No Holds Barred: Martin Stark on the World Gay Boxing Championships, on The WAAR Room with Chris Baldwin and Malissa Smith

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleagues Chris Baldwin of the <b><a href="https://waarsports.com" target="_blank">WAAR Room</a></b> and Malissa Smith of <b><a href="https://girlboxing.org" target="_blank">Girlboxing</a></b> on the WAAR Room. A video of this discussion has also been posted on the <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMW16qQlnyWR-xyd2jZF1IA" target="_blank">WAAR Sports YouTube page</a></b>

We spoke with them by Zoom Friday, April 1 (Saturday, April 2 in Australia).

Our guest was Martin Stark, founder and CEO of the World Gay Boxing Championships.

Here is the information he sent us about the event, on recruiting boxers for the championships, and for their fundraising campaign:

Recruiting Boxers for the Championships

The championships are taking place from 18-22 February 2023 in Sydney coinciding with Mardi Gras and World Pride! The event is for the LGBTQIA+ community and our fantastic allies.

We are now inviting boxers to select the category they want to compete in by completing the form in the link  <b><a href="https://linktr.ee/wgbc.org.au" target="_blank">https://linktr.ee/wgbc.org.au</a></b>. The competition age groups are Youth (17-18 years), Elite (19-40 years) and Masters (41 and above). For Masters, the age groups are 41-50, 51-60, or 61-70 years. ​Boxers will be matched in one of two experience categories:

Novice (0-9 previous bouts), or

Experienced (10 or more bouts)

We are offering the following weight divisions:

​Female: 48-50kg, 54-57kg, 57-60kg, 66-70kg, 75-81kg and 81kg+

Male: 54-57kg, 60-63.5kg, 71-75kg, 75-80kg, 86-92kg and 92kg+

The competition will be conducted under Boxing Australia rules and WGBC policies including the WGBC transgender and gender diverse policy which is currently being developed. We may offer further categories upon completion of the trans and gender diverse policy.  The sanctioning body is Boxing NSW who are providing the referees and judges.

Boxers from 12 countries have selected their categories and we would love to more international boxers compete.  Everyone will receive a warm Aussie welcome 😊

WGBC Fundraising Campaign

It would be awesome to get people involved in our interactive fundraising campaign WGBC 2023 Jabs For Equality Challenge! It’s 14 days of shadow boxing doing at least 2023 non-combative punches recording their efforts and posting on social media. Participants receive their own personalised page and link for people to donate to. We want people to enjoy the benefits of being active and have lots of fun!

To join  <b><a href="https://asf.org.au/projects/world-gay-boxing-championships/wgbc-2023-jabs-for-equality-challenge" target="_blank">https://asf.org.au/projects/world-gay-boxing-championships/wgbc-2023-jabs-for-equality-challenge</a></b> and jab where it says “Click Here To Sign Up!”.  You will get your own personalised page and link for people to donate to.

Please also subscribe to the <b><a href="https://www.patreon.com/join/eddiegoldman/checkout" target="_blank">No Holds Barred page on Patreon</a></b> for much more exclusive premium No Holds Barred content.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer <b><a href="http://liveone.tv/" target="_blank">Ian Snow</a></b>.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman <b><a href="http://eddiegoldman.com" target="_blank">EddieGoldman.com</a></b>