LEMENAGER RETURNS IN MIDDLEWEIGHT SHOWDOWN DECEMBER 4
It’s been 21 months since Minnesota’s only active professional female boxer, 23 year old Amy “Hard Hands” Lemenager stepped into the ring. After winning her second consecutive professional fight in January of 2020, the Covid pandemic, coupled with starting her career as a police officer in Duluth Minnesota, put the brakes on her boxing momentum. Hard Hands is on the “Ignite Fights” card being held at the Canterbury Events Centre in Shakopee on Saturday December 4th.
“Covid took the wind out of my boxing sails, just like so many others that had prepared for future athletic events. I had plans for 3 fights that all fell through. Fortunately I had a new career I was starting, so 100% of my focus was on my training, learning my new job and staying in shape so that if the opportunity came around, it wouldn’t be such a push. I knew I just needed to be patient- eventually something would show up and things would come back to some kind of normalcy.”
Lemenager decided that with these changes, it was also a good time to make another switch:
“I decided to leave Jungle Boy Boxing and continue my training at Twin Ports Boxing with Aaron Resberg as coach. Zach did a great job for me in my first two fights, but our two schedules weren’t really working out. Aaron was familiar with me and my style- Joe Lorenzi was my long-time amateur coach, and Aaron was Joe’s coach when he boxed professionally, so he was in our gym all the time. He helped me with pointers as an amateur and was present at just about every one of my fights. It was a natural move for me, and I’m excited to put the things Coach Aaron is teaching me into action!”
The move took some time though, as Twin Ports was without a home for a while. During the interim, Lemenager looked for training help from some of Minnesota’s icons- making the trek down to the Twin Cities to work with Cerresso Fort and Caleb Truax.
“Cerresso is such a wonderful coach. He welcomes everyone in his gym and the vibe there is awesome. Everytime I visit I learn something. Caleb- what can you say about him? He’s one of the best boxers to ever come out of our State and is another class act that is always willing to lend a hand or offer help.”
Twin Ports Boxing recently moved into a new location inside the old Bethany Lutheran Church on West 3rd Street in Duluth. “I love our new location” Lemenager says. “I’m partial to an old-school type boxing atmosphere. I like the grind, the no nonsense approach. So many boxing gyms are moving towards boxing fitness, which isn’t my style. This is a gym where kids in the neighborhood can come and mix it up with both amateurs and professionals while getting really good coaching, and at the same time learn valuable life lessons. Our neighborhoods need these kinds of places.”
Lemenager’s opponent on December 4th is 32 year old “Kaptain” Kate LaVigne, who despite being relatively new to the sport, had a short but solid amateur career and has two professional fights under her belt, with one win and one loss. As an amateur she participated in USA Nationals and won the Ringside World Tournament in 2017. LaVigne also juggles a professional career with her boxing—a business owner, Kate has a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine degree and spends her days in her clinic (Complete Chiropractic & Wellness) helping to heal her patients and provide wellness care. LaVigne fights out of the Pound 4 Pound Boxing Gym in Kansas City, trained by Master Melvin Wesley.
