A lot of fight in her

Jan. 22--ALBANY -- The best boxing movie? That's easy. Clare O'Connell really liked Cinderella Man. And who doesn't like Rocky? Million Dollar Baby? Not bad but she has some issues with that one.

And that's understandable. Clare O'Connell wants to be just like the ill-fated Maggie Fitzgerald, played by Hilary Swank in the pugilistic Hollywood tale.

By now, you should be able to figure it out: Clare O'Connell is a fighter. And a big one at that.

She stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 219 pounds. If you watch her train at the City of Albany Boxing Program on Quail Street, you'd say she's got something, too.

Her right hand plows into the heavy bag with a loud thud. It's followed by a left, then another right and a left. O'Connell hits like a runaway freight train.

Vladimir Koshnitsky, the long-time trainer (hey, Clint Eastwood could play him in the movie, right?) holds onto the bag, absorbing blow after blow. He smiles. O'Connell has done good.

Of course, Clare O'Connell is not a household among any women boxing enthusiasts, if any of them do indeed exist. She is still an amateur and has only had two fights. The second was in the Empire State Games last summer and she took home a gold medal.

"I never really was a boxing fan," O'Connell said after her session was done. "But I am a sports fan, so any sport is good for me."

She went to Guilderland High School and played some soccer, did some field events in track and field and played some basketball (her sister, Mary Kate, plays at Guilderland now).

College was Rider University in New Jersey and she threw the discus and the shot put. She also got big. Not fat, but big. When she showed up at Koshnitsky's gym in July of 2005 following graduation from Rider, she weighed 260 pounds. But she wanted to learn how to fight.

Koshnitsky was hesitant at first. He never had been a proponent of women in the ring but he always listens. If someone is sincere and wants to learn, sure, come on in. Clare O'Connell was all of that.

"She is a talented girl," Koshnitsky said. "She is intelligent. She is honest and she is very easy to work with."

O'Connell didn't know how to do anything at first. After two weeks, Koshnitsky put her in the ring for a sparring match against a male boxer. It was the acid test. If she got hit -- and she got hit -- perhaps that would be the last Koshnitsky ever saw of her.

There was no quit. And she had gotten better and better.

"Everytime I told her to do something, she did it," Koshnitsky said.

She hasn't flinched when sparring on a regular basis with men. She does it because there aren't any women her size in the gym.

"I have a very competitive drive," O'Connell said. "I never want to lose. Who does? Some of the guys hold back, most of them don't. When they feel my power, they don't fool around."

When she isn't fighting, O'Connell, 23, works as a child care worker at the La Salle School on Western Avenue across from Saint Rose. Naturally, the teenage kids there tease her about her "other" job.

"They try to make fun of me," she said with an infectious smile. "They tell me I can't fight, try to get under my skin. it doesn't bother me. They're good kids."

The goal for this year is the National Amateur World Championships in Colorado Springs in June. O'Connell hopes to fight in Saratoga Springs next month and then in the Amateur World Championship regionals in Lake Placid in March.

Maybe she will go far. Maybe she won't. But no one is going to work harder. She promises that.

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