Twenty years after her final fight in 2001, Kathy Collins has an announcement to make.

She’s retired.

“I didn't know that I really needed to make a formal announcement that I've retired,” laughs Collins. “I think everybody has kinda figured that out at this point.”

So, we have an exclusive, then?

“Twenty years later, you can announce the retirement.”

It’s a valid question, given all the comebacks these days and even the reality that one of Collins’ opponents, Olivia Gerula, is still an active boxer. But no, the 50-year-old Long Islander has fought her last fight, and she’s just fine with that, having completed a six-year pro career (1995-2001) that saw her win IFBA, IWBF and WIBA world titles en route to a 14-2-4 (3 KOs) record. 

And though she never fought in Las Vegas, she is expected to be in The Fight Capital of the World on Saturday to be inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021.

“It always feels good to get recognized for what you've done,” said Collins. “Now that I'm older, we're talking 24 years after I won my first title, I do believe it's important to leave a legacy. We get one life, one shot at this thing; make it mean something. I didn't do boxing to leave a legacy, but I'm glad that I have and I'm glad that my kids will get to talk to their kids about it long after I'm gone. It's a great thing. I always felt confident that I did the best that I could do when I fought. I gave my all. I never gave up, even when I wanted to sometimes. I hung in there and I always gave my best.”

Collins was also a pioneering force for women’s boxing at a time when it wasn’t exactly received the way it is now. There were no spots on an Olympic team for women, no television deals, and very little mainstream coverage. The casual fan might look at a 14-2-4 record, compare it to men in the hall of fame and wonder how this happened. It’s easy. Back in Collins’ day, you didn’t get to “build” a career.

“There weren't enough women to pick and choose,” she laughs.

“History is in its context,” said Malissa Smith, a women’s boxing historian, the author of the sport’s bible, A History of Women’s Boxing, and a member of the IWBHF board. “You cannot be in 2021 and try to understand what was happening and examine women's boxing in 1978. It's impossible. You have to understand the context of 1978. Women had just finished burning their bras. This was the era of legal cases up and down this country for equal rights for women. And what I try to teach people is that it was all about being able to earn a living. It always gets back to that. The fact that these women said, ‘You know what, I can do this and it's my right to do it, no one can tell me I can't,’ and just got in the ring, that's extraordinary.”

Collins took up the sport in 1994 just to stay in shape, unaware of the history of women’s boxing or the obstacles participants had to get through just to make it to the ring.

“It's crazy because when I started in '94, I just had no idea about the history of the sport,” Collins said. “I had no clue. I just knew I wanted to fight and that was it. I didn't realize women weren't boxing yet, I didn't realize that it wasn't a thing that we were supposed to do or allowed to do. I had no idea. I just thought it looked like a great workout and something that would be done.”

Nine months after she walked into the gym for the first time, Kathleen Collins was part of the first class of women to fight in the New York Golden Gloves. She lost in the finals to Denise Lutrick on April 7, 1995, but her path was set…at least for the time being.

“It was just the challenge of it,” she said. “Can I do it? How well can I do it? How far can this go? Honestly, that was my whole career (Laughs) Let's see where this goes, and it just kept going, so I kept going.”

Soon, the fights and the wins started piling up. In her third pro fight, Collins fought Andrea DeShong, best known for handing Christy Martin her first pro loss in 1989. Collins won a unanimous decision in Madison Square Garden’s Theater.

Less than a year later, Collins fought another member of the Class of 2021, Dora Webber. Twice. Within six days. And after battling to a pair of draws, Collins had some words for Webber.

“I fought her and saw things that I never knew women even did,” she laughs. “I said, ‘Okay, you and I need to become friends because I need to know what you know and you're gonna teach me.’ And from that day on, she and I actually did become friends. And I can't tell you how many title fights she helped me train for. She was in camp, number one sparring partner, and mentoring and teaching me.”

As Collins progressed through the ranks, she added world titles and became a favorite not just on the New York fight scene, but beyond that thanks to documentaries that aired on A&E and the Discovery Channel. So it was no surprise that by 2001, the biggest fight in the sport was between Collins and Martin. And what better place to do it in than MSG on the undercard of the Felix Trinidad-William Joppy fight on May 12, 2001.

It was a competitive fight throughout, but when it was over, Martin edged Collins via majority decision. It was expected that the fight would open more doors to more big fights for the “Wildcat,” but it didn’t.

“I couldn't get a fight after the Martin fight,” Collins said. “Nobody really wanted to fight me. The fight between Christy and I was a good fight. I gave her a lot of respect in the early rounds and I came on pretty strong in the back half of the fight. At that point, I was a headliner, Christy was a headliner, and we were the only two really making money at the time. So in order for anyone to fight me, they wanted to be paid through the nose, and there was nobody up and coming that was willing to fight me.”

Not happy about that turn of events, but not dwelling on it, either, Collins went on with her life. Then the phone rang with an offer to fight Lucia Rijker in December 2004. She was in.

“We had our side of the contract and we had it signed,” she recalls. “We were just waiting on the other side to sign and we didn't know if they actually got the offer or if it was just talk. You never really knew with women's boxing back then what was really happening, but we said yes, we'll take it.”

Crickets…

After hearing nothing back for a while, Collins’ husband / manager Frankie Globuschutz was about to put on the full court press to get the fight done.

“I'm gonna put pressure on them and find out what's going on with the other side,” said Globuschutz.

“Don't push too hard,” said Collins. “We may have reason to wait.”

In the second week of November, the couple found out that they were having a baby.

“I never did announce an official retirement because even once I got pregnant, I wasn't sure exactly what I would do,” said Collins. “I figured I'd take it one step at a time. I still had the gym and I was still there.”

When their daughter was two years old, Collins began training again. She figured she had one fight left in her, “For old times’ sake.” 

“I ended up pregnant a second time,” she laughs. “Okay, God's will, this is it, I'm done.”

She hasn’t looked back since, but this weekend, she gets her chance to as the tight-knit women’s boxing community gets to celebrate their own and forget the COVID-19 pandemic and everything else going on in the world, at least for one night.

“This is a really lovely social event, too,” said Smith. “When we were in California two years ago, it was just nice to be in the community. And it's not just the boxers, but also the trainers and coaches and officials and press. (IWBHF founder and president) Sue Fox has created a very broad and inclusive community that's dedicated to really fostering the sport of women in boxing. So even if we end up seeing a little bit of falloff in terms of the number of inductees who are able to make it to Las Vegas, those who are there and the folks who are planning on coming will really have a lovely opportunity to celebrate the sport. And I think that's just as important as honoring our sisters and brothers in boxing.”

And for the first time in a long time, a fighter will get to hear…KATHY “WILDCAT” COLLINS introduced to a packed house. 

“She took no prisoners in the ring and she was very contained within herself,” said Smith of Collins. “She knew what she wanted to do and she went out and she did it. And she didn't care who liked her, who didn't like her. She never got into the politics of the sport. She just did the work. And she had a team around her that really believed in her and kept supporting her and getting her the opportunities. She's someone really worthy of appreciating because she pushed the envelope and was workmanlike in her approach to boxing, so she's an important figure. And she's an important figure for New York. She paved the way for fighters like Heather Hardy and Maureen Shea.”

THE IWBHF CLASS OF 2020

Sharon Anyos 

Lisa Brown 

Kelsey Jeffries 

Michele Aboro 

Melinda Cooper 

Valerie Mahfood 

Mary Ortega 

Isra Girgrah 

Jaime Clampitt 

Mary Ann Owen 

Shelley Williams 

Graciela Casillas 

THE IWBHF CLASS OF 2021

Alicia Ashley 

Kathy Collins 

Gina Guidi 

Bonnie Mann 

Anne Sophie Mathis 

Ina Menzer 

Natascha Ragosina 

Marischa Sjauw 

Dora Webber 

Roy Englebrecht 

Carole Steindler 

Jo Wyman 

For tickets, please visit www.iwbhf.com