Sarah Liegmann – Out of the ring corner: boxing again at last!

Before I get started, I’m really glad you’re here to read my column. It’s going to be chaotic, funny, but mainly 100 percent real. I’ll be sharing lots of anecdotes and experiences from the world of boxing, but also giving you some exciting insights into my everyday madness. And now it’s time to clear the ring!

Starting again with a title defense after a year off? That didn’t feel right after the long break. For outsiders, it may not be entirely understandable, as I trained normally that year apart from the injury break.

It was important for me to mentally experience everything that a fight entails. Like a dress rehearsal. After the injury, I realized how long it takes my head to get back on track or to understand that everything is back to normal and that I can train normally. That also played a big role in my decision – not to get lost in old thoughts in a combat situation. “What will I do if it happens in a fight?” In short – the knot had to burst.

Battle after three weeks of preparation

The plan to do a Stay Busy Fight had already been decided with my team before I came to the training camp in Miami. Only two questions remained: Where (USA, Colombia or Dominican Republic) and when? Speaking of “old thoughts”: I was still telling myself at the beginning that it’s not so bad if it doesn’t work out, because of course I could get injured and put myself at risk before the title defense. When I said that, logically it was always just about the hand. Any psychiatric diagnosis at that point would probably have amounted to hypochondria (fear of health problems).

In the first week of my camp, it became clear relatively quickly that I was going to the DomRep. The date was already as good as set for March 25, but as is the case in boxing – the date had to be adjusted again. When I was given March 15 as the only option by the commission, I had to swallow hard. Fighting again after three and a half weeks of camp? I had no other choice and agreed.

New management & new coach for Liegmann

A lot has changed for me in the weeks leading up to the fight. In addition to John David Jackson, Michael Hobart is now training me. He takes care of my technical training and is also happy to step in when John is unavailable. We have built up a very good relationship, which is not only important for our training, as he is now also my manager. He and three other friends founded a management company last year and I received a lucrative offer from them. My old manager is still at my side as co-manager – no bad blood. He himself sees the contract as a great opportunity for me.

Since Michael had the contact in the Dominican Republic and also wanted to have one of his fighters fight there, he took over my coaching for this fight. So the four of us flew from Miami to Puerto Plata. Our travel group consisted of Michael, my mother, an Italian fighter and me. To be honest, I didn’t talk about it on social media because I had the opportunity to do it for myself again after years, in peace and quiet, not even my friends knew about it. Almost like when I was an amateur.

When you think of the Dominican Republic, you tend to think of beach vacations with a great hotel. For us, however, we went to Sosua. Sosua is known for sex tourism and low budget vacations. We were aware of this beforehand …

Part two of Sarah Liegmann’s column will follow in the next few days!