VICTORIA’S first female-owned and operated boxing gym has been opened by Mischa Merz — known for sparring with colourful characters and giving Brooklyn businessman Mick Gatto a ‘shiner’.
Close to her one-time sparring partner’s crane business, down the road from Mobil’s Yarraville terminal and among sky-reaching shipping containers, Merz’s Footscray gym hits a visceral nerve.
Must be a woman’s touch.
“I really just like the fact that it’s virtually on the river,” the champion boxer says. “It has that on-the-waterfront, gritty feel and yet this is actually quite a hospitable area . . . it’s got the docks in the background, the cranes and the river.”
Merz says that since boxing was opened up to women at last year’s London Olympics, the sport has burgeoned.
“This is a really good time for me to be opening a gym that’s welcoming to women because I’ve had a lot of interest. It’s really gathering pace, actually, now more than ever, and I think the Olympics had a lot to do with that.
“Also, the support from Boxing Australia now . . . the top-down support is definitely there. I guess coaches are seeing a future for women in the sport and so they’re encouraging it. And a lot of them almost feel like, you know, we’ll drop the guys because the women are the future of boxing.”
Her former trainer Sam Visciglio co-trains at the gym. “He’s the good cop and I’m the bad cop,” Merz says.
It was Visciglio who suggested she spar with Gatto when they all trained at the Banana Alley vaults.
“Mick Gatto and his, um, associates used to train at the Underworld gym where actually I first met Sam and we were training together.
“One day, for some bizarre reason, Sam decided it would be good for Mick Gatto to spar with me, or vice versa — because he’s very inclusive. That’s part of Sam’s charm.
“He’s a very friendly guy, Mick Gatto, but, you know, I did give him a black eye.
“He signed his book to me: ‘To Mischa, the only woman to ever give me a shiner.’
“I’ve got that as a bit of evidence that I can submit if needs be. He was a very affable man. I felt like a bit of a chihuahua.”
