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Interview: Sarah Thomas on Getting Punched, Staying Healthy, and the Future of Women in Boxing

Sarah Thomas is boxer from Bethpage, New York, fighting out of Academy of Boxing in Huntington, New York. She began her combat career as a kickboxer, with an undefeated record. During her amateur career, she won the Ringmasters (formally Golden Gloves) tournament. Her professional boxing debut was delayed due to COVID-19. As a sports science graduate student who also trains younger boxers, she’s managed to keep busy in the meantime, even as much of her day-to-day has shifted online. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about how she discovered boxing, the importance of mental health, and what it’s like competing in a male-dominated sport.

What originally led you to boxing as a sport? 

I’ve always been more aggressive in sports. I actually played lacrosse in high school, but I would get kicked out of every game. I didn’t really actually know how to play lacrosse, to be honest, but I was just athletic, so my friends were like, “Yeah, join.” I just got in trouble every single game, because I was just charging directly at people. I was just the worst lacrosse player ever. And then I liked the idea that boxing was an individual sport. In an individual sport like boxing, I couldn’t blame anyone else. I liked that a lot.

I didn’t actually start until I was 20 though, and I’m 30 now. I first competed in kickboxing, but then my coach left. He told me he was in the FBI and that he was getting re-stationed. I didn’t even know he was in the FBI. So after he disappeared, I went to another gym, and I was dabbling with MMA for a little, but I realized I liked the boxing aspect the most out of all of it, so I decided to just stick with boxing. I like kickboxing, but I don’t actually like getting kicked. With boxing, I can focus on one thing, and I like practicing the same thing over and over, which I feel like a lot of people don’t like. I like the idea of, “I’m going to do the same thing a thousand times so I get good at it.”

How did you first realize you had a talent for combat sports? 

I took kickboxing just to try it out and as a workout. I went to the gym, took one class, and was like “All right, I really want to fight.” The coach wouldn’t train me because he had never trained a girl, like all those movies, and then finally he decided he would.

20 seems late. At what age do women usually start their professional careers?

Usually it seems that women start later in life. Really, you can turn professional whenever you feel ready, but the licensing to become a pro varies by state. So you just have to be able to pass the medicals and everything, and then you have to find a promoter who wants you. You have to find someone who likes you, and as a woman, you just have to be marketable. I have noticed that with women’s combat sports, what you look like goes a long way, as sad as that is. It’s like you either have to look good or just be so good that you’re almost some freak.

I wanted to ask you, what is it like being a female in what many would consider to be a male-dominated sport? 

I feel like it was harder in the beginning of all of it, and now there’s a lot more girls than there were before. I feel like every year continuously gets easier and there’s more acceptance. At first, it was really hard for me to find fights. I couldn’t just turn professional without having enough experience. But then the people who were amateur, they were few and far between, and they wouldn’t compete against me. I couldn’t gain experience to get better because I couldn’t really get matched up, so it was hard in the beginning with that.

With boxing, actually, in the ’90s it was really popular for women. That was during the time of Laila Ali. And even before then, it was popular for a little while, and then it fell off. It resurged again recently because it was allowed to be in the 2012 Olympics.

How would you describe the popularity of the sport now?

I think Ronda Rousey, even though she’s MMA, really helped make women’s combat sports more popular. And then also Claressa Shields won the Olympic gold in 2012 when women were allowed in the Olympics, and she won it in 2016. I think she brought the popularity back, and there’s been a few other girls who have made women’s boxing popular again. Now women are actually getting paid. I was actually going to have my professional debut on May 8th, but that didn’t happen because of COVID.

Do you have Olympic aspirations?

I had thought about it at one point, but the weight class I was competing at wasn’t in the Olympics. I sort of just wanted to go pro because I had kickboxed for a while, and when I made the decision to just focus on boxing, I had enough combat sport experience where I wanted to just be a professional rather than spend a lot of time as an amateur. And once you’re professional, you can’t compete in the Olympics.

Can you talk a little bit about how you manage to stay in shape, stay healthy and stay motivated while participating in such a punishing sport?

There used to be times when I would do three-a-days, which is so stupid, but I thought that more was better. I actually train less now, and I feel stronger now than I did, which is weird. I think I was over-trained for a long, long time. So now that I’m older and I train less and eat whatever I want, I actually feel stronger. I actually eat pretty clean, but I don’t count with macros and I don’t count calories or any of that. I honestly just eat whenever I feel like I want to. So if my body is like, “All right, I’m hungry,” I’ll eat. And I don’t do it according to a science or anything, I just try to stay healthy.

I’m sure there’s going to be a point where I feel like I’m getting weaker than I was, and I guess that’s when I’ll know that I’m on the downswing, but I feel like I’m still getting stronger, so for now I’m good. And I notice that with women in fight sports, it seems like a lot of them are older. There’s some girls that are still pros that are in their forties. It’s kind of crazy. I think it’s one of those sports where you can be older as a female.

How important is mental health to you in boxing? 

I’ve had anxiety and OCD since I was really little. The first time I ever noticed that I had OCD, I was eight. It’s a really weird thing to understand. I don’t know how to describe it, but basically it’s like an extreme form of anxiety where you feel like you have to do certain rituals to overcome bad things. Your brain tries to cope with the anxiety through some sort of action, and then you can also have thoughts and the thoughts can keep you up. It’s basically anxiety on steroids, and yeah, I’ve dealt with that since I was little. I always felt from a young age the only time I wouldn’t really notice a symptom of that would be when I was playing sports. So when I played soccer I would never notice that, because I’d be so in the moment that I wouldn’t be able to worry about anything else besides that moment, and boxing’s very much like that. Your head really can’t be anywhere else, because you’re so worried about defending yourself and throwing punches that you’re not thinking about whether you paid your credit card bill or something that gives you anxiety. It’s helped a lot. Honestly, it’s like my version of a drug. If I hadn’t found sports, I don’t really know where I would be. It helps me tremendously in coping with my anxiety. And I’m very open to talk about all of that, because anytime I say, “I have anxiety,” almost everyone that I say it to is like, “Me too.”

I imagine a lot of athletes view sports in a similar way. I have to ask, have you ever had any terrible injuries from boxing?

So in kickboxing, I actually broke my foot, but I didn’t know I broke my foot until after because of the adrenaline. I thought I broke my toe, and then after my fights I saw that my bone was sticking through my skin. I had to have surgery, because that kind of break doesn’t just heal on its own. And then I’ve broken my nose, but it wasn’t from getting hit. A girl accidentally headbutted me. That was not fun. And then besides that, surprisingly, not really.

I’ll have minor things, like maybe my wrist will hurt for a week and I’ll just rest it, or my knees would hurt for a week from running a lot, but then I just rest them. Nothing serious. I’m sure if I got an MRI of my entire body it wouldn’t be pretty though. I have disc issues too. I feel like that is from ten years of combat sports, but I don’t know. Nothing that gives me a lot of pain or anything.

Speaking more generally, how do you recover from a typical fight? 

I stopped doing this, but what I used to do is I would cut too much weight, and then I would compete, and then after the competition I would eat everything in sight and just drink lots of Gatorade and lay in my bed for two days and that was it. I mean, I’ve never really had any crazy recovery, but I actually changed weight classes because one time, two fights ago, I cut too much weight and I had to get IV fluid after, and then that’s when I finally was like, “All right, I’m getting older. My body’s not going to allow me to continuously drop this weight, so I’m just going to move up in weight and feel better and not have to worry about weight cutting anymore.”

Do you have any favorite memories or fights from your career that stand out?

I won Golden Gloves, which was fun. I think that was my favorite. I actually got no sleep the night before, and I had just broken up with this guy I was dating, and it was a really crappy time in my life. But I was just like, “Screw this, I’m winning.” And I won the whole tournament, and did it on no sleep. I felt like it was all in my brain mentally because I wasn’t even able to train the way I wanted to, but I just convinced myself that I was going to win, and it gave me confidence.

Looking ahead, what do you see for yourself in terms of moving forward in your professional career? Do you see yourself competing for a long time?

Honestly, I can’t really pick an end date, but I feel like I would just do it until I felt like my body wasn’t right. If I ever took like a head injury, I would leave too. I’ve never been knocked out or anything, and I think that’s something that would stop me. Because I don’t want to have brain damage.

Indiana Fever Shoots for Redemption Against Seattle Storm

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark waits for an inbound pass during a 2025 WNBA game.
The Fever are looking to end a two-game losing streak. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The WNBA is back in action on Tuesday night, as the Indiana Fever and Seattle Storm headline a series of games that could make or break the current trajectories of several 2025 title contenders.

Seeking an especially strong Tuesday performance is the Fever, as Indiana tries to snap a two-game losing streak against the increasingly confident Storm.

"There are going to be stretches that are really good and there's going to be stretches that aren't as good," Fever guard Caitlin Clark said on Sunday, addressing her recent shooting slump.

While the Indiana and Seattle clash will lead the Tuesday charge, the night will also see young squads sizing up WNBA juggernauts as bottom-table teams look for a leg up:

  • No. 8 Indiana Fever vs. No. 5 Seattle Storm, 10 PM ET (NBA TV): The Fever need a win against a Storm side that can't seem to lose, as both teams eye the postseason.
  • No. 1 Minnesota Lynx vs. No. 9 Washington Mystics, 8 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The up-and-coming Mystics will attempt to hand the Lynx a second season loss, as Minnesota star Napheesa Collier remains day-to-day with lower back stiffness.
  • No. 4 Atlanta Dream vs. No. 12 Dallas Wings, 8 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The Dream are on a tear, surging up the standings as the struggling Wings attempt to take flight.
  • No. 10 LA Sparks vs. No. 11 Chicago Sky, 8 PM ET (NBA TV): The Sparks have cooled after a hot start while the Sky has yet to rev up, with both teams aiming to end a three-game losing streak on Tuesday night.

Teams across the league are hoping to make the most of every minute while also managing injury concerns and absences as the WNBA All-Star break looms.

WNBA Rookie of the Year Odds Shift as 2025 Draft Picks Heat Up

Washington Mystics rookie Sonia Citron guards Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers during a 2025 WNBA game.
Washington rookie Sonia Citron and first-year Dallas star Paige Bueckers are both off to hot starts in their WNBA careers. (Stephen Goslings/NBAE via Getty Images)

The WNBA Class of 2025 is already making its mark on the league, with first-year players stepping up and showing out while the Rookie of the Year race — and betting odds — heat up.

No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers has been just as good as advertised, with the Dallas Wings guard leading her class in both minutes played and points per game while also charting league-wide in assists per game, steals per game, and mid-range shots made.

DraftKings currently has Bueckers as the clear WNBA Rookie of the Year race frontrunner at -1,000, though the dynamic DC duo of guard Sonia Citron (+1,500) and forward Kiki Iriafen (+1,000) are quickly gaining traction.

Iriafen won May's WNBA Rookie of the Month award after a series of career-opening double-doubles, while her Washington Mystics teammate Citron has continued to execute in the clutch — most recently posting a career-high double-double performance of 27 points and 11 rebounds in last Sunday's 91-88 overtime win over Dallas.

"Not only is [Iriafen] holding her own, she's excelling," Citron told JWS earlier this month. "And seeing that is just incredible."

"Soni just does all the little things," Iriafen added. "She doesn't shortcut anything, she's doing the fundamentals, she doesn't cheat the game at all."

International Signings Ramp Up as Soccer Teams Break for Women’s Euro 2025

San Diego Wave forward María Sánchez dribbles the ball during a 2025 NWSL match.
San Diego forward María Sánchez is transferring to Liga MX side UANL Tigres. (John Matthew Harrison/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Though the NWSL hit the pause button this week, players worldwide are still on the move, as both European and US soccer teams use the midseason break to sharpen their lineups with international signings.

The NWSL has already seen one major departure, with the San Diego Wave announcing Monday that forward María Sánchez will return to her former Liga MX club UANL Tigres after nearly five years in the NWSL, with the Wave set to receive an undisclosed transfer fee in return.

"When the opportunity came to return to Tigres, I had to do a lot of inner searching, and I ultimately decided that returning to Liga MX Femenil and Tigres specifically was the best course of action for my career," the 29-year-old dual citizen and Mexico international player said in the Wave's release.

NWSL clubs are also setting their sights on European free agents, with the Washington Spirit bringing in Juventus forward Sofia Cantore last week — the first Italian signing in league history.

Also hopping aboard the player transaction carousel is new WSL side London City, with the top-flight debutantes inking OL Lyonnes midfielder and Dutch international Daniëlle van de Donk on Friday.

Meanwhile, van de Donk's wife and club teammate Ellie Carpenter is also potentially WSL-bound, with the defender reportedly nearing a deal that would see the Australian join Chelsea FC in return for the Blues sending Canadian international Ashley Lawrence to OL Lyonnes.

For their part, OL Lyonnes picked up defender Ingrid Engen from Barcelona as a free agent last week, adding the Norwegian international after snagging French forward and PSG's all-time leading scorer Marie-Antoinette Katoto earlier this month.

With the most recent NWSL CBA abolishing traditional trade windows, expect even more international signings and roster reshufflings before the league resumes play on August 1st.

San Diego Wave Honors Alex Morgan with Jersey Retirement

San Diego Wave players applaud Alex Morgan as she exits the pitch during her final NWSL game in 2024.
Morgan won the NWSL Shield with San Diego in 2023. (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

San Diego is paying tribute to one of their own, with the Wave announcing plans to retire the No. 13 jersey of NWSL and USWNT legend Alex Morgan on September 7th.

Still topping the team's all-time scoring leaderboard with 23 goals in just over two seasons with San Diego, the retired club captain will be the first-ever Wave player to receive the prestigious honor.

Morgan also led San Diego to the 2023 NWSL Shield as well as postseason appearances in the 2022 expansion club's first two seasons.

"Alex's legacy goes far beyond goals and accolades. She helped lay the foundation for this club and elevated the standard for what women's soccer is today," said Wave FC governor Lauren Leichtman in the team's Tuesday announcement.

"She made this city her home, inspired our fans and community, and helped define who we are," Leichtman continued. "Her impact will be felt for generations, and it's only fitting that her number becomes a permanent part of Wave FC history." 

Morgan joined the Southern California squad's ownership group just last month, saying "San Diego is where I've built my home, where I am raising my children, and found a purpose beyond my playing career."

How to attend the San Diego jersey retirement of Alex Morgan

San Diego will officially retire Morgan's No. 13 jersey during their home match against the Houston Dash at 8 PM ET on September 7th.

Tickets to the game will go on sale to the general public online at 6 PM ET on Tuesday.

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