Heather Hardy Has Fighting Words Ahead of Historic PBC Bout vs. Shelly Vincent

You definitely don’t want to get her Irish up.

Heather Hardy got straight to the point when discussing her Premier Boxing Champions showdown Sunday afternoon against fellow unbeaten Shelly Vincent at the new Ford Amphitheater in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, a fight that will be televised on NBC Sports Network.

“I’m gonna beat the s--t out of her. That’s a promise,” Hardy told Bleacher Report.

“We can print it before, during and after. I’m gonna beat the s--t out of this girl.”

You don’t run across that level of candor much in boxing these days.

Don’t mistake it.

That’s not fight-selling hype.

There is genuine animus between these two fighters who have spent the last several years on a collision course and are now inching closer to an in-ring confrontation that will hopefully shine a spotlight on women’s boxing.

Hardy has been at the forefront of the struggle to draw attention to and generate the type of opportunities for female fighters that rarely manifest in a sport where the deck is stacked against them.

There’s a glass ceiling for the women who spend hours in the gym honing their skills and countless others kicking the tires to sell tickets and prove their worth to skeptical promoters and keep their spot on cards.

As she’s apt to tell you, even female world champions get paid pennies and have a fraction of exposure compared to their male counterparts. They get shuffled down deep on undercards and rarely get to showcase their skills to large audiences.

This one fight won’t shatter the glass, but the objective is to make a crack and then keep banging until the whole thing falls down.

“I have to keep fighting. You can enjoy the victories. Yes, we are the first females on a PBC card, but to be satisfied with good enough is not what I represent. After this I’m not going to shut up and go away,” Hardy said.

“The door is cracked open now, and I have one foot through. It’s not wide open yet. There’s still a lot of work to be done. To prove that we belong on this stage. It’s not just high-five we made it. There are still so many steps on this ladder to climb.”

There’s the rub.

Female fighters don’t get many chances because networks, managers and promoters are reluctant to invest without a guaranteed return. They won’t give opportunities to prove they belong until they’ve already proved they belong.

It’s an endless loop that has forced plenty of talented fighters to move on from the sport and walk down a different path, including mixed martial arts, which in the Ronda Rousey era has seen far more opportunities for women than boxing.

Hardy believes that the way out of that loop is for boxing to take a similar approach to the one UFC used with Rousey. It signed her in 2012 and immediately threw her in the deep end with a high-profile pay-per-view slot.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

That was a gamble not taken without some initial reluctance, but it paid off in a huge way for both the fighter and the promotion. Rousey became a household name, and her wake has helped pull up fighters like Holly Holm, Miesha Tate and now Amanda Nunes.

The chances of any boxing promoter risking a PPV telecast centered around women in a depressed market is remote, but other high-profile, high-exposure slots do exist.

These women are just looking for the opportunity to take one of those chances and run with it.

“I think at this point it’s just a matter of letting people know we’re here. People are still so surprised to hear I do this for a living. They ask if there’s competition. People just don’t know because they aren’t exposed to it,” Hardy said.

Hardy is trying to walk a fine line between being grateful for the opportunity in front of her while not becoming complacent and signaling to boxing’s power-brokers that she’s satisfied.

She credits everyone involved in making this fight a reality, in particular her promoter, Lou DiBella, for his tireless advocacy to put this on the radar of Al Haymon and get it on TV.

DiBella was able to sell the fight based on each woman’s backstory, which includes overcoming tremendous adversity at various points in their lives and the intense rivalry that has bloomed between them.

That was enough to convince Haymon to take a bite of the apple and give a platform to female fighters for the first time since his PBC series debuted early last year, and Hardy is coming to return on that investment and turn this spark into a fire.

“I’m really prepared to do whatever it takes to win. I can adjust. Her camp is like ‘we know that Hardy is going to run.’ I’ve never run before.” Hardy said.

“There’s no stop. And the reason is because I’m not done yet.”

Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. All quotes obtained firsthand.