Jill "The Zion Lion" Matthews

The 5'3", 108-pound Matthews (a junior-flyweight), who claims to be pound-for-pound the strongest woman in the world, was one of the top female professional fighters of the 1990s. Matthews speaks frankly about being a female fighter and a Jew. She said: "...I like being a woman in a mostly male world...like to show men that women can be really tough too...Just as people stereotype women, they stereotype Jews as bookworms who are not tough and not athletic. My brother and I were not brought up as Jews. We never went to synagogue and never lit Hanukkah candles. And yet, I wanted to get out there as a Jew to show people that Jews can be whatever they want...I feel very strongly that I am Jewish, more than anything else. I always had that to hang on to."

Birth and Death Dates:
b. February 3, 1964

Career Highlights:
Matthews' beginning in boxing is reminiscent of Jewish boxers in the early decades of the 20th Century. She grew up in a public housing complex in New York, and Matthews and her brother were the only Jewish, white kids in a black and Hispanic school. After being beaten up many times, she learned to fight and defend herself. Matthews said: "my brother and I walked around with our fists in the air shouting 'Russian Jews,' to assert who we were. I had no friends in school..." She originally competed in gymnastics, and received an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern California. When she realized that her dream of competing in the Olympics would not come true, however, she quit school and returned to New York.

As she looked around for her next dream, Matthews began to box. She moved from her original gym to the famed Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. In 1995, Matthews was the first woman to win a New York Golden Gloves bout (her fight was first because she competes in a lighter weight). She says, "We made history as the first women to fight in the New York Golden Gloves. All the amateur women were watching us." After turning pro in 1995, she became the world female junior-flyweight champion in March 1998, when she defeated Anissa "The Assassin" Zamarron in a 10-round decision. In what many in the boxing world considered to be the "Fight of the Year," Matthews that night captured the International Female Boxing Association (IFBA), and International Women's Boxing Federation (IWBF) titles. She lost the IWBF title in 1999 to Regina Halmich in a 10-round unanimous decision. According to the "Women's Boxing Archive", Matthews has since retired from competitive boxing and is currently pursuing a singing career.

Origin:
New York City

Career Statistics:
Professional record: (incomplete)
Wins: 9 (8 by knockout)
Losses: 4
Draws: 1