‘My own hero’

A crowd of about 160 people shout and cheer as Iva Jankovic gets punched in the face.

It's Jankovic's third two-minute round facing her opponent in the ring, and both women are getting tired. They've been hammering at each other with everything they've got.

"One, two, one, Iva!" her coach shouts from the corner. Jankovic, 20, pounds her opponent while dodging her jabs.

The bells rings. The fight's over. And just like that, Jankovic knows her months of training have paid off.

This is Jankovic’s first exhibition fight, and it’s taking place at the Eastside Boxing Club in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown neighbourhood.

The fight is also a first for Metro Vancouver: organizers say never before has there been a boxing event with only women fighters on the program, known in the sport as a fight card. The only other place to host an all-women’s fight on the South Coast is a boxing club in Sooke, on Vancouver Island.

“This is such an important bringing together of not just women boxers, but women athletes in general. Like, highlighting the real dedication that women bring to the sport,” Jankovic said.

Jaime Ward-Yassin, director and coach at Eastside Boxing, organized Saturday night’s event. Ward-Yassin, a former amateur and pro fighter who leads the women-only classes at the club, says tickets sold out in two weeks.

“There's been demand for [an all-women’s card] for so long,” she said leading up to the fight. “I may as well be the person to do it.”

Eastside Boxing is known as one of the most female-friendly clubs in Metro Vancouver. It’s the only club that offers women-only fighter training led by female coaches.

Fighters like Jankovic who train at Eastside Boxing often use the word “empowering” to describe how the sport makes them feel. They say the intense training affirms their physical capabilities, and the focus required to jab and dodge punches keeps away their inner demons.

“It's been a really important source of stability for me,” said Jankovic, 20. “If I'm having a bad day I know that the one thing that always makes me feel better is to go box.”

‘A replacement for church’

Jankovic started boxing two years ago, when she left her family home and struck out on her own. Growing up, her traditional Serbian parents pushed her toward sports that were more acceptable for girls — swimming, tennis, dance.

“Boxing was always this thing that looked so cool,” she said. “But it always felt like I couldn’t really go and do that.”

Boxing has helped Jankovic with the challenges of navigating adulthood. The persistence of training, combined with the supportive environment at Eastside Boxing, has been a source of stability for her.

“It's almost like a replacement for church in a weird way,” she said.

Jankovic says she was both surprised and disappointed to find out that Saturday’s event was the first all-female fight card in Metro Vancouver. But mostly she was excited to take part and put on a show for the crowd.

“The people who get to tell the story of a lot of sports, they're men,” Jankovic said. “The stories that you hear are the heroes that you celebrate. So it's cool to now get to be my own hero.”

‘So much toughness in me’

Cat Accardi, Saturday’s headliner, was similarly steered away from boxing when she was growing up.

Accardi, 22, has been training at the club since October, when she moved from Toronto. This was her tenth fight. Five years ago, she traded in the tutus she has been dancing in most of her life for boxing gloves. As a “curvy” woman, ballet never felt right.

“It was such an unhealthy environment,” she said. “In boxing I found so much empowerment, I found so much toughness in me.”

Accardi, who struggles with anxiety and depression, says boxing has saved her life. Dodging her opponents while planning her next move means she can’t make time for her inner critic.

“You have to think about what's happening in the moment and really, really, really get yourself to think about what's in front of you,” she said.

Progress still needed

Accardi’s gym in Toronto was mostly men. So far she has enjoyed the contrast of the more female-friendly environment at Eastside Boxing.

“It's just so amazing to see how I'm not competing against them like I was with guys in the team. I'm competing with them. We're pushing each other,” she said.

Ward-Yassin says a lot of the female athletes she works with tell her how much the sport has helped them.

The rigours of boxing can leave some athletes feeling vulnerable.

Ward-Yassin says providing a women-only environment has helped the fighters she works with thrive in an otherwise male-dominated sport.

“At Eastside we're in this really amazing boxing utopia,” she said. “Outside there's still a lot of progressing that the sport needs to do.”