Kisha (Awesome) Snow, now carries the name Daud after meeting the love of her life ten years ago. My mother introduced my husband to me. We met through her. I was at a wedding. My sister was getting married to my husband’s cousin. He was the best man and my mother stood in for my sister. They were married at the justice of the peace. As they were leaving, (this is the story they told me), my mother said to this guy (whom I didn’t know), s (Kisha laughed) she said… I have another daughter (and then she proceeds to pull up an article of me and boxing.; (kisha and I burst out laughing). Then I was told she told him, You can have her, if you can handle her. This was back in 2003. Me and my husband met in 2004. We just celebrated 10 years . We renewed our vows. He said, if we are together for 10 years, I will make sure we will have another wedding. . I made sure he kept his promise. We had a gather of about 50 – 60 friends and family. It was held in the backyard of my father’s home. It was a lovely, lovely day. We’ve been together 11 years but, we were married for 10. Unfortunately we were unable to have kids but it’s ok because we have a love for kids and they are in my family and at the boxing center. We have plenty of GODs children out here. Trust me, we have enough. Between my 6 brothers and 6 sisters… We have 11 neices and nephews. I think GOD knew what he was doing when he put us together. My husband doesn’t have kids. I don’t have kids either but, we have all the kids we could possibly ask for. .
Kisha was on her way to becoming the Heavy Weight “Female” Boxer of the world. She is now retired from the boxing field. Since 2003 (after she retired), she ventured on to become an instructor for Starrett City “Boxing” Club Inc. located In Brooklyn, NY. She train men, women and children the concept of being a great boxer. When she is not at the center, she is with her husband and / or other family members talking about old times, memories of their childhood and reminiscing of how she became a boxer.
How did she become “One of the first FEMALE BOXERS”? “Kisha met the FOUNDER and CEO of the Starrett City Boxing Club , which is located in Brooklyn NY – “JIMMY O’Pharrow..”. Jimmy O. (is what people called him at the boxing club), literally took Kisha under his wings and trained her to become a boxer. Because of her weight, she was put into the “Heavy Weight Division”. There wasn’t a lot of female boxers in the Heavy Weight Division but, the few that were in her division, she fought and won most of the matches. Kisha boxed so well and won many of the fights, that she was eventually named “The Future Women’s Heavyweight Champ Of The World.” My first amateur fight was in 1994, literally right after I competed in the “Tough Women’s Competition.” The Tough Women’s Competition – is a competition where you would fight other women in raw form. Meaning… anyway you can get them down, you win. We reconstructed to get my thinking and my strategies together because at the Tough Women Competition, I would pick the woman up and throw them down. (kisha jokes… I pick things up I put them downnn – we both burst into laughter). That was my mentality back then. . I was very young and strong and just aggressive. I had a lot of raw energy and strength that just needed to be contained. Somehow they put together a package that was going to be a winner. And we did that. It all started here at Starrett City. My first fight was Silver Gloves in Rochester new York. I have 13 titles in the Amateur. I fought in the Golden Gloves in 1998. And I fought at The National Gloves at Metros Empire Gym. Now that fight, allowed us to go pro because, there was not a lot of Heavy Weight Women boxers. It was like a rotation of the same girls. And when they saw me, the girls be like… Oh hell no. They won’t fight me. So I win the title. They remembered the whooping I gave them the last time. No one wants it twice. I had 9 Pro fights. I took one actual lost and the other one I’m going to tell you, they robbed me. But it is – what it is. I only own up to one fight loss. . I have been on Paper View. I’ve been on Show times. I’ve been on ESPN. I’ve been on Friday Night Fights. I had 9 pro fights but, I never made more than $1,500.00 dollars a fight. With the $1,500.00 I won, I had to pay my trainer, my manager, my cut man, etc. . So literally, I was going home with $400.00 to $500.00 per fight. And this is how it was. We fought hard. We pioneered and we knew what it was. There was some expectation of making it big. Yes. I had dreams of putting my grandmother , before she passed away into a home. I really wanted that house for my grandmother before she passed away.
I thought OMG. I finally turned Pro. Endorsements was coming. I saw people picking me up from sponsors. One day, Jimmy and I was looking at my records. After he looked at my records, he then turned to my profile Jimmy then said. If we put $100,000.00 into her, as a Heavy Weight, how do we get $100,00.00 back out of her? The guy that was marketing me then said… there’s no money in Heavy Weight boxing for females. So… as he said this, time just started to become frozen. In the beginning, the light was shining so bright. The light started getting dimmer. The tunnel was so wide and now, it began to get narrow. . It was like whoa!! I was like, is this where I’m gonna be. Is this what I’m gonna do. How am I GOING TO PUT MY FAME AND NAME IN LIGHTS…. The “HEAVY WEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD’, Kisha (Awesome) Snow…. Here is a guy telling us, he can’t sell . That was a tough cookie. I mean, this guy bought us steaks and all. I was into the steak too. And then when I heard the words… “How Do We Sell Her?” Jimmy said, You’re the marketing specialist. Make it happen. Then he said, there’s no money in Heavy Weight boxing. if she could loose 50 to 60 pounds. then maybe. I’m standing here today in front of you at 217 pounds. Back then, I was fighting at 225. There’s no way I’m going to loose 50 to 60 pounds. This is solid. There’s muscle here. There was a time I was walking around at 260 pounds. Then I went down to 225. The thought was there but, it was never going to happen. So from that day, the tunnel just seemed to have closed on me… the light just seem to become dimmer. My grandma. I needed to see her in that house.
My mother did not raised us. It was my grandmother. My grandparents raised us. We were all in this house on St. johns street in Brooklyn. . We were all in this house (including my cousins) sleeping ontop of eachother. I wanted to give that lady everything. Everything. But, there was nothing left for me to fight for. Laila Ali came onto the scene. This girl had no amateur background. She never fought a fight. Her first fight was with a 44 year old grandmother. All she said was… my father is…. and everyone said she was the best thing ever. But, that was because she was Muhammad Ali’s daughter. I was mad because, you had to be the daughter of a famous boxer and be recognized because of his name. Me and my friend Veronica Simmons, we went on this campaign and we called it… “The daughters of the fathers unknown.” Because Veronica is a 5 times Golden Glove champion. She was in 5 different weight classes. She went up and down with her weight. Everytime someone had a fight with us, they would run away from us. I’m not mad at the girl that came behind me, what I’m upset about is that they made it and didn’t shine the light back on the others girls who were trying to make it. You see, Laila and Jackie Ali had the spotlight and they took it and they held it on them. They never said, lets look back at these girls that are fighting in the amateurs, that have some skills. More skills than us and they are not rolling on our father’s name. They didn’t do that. Laila Ali could have threw several competitive fights a year – with all female cards, with her name on it . People would have came just to see the other talent that’s out there. But, that never happened. That’s what I’m upset about. I’m not upset because they made it… that’s not in me. I don’t like the fact, that you got what you got and didn’t try to see the other people that are working it fair. My grandma passed away in 1996. I wasn’t making any money. The interviews stopped. Nobody was interviewing me any more. There’s a few documentations out there and some nice interviews but the story lines stopped. It was a good ride but after the loss , the 1st initial loss and then a year later, I failed that again, I felt, that fight was taken away from me. But it was ok. That’s when I knew…. The Kisha Snow saga was over. People used to shout me out in Brooklyn saying… “I saw you last night on TV” and then that stopped. There were no more of that. The locals that had my posters up, allowed the poster to wear and tear. Eventually they just took it down. So the saga of Kisha Snow was over and for me – Life was to move on. I worked some jobs and now I’m married.
Kisha and Jimmy O. had such a tight bond. Jimmy was like a father figure to Kisha and Jimmy O. treated Kisha like a daughter. We always stayed in contact she stated. He would do anything for Kisha. Kisha recalls; one day, I walked into a car dealership and I wanted to purchase a car. The guy said to me, Your gonna need a co-signer. Jimmy was out in Las vegas somewhere. As I said, me and jimmy had become so close that my first thought was to give him a call. I picked up the phone and I said Jimmy, I need your social security number and over the phone he just gave it to me, I handed the information to the deler and I got a 1998 Ford Expedition. I was so proud of that moment. I told my father what had happened and my father said… Why didn’t you call me. It never occurred to me to call my father as a co-signer. He was capable of doing that too. I don’t know why I didn’t call him. But, you see.. that’s how close me and Jimmy was. We never ever lost contact with eachother. As a matter of fact, the truck just gave up on me this year. I had that truck for 12 years. I was sad to see it go. Trust me I was. That truck was part of my life. After the death of Jimmy, I lost contact with the gym. I wasn’t active anymore. I would come by and do my little cameo and then leave and go home to do whatever I was doing. But , once the call came in to stand up, I’m just grateful to have been in a position where I could make that type of decision.
Jimmy O’Pharrow is the corner stone of my sterility in boxing. When I came to Jimmy, I had just fought the Tough Women Competition. I had a lot of street fights. But, when I came into the boxing club, on the suggestion of my father, it was a whole new world. There was a structure to boxing. There wasn’t just one minute brawl sections that I was getting into. This (boxing) was real competition. There was a structure, there were conditioning, there were strength and then you would say.. OMG. I can’t believe these ladies are running from me. they are running away from a fight with me. It wasn’t just… get in the ring and fight. There was a strategy to what was being done. Outside of what I was opposed to doing, I use to just get in it and do whatever. Win that fight any way how. If they fall, you win. There’s a reason why they say.. step to the right. Step to the left. When you see somebody throw a left hand and you see that right hand coming, how do you hold your hands. What do you do? And I wasn’t used to all of that and it was a lot. There was a lot of Deconstructing to reconstructing me because I had a lot of my own ideas about what boxing and what fighting is about. Two totally different entities. I had to understand that there was a difference between fighting and boxing. I had been fighting in the streets. There were no boxing skills in me. I had to be taught that. And Jimmy O’Pharrow., he gave me (you know), he gave me my name “Awesome”. He gave me my skills. He told me, I had a Joe Frazer hook. At that time, that was my specialty. My left hook was awesome. It was really amazing , the development of my skills and how well he was able to work with me because, I had been through a lot of training. Not everybody can work with me. And Jimmy, he hung with me. He took me
(Part One of kisha’s story. Read part two of her amazing story in Decembers issue of SKII Magazine)
