Angel of Fietas soars to new heights with historic unification victory

“I’m not a fighter, man. I’m a lover,” Bernice Ferreira said this week, her right eye still bruised from her historic world championship triumph in the US a few days earlier.

That may sound contradictory coming from the 34-year-old who became the first South African — man or woman — to win a boxing unification bout last weekend.

For “The Badger”, boxing is a passion and an avenue out of the crime-hit, drug-infested suburbs like Fietas, on the western stretches of central Johannesburg, where she grew up. “Back then it was great, it was like a little holiday resort,” she said, recalling her childhood with fondness.

“I had a big group of friends. We used to play street soccer and spin tops and climb trees and play marbles, ride skateboards; it was so much fun. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

“But as we grew up, things started falling apart. I don’t have any friends [left] in Fietas. Most of them are on drugs or in jail or dead,” said Ferreira, whose parents still live there.

Dad Douglas, a retired armature winder, was an amateur boxer, and mom Sionnie was a black-belt karateka. “I tried every sport I was exposed to,” said Ferreira, who was the only girl in a primary school boys’ rugby team.

“Some schools that we competed against didn’t even know I’m a girl, so I would play, but other schools that knew wouldn’t let me play.”

A prefect at both primary and high school, Ferreira also did netball, athletics, chess, swimming and soccer, playing midfielder, again for a boys’ team.

She was never a girly girl, always preferring short hair and avoiding make-up, though her favourite piece of jewellery is a pendant with a medallion her grandmother gave her that says, “Protected by angels, surrounded by love”.

Many of her tattoos have meaning, some celebrating family and others marking her personal and boxing journeys.

Ferreira took up the sport at six. “I was always the only girl in the gym, and there weren’t really any females for me to compete with.”

Ferreira switched to kickboxing and won three national age-group titles while in primary school. “I got selected to go overseas for the world championships, but you have to pay for yourself, and we couldn’t afford it.”

Ferreira started working straight after school, from call centres and sales to truck-driving and doing building work. She also spent a few years au pairing for the Afrikaans zef-rap duo Die Antwoord, travelling overseas for the first time on a three-week gig to Europe in 2015.

Ferreira, with two amateur fights to her name, turned professional at 31 in the hope of getting more action and won the marginal International Boxing Organisation title in her 10th outing.