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A Riveting Memoir…
I’m starting to come out of my trance when the ring announcer — in the
most perfect baritone voice I ever heard — says, “The new I-F-B-A Junior
Featherweight World Champion, Lisa “Too Fierce” Foster! The ref is
raising my right arm high and Reddz grabs my left and raises it the
same. As the promoter places that precious huge white and gold,
stone-incrusted leather belt around my waist, a dozen flashbacks start
to cycle through my mind and I’m hearing voices from my past. My first
trainer Gene’s voice is saying; “Don’t leave it in the hands of the
judges!” and then my brother Mark’s voice is saying again and again,
“Dance like Ali! Dance like Ali!” But still I’m hearing that mean bitch
Mama Graves reminding me over and over, “Nobody don’t want you,” and
after her, a chorus of those fakers back in the gym in DC just waiting
for me to give up as they mutter under their phony grins, “She ain’t
shit”.
And so it is that at the sweetest moment of a boxing triumph she
has long dreamed of, Lisa experiences a collision of scenes from her
foster childhood with a brand new and surprising vision of herself as a
winner. This is a raw story of the agonizing childhood of a woman who,
along with her four older brothers, began life rejected and
institutionalized by a
troubled birth mother and was repeatedly left clinging to a few
belongings stuffed in a garbage bag, standing at the front door of yet
another foster family whose qualifications to love and nurture her range
wildly from promising
to abysmal. In mastering the brutal sport of boxing, Lisa learns that
the controlled violence of boxing provides her with a virtual punching
bag with which to vanquish the painful memories and tormentors of her
past. She is nourished by this liberating effort, and we watch her
rebuild her life with a positive vision of who she is and what she can
accomplish.
About the Author --
Lisa Cohen was born and
raised in Washington, DC and placed along with her four older brothers
in the now-defunct Junior Village, followed by a slew of often traumatic
foster care placements. At the age of 17 she entered an Independent
Living program. She began boxing in 1996 at the age of 28 and turned
professional the next year, competing under the name of Lisa "Too
Fierce" Foster. During her career, she won the IFBA Junior Featherweight
World Title. In 2000, while seeking the title, she established and ran
Too Fierce Boxing & Fitness in her hometown of Washington, DC. In 2005,
she started and managed a non-profit called Capitol City Champs for
at-risk children aged 8-18. The organization was geared to boxing and
fitness training, life skills coaching, dressing for success, and
etiquette. Ms. Cohen also undertook a number of motivational speaking
engagements and career days aimed at women, children/young adults, and
governmental agencies engaged in foster care. She continues to advocate
and speak about foster care to interested groups. At the age of 45, she
graduated from the University of the District of Columbia with a BA
degree in English. She currently resides in Washington, DC with her
husband Neil, an attorney. Her son Gerald is a graduate of Norwich
University and a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. Daughter Taylor is in
her graduate year at Temple University majoring in social work.
Lisa P. Cohen
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