Profile of an Austin Boxing Legend

Richard Lord came to Austin from Dallas in 1974 in order to attend The University of Texas and graduated, with honors, in 1978. Richard competed as an amateur boxer here in Austin winning the 1979 and 1980 Golden Glove Championships before becoming a professional boxer. After turning pro, he fought many times at the old Austin Coliseum, which has recently been torn down. These events set the stage for making him a local boxing celebrity.

Throughout his own boxing career, Richard trained other amateur and professional boxers and began working as a full-time trainer in 1990. What made Richard's gym unique at the time was, unlike most boxing gyms, Richard welcomed non-competitors and those who wanted to sweat alongside pro-boxers.

Also, about half these folks were women. Women boxers? Yes. Richard began training female boxers and in 1993 organized the first all-women boxing match sanctioned by United States Amateur Boxing, Inc. with proceeds benefiting the Austin Rape Crisis Center .

In 1994, then Mayor Bruce Todd issued a proclamation honoring Richard Lord for his continuing efforts to empower women through boxing training, thus declaring March 31 as "Richard Lord Day." Since that time, Richard has promoted over thirty professional boxing matches that have all received a tremendous amount of support from the Austin community. He has trained several world champion boxers including Jesus "El Matador" Chavez and Anissa "The Assassin" Zamarron.

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