Ring Masters<\/a>, a National Golden Gloves Qualifier which has become the top amateur tournament in the northeast. The amateur pipeline that produced Patterson, Robinson, Tyson, Breland, and every fighter on this page exists today because Metro listened to their athletes and brought it back to MSG.<\/p>\nHeather Hardy<\/p>\n
Hardy came out of Brooklyn and trained at Gleason\u2019s Gym, where she developed through the amateur ranks and won a Golden Gloves title. As an amateur she was known for her technical skill and relentless pace, qualities that translated directly to her professional career. Hardy won the WBO featherweight title and compiled a professional record of 24-3. She is one of the most recognizable female fighters to come through the New York City amateur system.<\/p>\n
Ronica Jeffrey<\/p>\n
Jeffrey is a three-time New York Golden Gloves champion from Brooklyn who turned professional in 2008 because the Olympics did not yet include women\u2019s boxing. She won five world title belts, including the IWBF World Super Featherweight championship, and compiled a professional record of 17-1-1. She was inducted into the International Women\u2019s Boxing Hall of Fame. Jeffrey trains at Gleason\u2019s Gym and continues to coach the next generation of fighters.<\/p>\n
Melissa St. Vil<\/p>\n
St. Vil, known as \u201cLittle Miss Tyson,\u201d trained at Gleason\u2019s Gym and came through the New York amateur system before turning professional. A Brooklyn fighter with Haitian roots, she compiled a record of 15-4-4 and won multiple titles at super featherweight, including the WBC Silver championship. She challenged twice for WBC world titles and was named a WBC Ambassador. St. Vil is recognized as Haiti\u2019s first female world champion and is an advocate against gender-based violence through the Haitian-American Caucus.<\/p>\n
Cindy Serrano<\/p>\n
Before Amanda became a seven-division world champion, her older sister Cindy was already in the ring. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn, Cindy won the 2003 Empire State Games Tournament as an amateur and turned professional that same year. She fought out of Glendale Boxing Club in Queens and compiled a professional record of 27-6-3 over a 15-year career. In 2016, she won the WBO featherweight world title, making the Serranos the first sisters to hold major world titles simultaneously. In 2025, Cindy was inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame. She was the one who got Amanda into boxing. The pipeline started with her.<\/p>\n
Stacia Suttles<\/p>\n
Suttles grew up in the Bronx and found boxing at 19 after years in karate and taekwondo. Within a year of stepping into a gym she was a Golden Gloves finalist. She went on to win two Golden Gloves titles, the 2016 USA National Championship, and international gold and bronze medals. She was a four-time Team USA boxer and competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials twice, finishing second in 2024. Suttles turned professional and is currently undefeated. She also founded Suttles Boxing Academy, where she teaches children social and emotional skills through boxing. She represents what the amateur system does beyond producing fighters: it produces leaders.<\/p>\n
Alicia Napoleon<\/p>\n
Napoleon competed as an amateur for nine years, winning 11 amateur titles, including two New York Golden Gloves championships and a National Golden Gloves title. She trained at Gleason\u2019s Gym and turned professional in 2014. In 2018, she won the WBA super middleweight world title at Barclays Center. Napoleon co-founded Overthrow Boxing Club in Manhattan and was named Ring 8\u2019s New York State Female Fighter of the Year. She will be inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026.<\/p>\n
Nisa Rodriguez<\/p>\n
Rodriguez came up through the Cops and Kids Boxing Program in New York City and won eight Golden Gloves titles as an amateur. She turned professional while serving as an active NYPD police officer and is currently ranked in the WBC top 10, pushing for a world title shot in 2026. From a community program designed to connect young people with law enforcement to a world-ranked professional contender, Rodriguez is the full circle of what amateur boxing can do.<\/p>\n
Keisher McLeod-Wells<\/p>\n
McLeod-Wells is a four-time New York Golden Gloves champion who trained at Gleason\u2019s Gym. Known as \u201cFire,\u201d she turned professional and brought the same intensity that made her one of the most dominant amateur fighters in the city.<\/p>\n
Maureen Shea<\/p>\n
Shea came up through the Bronx amateur scene and competed in the Golden Gloves, where she faced Ronica Jeffrey in the 125-pound final at Madison Square Garden. The fight drew national attention, with actress Hilary Swank, who had just starred in Million Dollar Baby, attending ringside. Shea turned professional and went on to compete at a high level, another product of the Bronx gyms that have been producing fighters for generations.<\/p>\n
Melissa Hernandez<\/p>\n
Hernandez, known as \u201cHurricane\u201d was born in Puerto Rico and trained at Webster PAL in the Bronx and Gleason\u2019s Gym in Brooklyn. She won the New York Golden Gloves in 2004 and 2005 and the 2005 National PAL championship before turning professional. She won the WBC featherweight world title and compiled a professional record of 23-9-3, fighting elite opposition including Holly Holm and Chantelle Cameron. Hernandez was inducted into the International Women\u2019s Boxing Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Gleason\u2019s Gym<\/p>\n
Any conversation about women\u2019s boxing in New York City includes Gleason\u2019s Gym<\/a> in Brooklyn. Under owner Bruce Silverglade, Gleason\u2019s became the home base for a generation of female fighters who went from amateur competition to world title fights. Heather Hardy, Alicia Napoleon, Melissa St. Vil, Melissa Hernandez, Ronica Jeffrey, Keisher McLeod-Wells, Sonya Lamonakis. One gym, one owner, and a commitment to women\u2019s boxing that predates the current wave of mainstream attention by decades. Silverglade did not treat women\u2019s boxing as a novelty. He treated it as boxing.<\/p>\nThe System That Built Them<\/p>\n
This is a story about infrastructure. USA Boxing Metro, the Golden Gloves, the Ring Masters, Gleason\u2019s Gym, the Cops and Kids program, and dozens of gyms across the five boroughs created the conditions that allowed women to develop as fighters, compete at the highest amateur levels, and transition to professional careers. Christina Cruz broke Mark Breland\u2019s record. Amanda Serrano headlined the Garden. Sonya Lamonakis saved the tournament. Every one of them started in a New York City gym.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Ring Masters finals take place at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden on April 10. The system that built them is still building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the Golden Gloves to the Ring Masters, the gyms and tournaments of New York City have produced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-591301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}