over Venezuelan Ana Fernandez
... Tada countered effectively and landed the more effective punches for the
opening three rounds. But although missing a lot of punches early on,
Ramnarine finally got going when she landed a good counter right-hook in the
fourth round. Afterwards, there was an ebb and flow to the rest of the
fight, but the one consistency was that champion Tada aggressively ’walked
down’ her challenger. Two of the neutral officials provided by the WBA for
Saturday’s bout, David Singh (Panama) and Harold Laurel (Curacao), scored
the fight as a 95-95 draw, while Puerto Rico’s Raul Nieves gave a lop-sided
97-93 decision in Ramnarine’s favour. And distraught that the decision had
not gone her way, Ramnarine immediately left the venue without giving
interviews."
’It was a bit harder than I expected,’ Tada
said through a Japanese interpreter. The Japanese champion also felt the
decision was ’a fair one’ and was willing to fight a rematch, if Ramnarine
was interested. ’This could have gone either way,’
said 2008 Olympic Boxing Referee Trinidadian James Beckles. ’It was a
really close fight. It was a very good bout....one of the better ones we
have seen here. When Ria moved forward, she scored. But, she was backing up
a bit too much. She fought a wonderful fight, the only flaw I saw was that
she was backing up too much.’
Ramnarine, who had prepared for the bout by training at Bonnie Canino's gym
in Florida, moved her record to 13-4-1 (2 KOs) while Tada
moved to
6-0-2 (2 KOs). Ramnarine trains under the guidance of Bharath Ramoutar and Darren Vidale.
“They are both great coaches and they work very well together. What one might forget or doesn’t think of, the other definitely remembers, they are like two peas in a pod!”
says Ramnarine.
Vidale had seen Ramnarine during a kick-boxing fight and recognized that she had a lot of boxing potential.
He instinctively saw that she was a dedicated and determined person. Ramnarine said,
"At first I thought he was just another guy who just 'talked’ boxing'---- But Ramoutar always wants what’s best for his fighters and he knew that Vidale was good so he allowed him to work with me."
As
Ramnarine is the only professional boxer in the gym, she does a lot of one-on-one sessions with her coaches but
she also trains and spars with the other fighters.
During her years of training, Ramnarine furthered her education and aced her exams. Ramnarine said that
the combination of training, studying and working was stressful and tiring but also beneficial.
"Sometimes I would be so tired, I’d fall asleep in taxis or take a 15 or 20 minutes nap just before class started…”
she says.
Ramnarine also became a certified Process Plant Operator, and started to work in the industry
at National Flour Mills Ltd. She was the first and only female operator in her department, and through hard work and determination, she worked her way up. Ramnarine left the company just two months before becoming a full plant operator,
so she could concentrate more of her time in training.
She manages Fine Line and is also a private academic tutor for kids. “This way I get to train twice a day! Eventually though I’d like to get back in the industrial line of work and also earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering."
 Ramnarine told WBAN, "I’ve fought the good, the bad and the dirty (yeah one particular fighter did some biting, butting and used the laces of her untaped glove to make lacerations behind my neck). I’ve been in there with world champions. I’ve won, lost and drawn some, taken some solid knocks and gave a lot of my own. I know what it is like on each end. Everything that has happened has contributed to making me the fighter I am today. And be it some months, a year or two years from now, I will achieve my goal of becoming a World Champion."
To contact Ramnarine's team:
Email: kick1o1@yahoo.com or quietriot78@hotmail.com
Coach: Bharath Ramoutar -(868) 671 9952
Darren Vidale -(868) 672 7081 ext 5067
Manager: Bharath Ramoutar
To check out fight reports, complete up-to-date boxing records, with huge digital photos you can go to
the WBAN Records Member Site
Page last updated:
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 |
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