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Don’t call 2024 a comeback year for Louisa Hawton. As far as the Aussie standout is concerned, she never left.
Of course, a little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way, but when the stars aligned for her to make her first appearance in a ring in nearly five years in April, it was a continuation, not a fresh start.
“COVID slowed my whole boxing career down, so I never really was done, but I guess Australia had some really harsh lockdowns and, in particular, Perth, so that just slowed everything up for me,” said Hawton, who stopped Arisara Wisetwongsa in less than two minutes in April.
The return saw the former two-division titlist in prime form at 39, and while she wasn’t fighting someone expected to give her trouble, she did what you do when you’re a championship-level fighter taking on someone who doesn’t reside in that neighborhood. In short, she didn’t look like someone coming back from a long layoff, proving that while she wasn’t in the ring, she wasn’t idle, either.
“During that time, I had a lot of opportunities come to me,” she said. “I started my business called Champion Ways, which is running programs for at-risk youth. It’s like a wellness program, with mindset coaching, boxing training and mindfulness. And then I had the opportunity to go on a reality TV show climbing a mountain, called ‘The Summit.’ I thought that was a great way to be able to challenge myself physically while boxing was kind of slow at that time. So I did that, took that opportunity, and then my son decided that he wanted to box, so I started training him and got him in a good place and then it was time for me to come back.”
Lawton won the reality show, which involved some real-life danger en route to the title. But for the fighter and skateboarder (yes, she still gets on the board, these days to teach her daughter), it was the type of rush she’s chased her entire life.
“I had the greatest time,” she said. “Every day we did challenges – I got to hang from a rope from a helicopter over this amazing, beautiful glacier in New Zealand. The challenges were adrenaline-fueled challenges, but I absolutely loved it.”
But now the focus is back on boxing. On Sept. 7, she’ll face Viviana Ruiz Corredor at HBF Arena in Joondalup, and her goals following that bout, should all go well, are clear and ambitious.
“I’m chasing those big fights,” Hawton said. “Seniesa Estrada is the undisputed at minimumweight, and I’ve always been interested in that fight throughout my career and thought that would be a great fight for us to have one day, especially for the fans. And Yokasta Valle is a great fight at minimumweight, too.”
Well, it’s pretty obvious that Hawton isn’t interested in paydays but glory, and some belts that she can put next to the WBO junior flyweight and interim WBC atomweight belts in her possession. And when she talks about the 105-pound weight class, she’s been paying attention to what’s been going on in her absence, and she wants to throw herself in that mix.
“I never felt like I was completely done,” she said. “It just was challenging from the other side of the world. But then I had my elite performance coach that I’m working with now, Shireen [Dindar], and when we reconnected, she’s like, ‘You’re not done yet; women peak later in life.’ And I’m like, yeah, I’m not done. She’s pretty much a big part of this journey coming back up to the top. She always says, ‘I’ll move the mountains, you climb the mountains.’ OK, I can do that. I climbed a mountain physically already and won that, so I can definitely do that. Let’s move these mountains then.”
At 39 years old and 105 pounds, Hawton faces some sizable mountains to push around if she wants to hit her marks in this next chapter of her career. She may have to return to the United States to chase down those big fights, which isn’t an issue for “Bang Bang Lulu,” who has fought five times in the States and recently returned from a trip there, where she trained with Derrick Harmon.
“It is challenging,” Hawton admitted. “I think there’s a few that stay away from me. I know that [manager] Tony [Tolj] has found it challenging to match me sometimes, and I think being down this side of the world is more challenging. America is where all the entertainment is, and when I was skateboarding, it’s the place that I wanted to be for my skateboarding career, and for boxing, it’s where you want to be, so you do feel like you’re on the other side of the world. I think the culture of boxing in America is richer, and everybody takes it seriously. There’s a career in it, whereas down in Australia, it’s probably seen a little bit more as a hobby, and the gyms don’t function the way that the gyms function in the States. So it’s different. I think about it as I’m a girl from Perth. Not only are we one of the most isolated cities in the world, but I box in one of the smallest weights there is, and I’m a female. And winning world titles and fighting on that level is a pretty big thing for just a small-town girl from Perth.”
It is, but this small-town girl from Perth isn’t done yet.
“I feel like I’ve got unfinished business,” she said. “The platform that this creates for women’s boxing and to be an inspiration, a tangible inspiration for the youth that are up and coming, that’s a big cause for me. I realized that being an athlete, there’s more to give in the acts of service in other ways. So while I chase these big fights for my own unfinished business, I think that it gives in a greater way to everybody else, as well.”
Thomas Gerbasi is currently a senior writer for BoxingScene.com, Women’s Boxing columnist for The Ring magazine, a contributor to Boxing News (UK) magazine, and a member of the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 in the non-participant wing. An award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, Gerbasi is also the author of five books. His amateur boxing record was 0-1.