Lia Lewandowski: “The endgame is to be number one in the world.”

Lia Lewandowski: “The endgame is to be number one in the world.”

Lia Lewandowski is two fights into her boxing career. Fight number three is fast-approaching. On November 7th, Lewandowski will head to Atlantic City, hoping to take another step on a road that she hopes will end with her being crowned the undisputed champion of the world.

“We were struggling to get an opponent at first, but we finally found one,” Lewandowski told me over Zoom. “It’s just a matter of building up my resume right now,” Lewandowski added. “Even though this is only my third fight, we have been making progress in terms of exposure. We have connections with Jake Paul and MVP. If not after this one, certainly after a couple more fights, we should be en route to being on one of the bigger cards. It’s going a lot faster than I thought it would. I thought it would be another year of just fighting locally on small shows.”

Jake Paul is much-maligned, but the YouTuber turned professional boxer and big-time promoter is doing so much for women’s boxing. Paul is investing significantly and building a stable of elite female fighters and a deep roster of up-and-coming talent.

“Just based on what I have seen, it’s looking good,” Lewandowski says of what Paul and MVP are doing. “Women are claiming they are being paid more than they have ever been paid under him. Jake is very good at turning the hate that some people have for him into viewers. It’s important to have your fans, but it’s just as important to have your haters because they are still paying the money to watch you.”

Lewandowski was born in Berlin, New Jersey, but now resides in the south side of the State in a small town called Sewell. The 26-year-old had played softball for much of her teenage years before gravitating to boxing.

“I always wanted to learn how to fight,” Lewandowski told me. “It was after Covid. I graduated from college. I was trying to find a job related to my degree. But I couldn’t find a job right after college after a year of searching. I had all this free time, and the gyms were opening up again after Covid. So I thought, while I had all this time, if I invested more money into this, especially with coaches who get to know you personally, they make sure you stay on top of your game plan and reach out to you if you don’t turn up for training and stuff. Paying more money and having that personal experience it would motivate me more to stay in shape, and I would also learn how to fight.

“I have never been punched in the face before, and I have never been in a street fight outside of boxing. So, to test my skills, I started to do amateur fights; otherwise, how would I know I was learning anything unless I got in the ring with someone who was trying to knock my head off. After doing around eight amateur fights in two years, and after doing some national tournaments, the 2024 Olympics were just around the corner, so we tried for that. We went to the Olympic trials, but we didn’t make it out of that. My coach had always told me, win, lose, or draw in the trials. You might as well turn pro. I did a full 180. I had planned on doing boxing on the side and getting a full-time job. But after seeing the opportunity and how fast I had got to that point, I made boxing my entire process.”

“I have always wanted something bigger for myself,” Lewandowski added when I asked her what the attraction of boxing was to her. “I never wanted a mundane life. I am always trying to go above and beyond what I think I am capable of, just to see how far I can go. So, once I made that dedication to boxing, let’s not stop until I am the undisputed champion.”

Lewandowski is fighting for personal glory. Incredibly high ambitions are already there for a fighter whose career is still very much in its infancy. But boxing gives her something else as well. That ability to inspire others. “Along the way, I have had people tell me that I have inspired them. I am someone who wants all women to learn how to fight, at least for self-defence reasons. It’s really heartwarming when people tell me that I have motivated them. People from high school have told me that I was the last person they suspected would become a professional boxer. I was the nicest kid. I never wanted to fight anyone. So, to go through all this hard work and show them that if I can do it, anyone can do it. But for me, it’s the achievement. To have something that I did on my own. I have done team sports before, and they are great. But they always say you are only as good as the weakest link. But with boxing, it is at my pace. Everything is my call. At the end of the day, it’s just me and someone else in there. That individual glory is a different experience.”

It’s been a somewhat slow start to her professional life so far. But Lewandowski hopes things will change for the better after her fight in November. “I have been a pro for about a year, so I am still in the beginning phase,” Lewandowski says. “I haven’t had as many fights as I would have liked in the past year. We don’t have any connections with the major promoters, but after the next fight, it will definitely open up the doors for me, and it will make it a lot easier for me.”

Despite a career and a journey that has only just started, Lia Lewandowski wants to reach the very top of her craft. “The bottom line is I just want to challenge myself. The endgame is to be number one in the world.”