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Fight for your right Harding still plans to pursue professional boxing careerPosted: Monday February 17, 2003 5:54 PMUpdated: Tuesday February 18, 2003 12:32 AM TUNICA, Miss. (AP) -- Former figure skater Tonya Harding vowed Monday to press on with a boxing career before her first professional fight was canceled later in the day. Harding's first fight, a scheduled warm up Saturday for a heavyweight match in Memphis, Tenn., between Mike Tyson and Clifford Etienne, was dropped when Tyson backed out of his fight late Monday. Harding's skating career ended in 1994 after she was linked to an assault plot to keep rival Nancy Kerrigan out of the Olympics. The plot failed, even though Kerrigan was clubbed on a knee. Harding admitted hindering the attack investigation. Now, at 32, she hopes to start a new career as a professional boxer. "I've been trying to turn my image around to be a lady, but you know what, I can still be a lady and be a great athlete, too," she said. At 5-foot-1, Harding expects to fight at 120 pounds, 15 pounds more than her skating weight. "I've gained a little weight but mostly in muscle," she said. Harding said boxing does not carry the backstage hassles she endured with figure skating. "It doesn't matter what I look like, what I wear, how much money I have, who I know. It's all about who is the better athlete in the ring," she said. Harding was scheduled to fight Samantha Browning, 21, a first-time fighter from Mantachie, Miss. "I'm in the best shape of my life today, even more so than when I was skating," Harding said. "I feel good about myself. I feel very confident. I am very ready to step in the ring with this girl." Harding said she decided to pursue a boxing career after a fight on Fox TV's Celebrity Boxing last year with Paula Jones, one of President Clinton's accusers of sexual misconduct. Harding said she contacted Prize Fight Boxing and now has a four-year promotions contract with the Nashville company. Prize Fight helped stage the June bout in Memphis in which Lennox Lewis gave Tyson a sound beating. The company is also promoting the fights scheduled for Saturday. Russ Young, a Prize Fight partner, said matches are expected for Harding at a Biloxi, Miss., casino March 15 and in Oklahoma around the end of March. Since the Kerrigan scandal, Harding has been convicted of assaulting a boyfriend with a hubcap and been sent to jail for drunken driving. Browning, 5-foot-5, 122 pounds, also has a bit of a rowdy reputation, for drinking and barroom fights.
"She's kind of short like me and built like me and has an attitude like I used to," Harding said. "Sometimes I used to just kind of say what was on my mind rather than thinking about what I had to say first."
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