5’4½” featherweight Iwona Guzowska was born on 7 February, 1974 in Gdansk, Poland. She began training in kickboxing and TaeKwonDo one month after her son Wojtek was born on 30 March, 1992.
She is managed by Krzysztof Zbarski of Polish Boxing Promotion anf trained at their gym by Jacek Urbanczyk.
She compiled a 57-3 record in various forms of kickboxing competition, beginning with semi-contact competition, in which she won a Polish championship just two months after she began training. In the light contact form of the sport, she took the Polish championship in October 1993, third place in a European Championship in November 1992, and won World Championships in 1993 and 1997. She also won two gold medals in European Championships in 1997.
In full contact kickboxing, she was runner-up in her first World Championship in 1993, and won the World Championship in 1995. She also won two gold medals in European Championships in 1997. Her record includes an easy win over Galina Giumliiska of Bulgaria and a knockout win over Italy’s Stefania Bianchini.
She made her professional boxing debut on February 13, 1999 in Jastrzebie Zdrój (Poland), scoring a first-round TKO over Bulgaria’s Emilia Velizarova-Jakimowa, who fell to 0-1-1.
On April 17, 1999 in Warsaw, Poland, she won with a second-round TKO over Vanda Correia of Portugal, who fell to 3-2. Correia was a national kickboxing champion.
These two victories got Guzowska an unprecedented chance … a “home town” shot at the vacant WIBF European Featherweight Title in Gdansk on July 17, 1999. Guzowska faced the 21-year-old pro debut fighter Esther Schouten of Hoorn, Holland, who took her the 10-round distance but she won a unanimous (97-94, 98-92 and 97-93) decision. A correspondent told us that this bout “stole the show and even kept some hardnose anti-female boxing observers on their seats the entire battle (or was it perhaps the beauty of Ms. Schouten that captured them?” Schouten, who has been a sparring partner for Regina Halmich, was coming off a two-year layoff from competition.
Guzowska’s fourth fight was also in Gdansk, on September 18, 1999, this time for the vacant WIBO Featherweight World Title. Her opponent was the taller Valerie Rangeard of France. Iwona avoided Rangeard’s chaotic attacks and connected with some powerful wide right hooks (which Rangeard shook off). The fight went the full ten rounds but ended with a lop-sided (100-91, 100-90, 100-89) decision for Guzowska, who became the first Pole to win a boxing world championship.
On November 20, 1999 in Gliwice, Poland, Iwona successfully defended the WIBO Featherweight world title with a ten-round unanimous decision over Cynthia Prouder of Los Angeles. Judge Andre Van Grootenbruel scored the fight 99-92, Paul Thomas saw it 100-90, and Wilhelm Vogl 98-94, all for Guzowska. Prouder’s pro record fell to 5-6-1 with the loss. The bout was carried on Polsat the next day, to an estimated audience of 8 million!
On April 8, 2000 in Gdansk, Poland, Iwona (126 lbs) added the vacant IWBF Featherweight belt to her growing collection with a lop-sided (100-90, 98-92,100-91) unanimous decision over Chicago’s veteran Christine Kreuz (125 lbs), who fell to 13-4-2.
On November 4 at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, England, Galina Giumliiska of Bulgaria won a four-round decision over Iwona, in what a Women’s Boxing Page correspondent described as a “lackluster fight”. Guzowska fell to 6-1 in what she had hoped would be a tune-up bout after a forearm injury.
On December 2, 2000 at Nowa Hala Sportowa in Gdansk, Poland, Guzowska (126¾ lbs) rebounded with a 77-75,77-75,78-74 eight-round decision over IFBA Junior Featherweight Champion Leona Brown (4’11”, 120¼ lbs) of Pawling, New York, USA. My correspondent tells me that this was an ugly bout as Guzowska frequently was drawn into wrestling the tiny Brown, who always tries to work in close to negate her opponent’s reach advantage. Brown fell to 8-6 with the loss.
In April 2001 Iwona was named WBAN’s Fighter of the Month.
On September 29, 2001 at Gdansk, Guzowska (125¾ lbs) retained the WIBO World Featherweight title with a ten-round decision over WIBF Americas Featherweight champion Kelsey Jeffries (5’5″, 123¼ lbs) of Gilroy, California. Guzowska advanced to 8-1 (2 KOs); Jeffries fell to 11-4 (1 KO). In the week before this bout, Guzowska was stripped of the IWBF Featherweight title for failure to defend.
On October 24, 2003 at Hala Orbita in Wroclaw, Poland, Guzowska returned to the ring and advanced her record to 9-1-0 (2 KO) with an easy ten-round unanimous (100-89,100-89,100-89) decision over Monica Petrova of Sofia, Bulgaria for the vacant GBU Featherweight title. Petrova fell to 1-6 (0 KO).
Guzowska says her goal is to win “all meaningful belts at featherweight” and unify the title.
“They say that I fight like a man”, says Guzowska. “They pay me a compliment – I try to fight like a man. I do not enjoy watching most women’s bouts … they too often do not care about defence, their blows are not dynamic enough, their boxing skills are very limited. I am not going to act like this. I have got a lot of energy, excellent stamina, strong mind and a lot of power, so men’s way of fighting suits me very well. But outside of the ring I do not behave like a man. I love to wear typically women’s clothes, I enjoy cooking and so on.”
Guzowska says that Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones Jr. are among her idols. “I am going to be a winner like they are.”
To become the world champion, Iwona moved from Gdansk to Warsaw, where she trains ten times a week. She plans to help children from orphanages when she retires as a boxer. I’m also told that she loves horses and is a painter.
But for now she says that her most important aim, besides raising her son Wojtek, is “the best possible preparation for the next fight”.
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