Career
Joenette Giselle Ife Salandy was born on 25 January 1987, in Fyzabad, South of Trinidad and Tobago. At age 11, her mother Maureen died. She then stayed with Ivy Corian who took care of her till she was fourteen. She attended St. Bridgid's Girls' RC School, Penal Junior Secondary School and then Fyzabad Composite School.
At the age of eleven years, nursing a broken arm, Jizelle visited the White Eagle Gym with her step brother Joel Eligon and started punching a punching bag. She was immediately recognized by the trainers in the gym, Kim Quashie and Fitzroy Richards. Jizelle thereafter got involved in the sport. She made her professional debut at thirteen years, under coach/manager, Fitzroy Richards. She pickedup a series of six victory fights throughout Trinidad and Tobago and the islands of Tortola, Anguilla, with opponents such as Johanna Peña-Álvarez and Ria Ramnarine.
On October 2001, Salandy fought and defeated Paola Rojas becoming the youngest person to win a boxing title, WIBA IBERO Title, at the age of fourteen years.
After six fights under coach/manager, Fitzroy Richards, Salandy changed manager to her adopted father, Curtis Joseph and trainer to Joseph "Black Mamba Charles, a former boxer. Thereafter she could not have boxed because the law of Trinidad and Tobago stated a person under the age of seventeen cannot obtain a professional boxing license, thus causing her boxing career to come to a halt.
However, five days into her seventeenth birthday Jizelle returned to the ring in Chaguanas and successfully defended her IBERO Title against Paola Rojas on a card co-promoted by Curtis Joseph, Boxu Potts and Cecil Forde; after that fight her manager, Curtis Joseph, failed to secure fights for her causing her boxing career to come to a halt again. Boxu Potts privately contacted her about a show he was promoting. Salandy then pressured Curtis Joseph into allowing her to represent her country by fighting on Potts' T&T vs. US boxing card.
At the age of eighteen years, on 23 September 2005 on the said T&T vs. US boxing card, promoted by Boxu Potts, Salandy fought and defeated Manela Daniels breaking a second world record by becoming the youngest female in the world to win the NABC World Title. However again manager, Curtis Joseph, was unable to secure fights for Jizelle. Salandy became frustrated and it was at that stage she broke off her work relationship with Curtis Joseph.
Shortly after, Salandy and Kim Quashie contacted Boxu Potts to take over her career. Jizelle fought Manela Daniels at the Petrotrin Grounds in Fyzabad, a fight she had previously booked, which was promoted by Arthur Sanderson. Salandy then signed a promotional contract with Potts and left her Fyzabad home and went to live with Potts and his family at their Arima home.
On 9 December 2006 she became the first person to win six world title belts in one fight. Salandy was awarded Top History Making Fighter of the year 2006 by WBAN; awarded First Citizen Sports Woman of the year 2006 by The First Citizen Sports Foundation in Trinidad and Tobago and was also presented with the Chaconia Gold Medal by the President of Trinidad and Tobago for her achievement in boxing. This award is the highest award in Trinidad and Tobago.
Salandy successfully defended her six world titles against Yvonne Reis on 24 March 2007.
On 15 March 2008 a super middleweight boxer by the name of Natascha Ragosina broke Salandy's record by winning seven belts in one fight. However only two weeks later at the Centre of Excellence in Trinidad and Tobago, Salandy fought and defeated the then unbeaten Karolina Lukasik in her mandatory defense, regaining her world record by winning eight title belts in one fight. These title belts were: WBC, WBA, WBE, WIBA, IWBF, WIBF, GBU and UBC.
Again on 26 December 2008, Salandy fought and defeated the fourth ranked Yahaira Hernandez, securing her eight title belts and breaking a Caribbean record by being the first boxer in the history of the Caribbean to successfully defend all her world titles six consecutive times.
On 31 August 2009 Salandy was awarded posthumously Trinidad's highest national award, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Salandy was the first boxer in the history of the Caribbean to ever receive such an award.
Read more about this topic: Giselle Salandy
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)